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AMERICAN BEE JOURJNAi-. 



box for each swarm, and cages to keep 

 the queens separate, or they would be 

 balled. Every bee-keeper knows that 

 swarms will go together regardless of the 

 queen, but if you keep your queens in sep- 

 arate cages, and hang them up on swarm- 

 ing-boxes, by shaking the boxes each 

 swarm will go to its own queen. When 

 they are all separated, put the new hive on 

 the old stand, and put the swarms all in 

 front of the hive where they belong. When 

 the bees get nicely started to running in, 

 uncage the queen, and she will run in with 

 them. 



It is a good plan to have a sheet thrown 

 over them before shaking them in the front 

 of the hives. By this plan you will catch 

 all of the old or worker bees, and the 

 queens will be accepted. 



J. H. OSTERHOUT. 



Onalaska, Wis., April 9. 



Outlook Somewhat Discouraging. 



The weather is very warm and dry here 

 now. Bee-forage will be early in bloom 

 here this year. The thermometer registers 

 from 80 to 85 degrees in the middle of the 

 day. Bees are having access to the buck- 

 horn bush, which is in full bloom now. 



The outlook for an ordinary honey crop 

 here is somewhat discouraging for this 

 year, as the rainfall we had is hardly suffi- 

 cient to produce an ordinary crop, unless 

 we get more. My bees did fairly well last 

 year, giving me an average of 70 pounds of 

 comb honey per colony. 



I like the American Bee Journal. I 

 often get good ideas from its pages. May 

 it prosper in the good work. 



John Hauser. 



Acton, Calif., April 11. 



Had a Cold Snap— Report. 



A cold snap is what we are now having. 

 We will have heavy losses if it holds on 

 much longer. My bees have been on the 

 summer stands since March 10th — two 

 weeks earlier than usual, but I was forced 

 to put back the largest part of them, to 

 avoid spring dwindling. Our soft maples 

 and elm are all frozen. 



My report for 1893 is this : Spring count, 

 42 colonies, increased to 102, and obtained 

 5,400 pounds of extracted honey. The bass- 

 wood flow was short — about two days, and 

 buckwheat was a failure. 



F. F. ZiLLMER. 



Boscobel, Wis., April 10. 



Report for the Season of 1893. 



I came through the winter of 1892-93 

 with 50 colonies out of 70 in the fall of 

 1892. I did not lose many through the win- 

 ter, but mostly by spring dwindling. It 

 was so cold and wet up to June that the 

 strongest of them scarcely got a living. 

 They commenced to gather some surplus 

 about June 15th, and I got some over 1,000 



pounds of nice white and Alsike clover 

 honey in one-pound sections, that I sold 

 readily in my home market for from 13 to 

 15 cents per pound, but mostly at the latter 

 price, and could have sold as much more if 

 I had had it. I did not get any basswood 

 or linden honey at all, nor golden-rod or 

 fall flowers, on account of the dry weather. 



I have kept bees for 32 years, and 1886 

 was the best honey year we have had in 

 this part of the country since in the sixties. 



I have taken the American Bee Journal 

 eight years, and don't know how I could 

 get along without it, as there is so much to 

 learn from it. Long may it live to impart 

 wisdom to its patrons. 



We had some nice weather in March, and 

 the bees gathered some pollen and honey, 

 but we had a big snow-storm since then, 

 and the bees have been shut up most of the 

 time. W. H. Graves. 



New Carlisle, Ind., April 9. 



The Fruit in Pennsylvania. 



I have been floating around considerably 

 during the last month, having been in four 

 States during the last five weeks. I am 

 glad to find in Pennsylvania that more fruit 

 has escaped the frost than in Illinois, In- 

 diana and Ohio. Wm. Ballantine. 



Esther, Pa., April 17. 



Alfalfa Late in Blooming. 



Alfalfa is rather late in blooming this 

 year, still the bees seem to be working well 

 on flowers and fruit-blossoms. 



Bee-men are somewhat discouraged as to 

 price of honey, slow sales, etc. Some of us 

 have no returns yet for honey sent East 

 last fall. Still, we are not discouraged. 

 Why should we be, when we live in a 

 climate where bees work the year around, 

 either storing honey or gathering food for 

 their young ? Only during the month of 

 November are the hives without young 

 brood. S. A. Stiles. 



Easton, Calif., April 3. 



The Prospects Don't Improve. 



The prospects for a honey crop in East 

 Tennessee grow no better. The blizzard 

 in the latter part of March killed all early 

 vegetation, and we have had cool, disagree- 

 able weather ever since. The woods look 

 dry and brown, like in January, and the 

 bees are working on meal, as well as they 

 usually do in February. 



The first bloom that we can now depend 

 upon for anything is poplar, and that us- 

 ually comes out late in May, and it will 

 probably be later this season. 



Bees were in better condition than usual 

 when the March snap came, but with nearly 

 a month of cold weather since, and no 

 pollen or honey to gather, they have not 

 improved any, but have perhaps retro- 

 graded. H. F. Coleman. 



Sneedville, Teun., April 14. 



