1873.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



11 



not throw stones." It will not do at this late 

 day to arrogate to himself all the knowledge 

 and disinterested benevolence pertaining to 

 any profession or subject. When a person be- 

 comes eminent through legitimate means, it is 

 right that he receive the applause of the world; 

 but when such a position is used to " turn an 

 honest penny," and no opposition or rivalry 

 tolerated, then people will consider the case 

 from a worldly point of view, and judge accord- 

 ingly. It is just here that "Novice" presents 

 his weak jjoint, and those whom he has so mer- 

 cilessly punched have been quick to retaliate, 

 while the readers of the Journal laugh at the 

 inconsistencies presented. We do not object to 

 these harmless skirmishes, but on the contrary 

 rather enjoy them, and certainly we can see no 

 objection whatever to the practice of allowing 

 all who are confident that they have a hive, or 

 any other device, interesting to bee-keepers, 

 the privileJQ e of describing them in these col- 

 umns, whether they "have them for sale" or not, 

 and we rejoice that the utmost freedom in this 

 respect has been given since the foundation of 

 the Journal. 



Well, Mr Editor, away down in Maine we 

 are just emerging from another long, cold and 

 tedious winter. Since December 1st, 1872, 

 there has been uninterrupted sleighing, until 

 this week, when runners are giving way to 

 wheels. Yet, notwithstanding the unusually 

 long season of cold, our bees are coming through 

 in lair condition. We put six stocks into the 

 bee cellar December 1st, leaving three very 

 strong and heavy stocks in the bee-house, one 

 of which was placed in a large dry -goods box, 

 and thoroughly packed with straw, the entrance 

 being left open. About March 1st the bees all 

 died— starved to death — leaving about thirty 

 pounds of honey in the frames. The cap of 

 another hive was filled with straw, jDacked on 

 woollen quilts, which was raised half an inch 

 above the frames. This stock got through to 

 March 1st very well, but then the bees died 

 off rapidly, and we took it into the cook-room, 

 p aced our wire flying cage to the extreme end 

 and let the bees enjoy themselves for several 

 days. After the combs were dry we removed 

 it to the cellar, but the bees dwindled away to 

 a mere handful. The other stock was in one of 

 Allay's Bay State Hives, and was prepared for 

 winter by removing the honey boxes and filling 

 the case with straw. The bees in this hive 

 came through in fine condition, and it is now 

 our strongest stock. All of the six hives that 

 were put in the cellar December 1st wintered 

 safely consuming but little honey and losing 

 but few bees. One of these hives was very 

 small, containing but four frames six by seven 

 inches, and we did not feed them until the last 

 of March. 



George S. Silsby. 



Winterford, Me., April 16, 1873. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



A Beginner's Experience. 



I am but a raw recruit in the little army of 

 American bee-keepers, this being my second 

 year's experience. I have found pleasure and 

 deep interest in the study of Quinby and Lang- 

 stroth, with first lessons and text-books, and 

 the leading bee journals of the country. My 

 beginning was with one swarm in a box hive, 

 increased to three the part summer by natural 

 swarming. Had them transferred to frame 

 hives in August, and the Italian queens given 

 them by our excellent friend and patron bee- 

 keeper, Mr I. M. Marvin, of St Charles. Re- 

 ceived about seventy pounds of honey this year. 

 To these I added in the month of November 

 following, by purchase ten swarms of blacks in 

 box hives, and put them all in a dry, dark cellar, 

 November 24, for winter. All came out the 

 first of April last in fair condition, with one 

 exception, resulting in the loss of the hive, but 

 saved the queen — my best Italian — by placing 

 her in another stock purchased for that pur- 

 pose. Transferred the blacks to frame hives 

 during the time of fruit blossoms, early in 

 May. "All resulted well, and I soon began to 

 make swarms by taking two frames of bror^d 

 and adhering bees each from several hives, and 

 placing them on new stands and giving them 

 a capped-over Italian queen-cell. Increased to 

 twenty-five stocks, but the season for honey be- 

 ing so poor, and not wishing to go too fast, 

 made no more swarms, but Italianized the bal- 

 ance of old hives. 



At the close of the honey season weighed 

 all the hives and marked the weight on the caps 

 of each, and all not having twenty-five pounds 

 of stores were fed sugar-syrup up to that weight. 



The three old Italian hives gave me more 

 surplus honey than all the ten blacks combined. 



Having a new Peabody Extractor and wish- 

 ing to make it useful, and finding one of our 

 neighbors preparing to brimstone several hives, 

 we proposed to do the job for him (minus the 

 brimstone) for the bees and empty combs, which 

 offer was gladly accepted. So, on the 9th day 

 of October last, we repaired to the farmhouse 

 and drove out the bees and tied them up in snug, 

 clean, empty boxes, each swarm to themselves 

 of course ; then carefully removed the combs, 

 uncapped the sealed honey, and in a short time 

 had a nice lot of empty combs, (except the bee- 

 bread, which was not distur]>ed), and all done 

 to the entire satisfaction of the good farnier. 

 who was well pleased to have us save the lives 

 of so many innocent little busy bees, and give 

 him his honey in so nice a -hape Well, Mr. 

 Editor, we brought those bees and cJtobs home, 

 and, after transferring the combs to frames, run 

 the bees in, making seven strong swarms, as to 

 bees, but no honey. So we let them have a day 

 or so to clean up and set things in order, when 



