14 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Bwarming?" Adair moved that the Soci- 

 ety answer the question in the affirmative, 

 and o-ave substantial reasons therefor. 



An able paper was then read on the 

 wings of the bee, which will be found en- 

 tire in the present number of the Journal. 



The meeting then adjourned to meet at 

 Pittsburg, Pa., the second Wednesday in 

 November, 1874. 



For the American Bee Journal 



Doolittie's Article. 



Dear Journal: In the July number, 

 page 7, we gave yon under the above 

 heading our experience with bees up to 

 April 28th. We propose now to let the 

 readers of the Journal know what we 

 have done since; and by the way, Mr. 

 Editor, if more of your contributors 

 would give their practical experience 

 with bees instead of disputing so much 

 with each other, and about hives, we 

 think it would be of more benefit to be- 

 ginrers as well as more edifying to expe- 

 rienced bee-keepers. The cold Aveatner 

 which began April 17th, continued until 

 May 1st, and upon examining we found 

 that our bees had decreased one-half in 

 number to each hive. We united the 

 weakest swarms so that we had but 

 twenty-nine to begin the season with, one 

 of which lost its queen shortly after. On 

 May Ist, we did not have a hive that con- 

 tained a quart of bees, and not a hive 

 that had ten square inches of brood. The 

 majority of them occupied from two to 

 four ranges of comb and had no brood at 

 all. The first pollen gathered was on 

 April 30th, which was very small pillets 

 indeed, and that from skunk's cabbage. 

 Bees began to rear brood again May 2nd, 

 and raised sparingly until May 14th, when 

 it became cold again and remained so un- 

 til the ?Oth, at which time the larvae was 

 all destroj'ed again. May 21st, the hard 

 maple threw oiit its thousands of blos- 

 soms and the bees, what w(U"e left of them, 

 began in earnest to prepare for the sum- 

 mer; before that time we had spread the 

 brood twice a week by putting empty 

 frames or frames of honey in the center, 

 and on the 30th, we never had so much 

 bi-ood according to the number of bees 

 in our hives, five hundred bees covering 

 five thousand of brood easily, and from 



the 12th to the 18th of June we had mul- 

 tiplied their number by ten and were 

 once more in a ver}" prosperous condition. 

 June 15, white and red clover began to 

 bloom, and that Avith locust blossoms fur- 

 nished our bees with an abundant supply 

 of honey. June, 19. our first swarm came, 

 Basswood commenced blossoming July 16 

 and lasted until August 2nd, which was 

 the end of the honey season with us. We 

 have at the present time fifty-four colonies 

 in good condition for wintering, and four 

 nuclei, so it will be seen that we have 

 doubled our number counting the nuclei. 

 We have sold surplus honey to the amount 

 of 2350 pounds, 635 pounds of which was 

 extracted and which we sold for fourteen 

 cents per pound, the remainder was in two 

 pound boxes which brought us twenty- 

 seven cents per pound. On the whole we 

 are satisfied with our season's work. We 

 ])ropose wintering the same as last year 

 with the exception that we shall leave the 

 straw out of our safes until spring for the 

 reason that our bees were kept too Avarm 

 during the Avinter. Keep hi\^es banked 

 Avith snoAv out of sight, and ha\'e all 

 lower A^entilation nearly or entirely closed 

 with one of Novice's quilts o\'er the 

 frames, Avell tucked doAvn at the sides, and 

 we will bid adieu to cellar wintering, as we 

 believe bees can be Avintered in no better 

 Avay. No lugging or lifting nor any mix- 

 ing in the spring, but just a little pleasant 

 exercise of sweeping the snow as it falls 

 around the hives, and if it should come 

 warm enough for them to fly, shoA^el it 

 away in front and Avhat a nice fly they 

 Avill haA'e. If it does not come quite Avarm 

 enough they Avili keep quiet, as the snow 

 keeps them at an e\^en temperature, so 

 there is no loss of bees from getting chilled 

 in the snoAv cA^ery time the mercur}' rises 

 to forty in the shade. 



G. M. DOOLITTLB. 



Boradino, N. T., Dec. 6. 1873. 



Italian bees are said to guard their hives 

 against the moth-miller much better than 

 the common black bees, and for this reason 

 their combs are seldom injured by the moth. 



The Alsike clover is equal if not superior 

 to buckwheat as a honey plant, Avhile the 

 honey produced from it is fully equal to 

 that made from white clover. 



