632 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



startling innovator and iconoclast, Mr. 

 Heddon, to carefully read Mr. Bellamy's 

 reply ; then retract his own reply to 

 Query 854 ; and finally, graciously and 

 gracefully tip his hat to our neighborly 

 expert, or possibly " apicultural liter- 

 arian," residing just over the geographic 

 rubricated line. 

 New Palestine, Ohio. 



__ Do not write anything for publication 

 on the same sheet of paper witn business 

 matters, unless It can be torn apart without 

 interfering with either part of the letter. 



Strong Colonies this Spring. 



Bees wintered finely here this winter, and 

 were stronger this spring when put out of 

 the cellar than when put In ; but this is a bad 

 spell on them, the mercury being at the 

 freezing point, and it has been blowing 

 snow all day. Thomas S. Wallace. 



Clayton, Ills., April 31, 1893. 



Only 5 Per Cent. Loss. 



My bees have wintered pretty well, only 

 5 per cent. loss. They were packed in leaves 

 on the summer stands, and were five months 

 without a flight, and have not gathered any 

 pollen yet. I appreciate the eff'orts to im- 

 prove the Bee Journal, and think it splen- 

 did. Irvin Grover. 



Cooperstown. N. Y., AprU 23, 1893. 



One of the Worst Winters. 



We have had one of the worst winters 

 that we have ever had, and the bees are 

 about all dead in Minnesota. I cannot give 

 any reason for this great loss ; it is not only 

 the inexperienced that have lost, but the 

 experienced or professional bee-keepers, the 

 ones that knew just how to winter. It is 

 quite interesting to meet one of these latter 

 bee-keepers, and note how meek and lowly 

 he seems when you ask him how his bees 

 wintered. 



As I receive letters from all parts of the 

 West, stating the heavy loss in many api- 

 aries, and in some instances where they 

 had a large apiary, and it had become de- 

 populated. I cannot help but call to memory 

 all that has been said about the winter 

 problem in the way of sealed covers, and 



upper and lower ventilation, etc. ; how we 

 thought we had this great question down to 

 a minimum, and Old Boreas has completely 

 " done us up." There is one thing about 

 the season, we have had lots of snow to 

 protect the clover, and everything seems to 

 indicate a good crop of honey. 



Wm. H. Bright. 

 Mazeppa, Minn., April 20, 1893. 



Extracting Honey in Arkansas. 



• My bees at the Arkansas apiary are doing 

 very well ; we having extracted, up to this 

 time, from 46 colonies, 1.500 pounds of 

 honey. Those that have been at Rosedale, 

 in Mississippi, have done almost nothing 

 yet : they are run for comb honey. I moved 

 48 colonies over here to run especially for 

 comb honey. If they do not Improve, I shall 

 move them again, or take them back to 



Arkansas. R. J. Mathews. 



Rosedale, Miss., April 24, 1893. 



Fertile Queens and Alley Traps. 



On page 471 is a letter from Mr. Arthur 

 Heiss, and. as it refers directly to my self- 

 hiver, I feel at liberty to answer it. 



Mr. Heiss is certainly mistaken about 

 fertile queens taking a flight. Some years 

 ago I used to have all my queens mated 

 from large hives, and as soon as I found 

 them laying I would put Alley traps on the 

 entrances to prevent the bees from abscond- 

 ing. I have had as high as 75 colonies ar- 

 ranged in this manner through the entire 

 season, and I never found a queen in the 

 trap outside the hive. There are some 

 100.000 traps in use in this country, but 

 there has never been any complaint that 

 they caught fertile queens other than at 

 swarming time. 



The queens that Mr. H. speaks of must 

 have been virgin. The one he speaks of 

 " on top of the frames " was simply fright- 

 ened, that is all. Young laying queens will 

 often take wing f roni an opened hive, 



Beverly. Mass. E. L. Pratt. 



Getting Bees from a High Tree. 



In August, 1893, one of my neighbors ran 

 a bee-line by my house and asked me to 

 help find the tree ; and after cutting it and 

 taking out the honey, I hived the bees in a 

 box for a few days. I then transferred 

 them into a hive, and the next morning 

 they were working as though nothing had 

 happened. They were very gentle, and I 

 think quite good Italians. 



Of course, this (my first experience with 

 bees) made me interested, so I started 

 another line, and before night had them 

 located in a large cucumber tree, not far 

 from where I started them. The bees went 

 into the tree about 90 feet from the ground, 

 and it was 75 feet to the first limb. I knew 

 if the limb was cut I should lose bees, honey 

 and all. It was a very strong colony, and 

 I was anxious to save the bees if possible, 



