with her drones or those reared from 

 her daughters. If you have another 

 queen of equal merit, it might be best to 

 use her drones. My queens are all the 

 offspring of a single queen, after hav- 

 ing tried queens from several parties ; 

 with the present stock of bees I do not 

 raise one inferior queen in a hundred, 

 therefore my bees all winter well ; all 

 get honey, if there is any to be had, and 

 I have no spring dwindling, as they sel- 

 dom leave their hives when it is too cold 

 for them to return. If all bee-keepers 

 would pursue the same course, there 

 would be less complaint in the future 

 about bad seasons and cold winters. 

 E. C. L. Larch. 



Henderson Co., Ky., May 6, 1880. 



I had a colony of bees swarm out on 

 Jan. 2, and another on Feb. 25. Both 

 had queens, eggs and brood, and the 

 combs were all sweet and nice. What 

 was the cause ? J. J. Quinn. 



[It is a case of abnormal swarming, 

 for which no definite reasons can be 

 given.— Ed.] 



Fort Calhoun, Neb., May 2, 1880. 

 My bees wintered well out of doors. 

 I put the hives close, and packed hay 

 on the sides and backs, and banked up 

 the backs with dirt, a broad board being 

 set up in front. My hives are double- 

 walled German. Last fall I had 15 

 strong and 1 weak colonies ; the weak 

 one I kept in the cellar. I have lost 3 

 (2 were queenless and 1 was robbed). 

 Bees are doing well on fruit bloom. 



H. T. ROSENBAUM. 



Winchester, 111., May 8, 1880. 

 Like Mr. Heddon, I did not want to 

 whistle till I was out of the woods, or 

 bees fairly out of the winter, at any 

 rate. Out of 32 colonies I have lost 5 ; 

 '4 starved, and one was robbed out in 

 March. Another came through queen- 

 less, but with a fertile worker in it ; I 

 gave them 2 frames of Italian brood, 

 and a week ago to-day I found a queen 

 just hatched. There are so few drones 

 flying yet that I fear she will be a drone 

 layer. I wintered on summer stands, 

 with chaff and saw dust packing, or in 

 double- walled hives, and in nearly every 

 hive there was more or less mold on the 

 combs. The drouth last fall thinned 

 out the white clover greatly, but it has 

 come up thickly from the seed, and with 

 copious rains there will be plenty of 

 it; still, on account of the backward 

 condition of the bees, we expect a mod- 

 erate yield, however good the season 

 may be. Wm. Camm. 



Walton, Ky., May 14, 1880. 

 The most of our bees came through 

 the winter, but with very little honey 

 left in the spring. Spring dwindling 

 was very prevalent during a part of 

 April. When fruit trees bloomed they 

 did very well for about 10 days, but a 

 heavy fall of rain the latter part of 

 April washed all the honey out of the 

 blossoms, and they have done nothing 

 since. The white clover is just coming 

 into bloom, but the weather is very dry 

 and cool, and, unless we have rain soon, 

 I fear our honey harvest will be quite 

 meager. I have lately received two fine 

 queens from Rev. A. Salisbury, which 

 are real beauties. I have 25 colonies, 

 all Italians, and hope to be able to report 

 favorably next month. Success to the 

 American Bee Journal. I cannot 

 do without it as long as I keep bees. 

 L. Johnson. 



Quitman, Ga., May 12, 1880. 

 I hope the Bee Journal will have 

 that continued success which it meri- 

 toriously deserves. I am glad to see how 

 well you fight when attacked. I think 

 the Northeastern Convention has scared 

 up the wrong man. Our bees through 

 this section are generally doing well, 

 though the moth has been worse this 

 season than usual. I have purchased 

 some comb foundation, and find that 

 my bees do not take to it very well ; in 

 some hives thev refuse to have anything 

 to do with it. This is mostly the blacks, 

 the Italians generally accepting it. 

 The blacks are more self-dependent and 

 prefer their own make to any other 

 kind V I have a colony with not a sin- 

 gle drone, nor is there any drone brood. 

 Can you tell me the cause V The bees 

 work well, and have a good supply of 

 honey on hand. J. II. McCall. 



[There is probably an abundance of 

 room in the hive, and no cause to make 

 preparations for swarming.— Ed.] 



Dundee, 111.. May 20, 1880. 



Your remarks following my letter on 

 page 245 of the May No., do me injus- 

 tice, as I have had no black bees for 

 years, neither are there any in this town- 

 ship. I had a fine strain of Italians from 

 Oatman's apiary, but wishing some- 

 thing finer. 1 purchased the imported 

 queens, and the result is, I have the 

 handsomest bees I ever saw. They 

 have broad yellow bands clear down to 

 the tip. E. J. Gould. 



[ We received the impression that 

 Mr. Gould's bees were natives, which 

 he wished to Italianize, but of course 

 stand corrected.— Ed.] 



