THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



79 



Nazareth, Pa.— Jan. 24, 1876. — "! 

 have kept bees for 52 years, and still take 

 much interest in them. It does not pay 

 in our section, as the farmers have discon- 

 tinued raising buckwheat. This winter is 

 a favorable one for out-door wintering, 

 being mild, with no snow, so far." 



Wm. Christ. 



Camahqo, III.— Feb. 19, 1876.— " My 

 bees are wintering finely ; but my success, 

 for years past, in this respect, has been so 

 uniform, I always expect success after 

 placing them in winter quarters." 



A. Salisbury. 



Kalamazoo, Mich. — Feb. Ist, 1876.— 

 In the February number of the Jour- 

 nal, in the discussions of the Maury Co. 

 Bee-Keepers' Society, upon feeding, difter- 

 ent articles were spoken of, as rye, flour, 

 corn-meal, etc. Some years ago, I had 

 two colonies that became destitute of 

 honey early in March, and with a view to 

 prevent starvation, I commenced feeding 

 syrup made from coifee sugar, poured up- 

 on a warm buckwheat cake, feeding upon 

 alternate days. They would eat the cake 

 more or less, sometimes entirely. They 

 bred up very rapidly, and were the strong- 

 est colonies I had in my apiary that sea- 

 son. I now believe that the cakes fur- 

 nished proper food for breeding pur-, 

 poses, in the place of pollen, and shall ex- 

 periment with it the coming spring. I 

 would be glad to have bee-keepers try it, 

 and report through the Journal. 



W. B. Southard, M. D. 



Waverly, Iowa.— Jan. 28th, 1876.— 

 My bees have done well the past season. 

 Out of four stocks I obtained twenty-one 

 natural swarms, all in good condition, and 

 sold $25.00 worth of honey. 



Tnos. Lashbrook. 



Fremont Co., Iowa.— Feb. 7, 1876.— 

 The past season opened very unfavorably. 

 Last spring I took out only twenty-nine 

 colonies out of forty-five that I put in the 

 cellar in the fall. Nine of these were 

 weak; twenty good. As soon as the 

 weather would permit, I commenced feed- 

 ing them syjup made of C sugar, and by 

 the last of June I had fed $19 worth of su- 

 gar. Linn bloomed the first of July. My 

 bees were very strong, and occasionally a 

 swarm would come off in spite of my vig- 

 ilance to prevent it. About a week before 

 the linn bloomed, I thought we should 

 have a grand honey-harvest, but it rained 

 so much that the bees got but little honey. 

 One day only was fair during linn bloom, 

 and I weighed some of my colonies in the 

 morning, and again in the evening, and 

 found they had gained twelve pounds. If 

 the weather had been good, I can't tell 

 what would have been the result, for linn 

 bloomed profusely here. 



The fall was good for honey, and I find, 

 from my books, that I increased from 



twenty-nine to forty-six, and have taken 

 3650 lbs. of honey; all of which I have 

 sold at an average of 19 cts. per pound. I 

 think bee men make a very great mistake 

 in placing their honey on the market in 

 large cities. I sometimes leave some in 

 the stores where I trade, but I sell nearly 

 all among the farmers. I can sell more in 

 one week, out in the country, than I ever 

 sold through the merchants in town all put 

 together. I sell at 18 cts. by 50 or 100 wt., 

 and 20 cts. in small lots. My bees are in 

 excellent condition ; they have honey 

 enough to keep them until July. 



Wm. Morris. 



Flat Rock, N. C— Feb. 25, 1876. My 

 bees commenced to bring in pollen from 

 off the alders on the 18th of January, and 

 on the 22d they commenced to bring in 

 honey and pollen from the soft maple, and 

 honey from the bee-meadow. I never 

 knew it to bloom before April, till this 

 year. The bees are doing well on the ma- 

 ples any days that are warm enough for 

 them to be out. My bees have done well, 

 so far : lost only two, out of forty stocks. 

 Robert T. Jones. 



OwENBORO, Ky.— Feb. 1, 1876.— "Bee 

 pasturage is probably as good in Ky. as 

 any other State, except California. We 

 have abundance of tulip and white clover 

 in spring, and smart weed in fall ; these 

 are our main dependence. We have 

 others as helps — as many, probably, as in 

 any other State. We have 6 or 8 large 

 apiaries in this country that have from 30 

 to 100 stands, owned by men who keep 

 bees on scientific principles and are doing 

 a fair business, besides many bee-hive 

 men, who are doing very well. We' got 

 no surplus last year, a frost (April 1st) 

 killed all kinds of bloom, and then it 

 rained from May 1st till August 20th. 

 Our bees, at the time they should have 

 been working in boxes, were starving to 

 death, but by uniting and feeding, we 

 managed to save about two-thirds of them 

 in good condition, having a good honey 

 harvest in the fall. They are now in fine 

 condition and have been rapidly carrying 

 in pollen for 20 days from hazelnut and 

 alder. Such a thing was never seen 

 before in this country. I examined my 

 strongest stands to-day, and found brood 

 in all stages and eggs in drone comb. I 

 shall try to get the drones out as a 

 curiosity. The hives mostly used in this 

 country are the Langstroth and Buck- 

 eye. We have some Extractors, but do 

 not take honey for profit, as the honey 

 does not sell, and besides that, we do not 

 like to sling our bees. I take honey in 

 small frames, and sell it at 25 cents per fc 

 in the home market. I like the way 

 James Heddon talks; his theory corres- 

 ponds with my experience, and I think he 

 must be a man with a ' head on.' " 



T. E. Griffin. 



