413 



Setter Bvaitfcv. 



Swarm Catchers.— Will any of the 



readers of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal, who use swarm catchers, please 

 inform me if they are a success, and 

 worth the trouble and expense of mak- 

 ing a sufficient number to supply an 

 apiary ? The honey crop is not up to an 

 average in this section. 



I. C. Thorn, M. D. 

 Garafraxa. Canada. July 26, 18S0. 



A Welcome Visitor.— The Bee Jour- 

 nal is a welcome visitor to our home ; 

 we peruse its contents, anxious to gain 

 information in the different branches of 

 apiculture, and a good share of our suc- 

 cess is due to its instructive pages. If 

 the Bee Journal has paid us well for 

 the eagerness we have manifested in 

 reading it to advance in the pleasant 

 occupation of bee-keeping, the July 

 number has done more than that, it has 

 touched a tender chord and aroused the 

 memory of former days, to see in its 

 columns (page 322) a communication 

 from the dear old fatherland, and that 

 not a great distance from the dear old 

 parental roof of our childhood. We 

 feel like shouting : " Long may it wave 

 and bring tidings from the still cher- 

 ished shores on the other side of the 

 ocean.'' Greener Bros. 



Naples, N. Y., July 25, 1880. 



Satisfactory Honey Yield.— I have ex- 

 tracted 4,000 lbs. of white honey, of good 

 quality, from about 70 colonies. I do 

 not know whether this is ^, % or a 

 whole crop. I have spent about 20 days 

 in getting it, and am well satisfied with 

 the result. I sell extracted honey at 15c. 

 per Hi., and comb honey at 20c. I have 

 been in the business 3 summers, having 

 started with bees in boxes ; they are in 

 Langstroth hives now, and are mostly 

 in good working order. Have had but 

 one swarm leave me ; that went 14 

 miles by observation, and how much 

 further no man can tell. I live between 

 two high mountains, the sun always 

 shining into our valley at noon, and the 

 flowers always blossoming either in the 

 valley or on the mountain sides. Bass- 

 wood, melilot, white clover and buck- 

 wheat are the main supply. I winter in 

 a building made on purpose, with walls 

 26 inches thick, and floor overhead cov- 

 ered with sawdust. It does not freeze 

 in the coldest weather, nor get warm 

 during a thaw. The temperature is 

 regulated by ventilators. The bees con- 

 sume but little honey during the winter. 

 I am well pleased with the business, 



and have met with no discouragement, 

 except from anxious friends. I think 

 the Green Mountains a good place to 

 keep bees, though but very few are kept 

 here. Success to the American Bee 

 Journal. P. T. Griffith. 



Danby, Vt., Aug. 4, 1880. 



Honey from Red Clover.— To those 

 who still believe that honey bees do not 

 work upon red clover, I must repeat 

 that I have seen hundreds of them do 

 so, black bees at that ; yet I do not see 

 them do so every year. I have lain in 

 the clover and watched them hour after 

 hour. They seemed to get honey, as 

 well as a dark-looking pollen. This 

 year I noticed bees working freely upon 

 flowers they did not seem to touch last 

 year. During harvest I noticed many 

 bees working upon parsnip and timothy, 

 first upon one then the other, in the 

 same flight. I have often watched bees 

 among mixed flowers, and never saw 

 them do this before, except a single bee, 

 which flew from mustard bloom to dog- 

 fennel flowers, and then away as though 

 ashamed of what it had done. 



Wm. Camm. 



Winchester, 111., Aug. 8, 1880. 



Mitchell's Patent— Persistent Swarm- 

 ing.— Levi Mosier still claims a patent 

 on X. C. Mitchell's bee hive, and says 

 he will prosecute any one who attempts 

 to use the hive without buying the right 

 to do so. Is there a patent on a plain 

 division board, without rubber strips, 

 and only a slat along the top, to hang 

 like a frame in the hive ? Our bees are 

 doing as well as can be expected, it was 

 so wet last spring ; they seem to be very 

 strong. We have 10 colonies. I win- 

 tered 6. We had 1 swarm come off 

 about the last of June, which went 

 back ; still it came out and went back 

 10 times. They came out every day 

 when it did not rain. On the 3d of July 

 they came out ; some of them lit, and 

 some went back. I hived them on Sun- 

 day morning ; they came out again and 

 all went back ; the same afternoon they 

 came out again, alighted, and I hived 

 them. On Tuesday, the 6th, another 

 swarm issued from the same hive. I 

 put them all together, making a large 

 swarm, and they are doing well. They 

 swarmed 14 times in all. What was the 

 cause V C. Fletcher. 



Columbia City, Ind., Aug. 1, 1S80. 



[Do not let Mr. Mosier's threatened 

 prosecution deprive you of sleep. Mr. 

 Mitchell's patent does not cover a plain 

 division board, or one with a "slat along 

 the top to hang like a frame in the 



