AMERICAN BEK JOURNAL. 



505 



I have, in a town of not over 500 inhabi- 

 tants. 



I have kept bees after the improved 

 methods for 14 years, and have been very 

 successful. I like the business, and I like 

 the Bee Journal to go along vs'ith it. I 

 missed the old editor when he gave up the 

 Bee Journal, but I am getting reconciled 

 to the new one, and am proud of the Jour- 

 nal under his management. I like the 

 stand the editor takes on the adulteration 

 question. We must fight the very appear- 

 ance of evil ! B. W. Peck. 



Richmond Centre, Ohio, March 27. 



The Season of 1893. 



This has been a fair winter here for win- 

 tering bees. Last spring I started in with 

 45 colonies, and secured 5,600 pounds of ex- 

 tracted honey of fine quality, part white 

 clover, and the balance basswood. This 

 brought me $400. Then I divided the colo- 

 nies up to 70, and have 72 left now. 



My bees had 35 acres of white clover to 

 work on, and from which I threshed 94 

 bushels of seed, which sold for nearly $800, 

 or $8.25 per bushel. I attend to the bees 

 alone, sometimes 150 colonies all in chaff 

 hives, and work a farm of 136 acres, and 

 have found by experience that farming 

 and bee-keeping pay well together with the 

 help of one man a few months. 



I forgot to state that from one colony I 

 extracted, during the honey-flow, from the 

 upper story alone. 375 pounds, and many 

 others 350. I sold about 1,000 pounds at re- 

 tail by peddling it out in 2-quart cans, 

 which brought me about lOcents per pound. 

 I am trying to work up a trade so as to sell, 

 from one year to another, all my honey at 

 home. Nathan Mekcer. 



Neosho, Wis., March 31. 



Wintering Nicely — The Weather. 



I have been looking over my bees a little 

 the past two weeks, as the weather was 

 beautiful the forepart of this month, and 

 I found them all doing nicely. I put in out- 

 side cases on them on Oct. 16th to the 19th— 

 37 colonies — and packed them in chaff with 

 Hill's device and cushions. I left them on 

 the summer stands. Bees in this locality 

 are coming through all right, as far as I 

 have made inquiry up to this date (March 

 30th), on this the 43rd degree of latitude. 



I had 37 colonies last j^ear, and lost some 

 14 colonies, and those that did not die were 

 very weak. 



The temperature was very even the past 

 winter for Michigan, the average for Jan- 

 uary being 26 degrees above zero. The 

 coldest day that month was the 8th — it was 

 10 degrees above zero ; the warmest day 

 the 18th, 44 degrees; on the 29th, 11 de- 

 grees, while at Chicago it was 9 degrees be- 

 low zero. 



For February the warmest day was on 

 the 19th, 34 degrees; the coldest day was 

 on the 24th, 12 degrees below zero. There 

 was not much snow in January and Feb- 

 ruary. 



March has averaged 82 degrees; the 

 warmest was on the 18th, when it was 54 

 degrees ; on the 20th it commenced to get 

 cold, and the mercury went down to 36 de- 

 grees, and down, down, until the 29th it 

 was to 10 degrees. 



I take the temperature at sunrise, and 

 direction of the wind, rain and snow every 

 day in the year. Any one wishing to know 

 the temperature of the weather, I can tell 

 them what kind of a day we had here. If 

 those writing for the Bee Journal, and 

 giving the temperature, would tell the time 

 in the day such was taken, we could com- 

 pare the temperature, for it might be 40 de- 

 grees at sunrise (the proper time) , and at 

 noon of the same day 75 degrees. 



Jacob Moore. 



Ionia, Mich., March 31. 



Old Bees in Winter— Longevity. 



Bees seem to have wintered finely up to 

 date, but the "dead line " isnot yet crossed 

 here in Vermont. Bees had a good flight 

 yesterday. I have 36 colonies on the sum- 

 mer stands. 



It made me feel just a bit blue when I 

 read in the Bee Journal from time to time 

 what is said about old bees for winter. I 

 think it will be a test case with me whether 

 old bees are as good for winter as young 

 ones, for mine were all old bees that went 

 into winter quarters. There was not 

 enough honey gathered by bees in this 

 locality to keep up brood-rearing after the 

 middle of last July, consequently there were 

 no young bees that went into winter quar- 

 ters in the fall of 1894. I will report the re- 

 sult to the Bee Journal in May. 



I have read with interest the articles on 

 longevity of bees, which have been pub- 

 lished m the Bee Journal. I have never 

 dared to talk any such thing before, as I 

 had never (until recently) seen anything 

 written in the bee-papers about it. I have 

 for a long time thought that there must be 

 a difference in the length of the life of bees, 

 having had things come under my obser- 

 vation which made me feel certain that 

 that must be the case. I think that some of 

 our big guns, and especially queen-breeders, 

 should study this matter a little. 



J. F. Merrill. 



Corinth, Vt., March 20. 



Some Things to "Tell." 



Friend York :— Tell J. S., of West Vir- 

 ginia, that on the river in Montgomery 

 county ought to be good for honey, and 

 Hot Springs is a good market. 



Tell Mrs. Atchley that I l^ave a 5-year-old 

 queen whose bees are a fourth ahead of any 

 bees that 1 ever saw in producing honey. 

 They are 4-banded, and are " almost as 

 gentle as flies." I often goto this colony 

 bareheaded, with sleeves rolled up, and 

 taken out frame after frame and exhibit 

 the bees and queen to timid visitors, with- 

 out any smoke or anything to control them. 

 I have 5-banded queens that I am satisfied 



