THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



I bought six small black colonies in June, and 

 now i have tAvtMity-six in good condition, all 

 Italiani/cd. They are now carrying in two 

 gallons of tlour daily. Bees are wintering as 

 well as I ever saw them. I have abandoned 

 the bee-house and winter my bees out of 

 doors." 



D. D. Pai-mkh, Eliza, 111., writes:—" The 

 seven diseased hives which 1 had, are now 

 (Feb. 7) all dead, and fifteen more are dis- 

 eased. I have seventy-eight left; the most of 

 lliem look well." 



JospuMi ^I. Bkooks, C'olumbu.s, Ind., writes: 

 — "My seventeen colonies of bees are in the 

 cellar, wintering on sugar syrup exclusively. 

 All arc in the best condition, so far." 



G. E. CoiiiJiN, St. Johns, Mich., writes: — 

 " By actual measurement, I find that fifteen 

 worker lirood-cells made by black bees, span 

 liiree inches; while fourteen worker brood- 

 cells made by Italian bees, span the same dis- 

 tance. That is, nine sciuare inches of surface 

 of brood-comb made by black bees, contain 

 two hundred and twenty-live cells; whereas, 

 the same surface of brood-comb made by 

 Italian bees, contains only one hundred and 

 ninety -six cells. Does not this difference in 

 the size of tlie cells indicate a corresponding 

 difference in the size of the bees ? I believe 

 the usual process of Italianizing supplies the 

 ([ueen with the combs of black bees only. Is 

 it, therefore, possible to rear full-sized and 

 perfect Italian progeny in those cells ? If so, 

 what sized cells will they, in their turn, 

 build ? AVill soiue one of experience answer 

 these questions ? " 



Edgar McNitt, Centre Village,' O., writes: 

 — " My bees have done very well the past sea- 

 son. I am able to report an average of about 

 fifty pounds of honey to the hive. One hive, 

 furnished with empty combs, gave me three 

 swarms and eighty pounds of honey. In- 

 cluding the increase in swarms, my uett profit 

 for the season was one hundred and twenty- 

 five per cent. Last year I wintered two 

 swarms, one on sealed, the other on unsealed 

 honey, and both came through in good con- 

 dition. I had a swarm of lialf -bloods that 

 died while I was trying to Italianize them. 

 There were no signs of dysentery. To ascer- 

 tain that tlie honey had nothing to do with 

 their death, I procured a starved swarm, and i 

 put it in the depopulated hive without clean- j 

 ing it out in the least, and the bees flourished j 

 as well as any of mj^ other swarms." 



Jonas Scholi,, Lyons Station, Ind., writes: 

 — "I am somewhat in doubt as to the best way 

 of doubling colonies. In the past two years 

 there has not been very good success in this 

 region in the method of taking full frames 

 from a hive to be doubled, and filling out 

 with empty ones. It seems to cut the hive in 

 two. Tlie ([ueen often will not cross the 



empty space, but remains on one side of the 

 hive. On the opposite sid(; tlic combs will be 

 filled with honey as fast as tiie brood liatches, 

 wliile tlie new comb built on that side, will 

 most likely be all drone comb. As a strong 

 colony, with a prolific (pieen, when placed in 

 an empty hive, builds comb rapidly, if the 

 yield of honey is good, may we not conclude 

 that when comb is to be built for all the in- 

 crease, the best plan is to divide the bees on- 

 ly, not the comb ? Bearing in mind that in 

 this locality very little comb is built bcifore 

 May 15, and after June 2~>, will sonu^ practic- 

 al bee-keeper give us the benefit of his knowl- 

 edge on this subject V Bees are wintering finely 

 here." 



B. G. FoRBUSu, Algona, Iowa, writes: — 

 " I am but a novice in bee-culture. One year 

 ago next April, I purchased twenty stands of 

 bees. During the earlj^ summer of last year, 

 I increased to forty stands, by artificial' 

 swarming. I am surrounded with basswood, 

 but there was a total deaith in its bloom. 

 About the first week in July, I was surprised 

 with the sudden filling up of every available 

 cell of my hives witii a very thin, washy, ac- 

 rid honey, which proved to be sumac honey. 

 I was nonplussed, and wrote to Mr. Gallup 

 in regard to it. He advised me to extract it, 

 and keep it for feeding purposes. 1 had no 

 sooner begun to follow this advice, when, to 

 my surprise, it was evaporated to a fair con- 

 sistency, and after six months I find it much 

 less acrid, and good for table use. The months 

 of August and September were gay with 

 golden-rod and many other wild flowers. My 

 hives were soon tilled with honey of the best 

 quality, and the hives were literally stuffed 

 with bees and brood. In view of what Prof. 

 Cook says about late brood, I tremble, for 

 there was no speck of brood in my hives after 

 the loth of September. But I carried my 

 hives into winter quarters full of honey, and 

 populous with bees. I put thirty-two stand» 

 in the cellar, with from three to six inches of 

 air-space under the combs, and heavy, white 

 ducking over the frames according to Mrs. 

 Tupper's plan. They are in good condition. 

 I took out about three hundred pounds of 

 surplus honey. Nine "New Idea" hive* 

 w^ere left on summer stands, banked up with 

 snow, a la Gallup. From this, my first year'a 

 experience, I prefer a four thousand inch 

 hive." ' 



John Wahl, Greenfield, 111., writes: — 

 " Last season I went into winter quarters with 

 forty-one hives, coming out in the spring with 

 twenty-six. I liad only four swarms winter 

 on the summer stands. I. use the Langstroth 

 hives, of thirteen frames. The last four sea- 

 sons have been so dry that we have had no 

 flowers out of which to make honey, and so, 

 whatever the breed of bees or the kind of 

 hive used, our failure has been unavoidable." 



