the more bloom the better. But seek 

 for some valley where you are protected 

 from the winter winds and your bees are 

 close by the willows, thus enabling them 

 to get the honey from this source in the 

 early spring, while it is yet chilly. I 

 might say much more upon this subject, 

 but fear I am occupying too much space 

 already. 



Before signing I would say : If you do 

 not believe these words to be facts, go 

 into the neighborhood of some of these 

 men who think over-sto'cking an " imag- 

 inary evil," and talk of locating an 

 apiary near them, and if that man has 

 any influence over his neighbors you 

 will know it verv quickly. 



Fayetteville, N. Y., Nov. 11, 1880. 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



My Report for 1880. 



E. A. MORGAN. 



As I see that many bee-keepers are 

 now making their reports, I will send 

 in mine. My neighbor, McNay, makes 

 a good showing, but his pasturage is 

 not as good as mine. 



I had no success in wintering and 

 only had 14 colonies left out of 27. It 

 was too warm and they were not well 

 ventilated. Of the 14, only 3 were colo- 

 nies, the rest were nuclei. 



My plan is to take out all combs but 

 2 or '3, or what the bees can be crowded 

 upon, by using division boards and keep 

 them crowded, until these are full of 

 sealed brood, then give another and so 

 on until the hive is full, thus getting 

 the combs full to the top and ends, 

 when the hive is full then put on upper 

 story for surplus. If any are short of 

 stores hang a frame of warmed honey 

 in the hive, cold honey is injurious. 



I worked for comb honey until the 

 colonies showed signs of swarming and 

 then began to extract, consolidating all 

 unfinished sections on a few hives, ex- 

 tracting the others, and feeding to these 

 at night. In this way I secured 200 lbs. 

 to each hive, on an average. 



My colonies increased to 28 by natu- 

 ral swarming ; 3 I broke up into nuclei 

 and have sold 56 dollar-queens from 

 them. My bees are all Italians, from 

 an imported queen and a descendant of 

 a tes'ed Oatman queen, and are almost 

 non-swarmers. 



The weather has been good during the 

 season, and the yield at all times has 

 been large. 



I believe with Mr. H V. Train that 

 Italianizing by the drones is better than 

 by the queens, for wherever my neigh- 

 bor's queens have met my drones they 

 seem to be nearly pure Italian bees, and 



where pure queens meet black drones 

 they seem to be nearly all blacks. I 

 once had hybrids that were uniform in 

 color, every bee showing 1 band and no 

 blacks with them. 



I think the size of a colony must be 

 determined before we can secure large 

 crops of surplus honey. A neighbor 

 said to me last July, he had colonies 

 from 1 colony. I invited him to come 

 and see me extract, the next day, when 

 he said to me, " my 6 colonies would not 

 make one of yours." 



I consider the Italians far better than 

 blacks because they are more hardy and 

 live longer. This' is why they are al- 

 ways strong, and the blacks strong only 

 in hot weather. Strong colonies give 

 the surplus and I think 3 pecks of bees 

 a good colony. Each of my 24 colonies 

 would measure that much, and I took 

 4,800 lbs. of honey from them. I have 

 sold 2,000 lbs. at 20c. and have the bal- 

 ance on hand. 



Farmers here sow red clover with 

 their wheat in the spring for fall pas- 

 ture and to enrich the land. It springs 

 up after the wheat is cut, gives a small 

 stunted blossom and yields honey pro- 

 fusely. I have honey marked apple 

 blossom, dandelion, white clover, bass- 

 wood, buckwheat, red clover and golden 

 rod. Each yielded abundantly this 

 year. 



I think there is no better pollen for 

 early spring breeding than the alder ; it 

 gave pollen this season on March 19, 

 and on April 19, 3 colonies had started 

 the sections ; I lost no time from that 

 on. I was always watching and knew 

 the exact condition of every brood 

 frame and section and did what was 

 needed to be done. 



Here I found Italians ahead again, 

 for in opening an Italian colony, giving 

 brood, exchanging combsor extracting, 

 they work right on, while blacks are 

 scared and buez for an hour or two, and 

 stop work for the day ; this I proved 

 last season. One colony on the scales 

 gained just 12 lbs. everyday. One day 

 at noon the scale showed 5 lbs. gain, 

 when I opened the hive and looked 

 them over, in the afternoon, showed % 

 lb. gain. An Italian colony treated the 

 same, this year showed 5 lbs. up to noon 

 and 7 lbs. from 12 until dark. All will 

 admit this to be so, that have handled 

 both kinds of bees. 



As all, or nearly all, report a poor 

 season this year ; it seems that my 

 neighbor, Mr. McNay and myself have 

 had an extra yield ; this I think is due 

 to locality, for bee-trees cut down in 

 the woods are giving 100 lbs. of nice 

 honey. 



Arcadia, Wis., Nov. 9, 1880. 



