AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



283 



my mind at once, and I proceeded to carry- 

 it ont thus: Taking the trap with the 

 queen and its few bees — about a pint— I 

 lifted the top of the empty hive standing 

 by the parent colony, and shook the bees 

 into it, and placed the trap at the entrance 

 to prevent escape of the queen. I now put 

 my bee-escape on the old colony, and in 48 

 hours I had a fine swarm hard at work, and 

 though late coming out, it stored 50 nice 

 one-pound sections of honey. That one 

 little bit of information from the American 

 Bee Journal paid the cost of its subscrip- 

 tion several times over. 



Other bee-keepers probably have other 

 ways of doing the same thing, but I don't 

 see. how any could be easier or more sim- 

 ple. I leave the escape on about six days, 

 and then move the old colony to a new 

 stand, and never have after-swarms. 



Brookewood, Va. F. T. Brooke. 



Mild "Winter — Feeding Dried Fruit. 



The winter has been very mild so far. 

 We have had only two skiffs of snow 

 so far, but we may have some more yet. 

 My bees have done vei-y well so far. I had 

 to feed about half of them last fall, and 

 they are all alive yet. The first pollen is 

 coming in to-day. 



The log-hive men has lost a large num- 

 ber of colonies around the mountains. One 

 man is feeding cooked dried fruit with 

 honey over it. I don't know how his bees 

 will come out. I will say more about it 

 later on. I would like to know how Dr. 

 Miller thinks they will winter on dried 

 apples. 



I would be glad to see a good honey crop 

 here next summer, as we have had almost 

 a failure the last two years. 



Cosby, Tenn., Feb. 1. R. A. Shultz. 



Transferring— Light Colonies— Skunks 



I see on page 13, that Mrs. Jennie Atch- 

 ley, in transferring bees, is troubled by 

 robbers. Now I have a sure cure for rob- 

 ber bees— one that has never failed with 

 me. When bees undertake to rob. they 

 will seek an entrance everywhere but at 

 the regular entrance. When robbers at- 

 tack a hive, take the paint brush and paint 

 all around the cover, and any other crack 

 or place they may get in. Just under the 

 cover is the place mine first try to effect an 

 entrance. In real bad cases I close the 

 front and paint it. If they continue to 

 bother after the paint dries, I paint the 

 parts again. Just simply paint the crack 

 or entrance, not the whole box. 



I thought some time that I would report 

 the above, but felt that pei'haps almost all 

 the bee-keepers knew it. 



I agree with Mr. Doolittle, that often our 

 light colonies in the fall are the best ones 

 the next season, provided we winter them 

 in the cellar. I have noticed this particu- 

 larly where there was a young queen in the 

 colony. I consider if I have a moderately 

 light colony — as much as three Langstroth 



frames of honey, a young queen and a dry 

 cellar — I have a good colony for next sea- 

 son's work. 



Mrs. Atchley wants the best and shortest 

 way to get rid of skunks. Polecats have 

 always bothered me more" th mi skunks, and 

 not only the bees, but thepoiuiry. In fact, 

 I did not know that they troubled the bees. 

 But a good shepherd dog will rid the place 

 of both kinds of varmints. If the shepherd 

 dog kills the first one he comes in contact 

 with, he is all right, for he will never leave 

 one until he kills it, or sees it done. 



Glendon, Iowa. O. P. Miller. 



Bees Too Old for "Wintering "Well. 



Bees did well here last season until July 

 15th. and then the drouth set in and every- 

 thing stopped. I got from 20 colonies 600 

 pounds of fine comb honey, while others 

 got no surplus. I think that the bees are 

 not going to winter well here, from the 

 fact that they went into winter quarters 

 with nearly all old bees. I winter my bees 

 on the summer stands, and have been rea- 

 sonably successful ; and I owe my success 

 to the American Bee Journal. 



Cason, Ind., Feb. 1. Wm. G. Cory. 



Home Hoaiey Market— Taxing Bees. 



Bees did very well here the past year, 

 but they are getting to be quite scarce in 

 this locality. I found a ready sale for all 

 of my honey at 10 cents for extracted, 

 and 12 cents for comb honey, in my home 

 trade, which I think is better than putting 

 it on the market, as the home trade is cash 

 with no commission, freight or risks of 

 breakage, etc., to stand. 



My bees are wintering nicely so far. I 

 winter them in the cellar. I put them down 

 about the middle of November, and leave 

 them in winter quarters until the first 

 warm, sunshiny day in April, and I have 

 never lost a colony yet in wintering that 

 had plenty of honey. I also believe that 

 they can be wintered with a third less 

 honey in the cellar than it would take on 

 the summer stands. 



Until recently I had been keeping bees in 

 northern Illinois, where I always read and 

 acknowledged the fact that bees were not 

 taxable property ; but imagine my surprise 

 when the Hawkeye assessor called on me 

 and put down my bees for $1.00 per colony. 

 I would like to know if there is any move 

 that we Iowa bee-keepers can make to stop 

 this taxing bees. For a collection of in- 

 sects which belong to anybody that can 

 catch them, and are liable to leave their 

 owner in swarming time, I for one don't 

 see how they can be taxed any more than a 

 flock of pigeons, for instance. 



R. C. Hatch. 



Central City, Iowa, Jan. 24. 



Have You Read the wonderful Pre- 

 mium offer on page 285 ? 



