AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



277 



colonies were weak in the fall, so I had 

 to feed them, but they all came out In 

 good condition last spring except one. I 

 think this one lost its queen in the fall, 

 as it had drones in the hive all winter, 

 and with plenty of stores they gradually 

 died, so by spring they were all gone. 

 But I had no reason to be discouraged, 

 and as I walked among my bees and 

 saw what fine large ones they were, and 

 how briskly they were at work, I really 

 felt proud. 



As I did not altogether like the divid- 

 ing plan, and as I was anxious to in- 

 crease the number of my colonies, I 

 thought I would try natural swarming. 

 I fed them in the spring, and kept them 

 shut down, and, oh, my, how they did 

 swarm ! Prom 8 colonies in the spring 

 I had increased to 32 in the fall, and 

 had taken 360 pounds of comb honey, 

 mostly in one-pound sections. 



I must tell what one colony did, al- 

 though it is a big bee (not fish) story. 

 It swarmed four times, and the first 

 swarm, which was hived on empty 

 combs, swarmed twice, making seven 

 in all ; and when 1 weighed them last 

 fall, there were none of them but what 

 weighed over 60 pounds, and two of 

 them 70 pounds, in 12-inch Langstroth 

 hives ; and I took from these seven 150 

 pounds of comb honey. I had some 

 swarms that lost their queens, and you 

 may be sure I gave them some eggs 

 from that queen to rear a queen from. 



I will not tell you what fun I had 

 when two swarms came out at the same 

 time and united, and some other inci- 

 dents, but suffice to say I had my bees 

 placed in chaff in good season. 



Well, on Christmas day they all had a 

 good flight, and as I was cleaning off the 

 bottom-boards with a bent wire, where 

 a few dead bees had fallen, one of them 

 (not the dead ones) gave me a "Christ- 

 mas present " very close to my eye. I 

 kept it for two or three days. 



I bought 12 more colonies, so I now 

 have 44 in all, and expect, if they win- 

 ter well, they will make it lively for me 

 next summer. I had one colony (not 

 the one that swarmed so much) that I 

 think must have had the old-fashioned 

 ague, by the way they shook and shiv- 

 ered. It might have been that they 

 were not used to the climate, as they 

 came from "over the line." However, 

 by bountiful feeding I saw no signs of 

 the disease at their Christmas flight. 



Forestville, Out., Jan, 5. 



Ha^e You Read page 285 yet ? 



California to Help Her Bee-Keepers. 



Written for the American Bee J<mmal 

 BY W. A. PKYAL. 



The bee-keepers of California are go- 

 ing to fare better at the hands of the 

 State than they have had reason hereto- 

 fore to hope for. At the session of 

 the California State Bee-keepers' Asso- 

 ciation, held in Los Angeles in February, 

 1893, as one of the vice-presidents of 

 the Association, I was commissioned by 

 the convention to go to the State capitol 

 and have a Bill introduced in the legis- 

 lature granting the Association an ap- 

 propriation of $500 to pay for printing 

 its reports, and for printing such other 

 matter that would promote the industry 

 in this State. As the legislature was 

 nearing its close, or, rather, the last day 

 upon which Bills could be introduced 

 was almost at hand, when the conven- 

 tion adjourned, I did not have much 

 time to lose in getting to Sacramento. 

 Though I did not lose any time in leav- 

 ing for the north, I was delayed some 

 time by a bad wreck and wash-out on 

 the line a few hundred miles north of 

 Los Angeles. 



The Bill was introduced, but it had 

 the ill-luck of having about 750 Bills 

 ahead of it; it was impossible to get it 

 advanced on the file at that late day of 

 the session. But the way to get a like, 

 or even better, bill before the next ses- 

 sion of legislature, had been laid. I 

 had conversation with some of the as- 

 semblymen and senators, about the 

 importance of granting the bee-keepers 

 of the State some allowance for the pub- 

 lication of their reports, as is given the 

 fruit-growers and other societies. Some 

 of these legislators were my personal 

 friends, and they promised to get a Bill, 

 granting a suitable allowance as asked 

 for, passed at the next session of the 

 legislature. This was almost as satis- 

 factory as getting the money at that 

 time — the bee-men did not hope to ac- 

 complish much last year, from the fact 

 that they knew that the time was too 

 limited when they sent me to the Cap- 

 ital. 



I favored the bee-keepers asking for a 

 large appropriation and thereby set 

 themselves up in as fine style as the 

 State Horticultural Society and the 

 State Agricultural Society, both of 

 which obtain a magnificent appropria- 

 tion from the legislature at each session 

 thereof. This would allow having an 

 Apicultural Commission, the members of 

 which would probably be appointed by 



