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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



country — at any season of the year ; but 

 wliether they would gather honey and bee 

 bread to winter on after arrival would de- 

 pend on where you went — if they did not 

 do it you could feed them with sugar syrup. 

 Will some southern bee-keebers give ad- 

 vice as to locality. 



Dear Editor : — According to promise I 

 will let you know more of my experience 

 about bees. When I first commenced with 

 bees, being a professed bee-hunter, I went to 

 the woods and found my bees, many of 

 which went in at the root of within a few 

 feet of the ground. I cut them off a suita- 

 able length and transferred them home and 

 from them I obtained a good swarm. Lum- 

 ber at that time being scarce I went to the 

 linn timber and found some with small hol- 

 lows and cut them suitable lengths and with 

 thin long wedges hollowed them as thin as 

 I wanted which should be 1^ or 3 inches 

 thick put on a tight head and good cap, 

 with a few holes to communicate with the 

 hive, and four pieces of timber nailed be- 

 low, outside, for legs, to stand one or two 

 inches from the ground, and when I had a 

 swarm I set on the ground where it suited 

 best, and my bees did well. As long as I 

 used good round hives there was no trouble 

 about wintering, and to this day I believe 

 bees will do and winter better in a good 

 round hive than a plank one. At the be- 

 ginning of cold weather take long hay or 

 rye straw and twist a rope and wrap your 

 hives from bottom to top and let them stand 

 where they summered, and I will guarantee 

 the bees to winter without much loss. My 

 bees have never wintered so well as in the 

 open air in plank hives and it is essential 

 for them to be sheltered from cold storms 

 in plank hives. 



It makes no difterence how well a plank 

 hive is made, wet and dry, cold and hot, will 

 shrink and swell more or less, and let the 

 cold penetrate to the bees ; and if I could 

 easily obtain round hives, I would never put 

 bee in any other ; for I can put frames, in 

 round hives, with but little more trouble 

 than square ones. For commercial bee- 

 raisers, who want to sell bees in place of 

 honey, artificial swarming may do, provided 

 they can find buyers, but for those who 

 want surplus honey, I would advise to let 

 bees swarm themselves. They understand 

 their necessities best; if there is a flush 

 honey season and fair weather, bees will 

 always swarm in good season ; if otherwise, 

 I would rather they would not swarm. 

 One swarm in one season, is all I want my 

 bees to do. If more than one swarm oc- 

 curs, the old hive and second swarm, are 

 botli^ liable to become a prey to the moth. 

 The only security against the moth, is the 

 strensrth of the bees themselves. I have 



lost no strong colonies by moths, but seve- 

 ral weak ones. All careful bee keepers 

 should aim to keep strong swarms; if any 

 are weak double them. One strong swarm, 

 will make as much honey as two or three 

 weak ones. A plain movable comb hive 

 is a good tiling, but an expensive, compli- 

 cated hive, is what honey raisers don't want. 

 Artificial swarms have never satisfied me, 

 as well as natural swarms ; therefore I bid 

 them good bye. G. Tkdllikger. 



We give Mr. Trullinger's opinion of "art- 

 ificial swarms," as he calls them — being al- 

 ways glad to give both sides of any point, 

 but we think, if he will divide his bees judi- 

 ciously, and give it a fair trial, he will come 

 nearer agreeing with us, than he now seems 

 to do on this point. 



I have one stand of bees numerous and 

 in a thriving condition. Have raised a 

 good many young, but do not show dispo- 

 sition to raise young queens or make much 

 new comb. The hive (American) being 

 nearly full of comb which they are filling 

 with honey. Please advise the best course 

 to pursue and oblige 

 Butler Co., Kansas. C. M. Humphrey. 



Bees will not build new comb while they 

 have old comb to fill — they only build it 

 when they need it. — We would, in such a 

 case, divide the colony if early enough in 

 the season to make it sure that both colon- 

 ies would fill up for winter; — if too late 

 for that, let them alone. — We notice also 

 that bees seldom swarm or make prepara- 

 tion to do it w7dle they fiave empty comb ; 

 though they often swarm when the hive is 

 half full of comb, leaving plenty of room 

 to build more. 



We have a plant growing here called 

 bur-weed, some call it stick-tight, which is 

 some of the greatest honey to fallen plants 

 in existence. It blooms from May lOth 

 until the end of June. It makes honey of 

 a beautiful flavor, but dark, about like 

 buckwheat. Now if this should find room 

 in your schedule of bee seeds; and if you 

 would like to invest, I can furnish it to you 

 by the bushel. C. G. Silver, 



Mason Co., Mich. 



We know that the honey from this plant 

 is abundant, and of very choice flavor. By 

 some it is esteemed one of the best, but we 

 cannot advise any one to sow a weed like 

 this, while there are other things, — like 

 Alsike, white clover, rape, &c., thai have a 

 two-fold value. 



