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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



At the bottom of the column Mr. Doolit- 

 tle says : "A queen-cell is never built over 

 anything but a larva. ' ' Now, Mr. Dooljttle, 

 do you remember of sending me a queen in 

 1891 ? Well, after she got to laying, I put 

 a frame of foundation iu the middle of the 

 brood-nest, and kept watch of it, and in 34 

 hours after she began to lay in it, I took it 

 out and gave it to a hopelessly queenless 

 nucleus to save until the larvae would 

 hatch : 21r hours later there were over 40 cell- 

 cups built on that sheet of foundation, and 

 each contained an. nj(j ; but by the time the 

 larvae had hatched, the bees had destroyed 

 all but about a dozen ; this was probably 

 because there were only a quart of bees in 

 the hive. 



Now, I want to know what kind of comb 

 Mrs. Atchley's bees built in that empty 

 frame that she put in the brood-nest when 

 the bees were working in the sections ? See 

 page 525. Such an operation here would 

 surely result in a drone-comb, unless it was 

 a newly-hived swarm not over three weeks 

 old. S. F. Tbego. 



Swedona, Ills., May 4, 1893. 



Hiving Swarms in Full Hives. 



Last November I packed away 49 colo- 

 nies, and on April 1, 1893, I put out 48, all 

 in good condition. Being a beginner of 

 three years' experience, I thought I had the 

 bee-business to perfection ; but, alas, on 

 May 1st I changed my mind. I looked them 

 over, and found 18 dwindled down, so I 

 united them, putting as high as seven into 

 one, then not having a good colony. Some 

 of my neighbors did not unite theirs, and 

 have lost all they had. 



April was very changeable in this locality ; 

 bees would start out in search of stores and 

 never return. To-day is fair weather for 

 them to fly, and they are carrying in pol- 

 len. I have 30 colonies left, and 18 hives 

 full of honey and pollen without bees. 



Now will some one be kind enough to tell 

 me what the result will be if I hive my new 

 swarms in those hives, just as they are, 

 leaving the hive full of honey and pollen ? 



J. W. Miller. 



Rodney, Mich., May 15, 1893. 



Lost All but One Colony. 



We had a very long and cold winter. A 

 good many of the bees died. I started iu 

 the winter with 13 colonies, and I now have 

 one. They had plenty of honey — from T to 

 40 pounds — except one. They "kept dying 

 from the middle of January to the middle 

 of March. On April 1st I had two good, 

 strong colonies that commenced to carry in 

 pollen on March 30th, and did well until 

 about the middle of April, when it turned 

 cold and snowed, and we have had bad 

 weather ever since, only a day now and 

 then that bees could get out. 



On May 9th tliey began to carry in pollen 

 again, and I iu)tice(l one colony was not as 

 strong as it was before the cold spell, and 

 yesterday (May 11th) tliere were no bees 

 flying in one hive. I opened it, and there 



was not more than 8 or 10 bees in it, and no 

 brood. The hive was clean, no dirt or dead 

 bees in it, and I judge about 35 pounds of 

 honey. Where they went I don't know. 

 Bees died in chaff hives here as well as in 

 single-walled hives. 



The Bee Journal never fails to come on 

 time, and I will say without fear of contra- 

 diction, that it is the best bee-paper printed 

 in the United States. H. T. Laturop 



Bidwell, Iowa, May 12, 1893. 



How the Bees Wintered. 



I notice on page 598 is published the arti- 

 cle I wrote about two months ago from 

 Virginia. On my return home, April 13th, 

 I found 4 of my 53 colonies dead— one from 

 starvation, with honey in the hive; the bees 

 were separated from their stores, and prob- 

 ably died during a long cold spell. One 

 died of diarrhea, and two of dwindling. 

 Since that I have lost three more by dwind- 

 ling ; thus I have lost 7 out of 53, which is 

 not bad, I think, as we had a long, cold 

 winter. 



Of the seven that died, six were in double- 

 cased packed hives, and one in a single- 

 walled hive. Thus my loss was far the 

 greatest in packed hives, and this has been 

 the result of my experience for the past 

 few years, and now my strongest colonies 

 are those that were wintered in tiered-up 

 hives two high, each with combs in, and no 

 outside protection. 



Bees are promising well here at present. 

 No fast-bottom hives, and no chaff-hives 

 for me. I have tried them. 



Chester Beldixg. 



Middletown, N. Y., May 15, 1893. 



Bees Booming- — Doubling Colonies. 



The bees are booming lately. One splen- 

 did swarm, after Nature's method, and one 

 different from any plan yet named. I was 

 a month getting this swarm. If the thing 

 doesn't die in the borning — if it '• pans out" 

 well— then sometime I'll tell what kind of 

 a caper I perpetrated on the bees. 



How's this I Doolittle and R. L. Taylor 

 are so near the top of the apiarian ladder 

 that if they were to be pushed any higher 

 they'd slip off the top. And yet the one 

 (the latter) says double-up wea"k colonies in 

 the spring about ten days before the ex- 

 pected honey-flow; and the other looks 

 upon this practice Avith hesitancy and mis- 

 givings. Which is right ? Wliieh shall we 

 follow ? It is plain to me that Mr. Taylor's 

 plan will work here ^in this hot locality — 

 near Cincinnati. But as to doing so at 

 Lapeer, must give us pause. 



Has any one ever peeped it that bees 

 (iJwKJ/K prefer to enter their hive at the right 

 hand as you face tlie hive ? So Mr. Alley's 

 drone and queen traps should all be made 

 with a left-hemd slide for portico hives. 



Dr. Alukkt Sayler. 



New Palestine. O.. May 33, 1893. 



Great Pretuiuiu on page 709 ! 



