1870.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



143 



■n-ill, with a little judicious feeding, yield the larsrest 

 swarms and the most surplus honey. At least this is 

 my experience. — P. Lattnek. 



West Spkingfield, Mass., Oct. 24. — When I put 

 my bees on their stands last spring (end of March.) 

 I found one stock had quite a supply of drones, and 

 drone brood in all stages. The queen was a fertile 

 cue hatched late in the previous fall. There was 

 plenty of worker brood also. They have done 

 well through the season. This was to me entirely 

 unprecedented at that early season. — I found a 

 youns: queen, too, in a rather weak stock, that for 

 some weeks during the spring deposited eggs by the 

 quantitj'iu ihe cells — from rtftecu to twenty in a cell. 

 After strengthening them liy inserting two frames of 

 maturing brood from a strong colony, she ceased 

 laying more thaji one eg;^ in a cell. 



A large proportion of the bees in this section were 

 "winter frilled." Mine came from the winter reposi- 

 tory in good condition, and during the period of 

 fi'uic blossoming stored more honey than I ever knew 

 them to do before. Sone colonies were . seriously 

 injured by their great accumulation of stores. A 

 free use of the "honey slinger" would have pre- 

 vented this. White clover was very scarce, the sea- 

 son having been unusually dry, so that the supply of 

 surplus honey is small. But the stocks arc all heavy 

 this fall, from the buckwheat and wild fall tiowe-'s. 



A month seems a very long time to wait for a visit 

 from so loeh'omi: a friend «s the Jonrncd, and I unite 

 my earnest wish, to the many already expressed, 

 that it may soon be permitted to visit ns foitnightly. 



With hearty wishes for the complete success of the 

 Journal, yours, &c., N. T. Smith. 



Chariton, Iowa, Nov. 4. — 'My bees have not done 

 any good this season. I shall have to feed my black 

 bees through the winter. My Italians have done 

 better. On accouiU of tlie late freezing in tlie spring, 

 followed by drouth until .July, pasturage was scarce. 

 Then during Aui^ust, Septemljer, and the tirst part of 

 October, we had an unusual amount of rain. Taking 

 the season throuiih, it lias been very unfavorable. 

 Out of twenty stocks only one showed any disposition 

 to swarm. There are no Italian bees in our county, 

 except my own. I did not get mine until last May, 

 and have not had a good time to test tlieir merits ; 

 but with what little expei'ience I have had with them, 

 I think they are far superior to our common bees. 



I would by no means miss the monthly visits of 

 the Bee-Journal. — J. A. Brown. 



East Hahdwick, Vt., Kov. 7. — The present season 

 has been very good for surplus honey, with us. We 

 liave taicen two thousand and fifty (30.50) pounds 

 from fifty-five stocks ; and an artificial increase of 

 ten swarms, all iu good condition for wintering. 



— J, D. GOODKICH. 



Akgestine, Mich., Nov. 7. — Here are two dollars 

 for the Bee Journal. I would not do without it for 

 twice two dollars ; and speak a good word for it every 

 chance I get, — Bees have not done well here, iu 

 storing surplus honey. They have stored a little cap 

 honey, and gathered enough to carry them through 

 the winter. 



I have kept bees about eighteen years, and have 

 had the bee fever ratce quite higii by spells. But the 

 loss by millers, hard winters, and poor honey sea- 

 sons, allayed the fever only to return again with the 

 first good honey season ; and now I think it has 

 become permanently located with me. — 



Lake, Stakk Co., Ohio, Nov. 9. — Bee-keepers in 

 this section of country are generally many years 

 behind the times. A considerable number of persons, 

 however, keep a few stocks of bees ; some few still 



adhere to the box hive and sulphur pit. A few ai'e 

 usinir the Langstroth hive and like it. These let 

 their bees swarm and uive them some attention. The 

 majority have been using the Flanders' triangular 

 hive; but this hive is in bad repute, and nearly all 

 who still have it are about ready to do as I liave 

 done -quit usiug'it. Mr. Gallup's hives are liked by 

 all who have seen me operating them, and a few of 

 my neighbors have begun to use them. Italian bees 

 have been introduced here only to a small extent ; 

 but all who have them speak well of them. I con- 

 sider them very much superior to the blacks. My 

 pure stocks are so peaceable, that I can usually 

 handle them during the honey season without smok- 

 ing or coaxinij. But my hybrids are decidedlj' cross, 

 and sometimes ditficult to control. The past season 

 was rather rainy here on account of which tlie 

 apple blossoms were almost entirely lost to the bees. 

 White clover yielded abundantly from the 1st to the 

 32d of June, inclusive. Fully one half of this time 

 was also lost by rainy weather. But notwithstanding 

 all this, the bees made a fair amount of surplus 

 honey, and with few exceptions stock have sufReient 

 to winter over without feeding. — H. Cmsx. 



Borodino, N. Y.,Nov. 12. — The season of IS'O, 

 has been very good for bees in this section. Althouiih 

 we have suffered from the droutli, there has be^n 

 scarcely a day till October, but what bees could 

 gather honey. My bees gathered on an average six- 

 teen pounds per stock from apple blossoms. The 

 Italians are far ahead of the blacks, not only in 

 honey g ithering, but in disposition and beauty. 

 It is not necessary to use any smoke, when operating 

 with them. I have one swarm that gave me one 

 hundred and tweuty-flve (125) pounds of box honey, 

 and a very large swarm besides. — Every bee-keeper 

 should take the American Bee Journal. No person 

 can be a constant reader of the Journal, and not be 

 amply paid in keeping bees.— G. M. Doolittle. 



Stringvili.e, Ohio, Nov. 12. — I enclose two dollars 

 for the Journal, thinking it will be money well spent. 

 I have thirty stands of bees, and am now building me 

 a house to winter them in. I shall build it on the 

 plan that Novice built liis. — I have not leen so for- 

 tunate as some, this season, but have been getting 

 more Italian queens and hope to do more another 

 season. I have tried Alsike clover, and think it will 

 pay to raise it both for bees and for fodder. I wish 

 you success in your enterprise. — H. L. Avekt. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Eunuing Comments. 



In perusing the November number of the Jour- 

 nal, I find some very good ideas advocated, and 

 some that do not lay quite "chunk," as friend 

 ]Moon would say. The lirst article, on foulbrood, 

 I know notliing about, having never seen any- 

 thing of the kind in these parts. Next article, 

 by J. Stahali, is good. The next is by L. C. 

 Whiting, on i^urity of Italian bees. I see he is 

 getting on the right track, in regard to breeding 

 pure bees. I was also glad that .James Iladdon 

 received a good Italian queen of Mr. Alley. Next, 

 Novice pitches into the Rural New Yorker, for 

 not telling when to remove bees, but leaves us 

 in the dark as much as the Rural. Wliat say 

 you, friend Novice? I should think it better to 

 move bees in the night than in the day time, 

 when one half of them are out of the hive, as was 

 the case with the beeiuan referred to. Bees may 



