THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



47 



Inqiiam Co., Mich.— Dec. 21, 1875.— 



Last winter I lost only one stock out of 



<5, and sold 5 more; increased the 39 left 



to 130; raised about 4,000 lbs. of honey." 



John L. Davis. 



Lyon Co., Kansas.- Jan. 4, 1876. — " In 



1874 I lost all my bees. In the spring of 



1875 I bought two swarms and put Into 

 my hives that were full of comb. B}^ the 

 last of May I increased to ten colonies and 

 extracted 225 &s. of honey." 



S. P. Sewers., 



McDoNouGH Co., Ill— Jan. 8, 187G — 

 " I started in the spring with 40 colonies; 

 having lost ten during the winter, caused 

 by the long cold w^eather, as they were out 

 on their summer stands. I made my loss 

 good by artificial swarming; raising my 

 queens from one of Dadaut's imported 

 queens, which b}' the way are dark enough ; 

 but very good naturedand splendid work- 

 ers. JtJees scarcely made their living from 

 spring until buckwheat and heart's-ease 

 came ; then they took the swarming fever 

 and swarmed until the 10th, of Sept. 

 About this time the flow of honey stopped, 

 and late swarms are starving, having but 

 little comb built. I took about 200 fts of 

 box honey and 100 lbs. extracted. My 

 b.ees are Italians, and mostly in good con- 

 dition for wintering." S. H. Black. 



Chenango Co., N. Y.— Dec. 30, 1875.— 

 *' The queen Mrs. Tupper sent me is all 

 right and very prolific. The bees are 

 good workers and well marked. I have 

 now twelve Italian swarms. This has 

 been a good season for bees; mine have 

 increased from four to f(mrteen, and all 

 have plenty of honey; besides giving 

 twenty-three six- lb. boxes of honey. We 

 have here alder, willow, maple and fruit 

 blossoms; then raspberry, white and 

 alsike clover ; after that comes sowed corn 

 and buckwheat, these are plenty; but I 

 do not consider them of much account 

 for honey in this section." 



C. A. Sargent. 



Boone Co.. III.— Dec. 26, 1875.— "Al- 

 though it is late, yet I will send a short 

 report of what the bees have done here 

 this season. I took 13 stands of bees from 

 the cellar; lost four bv springing, in- 

 creased to 22 and took (600) six hundred 

 pounds of buckwheat honey, (Ext.) White 

 clover in abundance, but my bees were too 

 backward for that kind of harvest." 



P. Young. 



Fremont Co., Iowa.— Dec. 13, 1875.— 

 "I cannot agree with Dr. W. B. Rush, in 

 his letter in the December number of the 

 Journal as to success in the apiary, or 

 his advice to "Do your swarming after 

 the honey season is over." I think that 

 locality should govern the case, or rather 

 the time that we have the honey season. 

 Where the season is early, his idea will 

 do; but where the honey season is late, 

 say from the middle of August until 



frost, I do not think that his plan will 

 work well. My experience has been that 

 two seasons out of three in this locality, 

 stocks need feeding most of June. I have 

 had a stock that on the 10th of April had 

 honey in all of the frames, and the out- 

 side frames full and capped over, that in 

 June I had to feed, but in the coming 

 August and September I got 160 fcs of ex- 

 tracted honey from the same stock. The 

 last season I had but little surplus honey 

 until the middle of August, when the 

 honey season commenced in earnest; 

 when frost came my bees were storing 

 a 100 lb per day ; consequently if I did my 

 swarming after the honey season was 

 over, it would be swarming after frost, 

 which I do not consider a good plan. 

 While on the other hand, by dividing 

 as soon as practicable in the spring, say 

 the last three weeks of May and the 

 first week of June, I then can have them 

 built up strong by the honey season, 

 and have twice as many bees as I would 

 have had, if I had left swarming until 

 after the honey season." 



Ed. Wellington. 



Hamilton, Ontario. — Jan. 1st, 1876. — 

 " The thermometer at sunrise to-day stood 

 at 50 == ; at mid-day 90 <=> — a very fine 

 day." Myron Johnson. 



Montcalm Co., Mich.- Jan. 10, 1876.— 

 "If E. D. Godfrey will place a small box 

 just in the rear of each hive that he 

 wishes to remove boxes from, and place 

 the supers from each hive in one of these 

 small boxes, with a cloth of some kind 

 spread over the top- with one corner 

 turned back to give space for the young 

 bees to get out, and then take off the 

 boxes in the forenoon only, he will find 

 them minas bees at sundown, unless now 

 and then a queen happens to be in the 

 boxes; in which case you can smoke 

 them a little and drum them out and 

 allow her to go back into her hive with 

 the few bees that will be with her. Bees, 

 if they are young, stick to their treasures, 

 if placed among strangers, and worse, if 

 there happens to be a queen present." 

 Hiram Koop. 



Hancock Co., W. Va.— Dec. 25, 1875.— 

 "I commenced with 34 stands of bees last 

 spring; increased to 50, and got but little 

 surplus honey, on account of the heavy 

 frost in April. All the fruit bloom was 

 killed and also the black locust and the 

 white clover by the dry fall and hard 

 winter. There was but little honey in 

 any that did bloom. This season the 

 tulip, linn and sumac were our three best 

 honey-plants. In ordinary seasons white 

 clover, fruit bloom, tulip, black locust, 

 linn and alsike clover are the best. 

 Then we have raspberry, blackberry, 

 smart-weed, and the three kinds of asters; 

 golden-rod, and many others. Our main 

 dependence is on locust, white clover and 

 linn or bass-wood." Alfred Chapman. 



