THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



77 



tatioD to stay and see them. As they d 5; 

 not come early in the morning, C. P. Da- 

 dant concluded that he must go to an 

 apiary some fifteen miles down the Mis- 

 sissippi (for they only live about a mile 

 from the river) and put on honey boxes, 

 as they were just getting their first j'ield 

 of honey for the season. But when we 

 arrived at Hamilton, he found that the 

 queens had arrived and been sent out to 

 him; as he had the whole care of the 

 apiary, he concluded to go back and in- 

 troduce the queens; when we got back 

 they were not yet unpacked. There were 

 twenty-two in the invoice ; in some of the 

 boxes every worker bee was dead, the 

 queens alone being alive. While Mr. Ch. 

 Dadant unpacked and caged them C. P. 

 and I introduced them ; they do not lose 

 more than one or two out of a hundred in 

 introducing. They simply confine the 

 queen about forty-eight hours, then hav- 

 ing liberated her do not disturb the hive 

 again for a week. This Was the eighth 

 invoice of 22 queens each, they had 

 received this year, but since they have 

 received three more invoices which are all 

 they get this year; the whole number of 

 queens they have received is 236, out of 

 this number about 80 were lost in import- 

 ing, six or eight in introducing. 



Receiving queens thus every two weeks 

 they are enabled to supply the place of 

 queens shipped to their customers and to 

 cull out as worthless, every queen which 

 does not produce bees of the highest grade 

 of purity. In the afternoon we took sev- 

 eral of the best of the queens taken out, 

 t6 make room for the imported ones, to an 

 apiary right on the bank of the river some 

 five miles above their home apiary. This 

 road leads by some of the most delightful 

 scenery I ever saw. It runs along on the 

 bank of the river just above high water 

 mark; at last the road twists and winds 

 around through a ravine till you find 

 yourself on top the high bluff before a 

 pretty little French cottage, beside of it 

 are over fifty hives on a steep south hill- 

 side; here C. P. overhauled all these hives, 

 putting on quite a number of boxes and 

 introducing ten or fifteen queens in about 

 two hours. After partaking of a splendid 

 supper we returned to Chenny creek by 

 moonlight, enjoying a good ride. This 

 was one of the most pleasant days that 

 ever fell to my lot to enjoy. 



The next morning I concluded to see 

 the lower apiary, having again hitched to 

 his wagon-load of honey boxes, his lively 

 horses soon brought us to an old farm 

 house with a steep hillside dotted with 

 Quinby hives; here we found quite a 

 number of boxes filled with honey. C. P. 

 thinks this is the finest location for an 

 apiary he ever saw. Right in front of it 

 are thousands of acres of low bottom 

 lands covered with wild flowers of all 

 kinds. His boxes being put on, and quite 



a number of new colonies having been 

 made, we returned to their home apiary. 

 As I bade adieu to Chenny creek I felt 

 well repaid for my visit, only wishing that 

 such apiaries were more numerous. 



A. N. Draper. 

 Upper Alton, 111., Jan. 12, 1876. 



Voices from amon? the Hives. 



Sidney, Iowa.— Jan. 12, 1876.—" Dur- 

 ing the past winter there has not been over 

 10 days at a time that bees could not fly. 

 For the past three weeks they have been 

 out nearly half the time. A neighbor of 

 mine lost one or two swarms the first cold 

 snap, by starvation, with the lower part of 

 the hive full of honey. He had extracted 

 from the upper story and the bees clus- 

 tered among the empty combs. When the 

 cold came on, not being able to reach the 

 honey, they starved. In the October num- 

 ber, H. Nesbit reports an increase of 545 

 colonies from 32. That beats the world. 

 I would like to have a description of his 

 management." L. G. Purvis. 



Wenham, Mass.— Feb. 15, 1876.— "Bees 

 are wintering well. We have had a very 

 mild winter, and bees have had a chance 

 to fly as often as twice a month." 



H. Alley. 



Schoharie Co., N. Y.— Feb. 11, 1876.— 

 "i like the Journal much, and hardly 

 see how I could get any success without 

 it. I have 70 swarms and they are all 

 wintering well." Geo. Van Voris. 



Cedar Co., Mo.— Jan. 29, 1876.—" I am 

 well pleased with The American Bee 

 Journal. I can't well do without it. 

 My bees are still in winter quarters, and 

 are in good condition. I have purchased 

 several box stands this winter and expect 

 to make 50 new Langstroth hives this 

 season — have 20 of them done now. I ex- 

 pect to increase to 75 or 80 colonies, if the 

 coming season should be a good one." 

 J. F. Lynn. 



Columbia, Tenn.— Feb. 14, 1876.— " I 

 examined several hives yesterday, and 

 found quite a number of young bees and 

 drones in a hatching state. Will have 

 drones flying in a few days." 



Wm. J. Andrews. 



Tama City, Iowa.— Feb. 9, 1876.— "I 

 put 104 swarms in basement cellar last 

 tail. They are doing well — all but one 

 very weak swarm. About one-half of ray 

 bees are Italians." W. E. Newcomb. 



Northumberland, Co., Pa. — Jan. 18, 

 1876. — " I went into winter quarters with 

 15 stands. Last year I saved only 10 out of 

 24 I don't know what causes the bees to 

 leave the hive in May, with plenty of 

 brood and honey, and a clean hive. Three 

 of mine did so on May 8th." 



W. H. Garihan. 



