256 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[May 



front, except about two inches. I have wintered 

 my bees in this way thi-ee winters, and have not 

 lost any yet. My bees swann as early as those 

 in the tall hives that Mr. H. A. King sends out 

 here, with a marble finish on them. I wi>h Mr. 

 Langstroth would c'ean out the whole of them. 

 They are taking the bread out of his mouth. 

 Because he is a poor man, and they know it, they 

 have imposed on him. May he live loi.g and 

 enjoy good health, is my wish. 



My bees commenced bringing in pol'eu on the 

 6th of jVIarch, from elm trees and soft maples. 

 This is the eai-liest I ever saw them do so, in 

 this section of country. We look for a good 

 season here for surplus honey. 



IT. Faul. 



Council Bluffs, loica, March 19, 1871. 



[For the Aiuericaa Bee Journa!.] 



A Lady Beginner's Keport. 



As I am a beginner in bee-culture, I will state 

 to you in part my success. 



I commenced last sjDring (1870) with seven- 

 teen stocks of bees. One of the number had 

 an Italian queen, and two others hybrid queens. 

 I had never opened a hive of bees, but with an 

 assistant as inexperienced as myself, I deter- 

 mined to make the trial ; so to work we went, 

 with fear and trembling, lest we might make a 

 mistake and the bees become enraged. But we 

 succeeded, as we think, admirably. We found 

 one stock queenless, with several others in 

 almost a starving condition. We equalized 

 them in honey and brood, and fed them Gra- 

 ham flour. 



By the lOtli of June most of the stocks were 

 strong. We increased the number to thirty- 

 three ; then reared and successfitUy introduced 

 eleven feilile queens. I have seven black queens 

 left, and intend to get rid of them as soon as 

 possible, as I believe the Italians are far superior 

 to tlie black bees. 



My Italians and hybrids did much better than 

 the black bees, with just the same advantages. 

 The hybrids are the crossest bees I have. I 

 have sold iftlOO worth of honey and bees, and 

 now have twenty-seven stocks in the cellar. 



Feeling encouraged by my success last year, I 

 intend making bee-culture something of a busi- 

 ness. I use the Langstroth hive, made some- 

 what deeper than the ten sash hives, and hold- 

 ing nine sash. 



I received the Bee Journal last year, sent to 

 the address of my liusband, and as I liave 

 received the last number dite me, and cannot 

 think of missing a single number, you will 

 j)lease find enclosed two dollars, which will 

 secure its welcome visits another year. 



Mrs. K. a. D. Morgan. 



Pella, Iowa, March 9, 1871. 



[For the American Boe Journal.] 



Surplus Honey Boxes. — Large boxes vs. SmalL 



Mr. Editor : — We would like to agitate this 

 question — would it or would it not be better for 

 apiarians to have their honey stored generally 

 in large boxes? We learn from nearly all to 

 whom we have put tlie question, that a strong 

 swarm will fill a ten or fifteen pound box nearly 

 as soon as they will fill a six pound box. If 

 such be the case, the large box is the one to use, 

 to gather the most number of pounds. 



Now let us see about the demand and price of 

 the respective boxes. 



Small dealers in honey generally prefer to have 

 small boxes, which save the trouble of cutting 

 it as it is sold ; and they are naturally willing to 

 pay more for it in that shape. But if apiarians 

 can dispose of their large boxes at the same 

 price, jier pound, and can sell all they can have 

 stored, with as little trouble as their small boxes, 

 it seems to us that it would be better to use the 

 large boxes generally. 



Our experience the past season has been that, 

 while we always had a fair supply of small caps, 

 we were short of large caps three-fourths of the 

 time. 



We would say to apiarians that \\q will con- 

 tract for any amount up to one Jiundred tons (^f 

 white honey in larr/e caps or frames of any size, 

 so that they are not over seven inches deep, to 

 be sold net weight, and to be delivered as early 

 in the season as will be convenient to the ship- 

 per. We believe that this matter is of as much, 

 importance to the honey raising community as 

 to ourselves. 



To those who have no knowledge of us, we will 

 say that we started business in 1865, as Honey 

 Merchants exclusively, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and 

 have since extended our business westward to 

 St. Louis, Mo. ; northward to Chicago, Ills., 

 where we now have our head qtiarters for the 

 west, and eastward as far as Pittsburgh, Pa. 

 We have labored hard to make honey a standard 

 commodity in those cities ; and the fact of our 

 having handled nearly two hundred tons the 

 past two j^ears, proves our success. 



We liave permission to refer to a number of 



Bankers and ]Merchants, east and west, and the 



principal apiarians in the west, whose names we 



will be happy to furnish to those desiring them. 



C. O. Perrink & Co. 



Chicago, Ills. 



The bee gives us honey, and we give the wasp 

 whacks when we catch him. 



[For the iVmerican Bee Journal.] 



Save the Queens. 



Bees should not be allowed to supersede or de- 

 stroy a good queen, which they sometimes do in 

 some of our most valuable stock hives, when 

 very rich in stores, and more especially when 

 flowers are abundant. Why? 



In some stocks deficient in stores, and when 

 no feed is to be obtained, they persevere until the 

 queen is renewed, if allowed by the keeper. 

 Why? 



