24 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Voices from Among the Hives. 



A. C. Balch, Kalamazoo, Mich., writes: — I have 

 put all my bees into the cellar for the winter, and 

 have no fears of losing them, as I have no faith in 

 dysentery or bad honey. I believe with Cromwell — 

 ' Put your faith in Providence and keep your powder 

 dry.' — Have good hives, the tighter the belter, and 

 give very little ventilation. Put them in a good, 

 warm, dark and dry cellar, with enough to eat, and 

 they will come out all right; at least mine always 

 have. I never give any top ventilation, andibut small 

 bottom, and thus have no circulation of air through 

 the hive. 



Joseph B. Rapp, Owensville, O., writes: — Some 

 of us beginners would like to have communications 

 from A. Grimm, M. Quinby, Capt. Hetherington and 

 other Apiarians, describing in detail their methods of 

 managing apiaries. From what little knowedge I have 

 been able to pick up about bees, I think that Mr. 

 Faulkners, of Vevay, Ind., has the best way of man- 

 aging bees for profit. Colonies in this country are 

 almost all weak in numbers, and will necessarily have 

 to be protected to winter surely. 



W. J. McKee, Cedar Falls, Iowa, writes:^! 

 consider the Journal indispensable to every bee- 

 keeper. 



A. Grey, Reiley, Ohio, writes: — What few bees 

 were alive last Spring have done fine this season, both 

 in honey and in mcrease of stock. I do not fear the 

 dysentery this Winter, as the honey is of the best 

 ([uality and the stocks are in good condition for Win- 

 ter. Success to the Journal and all of its readers. 



W. M. Kellogg, Oneida, Ills., writes of Bee- 

 stings and "Novice," as follows: — "Friend Argus 

 thinks the lips the worst place on which to have a 

 loving bee salute a person. Just let him get a good 

 deep one on the inside of the nostril, as I have had 

 twice, and he will own up that he had rather try the 

 kiss on the lips, or take one on the tip end of the 

 nose ker slap, with the bee coming like a ball from a 

 rifle. As for me, I had rather be excused from any of 

 them. Friend Chapman, I agree with you in regard 

 to the abuse heaped upon "Novice," and I too enter my 

 protest against having any such articles appear in the 

 Journal. And as to his opposition to patent hives, I 

 think if a little more of it were done, bee-keepers in 

 general would be the gainers. I bought the Right ? of 

 an Eastern hive, and it would have been a hundred dol- 

 lars in my pocket had I never seen said hive; and now 

 we all have the right to make as many of them as we 

 (doiiH) want. 



E. LiSTON, Virgil City, Missouri, reports as follows: 

 My bees are all in good order for wintering, and are 

 on their summer stands. Winter is open and the bees 



fly every few days. In this section of the country bees 

 made us no surplus the past season on account of dry 

 weather, and I fear many black bees in old box hives 

 will starve to death before bloom comes next ^-um- 

 mer. Successful Apiarians in this section are very 

 scarce,^ because they have not the energy, industry 

 and care that the calling requires. 



J. F. Love, Cornersville, Tenn., writes: — Our bees 

 are in the very best condition possible for wintering, 

 and this has been a good season for honey in this part 

 of the State. I do not expect to lose a single 

 stock; our bees can fly every ten or fifteen days 

 through the Winter- generally; we keep them on the 

 summer stand. I saved every full stock and all 

 nuclei last Winter on the summer stands and with no 

 sign of disease of any kind.^ 



Dr. E. G. Decker, Fort Fairfield, JNIaine, says: — 

 Being an Apiarian, I do not know how to get along 

 without the Journal. Bees did well here the past 

 season; my thirty hives paid me ten dollars apiece, 

 besides increasing to seventy-five full stocks. My 

 surplus was all boxes, price here, twenty cents, gross 

 weight. I take no particular pains with them as I 

 have a large country practice to attend to. Winter 

 in the cellar, keep them in from November 25 th to 

 April loth or 20th. I hope to see the Journal semi- 

 monthly before long. 



J. Harper, Mason, Mich., writes that bees have 

 done v.'ell in his locality for the last three seasons and 

 that the last year has been the best of all. He also 

 mentions a fatal disease which has attacked his bees. 

 Having found a goodly number dead, he inquired into 

 the cause and found a maggot or crab, about the size 

 of a horse-fly maggot, only they are wider between 

 the eyes and very black. He states that he has put 

 some of these in glass vials, and thinks they will 

 hatch in the Spring; they are now in cocoon state. 

 Some explanation is asked for from any one who lias 

 had^any practical experience in that direction. 



P. J. Talbot, Viola, Iowa, says : — I deprecate all 

 complicated hives, not because they are patented, but 

 because they are very injurious to lieginners — experi- 

 enced apiarians will not use them. . . . The frames 

 should be high enough from the bottom of the hive to 

 allow it to be easily cleaned out witli a small scraper 

 and slip board at the laottom and rear of the hive. 

 That should be attended to often if the weather will 

 permit. 



Mr. Campiskll ol Tennessee, writes : — Three 

 years ago I began with two stocks in box hives, one 

 of which I transferred to the Langstroth hive, and the 

 other to the Buckeye. Those in the Langstroth liive 

 did well and increased rapidly, but the moths took 

 charge of the other, and the bees refused to stay in it. 

 I put them in three times, and the last time they 



