118 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Voices from among the Hives. 



W. M. Steeia', California, Mo., writes : — 

 " The black bees around here have all died 

 during the past winter, except live colonies. 

 I shall Italianize mine as soon as the weather 

 will permit." 



MiJS. EiiLicN 8. TiippER, Des Moines. Iowa, 

 writes :— '"My bees have wintered well. They 

 liave come out of the cellar in splendid condi- 

 tion. There will be a small fortune in bee- 

 keeping this year." 



W. S. Irish, Norton Centre, Ohio, writes : 

 — "The AMEKif'AN Bee Joltknal is a wel- 

 come visitor, and I wait anxiously for eacli 

 number. Long may it prosper and continue 

 in its good work." 



Abkam Baixjerow, Georgina, Canada, 

 writes ; — "My bees are in splendid condition. 

 I wintered them in the cellar under my 

 dwelling-house. There was one hundred 

 swarms, and 1 lost only two. I placed them 

 on their summer stands March 18th. Last 

 season I had about two tons of box honey." 



H. W. S. writes : — •' I think it would be well 

 to call the attention of bee cultivators who 

 also raise grapes and other fruit to tire charge 

 made by many that bees depredate on fruit, 

 and to reijuest them all to notice particidarly 

 the coming sunnner to ascertain the truth or 

 falsehood of the charge. It would also be 

 well to notice whether bees do any service in 

 fi'uctifying blossoms of fruit or vegetables. 

 If many observers woiUd publish the result of 

 their observations it would be of great benefit. 

 Fruit-raisers who have no bees are threaten- 

 ing to jmison the bees, whicli they can easily 

 do, and it will be very useful to convince 

 them that the bees are their friends and not 

 their enemies." 



Samuel Porter, West Ogden, Mich., 

 writes : — " I have been engaged in practical 

 bee-keeping for the last two years. In the 

 spring of 1872 I transferred six swarms into 



th( 



the movable frame hive. I increased them 

 to nineteen, and lost nine in the winter of 

 1873. I then bought three, which raised my 

 number to thirteen. I increased the thirteen 

 to twenty-seven last summer, and got two 

 liundred pounds of smpLus box honey. I 

 think that is not so very bad for a beginner. 

 Bees wintered well and are in sjilciidKi condi- 

 tion at this time. I am now feeding mine on 

 corn and wheat Hour mixed. They seem very 

 fond of it. Take from two to three pounds 

 per day." 



Ciias. F. Mutii, Cincinnati, O., writes : — 

 " Bees wintered well everywhere apparently. 

 It is, therefore, no wonder that mine have 

 done so well under their straw mats. At an 

 examination on the first of March I t'ourul 

 them all (thirty-foiu- stands) in first rate con- 

 dition. Only one (one of the strongest hives 

 at that) had lost its queen, and had to be miit- 

 ed with another. Twenty-nine stands had 

 two sheets with brood. One hive luwl brood 

 in three sheets ; two in one sheet ; and one 

 hive had fresh laid eggs only. A few days 

 ago I found a ([ueen crawling on the roof. 

 ■^1 he hive she had come out of had two sluH'ts 

 with brooil. It was not very strong, but 

 would pass for spring. The (pieen die(l, and 

 the bees had also to be united with another 

 swarm, 'i'o sum the matter up— I do not be- 

 lieve that another lofdf thirty-four hives of 

 bees in our jtart of the country Wintcri'd better 

 than mine did, whether they were wintered 

 in-doors or not, or wlietlier" they had sugar 

 syrup for winter stores or honev!" 



n. E. CiiKRY, Cincinnati, writes :—" Vege- 

 tation is very forward. A week's fine weather- 

 will bring everything out in leaf. Bees that 

 went into winter quarters in any kind of con- 

 dition have come tnrough with ffi/iiKj colors. 

 I have heard of but few losses, aiid those 

 were no fault of the bees. We ai-e expecting 

 the apples to bloom the middle of Ai)ril, and 

 then our honey season commences. If the 

 weather is favorable, there will bt; considera- 

 ble honey gathered from the fruit blossoms. 

 All ^^'e neeii is the honey, and for that we 

 have only to wait." 



D. M. Hale, Lima Centre, Wis., writes : — 

 " I.coumienced the winter of 1S7'2-:] with 14 

 stocks of black bees and 2 of Italians. Tliey 

 came out all right in the spring. 1 did not 

 lose any through the winter, out as soon as I 

 stood them on their sunnner stands the black 

 bees commenced swarming out and leaving 

 their hives. I exanuned them, but saw no 

 reason why they should, as they had plenty 

 of honey. I changed them to eleven (Kidder) 

 hives. "But it did no good. They would 

 swarm two or three together, till I had only 

 six left, and some of them were very weak. 

 My two Italian swarms went to work well. I 

 increased my six to twenty-two, and Italian- 

 ized them all. I kept them in the cellar un- 

 der my kitchen last winter, and they have 

 come out strong this spring, and do not show 

 any signs of leaving the hive. They have 

 gone to work with a vim, and every pleasant 

 day they make the air ring with the"ir music.'* 



A BuitNT Child from (Jeorgia, writes :— I 

 have been perusing the Amp:ricax Bp;e 

 Journal of the last year, and like it so nuich 

 tluit I want to continue it, and send herein 

 the needful. I did not like the recrimination 

 which was so rife, and am glad to see it 

 lessened. Another objection I have is the 

 space occupied l)y the business routine of the 

 meetings of societies. It is not of interest to 

 nine out of ten to read who is president or 

 secretary of this or that society. Let us have 

 more honey and less condj. But the article 

 by Dzierzoii — page 220 of the .January number 

 —is worth the full vearly subscription. In the 

 March number, "Why don't farmers keep 

 bees ? " I will in part answer. Because they 

 see some trying to do so, first swindled by i» 

 patent hive veildt-r out of foiu' times the worth 

 of tlie article ; then buying a swarm of Italian 

 bees, and fiiuling the (jiieon but two thirds the 

 size of tht^ representations of her on letter 

 backs, and havmg her killed in a day or so by 

 her followers, aiul thus losing enough to buy 

 honey for years." 



James Bolin, West Lodi, ()., writes : — 

 "Where the bees were properly cared for, 

 they have wintered welt, but where their 

 owiu'rs trusted to " luck " in wintering, the 

 loss, in sonu' cases, has been (piite severe, 

 amounting, in one case that came to my 

 knowledge, to four out of five, and in another 

 to the entire stock. I put one hundred colo- 

 nies in my l)ee-house Nov. IHtli, and took 

 them out ftlarch 2nd, andfouiul them all right, 

 but had the uusfortune to lose one colony by 

 starvation, with ])lentv of honey in the hiv*!. 

 during (he scvert' ro\(l wcatlu'r that occured 

 the second week in March. The bees had 

 clustered at the south side of the hive, wliiclj 

 stood facing east, and the honey beinj^ at the 

 north sid(^ the cold wind prevented their 

 reaching it, so they perished. I have nuide 

 the loss all right again, however, bv jintting 

 the bees from a l)ee tree 1 I'ouud in tin' woods 

 in th(^ hive witli tiie cond)s and honey left l)y 

 the swarm that perished. Bees are working 

 on rye Hour, with a rush, wlieuevcrit is warm 

 enough for them to be out of tlu'ir hives." 



