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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL.. 



had no energy, and the other colonies 

 robbed them. Some bee-keepers trans- 

 ferred too late in the season, and did not 

 feed up properly (myself, for one) . I lost 

 10 colonies in that way during the winter. 

 I traded for them in August, and trans- 

 ferred them, and intended them to fill up 

 on the fall flowers, and supposed they had. 

 as they were very heavy in the fall, but I 

 think now it was mostly brood instead of 

 honey. J. C. Balch. 



Bronson, Kans., May 11. 



A Migrating Bee-Man. 



I go now for the white clover fields, and 

 hope for a honey crop in June and July. 

 My bees on scales in Daytona recorded 185 

 pounds up to date, being 82 pounds from 

 orange bloom, and the balance from gum, 

 myrtle, bay and saw palmetto bloom. Just 

 now I feel the better way is for the man to 

 rniijrate and leave the bees at home. It is 

 cheaper, quicker, and less trouble. It has 

 done well this season. Dr. Jesse Oren. 



Daytona, Fla., May 21. 



[Dr. Oren's address hereafter will be Mt. 

 Auburn, Iowa. — Editor.] 



Snow Instead of Swarms. 



Last evening it began to snow, and this 

 morning the tops of the ridges are white. 

 It now seems that there can be no hope for 

 any surplus honey here this year. So far 

 bees have lived from hand to mouth, and if 

 this weather continues three days, they 

 will nearly all starve if not fed. Our 

 swarming season usually begins here by 

 May 10th, and you cannot imagine how 

 strange it looks to see the tops of the 

 ridges covered with snow ten days after 

 the swarming season should begin. Our 

 bee-men are greatly discouraged. 



H. F. Coleman. 



Sneedville, Tenn., May 20. 



Successful Wintering of Bees. 



Myself and all my neighbors winter our 

 bees on the summer stands, in single-walled 

 8-frame Langstroth hives, without any pro- 

 tection, with the mercury as low as 10 to 15 

 degrees below zero, and we lose only about 

 one per cent., and they are lost by starva- 

 tion. B. Taylor says, on page 500, that 

 failure in wintering bees comes from a 

 poor honey-flow. I think he is a little mis- 

 taken, for I have had the poorest honey- 

 flow in 1893 that I have had in nine years, 

 and mine and my neighbors' bees all win- 

 tered well. 



The way I winter my bees is this: 



1st. I never extract any honey from the 

 brood-chamber. 



2nd. I never feed any sugar syrup in the 

 fall. If I have any feeding to do, I feed 

 early in the spring when bees can fly freely. 

 I do not believe that bees can be wintered 

 well on sugar syrup in any condition, be- 

 cause it does not keep up the heat as does 

 honey. 



I do not believe in cellar- wintering. From 

 all the accounts that I can see, spring 

 dwindling and diarrhea are caused by cel- 

 lar-wintering. I think that bees wintered 

 in warm cellars, and taken out of the cellar 

 in the spring, get chilled, causing disease. 

 I have been keeping bees for nine years, 

 and I have not had a single case of spring 

 dwindling. Now I do not say that it is not 

 necessary to winter bees in the cellar in the 

 far North, where the mercury gets down as 

 low as 30 to 40 degrees below zero, and even 

 then I would prefer a chaff hive. 



Oraville, lU. Phillip Rath. 



Prospects Not Good. 



It has been very dry, cold and frosty here 

 the last six days, and begins to look bad, 

 for my bees are breeding up well— in fact, 

 better than any others I know of. They 

 are well protected with chaff hives, two in 

 a case. Some small, unprotected hives are 

 throwing out lots of dead brood. 



E. H. Sturtevant. 



Fort Ann, N. Y., May 16. 



Well Pleased — Prospects Never Better 



I feel so well pleased with the American 

 Bee Journal that it is my duty to let you 

 know of some of the benefits received. Last 

 summer, 1 read in it about putting hives in 

 trees to catch swarms. I put out three on 

 different trees, and caught one swarm ; it 

 wintered well, and is worth $10 to-day. 



Bees wintered well here. I put 9 colonies 

 in the cellar, and they all came out in good 

 condition. Drones are flying now, and the 

 bees will swarm from two to three weeks 

 earlier than they have for a number of 

 years. The prospects never were better, 

 because the bees will have swarmed and 

 be ready for white clover, which generally 

 begins to bloom about June 10th. 



Samuel Taylor. 



Waupaca, Wis., May 16. 



With Fun in His Eye. 



At last the "Old Reliable" has caused 

 my pen to vibrate. For a long time I have 

 wanted to see the portraits of Bros. York 

 and A. I. Root, but have waited and waited 

 in vain. That noble cut of G. M. D. (page 

 512) is grand; but say, G. M., what's the 

 matter with the hat ? Is it fly-time, or 

 have you been too close to the hive ? I 

 presume it is the latter, by the tear on that 

 classical cheek. 



And Walter, on the same page — he has 

 something of the cut of a Beecher. Then, 

 he looks like Bill Nye a little. Say, Walter, 

 would you like one of my old wigs ? 



But the richness of those cuts hasten me 

 on to get to other and more classical 

 brows. My eye is riveted on page 511. Say, 

 Thos. G., is that an old straw skep just 

 above and back of the forehead ? And what 

 are you fixed up so for — to go among the B's 

 to sell supplies ? or did you sit to show off 

 best ? My, though, but those eyes are 



