2M 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[May, 



selves, and make their disturbers feel their 

 stings. Such are the ones I breed, and such 

 will be the ones 1 send, when any are ordered 

 from my apiary. 



I was induced to write this as an answer to 

 Mr. Barnard's second article in the Journal, No. 

 9, Vol. YI.,, page 209, as he draws a difterent 

 conclusion from the fact that his former article 

 remained unanswered. A. Gkimm. 



Jejjerson, Wis., starch, 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



JlTovice. 



Dear Bee Jouknal : — Are all of your readers 

 rejoicing in an early and extremely favorable 

 spring for our pets'? Thus far we are. 



Mr. Langstroth writes us on the Gth of April, 

 that he has both drones and young queens ; and 

 we found, on the 10th, a young queen laying, at 

 which you may imagine we rejoiced some, as 

 she was hatched on the 10th of March, to re- 

 I^lace a queen that died in J^'ebruary. So that 

 stock is all right after all. 



Wc had besides one hive queen raising entirely, 

 and two drone laying queens, which we shall 

 bring out ail right, by making some of our pro- 

 litic Italian queens donate a few eggs occasion- 

 ally, until their own young queens lay, which 

 daily we expect them to do. As we said in 

 March, we have lost no stock in wintering ; but 

 we have lost one since, in this way. 



They were in the Diamond hive that Dr. 

 Conklm sent us. (By the way that Diamond 

 liive seems destined to be unfortunate, although 

 we cannot say that any fault is attached to the 

 hive, except that it is unlike all the rest, so that we 

 cannot exchange frames, &c. ) Well they had 

 plenty of honey in February, when removed from 

 winter quarters, but no lirood, and yet a good 

 looking queen that would not lay, although we 

 tried all our art to induce her majesty to com- 

 mence that duty so necessary and desirable, both 

 to her bees as well as to ourselves. We fed them 

 profusely, and at length, when all else failed, we 

 cvt oat some brood, (something we always hate 

 to do, as it reminds us so mucli of the old box 

 hives,) and put it into a diamond frame. But 

 we were too late about it, the bees had got o.d 

 and cared so little for the rising generation, that 

 the brood was not nursed. The bees finally 

 dwindled away and got "few and far between," 

 and her ladyship herself got lost. But as she 

 wouldn't lay, loe wouldn't mourn her loss ; and 

 so we have only sixty-three colonies instead of 

 sixty-four. 



rWe have satisfied ourselves of this fact — to 

 have colonies come out strong in the spring, they 

 must be induced to raise plenty of brood late in 

 * the previous fall. Several colonies that we re- 

 moved old queens from, because they were too 

 near lilack, and made them raise queens late in 

 the fall, were preventerl from raising as much 

 brood as the others, and we have remarked that 

 their old bees are gone very quick this spring. 

 We supposed that there would be less loss in 



keeping them queenless a short time then, than 

 at any other season ; but cannot think so now. 



For the first time we have been feeding all our 

 bees this spring, using sweetened water to stimu- 

 late breeding. They have plenty of honey, but 

 we noticed so many of them eagerly bringing 

 water, that it struck us we could furnish it 

 cheaper, especially in bad weather. We com- 

 menced April 1st, and as sixty-three feeders to 

 take care of after we were done with them, 

 looked like too much of a bother, we decided to 

 pour the feed directly on the cluster ; then they 

 would be sure to get it in any weather, and it 

 was soon done and all done with. After raising 

 the honey boards several mornings and replacing 

 them, we found that some strong stocks of 

 hybrids began to object. So we made some t 

 little quilts, just to cover the top of the frames, \ 

 and left off the honey board entirely. These 

 worked so much to our satisfaction, that we 

 have now discarded every honey board, and we 

 really do not believe that we shall ever want any 

 more. The quilts are made thus : Get heavy 

 sheeting, forty inches wide ; tear off" strips six- 

 teen inches, bring the two ends together and 

 get some "feminine" (not one of the woman's 

 rights kind)' to baste the sides, turn it inside 

 out, and you have a bag fifteen by twenty 

 inches, just right to cover the top of a Lang- 

 stroth hive. Put in a sheet of wadding folded ? 

 so as to make four thicknesses ; sow up the J 

 mouth, and take a few stitches to keep the wad- " 

 ding in place, and it is done. 



This is wai'mer than any honey board, can be ^* 

 shut down as quick as you like when in a 

 hurry, without any fear of mashing bees ; and , 

 when covered up they are as mum, as a lot of 

 chickens under the "maternal Biddy." They 

 will gum it down just enough, so that yciu need 

 not raise it only lar enough to pour the feed on 

 the cluster ; and this can be done without any 

 snapping and jar, and so quietly that even our 

 hybrids do not have time to stand on their 

 heads and get into a passion. We almost for- 

 got to add that it also stops the circulation of 

 air above the frames, a la Quinby's tins and 

 King's closed top frames, without half the 

 trouble of either. 



By the way, if any of our readers take the 

 Beekeepers' Journal and have noticed an article 

 from ISovice that looks somewhat inconsistent — 

 with his writings here, let them remember that 

 Novice did not write the article as it is there, but 

 that Mr. King changed it to suit Ms paper and 

 7dm, after he had been expressly foi'bidden to do so 

 if he published it. 



The expense of glass jars, labor, &c., is so 

 great that we have partly decided to put our 

 honey this season in new white oak barrels, at 

 least for the present. Should it be preferred in \ 

 jars, it can be put in them at any time ; and :n •- 

 case it should be required in bulk, we shall not 

 be under the disagreeable necessity of pouring 

 it out of the jars, as we have had to do twice 

 already. 



We would tender our sincere thanks to " Sue 

 W.," for the high opinion she has of our skill. 

 A lady who assists us in our apiary, thinks we 

 have very many things to learn to do well yet ; 



