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Smith's Grove, Ky., March 3, 1880. 



As it is the duty of the Vice Presi- 

 dents of the National Association to 

 correspond with the Secretaries of 

 Agricultural Associations, in their 

 respective states, 1 take this method to 

 request the bee-keepers of Kentucky 

 to send me the address of Secretaries in 

 their localities, so that I may be able to 

 correspond with fchem,and induce them 

 to offer premiums for bees, hives, honey 

 and apiarian supplies. As the pre- 

 mium lists are usually made out early 

 in the year, I am anxious to get the 

 addresses as soon as possible. 



i\" F* At t fk 



Vice President for Ky. N.A.B'.K.S. 



Park's Corners, 111., March 3, 1880. 

 My 50 colonies of bees were put in 

 the cellar about Nov. loth, and taken 

 out for a cleansing flight Feb. 23, all in 

 good condition. One of my nucleus 

 colonies swarmed out with a fine Italian 

 queen and was lost. I put all back in 

 the cellar the same day ; the cellar is 

 well ventilated with 3 inch flues. The 

 thermometer stands from 40° to 48°. 

 The bees seem to be doing well ; they 

 are all strong, with plenty, of honey ; 

 but a good many bees crawl out of the 

 hives and die. I swept out three pans 

 full of dead bees when I took them out, 

 but there are plenty left. Is that too 

 many dead bees for the length of time 

 they were confined in the cellar V I use 

 the Langstroth hive and have mostly 

 Italian bees. D. G. Webster. 



[The dead bees are evidently the old 

 ones, dying from natural causes.— Ed.] 



Martinsburg, Mo., March 5, 1880. 

 The past year has been the most 

 disastrous one on bees since the advent 

 of scientiflc bee-keeping. Last summer 

 was so unfavorable that there was but 

 small increase in colonies, and no sur- 

 plus honey. In fact a large proportion 

 had not enough stores to take them 

 through the winter, and it became 

 necessary to feed them. The present 

 winter has been so mild and dry, that 

 we all thought that "our pets" would 

 come through all right, but we were 

 sadly mistaken, for the smallest loss 

 that I have heard of is 20 per cent.; the 

 average loss of colonies since the com- 

 mencement of winter is about 75 per 

 cent. Persons with but few bees, who 

 did not pay much attention to them, 

 have generally lost all. 



W. L. French. 



Borodino. N. V.. March (i. 1880. 

 Bees have wintered finely so far. It 

 is warm and rainy now, with no snow 

 on the ground. The prospectsare good 

 for a poor season on white clover as tin 

 winter has been so open that the frost 

 has badly drawn it out of the ground. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Light Street, Pa., March 0, 1880. 

 Bees are doing very well. They have 

 been on the wing nearly every week 

 during the winter. No signs of dysen- 

 tery or dwindling. Prospect somewhat 

 brighter for the bee-keeper than last 

 spring. H. II. Brown. 



Blairstown, Iowa, Feb. 24, 1880. 

 The winter, so far, has been very fa- 

 vorable for bees; though it has been 

 very cold at times, we have had no pro- 

 longed cold weather. There has not 

 been a month that bees have not had a 

 good flight, and consequently where 

 they were properly taken care of they 

 are in good condition. The hybrids 

 have commenced breeding, while the 

 blacks show no signs of doing so. 

 The weather for the last few days 1 has 

 been very warm ; to-day the thermom- 

 eter stands at 62°. 



Harry G. Burnet. 



O'Fallon Depot, 111.. Pel). 27,1880. 

 During the past 10 or 12 years I have 

 purchased some 25 queens from Mr. II. 

 Alley, of Wenham, Mass.. and I re- 

 member but one of them that lias raised 

 hybrids. In 1870 I obtained 15 dollar 

 queens of him. The fall was a dry one 

 and forage scarce, and I lost about one- 

 half of them in introducing. Though 

 I did not request it he gave me three 

 more queens in the year 187S to assist in 

 bearing this loss. The latter have done 

 well, and I reared from them some 30 

 queens last summer, which were even 

 lighter in color than their mothers — as 

 beautiful queens as I ever saw. My bees 

 wintered well. Some brought in nat- 

 ural pollen yesterday. C. T. Smith. 



Hokah, Minn.. March 4. 1880. 

 I have 8 colonies of Italian bees do- 

 ing well. I am feeding the lightest 

 ones with honey and granulated sugar. 

 Last spring I lost all but one. I boughl 

 4 colonies, 3 of them blacks, and Italia- 

 nized from a queen that I bought from 

 the Rev. A. Salisbury. She tills the 

 bill in every respect. Last fall I bought 

 an imported queen (Pometta), which is 

 doins: well, the bees are not as large as 

 the others or as regularly marked. I 

 think I have a good way to remove 

 moth worms. Shake off the bees, then 



