1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



191 



tion will meet at Elmira, N. Y., Jan. 18th, 1871, to 

 continue two days. Apiarians of Southern New York 

 and Northern Pennsylvania are mired to be present, 

 and all interested in the science of bee-culture, to aid 

 by their presence and co-operation. — A. D. Gris- 



WOLD. 



PoNTiAC, Mich., Dec. 22. — I keep my bees on the 

 top of a two-story house in this city, having no other 

 place to keep them conveniently. I would like to be 

 informed of the best ))lan to keep bees from swarm- 

 ing naturally. — J. Dawson. 



SouTn Newbi RT, Ohio, Dec. 2?>. — I must say that I 

 am being highly pleased with the constant visits of the 

 American Bee Journal, but wish they came oftener. 

 Bees have had a good season heie. The bee scourge 

 left me with one swarm last sprinsr. I put that into 

 a hive that I " got up" somewhat similar to the Bay 

 State Hive, and the handful of bees increased to a 

 large swarm, and gave eighty-five pounds of box 

 hone}'. — J. L. Wat. 



North Charlestox, N. H., Dec. 20.— The past 

 season iiere lias not been favorable to bees, though it 

 opened gloriously. The early and protracted drought 

 made the harvest a short one. Not much honey was 

 gathered after the first of July. I got only a little 

 over one hundred pounds from twenty swarms. Yet 

 in some localities, not ten miles ofl", the timely 

 showers made the season more than an average. — 

 E. Whipple. 



Saybp.ook, Ills., Dec. 26. — T have only few bees, but 

 they have done the best of any in this section of the 

 country, in the way of storing honey. They worked 

 on a small purple-flowered weed growing in the wet 

 groimd. It seemed to be very rich in honey. Will 

 try aud send you a specimen next season. — W. H. 

 Bali.. 



Bloomfield, Iowa, Dec. 33. — The past season has 

 not been a very good one, either for honey or swarms. 

 There was tiie fewest natural swarms that I have 

 known for several years. I increased my number 

 one-third by artificial swarmin;;- ; tliat is, I made one 

 from every two. 'I hose that have box hives and logs 

 get no surplus honey at all. My bees, with as good 

 care as I know how to give lliem, gave me only 

 thirty-two pounds suri)lus to the stock, and they are 

 all in good movable comb hives. I will try to do 

 better next season. I would ha\e liked very much 

 to have been at the National Bee-keepers' Convention, 

 at Indianapolis ; but business and other causes kept 

 me away. — J. P. Fortune. 



Irving, Ills., Jan. .5, 1871. — I like the American Bee 

 Journal very well. Bees did very poorly in this part 

 of the country the past season. — \\ . 11. Hobson. 



Greenfield, Ills., Jan. o. — The bee season was a 

 very poor one here hist year. In the spring the weather 

 was cold till about the middle of June, and colonies 

 were very weak. In the swarming season I got only 

 two swarms from twenty-seven stands. After June 

 drougiit set in, and very hot weather through July 

 and August, and nearly all tlie honey gathered was 

 consumed, till in September a little was stored; but 

 without feeding tlie most of my stocks will perish. 

 My Italians laid up as much as will carry them 

 through the winter. On the 4th of September, I got 

 a swai-m from one of my Italian stocks. On the 1st 

 of September, I had examined the saire hive, and 

 found it full of young brood sealed over, but no 

 honev, as that was all required for the young. 

 Through the fall the weather was too warm. The 

 September swarm is still alive, but has no queen, and 

 the two summer swarms will not survive the winter. 

 Farmers have told lue that they found some tree in 



the woods with bees in it, bat no honey. So there 

 is a poor prospect for bees here. I will report in 

 the spring. — J. Wahl. 



Nebraska Citt, Kansas, Jan. .5. — I would i ot do 

 without the Journal if I could, which is quite doubt- 

 ful, so long as I keep bees. — O. IIakman. 



*.' 



Worthington, Pa., Jan. 5. — I cannot do without 

 the Bee Journal, and can only hope the day will soon 

 come when it will be able to visit us more frequently. 

 — J. W. Barclay. 



Fayetteville, N. Y., Jan. 9.— You have my best 

 wishes for the success of the Journal; and now, as 

 others have done, I will state to you in part my suc- 

 cess in bee-culture. I commenced the season with 

 twenty-two stocks, five of which were very weak, and 

 being in common boxes, I did nothing for them more 

 than I did for all my bees. I fed them, like the others, 

 liberally with sugar syrup till the fruit trees came into 

 bloom. But it took them the whole season to re- 

 cruit, so that I had really only seventeen stocks with 

 which to begin operations. These I have increased 

 to thirty-five, all well-stored for winter ; and have 

 taken in surplus honey twelve hundred aud sixty- 

 three (12C3) pounds. As it would take too much 

 time to give you a minute account of my every 

 swarm, I will give you a statement of one hive. This 

 hive had been fed all winter (like all the others), and 

 wintered on its summer stand. It cast a swarm on 

 the 15th of May, when apple trees were in bloom ; 

 after which I took thirty-six boxes of liouey, weigh- 

 ing 251>i pounds in all, from the old hive, and 123>^ 

 pounds from the new swarm, making an aggregate of 

 o24 pounds, which, at twenty-five cents per pound, is 

 just eighty dollars ; and a new swarm worth, exclu- 

 sive of the hive, fifteen dollars ; a profit, together, 

 from one hive, ninety-five dollars. These two hives 

 now contain full forty pounds of honey e:ich, which 

 will leave them quite a surplus to start s^priiig opera- 

 tions on. I will state that the swarm was hybrid, — 

 having a pure Italian mother mated with "a black 

 drone. If the Italian bees are humbugs, let me be 

 humbugged in this way every year, and I will sub- 

 scribe for the American Bee Journal, wishing the 

 editor a long life with happiness, and that his shadow 

 may never grow less. — S. Snow. 



Fenn's Mills, Mich., Jan. 10.— Bee-keepers have 

 fared poorly in this county, the past season. I am in- 

 clined to look for the reason in the fict that there is 

 but little white clover, owing to the farmers plowing so 

 much that it is killed out. What seems to be desired 

 is some plant to supersede red clover, that will atTord 

 bee pasturage. I have removed to this place, which 

 is contiguous to immense swamps on the south and 

 considerable timber on the north, in the hope that be- 

 tween the two the bees may do better. Besides, I 

 hope to Italianize my apiary next spring, hoping they 

 will work on red clover. I have just been conversing 

 with a neighbor, a German, wlio takes more pains 

 with his bees than any other here. He says that in 

 the north of Germany, near the North Sea, where, in 

 their mildest winters, they have ice three feet thick, 

 they raise lucerne for soilin;:, and he thinks it would 

 answer the purpose here in place of red clover, for 

 bees and for manure, though not for hay or pasture. 

 I propose to get some alsike the coming season ; 

 though I have my fears tliat the farmers will be slow 

 to adopt it in place ol red, and that they will run it 

 out the same as the white. Would it not be well for 

 bee men to turn their attention more to the raising 

 of such crops as will afi'oid profit to the farmer and"^ 

 at the same time, pasturage for bees? — H. HunsoN. 



Petttsville, Mich., Jan. 11.— I have been a reader 

 of the Journal more tiian two years, and I find I can- 



