AMERICAN BKK JOURNAL. 



569 



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CB^ Do not write anything for nublication 

 on the same sheet of paper wltn business 

 matters, unless it can be torn apart without 

 interfering' with either part of the letter. 



Better Prospects this Year. 



My bees are very busy every day we have 

 a little sunshine. They have brood now, so 

 they will be in good condition when the 

 clover blooms. We have an earlier spring 

 this year than last, so the prospects are 

 better this year. My loss is about 10 per 

 cent., but next winter I shall expect very 

 little or no loss, as this year I had to experi- 

 ment, and now have the experience. 



G. D. LiTTOOY. 



Tacoma, Wash., April 16. 



Unfavorable Weather for Bees.' 

 The weather has been very unfavorable 



so far this spring for the bees. I lost one 



colony in wintering, and have 23 good 



strong ones yet. 



Elmer H. Bridenstixe. 

 North Liberty, Iowa, April 23. 



Prospects More Encotiraging'. 



We were ivery much discouraged along 

 in the last week in March, because of the 

 cold snap that killed so much fruit, but we 

 are having fair weather now, which has 

 brought out fruit-bloom wonderfully. Cher- 

 ries are nor hurt in the least, some plums 

 escaped the frost, and Jennet apples will 

 be in bloom in la few days. Bees have suf- 

 fered some, but are doing well now. I have 

 lost none so far. Edw. Smith. 



Carpenter, 111., April 19. 



Mr. Theilmann and the Pollen Theory. 



On page 439, Mr. Theilmann, of Minne- 

 sota, says, " That pollen theory of Mr. Hed- 

 dons is all bosh.'" Now, as I understand 

 Mr. Heddon on that subject, this sentence 

 seems to me to be rather scathing. Mr. T. 

 does not disprove the theory, so to give 

 him a chance to try to do so, I would like 

 to ask him two questions, viz. : 



1. Can your bees produce brood and diar- 

 rhea without pollen (or bee-bread from 

 whatever source) ? 



2. Can your bees live for three weeks on 

 pollen without getting the diarrhea ? 



Let us give credit where it belongs. I 

 think that 90 bee-keepers out of 100 will an- 



swer a big NO to both questions, which, to 

 my mind, if I am right, substantiates the 

 pollen theory. 



As Mr. Theilmann is a Northern bee- 

 keeper, as well as myself, his items on tem- 

 perature and cellar-wintering were inter- 

 esting ; and I for one shall be glad to hear 

 from him again, especially if he will tell us 

 some absolute prevention of our bees being 

 affected with diarrhea, without removing 

 the pollen. W. Harmer. 



Manistee, Mich. 



Bees Wintereti Well, Etc. 



Bees wintered well in this part of West 

 Virginia. I winter my bees in a bee-house. 

 I took them out in good condition about the 

 10th of March, and had to put them back 

 when Easter winter set in. There is but 

 little interest given to bee-culture in this 

 part of the country. People generally keep 

 their bees in old log or box hives. 



I am much interested in the American 

 Bee Journal. If the people would read it, 

 they would soon abandon the hollow-log 

 bee-hive. Ira Shooket. 



Long, W. Va., April 21. 



"Hark Luck" in 1893. 



We had a bad crop failure in this part of 

 Nebraska last season, which makes it nip 

 and tuck for many farmers, and other folks 

 as well. Bee-keeping was a success last 

 season— like farming. I started with five 

 full colonies in the spring of 1S93. made five 

 4-frame nuclei, which never filled up the 

 hives, and fed them sugar syrup last fall, 

 and yet lost two young swarms. I have 8 

 colonies yet out of 10. I fed them S2.oO 

 worth of granulated sugar made into syrup, 

 and rye flour for pollen, and I hope they 

 will stand it now until the wild plum, 

 cherry, etc., bloon^ of which I have quite 

 a lot. 



Last season I sowed rape (a very good 

 honey-plant) in good time, but the first 

 crop froze and died out. (The last part of 

 April we had five heavy frosts in one 

 week.) I sowed a second crop on the same 

 ground, which died out; sowed a third 

 time on another ground in August, which 

 nearly dried out, but bloomed very little 

 after the first frosts. I sowed buckwheat 

 twice — the first was spoiled by hail, and the 

 second dried up. From the 10 colonies I 

 did not get a pound of surplus honey, while 

 in 1S92 I got from one colony 10 nuclei, one 

 f uU swarm, and 50 pounds of honey. 



G. Ballmer. 



Gothenburg, Nebr., April 17. 



Bee-Keeping- in Alabama. 



Having spent several weeks the past win- 

 ter with some of the bee-Keepers of Ala- 

 bama and North Carolina, I wish to add a 

 few words to Dr. Miller's excellent advice 

 on page 459. I found bees gathering pollen 

 freely in February in the southern part of 

 the State, and breeding freely with the 



