THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



89' 



This is large oiiough, when the extract- 

 or is used or the comb honey is talcen 

 out often, but he hiul used them twice 

 that size and had the bees to occupy all 

 of the frames but five or six. Five feet 

 long, with frames of that size, will do 

 if attended to, but they must bo larger 

 if the honey is left in them. 



A Member.— If 3^our bees don't swarm 

 how do you increase them ? 



Adair. — lie made artilical swarms, 

 and could increase his bees faster than 

 from smaller hives, as the material was 

 so abundant; foi" a nucleus, or even a 

 good swarm, could be taken out without 

 reducing the colon}^ to the dimensions 

 of the strongest colon}- you can have in 

 a hive of ordinary size, and without 

 materially checking its jDroductiveness. 

 He generally formed a nucleus of two 

 or three sheets of brood, one or two of 

 empty comb and one or two entirely 

 empty. He hooked them togethei', set 

 them in the cellar or a dark room for 

 three or four days, then set them out, 

 and as soon as they raised a queen built 

 them up by adding brood as near ma- 

 turity as he could get. The surplus 

 queen cells were used in forwarding 

 others. He had made as high as eight 

 artificial swarms out of one hive, at one 

 time, giving each a queen cell. With 

 the addition of a little brood about the 

 time the queen becomes fertile, thc}^ 

 soon become strong colonies. Of course 

 in such instances the parent colony was 

 reduced to a small size, and was naate- 

 rially checked in productiveness, and it 

 took them some time to recover. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



That Patent Bee-Peeder. 



The jSIarch number of the Journal is just 

 received, aud of course is devoured at 

 once. Friend Kretchmer, on page sixty-six, 

 refers to my article on " Mr. Adam Grimm's 

 Bee-Feeder, " aud says the feeder was pat- 

 ented May 6, '73, aud speaks about the per- 

 forated screw cap. The cap is not perforated 

 in Mr. Grimms' feeder, as friend K. will see 

 if he looks the article over. I certainly 

 should not have given a description of it for 

 all to use, had I known it was patented. 

 3Ir. Grimm uses a good many of them in his 

 apiaries, aud told me I could make and use 

 as many of them as 1 chose, for the feeder 

 was one of his own (jetting up, and ivas not 

 patented, and would not be by Mm. Any one 



was free to use it. He certainly did Jiot 

 know any one had a similar feeder, or that it 

 was covered by a patent. Will Mr. Grimm 

 please notice tins, and explain the matter to 

 us ? I see in tlie advertisements, Mr. K. has 

 liis feeder described as using "water, syrup, 

 houey, or meal, and ventilates the hive at 

 pleasure." A diU'erent feeder altogether, 

 from ours, which is not calculated for feed- 

 ing meal, and is no ventilation whatever, to 

 the hive. 



We have had a mild winter, for bees in 

 this part of the country, so far. A part 

 in houses, packed in straw, of about a foot on 

 all sides, with cloth quilts on, summer en- 

 trance open, with wire cloth tacked over 

 them. One lot were shut up just one hund- 

 red days, and came out strong, bright and 

 clean, with few dead bees. AVhile some that 

 were wintered on their summer stands, lost a 

 large share of their bees. Some writers 

 speak about banking their hives in snow. 

 That might de in ISIinnesota, but not in Illi- 

 nois, for we only have a few inches, gener- 

 ally, and that is liable to disappear in a few 

 days. W. M. Kellogg. 



Oneida, Ills. 



For the American Bee Journal.. 



Plants For Bee Forage. 



Mr. Editor : — It would be an interesting 

 item of information which every correspond- 

 ent could communicate through your col- 

 umns, if from all localities, they would give 

 your readers an account, if only in a very few 

 words, of the 2}lants, with dates of begin- 

 ning and ending of flowering season, which 

 serve for bee forage in their neighborhoods. 

 It would be interesting to note the quality of 

 the honey made from difierent flowers. 

 Many plants, whose flowers furnish either 

 pollen or honey, are overlooked because 

 either the flowers are inconspicuous, or do 

 not constitute a very important element in 

 bee-forage. Often are some of the earliest 

 flowers, particularly of trees overlooked, be- 

 cause the spare honey is not obtained from 

 them, although they are among the most 

 essential to success. Furnishing early forage, 

 they give the nourishment which is needed to 

 get all things ready for the real honey-gath- 

 ering we are more immediately interested in. 

 Many a locality produces no spare honey, or 

 very little, just because no good, early forage 

 is at hand. In other places, as soon as bees, 

 can fly abroad in spring, they can obtain all 

 tliey need to stimulate them to build up the 

 colony to a good working condition. I re- 

 peat it, every contributor can give at least 

 one item of interest, if he tells us, in order, 

 what bees gather stores from in his region, 

 from first to last. 



Lockland, Ohio. John Hussey. 



