AMERICAN BKii JOURNAL. 



441 



Italianized my black bees. I have 18 colo- 

 nies, all alive up to date, and doing well. 

 All of them have commenced brood-rearing. 



I use the 8-frame dovetail hive. I have 

 li'-inch space above the frames, and I4 inch 

 between the frames, which, I think, is cor- 

 rect, for I have had no buri; or brace combs 

 since I adopted this plan. I use the metal 

 rabbets, and the improved Hoffman frame. 

 I have had no swarms for two years. I 

 prevent that by giving them room. 



My surplus was all comb honey, and I 

 sold it at 15 and 20 cents by the section. It 

 averaged 1.5 ounces by the section; all that 

 fell below 1.5 ounces I kept for my own use, 

 and all that fell below 8 ounces I fed back 

 to the bees. 



I winter my bees on the summer stands, 

 with a 2-inch strip under the bottom of the 

 hive ; no packing above of any kind. If I 

 have any weak colonies that have to be fed 

 in the winter, I put an empty super on top, 

 and give them one pound of soft cream 

 candy, laid across the tops of the frames. 

 But the better plan is to prepare them in 

 the fall with plenty of good honey to carry 

 them through the winter without feeding, 

 which should be 35 pounds of honey — say 

 40 pounds, bees and all, exclusive of the 

 hive. This is sufficient to take them 

 through the winter, and give them a good 

 start in the spring. Keep them dry, and 

 under shelter, and they are all right. 



Louella, Mo., March 9. C. L. Bowex. 



Bee-Keeping in Oregon. 



I am situated in a small valley, with a 

 creek running through the center, thickly 

 studded with acres of willow, maple, crab- 

 apple, cherry and hawthorn, besides a pro- 

 fusion of gooseberry, blackberry, raspberry 

 and plenty of white clover, so you see we 

 are not at a loss for honey-plants. Our 

 winters are not very cold, the mercury 

 scarcely ever reaching zero, but we have a 

 great deal of rainy weather in winter. Bees 

 winter all right on the summer stands with- 

 out any protection. 



My bees are having a good flight to-day, 

 and got a little pollen for the first from the 

 willow, which is our earliest honey-plant. 



I am more than pleased with the Bee 

 Journal, and wish it every success. 



Louis Wilcox. 



Gaston, Oreg.. March 16. 



Hives for Wintering — Bee-House. 



I have 18 colonies of bees, and part of 

 them are in the Lancaster hive, and part in 

 the Cotner hive ; they are the best hives 

 for wintering bees, and are more safe from 

 cold ; then, they have double walls, and 

 are 414 inches between the walls. They 

 can be fiUed with anything between, and 

 that protects them and keeps them safe. I 

 tried two of them about three years ago, 

 and they proved all right. They are so 

 handy to get the bees in. In the bottom of 

 the hive there is a slide that is 8 inches 

 wide, that can be removed, and the bees 

 can go right in. I find them the handiest 



of all for swarming time, for when the bees 

 are all in you can slide the bottom right in 

 its proper place. 



I am thinking of building a bee-house 

 that will hold 8 colonies of bees. It will be 

 7 feet long by 5 feet wide. ' feet high, 

 divided so as to make 8 deparni)- iits inside. 

 It will be all 2 feet in the clear, and a top 

 space for the sections. It will be about 14 

 inches high by 2 feet square for the honey 

 department, and doors in the center of it. 

 and the walls are to be 4 inches thick, and 

 filled in solid with sawdust all around the 

 sides. , James Tolen. 



Logansport, Ind. 



First Swarm on March. 18th. 



I am a bee-keeper on a small scale, Slav- 

 ing 25 colonies, some in Root's hive, and 

 others in the box-hive. Bees are doing 

 finely here now, as the spring flowers are 

 blooming. I had my first swarm to-day- 

 March 18th. B. H. Ives. 



Grifton, N. C. 



Favorable Prospects. 



Bees are doing finely, having had a flight 

 every day this month, and have gathered 

 pollen every day since the 4th. My bees 

 have gone through the winter all right. In 

 looking over them to-day, I find young bees 

 are filling up the hives very fast, with from 

 three to five frames of brood to the colony 

 capped. Everything looks favorable, if we 

 only have a good honey-flow. 



J. P. Truesdell. 



Duncan's Falls, Ohio, March 23. 



An Experience with Bees. 



Last spring I had 15 colonies of bees that 

 came through the winter all right. I lost 

 5, that died with plenty of honey to live on 

 — they froze, as last winter was a cold one 

 in Central Ohio. Most of the black bees 

 died, as they had not stores enough to keep 

 them through the winter. 



I have nothing but the pure golden Ital- 

 ians — they look like a piece of yellow bees- 

 wax, and as if the sunshine would melt 

 them if they were to go out in it. From 

 my experience the yellower the bees the 

 more honey they store. Some of my neigh- 

 bors have some of the old Italians, and they 

 get very little honey. From 15 colonies of 

 my golden Italians I got 1,100 pounds of 

 comb honey, and 100 sections not finished, 

 which I intend to feed to the bees to en- 

 courage them for next summer. I find it 

 profitable to give the bees something to eat 

 through the winter when they come out for 

 a flight. 



To keep bees in good condition all queens 

 three years old should be superseded. I re- 

 queen my bees every two years. It is a 

 good deal of trouble to re-queen, but not so 

 much trouble as to lose a crop of honey by 

 a worthless lot of old queens. Young queens 

 rear a good supply of workers in the hive, 

 and not so many drones. You can often 



