THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



273 



sleet and rain, iu the dead of winter, we 

 should be very apt to make ourselves 

 heard at the seat of power; yet annually, 

 we impose Ihese conditions upon our- 

 selves with our eyes wide open, tlius com- 

 pelling a very large number of bee-men 

 to stay in their comfortable homes, rather 

 than face the perils of winter travel. 



All our agricultural fairs, both State 

 and county are held in the months of Sep- 

 tember and October, when all can enjoy 

 the luxury of the season and feast on the 

 fat of the land; but bcc-nien take back 

 seats until all nature is frozen in. Then 

 one by one they collect in some Northern 

 city: say Pittsburg, Cli;veland or Toledo, 

 shut themselves in from the outside world, 

 dispute with one another for a day or two, 

 see nothing and learn but little. Then go 

 shivering home to await the approach of 

 another winter and another convention. 



Now, Mr. Editor, these are my argu- 

 ments for a change of time, to a much 

 earlier day for our National meetings. 

 To myself personally, it matters but little; 

 but it may be of importance to tlie bee- 

 keepers of America. J. W. Bayard. 



Athens co., O., Nov. 14, 1875. 



For the American Bee Journal. 

 A Wild Swarm taken in and 

 cared for. 



While hunting wild strawberries on the 

 first of July, 1873, I found a swarm of 

 bees in the gra.ss clustered on an oak grub. 

 I put them into a Laiigstrolh hive. They 

 filled their hive, and made me about thir- 

 ty pounds of box-honey. In 1873 they 

 swarmed once, and both swarms made 

 honey enough to winter on, besides 

 about twenty-five pounds each of box- 

 honey. In 1874 both ijwarmed within a 

 few minutes of each other and of course 

 clustered together, and, to clap the climax, 

 both ran away. I had one; more good swarm 

 from them and two small ones, which I 

 united, making me four good swarms to 

 commence this year with. My surplus 

 honey for 1874 was only about fifty 

 pounds. I have wintered in the cellar 

 and for fear of the bees, have, until this 

 season, depended on natural swarming. 

 This spring, while taking them from the 

 cellar to their summer stands, one got 

 tipped over, spilling out the bees, frames, 

 and making a general smash of nearly all 

 their comb-. I had to fix up, put on my 

 bee gloves and pick up the bees and 

 frames with as much honey as I could, 

 and put them back into the hive. An ex- 

 amination after a few weeks showed them 

 to be trying hard to repair the sad mis- 

 hap; but they were very weak in bees. I 

 therefore changed places with this and my 

 strongest hive. This strengtiiened the 

 weak one, but the loss of so many honey 

 gatherers from the strong hive, made 

 them kill off their drones, under the im- 



pression that the honey supply was cut 

 oft". They both were apj)arently about 

 ready to swarm on the first of August, 

 when I took al)out two frames from each 

 and made a now swarm. All three are 

 doing finely and from present appear- 

 ances will give me about fifty pounds ol 

 box-honey. My two strong stocks swaimed 

 early ; I saved both swarms, and in a few 

 days, each swarmed again; both of these 

 I saved. One of them not being v(;ry 

 strong, I gave it a frame with brood Irom 

 an old hive that had killed its drones. 

 The first swarm of my two strong hives 

 have also swarmed. The first came out 

 unexpectedly and settled on a tree, ai 

 was not discovered until just befoi't 

 took its flight for the woods. The otlier 

 swarmed about the middle of August, but 

 went back to the old hive again without 

 settling. It swarmed again about the 30th 

 of August and settled all right, but I 

 thought it was "fooling," so returned it 

 to the old hive again. I examined it how- 

 ever, that day and found, they had 

 swarmed on purpose. I therefore divided 

 giving each about half the comb anil a 

 queen cell. I examined them yesterday, 

 both are working nicely and have plenty 

 of fresh laid eggs. All my hives are 

 working in boxes except the two last di- 

 vided. From one of my strong ones that 

 swarmed twice I have taken two five- 

 pound boxes, and they have three twelve- 

 pound boxes nearly ready to come oft' 

 now. One of this season's stocks that has 

 swarmed, now has four small boxes on it, 

 iu which the bees are working strongly, 

 and I also took froiu it this morning a full 

 box weighing between fifteen and sixteen 

 pounds, including the box. My four 

 swarms of last spring, notwithstanding 

 the smash-up and one swarm lost in the 

 woods, have now increased to ten. I have 

 taken about forty pounds of box honey 

 and about one hundred and twenty pounds 

 more in sight on the hives. Our bees 

 pasture on linn, buckwheat, golden-rod, 

 smart-weed, and a plant looking some- 

 thing like "touch-me-not;" It grows in 

 wet places, and has a yellow blossom. 



Mrs. Morris McHenrv. 

 Crawford co., Iowa, Sept. 8, 1875. 



For the American Bee Journal. 

 Amateur. 



When I tell you that I have since the 

 10th of May, and with only one assistant, 

 transferred 180 hives of bees, for myself 

 and neighbors from old box hives to mov- 

 able frames, and have taken over 20,000 

 lbs of honey, you can well imagine ihat 

 we have not been idle. And the beauty 

 of it is that we have not a single crooked 

 comb in our whole apiary of 150 liives; 

 100 of them having 17 combs per hive and 

 the remainder are two-story hives, with 12 

 combs below and 13 above, making a 



