" This year I thought I would try the 

 plan of moving my bees to different 

 locations. As soon as the basswood 

 was gone I moved 108 colonies 7 miles 

 west of my home apiary to a buckwheat 

 harvest of 60 acres on clay soil. One 

 man prepared the hives and moved them 

 in a one-horse spring wagon, in 4% 

 days. This buckwheat harvest lasted 

 16 days and the bees gained on an 

 average. 15% lbs. of honey. One colony 

 stored 37% lbs. 



" Fifty-seven colonies were moved 

 4% miles northwest of my home apiary 

 to a buckwheat range of 30 acres, on 

 low land, but they stored only 7 lbs. on 

 the average ; and will need feeding to 

 keep them through the winter. There 

 were 3 acres of buckwheat on high 

 land, sandy loam, and the greater part 

 of the honey was gathered from that. 



" Towards the last of July I moved 

 -57 colonies west of my home apiary 2% 

 miles to a buckwheat field on low land, 

 containing 10 or 12 acres. These gained 

 in weight 8 lbs. on the average. 



"Fifteen colonies were moved the 

 middle of August 5 miles southeast of 

 my home apiary to 3 acres of buck- 

 wheat on high sandy land. They gained 

 12% lbs. on an average, and some 21 lbs. 

 " Ten colonies were taken 2 miles 

 southeast of my place to marsh flowers. 

 These stored 10% lbs. each. There was 

 some buckwheat on low land but it 

 gave no honey. 



" Twenty-eight colonies were located 

 3 miles south near 2% acres of buck- 

 wheat and about 10 acres of thistles. 

 These gained 10 lbs. each. The buck- 

 wheat was on high, loamy land but it 

 did not secrete much honey. 



" Sixty-five colonies were left at 

 home. They gathered honey from 

 thistles and marsh flowers, and gained 

 10 lbs. each. 



" My home location will support 1,000 

 colonies, in good seasons, when the bass- 

 wood is in bloom — and I have not had a 

 failure before in 20 years. There are two 

 kinds of basswood where I live— one is 

 white and the other red at the heart. 



" In the spring I had an apiary of 121 

 colonies 3% miles north of my home. 

 These were increased to 190. Only 3 

 made box-honey and I shall have to feed 

 about 20. 



" Another apiary of 117 colonies 6 

 miles south, was increased to 185. 

 Near this apiary was another, belong- 

 ing to a neighbor, of 150 colonies. I 

 had no white clover honey this year ex- 

 cept from this apiary. White clover 

 was in bloom there about 5 weeks and 

 gave considerable honey. 



" On the whole I think it paid me well 

 this year to scatter my bees, as stated, 



for my home location was unquestion- 

 ably over-stocked ; 24 days in all were 

 spent in preparing and moving my bees, 

 and they were all carried in a one-horse 

 wagon. At $5.00 per day the expense 

 would be $120. I secured 2,780 lbs. of 

 surplus honey, which,- at 20c. per lb., 

 amounts to $556, or $436 above ex- 

 penses. It is my impression that this- 

 would have been lost, had all my bees 

 been kept at home. 



"I have just bought in Chicago 300 

 lbs. of rock candy, at 23c. per lb., with 

 which I intend to feed 60 colonies. This 

 candy is on strings. I shall put it in 

 small boxes, Avith glass tops, with slats 

 about 34 inch apart, across the bottoms, 

 and these I will put upon the tops of the 

 frames, I will only put one box upon 

 each hive as the German bee-keepers 

 claim that 5 lbs. of this candy will win- 

 ter a colony of bees from November to 

 April. I intend to give the candy only 

 to such as have 5 lbs. or less of honey. 



"For the past 7 years my bees have 

 been wintered in cellars, and my losses 

 will not exceed 2 per cent, a year. Cel- 

 lars with gravel bottoms are the best. 



"Four years ago I tried to winter 48 

 colonies out of doors, under corn 

 stalks, 3 feet thick ; 38 were lost. They 

 were so damp I think they froze. Had 

 they been bottom side up and then 

 covered with a ton or more of prairie 

 hay they might have lived. 



"My average number of colonies for 

 the past 7 years has been 300, and my 

 average loss in winter and spring be- 

 fore I began to winter my bees in cel- 

 lars was 25 per cent. 



" Young bees live mainly on pollen 

 until they are 10 days old and should be 

 allowed to fly before they are put into 

 winter-quarters. My bees stop breed- 

 ing by the 15th of October, and do not 

 breed much in my cellars before the 

 middle of April. They should then 

 have "brood at least 5 inches square. 

 Bees winter better in old combs than in 

 new ones, 



" On the average my Italian queens 

 do not deposit eggs before they are 9< 

 days old and those bred from imported 

 mothers not until they are 12 days old. 

 Queens bred from imported stock are 

 not as yellow as in subsequent genera- 

 tions and are also smaller. I do not be- 

 lieve that an Italian queen when fertil- 

 ized by a native drone, produces pure 

 Italian drones. The drones of imported 

 queens are quite dark and the workers 

 very cross. In very warm weather my 

 queens will lay drone-eggs if not mated 

 before they are 20 days old." 



In the fall of 1874 I made Mr. Grimm 

 a visit. He then had 15 apiaries con- 



