AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



697 



^P~ Do not write anything for publication 

 on the same sheet of paper with business 

 matters, unless it can be torn apart without 

 interfering- with either part of the letter. 



Can Hardly Estimate Its Value. 



Little more than a year ago I was in- 

 duced by some friends to subscribe for the 

 American Bee Journal — the first bee-lit- 

 erature I ever read ; and as I had 5 colonies 

 to start with, 1 can hardly estimate the 

 value it has been to me. And living in 

 Texas, as I do, of course I read "In Sunny 

 Southland " ^>s<. I am very much inter- 

 ested in the lessons we learn from Mrs. 

 Jennie Atchley. Long live the American 

 Bee Journal and "In Sunny Southland !" 



Texas, May U, 1894. D. Buchanan. 



Wintered Well. 



Bees have wintered well here. We have 

 59 colonies, and lost two. Some of our 

 neighbors have not lost any. 



Geo. Vandewarker. 



Brown City, Mich., May 16. 



Eight or 10 Frame Hive— Which ? 



The proceedings of the Colorado State 

 Association do not usually get in the Bee 

 Journal, on account of the great difference 

 in local conditions between here and the 

 East. But the essay of Mrs. Axtell, read 

 at the last meeting of the North American 

 shows that there are at least a few in agree- 

 ment with us in spite of the conditions. 

 (Vol. XXXII, page 596.) 



Being interested in the comparative 

 merits of 8 and 10 frame hives for comb 

 honey, I put this query in the question-box 

 at their last meeting: "Why should the 

 10-frame hive be recommended for comb 

 honey in Colorado ?"' The replies were like 

 the parts of the one-horse shay — all alike 

 in vigor. Many bore on the local points ; 

 but the following, which may be taken as 

 the summing-up of the feeling of the mem- 

 bers present, indicates, I think, certain 

 principles which can hardly be called 

 merely local, namely: that if "time, and 

 labor, and thought, and care, and material, 

 and capital, are all money," as Mr. R. L. 

 Taylor expressed it several years ago in the 

 Heview, yet the saving time, labor, thought, 

 and care in using 10-frames, which are au- 

 tomatically self-regulating to a much 

 greater extent than the 8-frame hives, quite 

 overbalanced the increased expenditure of 



capital ; and that this increased capital is 

 really a much slighter element than it is 

 made out to be, since it does not consist in 

 running expenses, but in first cost. The 

 large comb-honey producers present strong- 

 ly upheld the value of those outside combs 

 which remain filled with honey from year 

 to year. F. L. Thompson. 



Arvada, Colo. 



Scarcity of White Clover. 



The Arctic wave that struck Central 

 Illinois in March, killed all the white 

 clover ; not a plant is to be seen in all the 

 pastures that I have examined around 

 here. I don't know what bee-keepers are 

 going to do for clover honey, and hbw are 

 we going to bridge the bees over until lin- 

 den ? That is full of buds, but will bloom 

 in June, ahead of its natural time, which is 

 in July here, about the 1st to the 15th or 

 18th ; and the question is, whether we will 

 get honey from bloom that comes before its 

 time. 



The heart's-ease is plentiful, and we may 

 get a fall flow of that. If we don't, what 

 will bridge us over until next year ? Per- 

 haps we will have to join Coxey's common- 

 weal army ; but let us cling to the anchor 

 of hope, for a bad beginning may yet have 

 a good ending. Geo. Poindexter. 



Kenney, lU., May 12. 



Colonies Building- Up Fast. 



Bees are building up fast now. My bees 

 are not as strong as I would like — the cold 

 weather weakened them greatly. I have 

 lost four colonies by swarming out. 



Theo. F. Craig. 



Otwell, Ind., May 21. 



Bees Booming in Kansas. 



Bees are booming in Kansas this spring. 

 The weather has been the best for bees 

 since Easter that I remember ever to have 

 seen. We have had very few long, cold 

 rains, and no snow. The bees had the 

 benefit of all the apple blossoms, and pretty 

 much all other blossoms, and the conse- 

 quence is they are full and running over 

 with brood and young bees, and if we had 

 white clover now, we would have swarms 

 in a few days ; but we have but little white 

 clover in this part of the State ; and there 

 is almost nothing in bloom now. But the 

 rock moss will bloom in a week or two, 

 then the first of June the balled mint (some 

 call it Texas horsemint) will begin to 

 bloom, and it will last for a month or 

 more, and if there is enough of it the bees 

 will gather a rich harvest of beautiful 

 white and richly-flavored honey. 



A good many bees died here the past 

 winter, as we have had two bad years in 

 succession with no swarming, and I think 

 the cause was that so many colonies had 

 old and worthless queens that died during 

 the winter, and left the colony with a few 

 old bees, so that when spring came they 

 were not able to guard the entrance, and 



