126 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Italian Queens— Cost of Raising. 



In the Feb. issue, M. Davis writes on this 

 subject, and puts the cost at a reasonable 

 sum — taking his climate into consideration.. 



Being the first person to reduce the price 

 of Italian Queens from $20.00 to $2.50 

 each, let me say that I have never made 

 any money at that price. In this part of 

 the country, we are not sure of getting a 

 fair honey crop ofteuer than three out of 

 five years, and have often sent out as mauy 

 as 900 queens in a season. 



A Ohio man, who advertises to sell Queens 

 at $1.00, is honest enough to say that he 

 does not warrant them pure, as he has so 

 many black bees in his locality — neither 

 will he warrant safe arrival. I will not at- 

 . tempt to raise queens at less than $3.50 

 each ; if my bees would store one-half a? 

 much honey, as this $1.00 queeu-bee-man 

 claims that his bees will store for him. 



Adam Grimm says that good queens can- 

 not be raised for $2.00, even in the best of 

 localities. 



Some think Mr. Quinby correct about 

 the bee disease, and some do not. My op- 

 inion is that the cause is poor quality of 

 food gathered by the bees in the fall pre- 

 vious. 



Last season the quality' was never better 

 here, and my bees seem to be doing well on 

 summer stands, and we have had only 

 three weeks of very cold weather. Next 

 season I intend to build a bee-depository on 

 the plan of Mr. T. C. Ware, of Towauda, 

 Ills. Will Mr. W. give his plan to the 

 readers of the American Bee Journal ? 

 We consider it the best one yet, as it re- 

 quires but little labor and expense. 



H. Alley. 



Wenham, Mass. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Doolittle's Article. 



Our last article carried us to Dec. 6. 

 About that time the snow all disappeared 

 from our hives. The mercury stood at 57 

 in the shade, but it was windy. Our bees 

 had not had a chance to fly since Oct. 23, 

 and they did fly some, in spite of the wind, 

 although nearly all that went out never re- 

 turned. Dec. 16, bees had a nice fly with 

 the mercury at 45 in the shade. We had very 

 mild weather from Dec. 6 to Jan. 4. Jan. 

 4, the mercury stood at 63 in the shade, 

 and our bees flew to their hearts content. 

 Jan. 22 it was very mild, until Jan. 30, 

 when it became cold, and on the night of 

 Feb. 1, the mercury stood at 18 below 

 zero, which is as cold as we very often get 

 here, and 3 degrees colder than any time 

 during the winter of 1872-3. March 2nd 

 and 3rd were splendid days for bees, and 



we had a chance to examine nearly all of 

 them ; we found our 54 colonies and 4 

 nuclei, all in good condition, with the ex- 

 ception of one colony and one necleus, which 

 had decreased in numbers so they occupy 

 but three rows of comb. We found brood 

 in all we examined from four square inches 

 of comb, with eggs and forage in the cells, 

 up to 200 square inches, with brood in all 

 stages, and plenty of young workers. 



The winter on the whole has been a very 

 mild one, with but little snow. We have 

 never known the mercury to sink to zero, 

 unless we had snow enough to bank at 

 least to the height of the broad chamber of 

 the hive. As mild as the winter has been, 

 we have kept them banked out of sight 

 nearlj' half of the time. We put straw in 

 the caps to our hives march 20, to set them 

 to breeding rapidly. It makes them so 

 much warmer. 



We tried two, during the winter, with 

 caps packed with straw, but when we came 

 to bank them with snow, they became so 

 warm and uneasy, we had to take it out 

 again. We keep entrances closed as tight 

 as we can make them, except when the 

 bees can fly, and take no trouble to have 

 any crooks or holes in the cap; neither do 

 we fear their smothering. 



G. H. DOOLITTLE. 



Bowdens, N. Y. 



Bee Notes and Queries. 



" What is the Best Hive?" — asks a cor- 

 respondent. Probably there are not a half- 

 dozen bee-keepers in the country who 

 would unite in recommending the same 

 hive as "the best." 



Asters as Bee Plants. — A correspondent 

 writes: — "lam satisfied the common As- 

 ter is an excellent honc'y-produciug plant. 

 A friend of mine, an experienced bee-keep- 

 er, recommended it to me, and my experi- 

 ence with it two seasons confirms the recom- 

 mendation." 



To keep Moth out of a Hive. — An Illinois 

 lady says, "A teacupful of Italian bees will 

 keep all the moth out of a hive. You need 

 not buy a hive which runs to a point at the 

 bottom so that the moths will roll out; an 

 Italian swarm of bees are a perfect protec- 

 tion against moth." 



Remedy for Bee-Stinys. — A bee-keeper 

 says: — " I have made one discovery — that a 

 preparation or Ledum palustre (Labrador 

 Tea) honui'opathically prepared, is a sover- 

 eign remedy for bee-stings." But he does 

 not tell us hoic to prepare it. 



Samuel Porter, West Ogden, Michigan 

 writes : — " The May number suites that 1 tool< 

 ;2(i() i)()uml.s of surjllu-s honey from my hives 

 It sliould have been 1"2U0 pounds." 



