226 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[April, 



Part of those swarms were divided into nuclei, 

 and part were put in hives stocked with empty 

 combs, of which I had a hirge supply. There 

 were some drones hatched, and the drone brood 

 was given to the chickens. My drone catchers 

 were adjusted as soon as possible to those hives 

 containing black drones. This drone catchoi- is 

 a small box which I designed for this purpose, 

 and is arranged so that the drones and workers 

 can go into it - the workers can go through or 

 return, but the drones are caught sure if larger 

 than workers. A part of the entrance is regu- 

 lated so that only a worker can pass. 



In my No. 2, March Bee Journal, page 203, 

 second column, first line, read— " in eight or nine 

 days the young native bees commenced working 

 outside of the hive," &c. 



I had observed, when I was first Italianizing 

 my bees, several years ago, that the young 

 Italians did not work outside of the hives until 

 fourteen or sixteen days old. In this case the 

 natives worked outside at half that age. I do 

 not think it was because they were natives, but 

 because there was such a mortality among the 

 older bees that there were not enough remaining 

 to sui^ply the wants of the young brood. This 

 would seem to indicate that the instincts of bees, 

 as ordinarily developed, may be considerably 

 varied in great emergencies. 



All swarms, to work to the best advantage, 

 should have a proper proportion of bees of all 

 ages, and any system of artificial swarming which 

 gives one swarm all the old bees, and another all 

 the young ones, is wrong. J. L. Hubbard. 



Bricksburgy N. J , March 8, 1871. 



[For tlie Americau Bee Journal.] 



The Past Honey Season in "West Tennessee. 



Mr. Editor:— The season of 1870 was the 

 worst ever known for bees, in West Tennessee, 

 at least that is the opinion of the "oldest in- 

 habitant," and we think he is aliout right. We 

 do not think there was an average of one swarm 

 to the hundred colonies of bees in this section of 

 the State, and not an ounce of honey was secured 

 by the old fogies in bee-keeping, wlio amount to 

 about nine hundred and ninety-nine in a tliousand. 



A few days of warm soutii wind, with occa- 

 sional gusts as hot as if just from the Gulf of 

 Mexico, brought out the red maple in full bloom, 

 about the oth of February. Then, for about five 

 days, the bees revelled in a perfect wilderness of 

 sweets; but^, suddenly, on the 10th of that 

 month, we had a terrible snow storm, with sleet 

 and rain from the north. It was sad to see such 

 destruction. For nearly three weeks we had bad 

 weather continually, and if a bee so much as 

 ventured to the entrance of her hive, she was met 

 by a sputter of rain drops, and after hurriedly 

 willing it out of her eyes the little fellow was only 

 too glad to be able to rejoin the warm cluster. A 

 few warm days about this time brought the plum 

 trees into bloom, but they were no sooner out 

 than another cold snap killed them all. 



The weather thus alternated all through March. 

 A few warm days would bring out tlie remaining 

 blossoms that had escaped from the last cold 



spell, only to be killed by the succeeding one. 

 April gave promise of better weather. The wil- 

 lows bloomed and yielded a considerable amount 

 of honey. I had to empty some combs from my 

 strongest stocks to give tlie queen room ; and I 

 had begun to expect to secure some apple blos- 

 som honey, when, to cap the climax of our apia- 

 rian woes, on the morning of Easter Sunday — 

 the 17th of April, we looked out upon the fields 

 and forests covered with snow. The blossoms 

 of our great honey-i>roducing tree, the poplar, 

 were killed in the bud, together with the leaves 

 — more than half grown on the trees. It took 

 vegetation almost a mouth to recover from this 

 shock, and when the blackberries bloomed they 

 seemed to yield little or no honey, which was the 

 case, also, with nearly all other fiowers. 



From gaining a bare subsistence, it seemed to 

 be getting worse and worse with the l)ees, up to 

 the 1st of June, when they, one and all, seemed 

 to come to a sohmn determination not to stir 

 another inch, and resolved that tliey must either 

 be fed or die. On opening a hive, the combs 

 were found to be as dry as a cliip. Not aii egg, 

 nor a particle of brood, nor a drop of honey was 

 to be .seen. I ought to have commenced feeding 

 long before this, but had abandoned all expec- 

 tation of increase, or of getting any honey until 

 fall, and only wanted to interfere in time to save 

 them. This I accomplished by feeding about 

 two pounds of honey to the hive. Alter this 

 matters began to improve, ;\nd contiimed to do 

 so tlirough the remainder of the .season. By the 

 middle of August I had all my coh^nies strong, 

 with young Italian queens in all the hives, 

 though these, unfortun 'tely, wei'e nearly all 

 mated with black drones. About this time 

 heart.seasc and two or three species of wild aster 

 commenced to bloom, and yielded a good supply 

 of very nice yellow honej^ In a week or ten 

 days after this, we examined our stock.-^, and 

 found almost every comb in the body of the hives 

 full of honey, with an inch or two along the top 

 already capped over with the whitest of new wax. 

 After having waited nearly the whole year, and 

 seeing nothing but dry comb, it did us jis much 

 good to find our colonies in so good condition, as 

 Henry Ward Beecher says, it does him to find a 

 hen's nest full of eggs. 



About the 20th oi xVugust the golden rod came 

 into bloom, with a got)d many other fall tlowers, 

 and we had fre<iuent occasion to u.se our mele.x- 

 tractor. We got all our honey from the body of 

 the hive. We use a two-story La ngstrotli. We 

 failed to get any honey .stored al)ov;>, although 

 we had a full set of empty combs there, with the 

 honey-boaid left oft". We got but little comb 

 built, even in the body of the hive, the i ees 

 seeming to prefer even a vacuum to wasting 

 honey, as scarce as it has been this season. 



We commenced with fourteen colonies ; bought 

 four box hive.s transferred them, doubled them, 

 and closed the season with twenty-five strong 

 cohnues, with all worker comb in the brood de- 

 partment ; besides two nucleus hives— one with 

 four frames, ami one with only one. All these 

 have wintered safely out of doors, and are now 

 doing well. S. W. Cole. 



Andrew Chapel, Tenn., Feb. 1, 1871. 



