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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAI-. 



am confident starved, not giving them syrup 

 sufficient. My stocks came through in a 

 very weak condition,, the spring being very 

 cold and backward they did not get to 

 breeding until late, but after the weather 

 did begin to get warm, their increase was 

 more rapid than I ever experienced before. 

 Seven of the ten is all I have extracted any 

 honey from during the season, that being 

 so nearly gone, it was all they could do to 

 keep or get up the strength of the colony 

 to make one divide from. I use the double 

 Langstroth hive, and from the upper stories 

 of the seven stocks I have extracted four 

 hundred and fifty lbs. of honey this season, 

 the lower stories contain sutficient honey 

 to winter them through. I have divided to 

 eighteen this season. I will try wintering 

 ou their own honey and' if I do not have 

 success hereafter I will try Judge Hester's 

 plan, extract all and feed syrup. I must 

 state how I saved one of my pet stocks af- 

 ter I placed them on summer stand. I 

 went out one warm morning about the 20th 

 of April, I noticed the bees just able to 

 crawl from the front entrance of the hive. 

 I immediately opened the house and found 

 the bees on the cards just able to move and 

 the queen on the bottom of the hive as I 

 thought dead. I immediately got some 

 syrup and on examining closely, found my 

 queen with some life yet. I placed some 

 syrup to her and she eat it. I sprinkled 

 syrup over the mass of bees on the cards 

 lightly. I then filled all the empty cards 

 •with the same, and in one hour I examined 

 again, found them quite lively, during the 

 day they removed the syrup from the outer 

 cards to the center and this summer that 

 stock has made one divide and furnished 

 me over 50 lbs. of honey ; in one half -hour 

 longer the stock would have been gone. 

 The reason of their consuming the syrup so 

 fast was they were breeding rapidly. 



Jas. R. Wilcox. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bee Notes. 



There seems to be a perfect dearth of 

 honey ; no flowers, no honey-dew ; .nothing 

 but pollen from corn tassels, and, what- 

 ever it is, that bees get from fruit. Hives 

 that contained honey a month ago, now 

 have almost none. But for the cotton blos- 

 som now unfolding,* bees would have to be 

 fed, something the fogies never think of. 

 Bees are doing nothing in boxes, and on 

 inquiry find it to be a general thing ; a state 

 of idle inactivity seems to reign through- 

 out the neighboring apiaries. A good patch 

 of Buckwheat and Alsike clover have been 

 very much needed this year, and it be- 

 hooves apiarians to see to it that the same 

 state of afl'airs is not repeated next year. 

 The golden bauds might succeed in finding 



honey, but our black bees have well nigh 

 given up the game. For one, I am anxious 

 to see an accurate drawing and description 

 of your hive, and am mm anxious to know 

 whetlier or not a different style and size of 

 hive (than the one you use) is best for our 

 long and hot summers and short winters. 

 Dr. I. P. H. B., of Augusta, Ga., could give 

 valuable information on this subject. Can't 

 he be induced to give an article for this 

 paper on "The proper size of Hives for the 

 South." J hope so. 



S. C. Edgefip:ld. 



J. P. Moore, Binghampton, N. Y., says : 

 I commenced tlie season of 1873 with sev- 

 enteen stocks of bees, having lost four in 

 the spring, and sold one. Ten were in fair 

 condition by May 20 ; the other seven were 

 much reduced, but by taking brood from 

 strong ones, I was able to build up five of 

 the weak ones by the time honey com- 

 menced to yield. The other two I run for 

 increase or surplus queens, and was able 

 by breeding and using my four hives of 

 empty combs, to increase the two to eight 

 full stocks and five half stocks or nuclei. 

 Two of the nuclei died in the winter, and 

 the other three are very weak, (I prefer full 

 stocks for winter), and raised ten surplus 

 queens. The fifteen that the boxes were 

 put ou were run entirely for box honey, 

 without increase, as we have things so ar- 

 ranged now that when we have got a hive 

 filled with brood in time to put on boxes, 

 we can have them put all their surplus in 

 boxes, if the queen is prolific, without the 

 trouble of handling the brood. 



Hints from Bee-Keepers. 



If several days of rainy weather should 

 succeed a warm coming oft", they may die 

 of famine, if timely relief of honey is not 

 given them. — Wildman. 



Queens are not equally fruitful. While 

 some breed slowly or not at all, others will 

 speedily increase in prodigious numbei's. — 

 Keys. 



No true lover of bees, I am persuaded, 

 ever lighted the fatal match that was to 

 destroy his little innocents with livid flames 

 and a smoke that strikes them dead with 

 its intolerable stench, without much con- 

 cern and uneasiness. — White. .i 



It is commonly the practice to rub the 

 sides of the hive with aromatic herbs, or a 

 solution of salt, or other substance. But 

 the most experienced bee-master deems this 

 altogether unnecessary, as it can be attend- 

 ed with no advantage whatever.— //acAer. 



Always have the cheerful rays ,of the 

 morning sun fall upon your hives ; but 

 contrive to throw a shade'^'irpou their front 

 for a few hours in the middle of tlie day, 





