46 



THE AMERICAN APICULTUBIST. 



with blossoms but the colonies so weak in 

 numbers that it was nearly all lost to 

 them ; whereas liad the hives been full of 

 bees as they were two weeks later, a fair 

 crop of honey would have been secured. 

 What old beekeeperhas not experienced 

 many cold and backward springs ? The 

 bees are kept back in breeding, in foct 

 they lose every day in early spring by 

 natural death of the bees. Suddeidy the 

 weather changes, the trees blossom and 

 before they have gathered from the 

 early blossoms and flowers, the first har- 

 vest is over, and before another flow the 

 colonies have to be fed to prevent star- 

 vation. All this happens simply because 

 the colonies were weak on account of the 

 cold weather in the early spring. 



I can see no reason why good colo- 

 nies cannot be advanced quite one 

 month by the method here suggested. 

 At any rate, I expect to be able to tell 

 all about it by May first. 



Sometime ago I saw in one of the bee 

 publications that the objection one per- 

 son had to house- apiaries was owing to 

 the fact that the colonies placed on the 

 north side of the house dwindled in the 

 spring and were thereby rendered worth- 

 less on that account. House-apiaries 

 are no new thing, I can assure the read- 

 ers of the Api. More than forty years 

 ago such houses were used in the town 

 of Peabody, Mass., by a Mr. Perley King. 



Mr. P. had several such houses in use. 



The bees were placed on the south 

 and north sides. Of course the subject 

 of placing all the hives to the south was 

 talked over. Mr. King stated that the 

 bees on the north side of the house cast 

 the first swarms. I know the statements 

 of MrTv. to be correct. I can say, too, 

 that since my bees were placed in the 

 house, those on the east side have flown 

 as early and as freely as those on the 

 west side, and. also are wintering equally 

 as well. In the May issue I will tell my 

 readers how our house-apiary comes out 



I THINK IT A 1 . 



H. AiXKY, Esq. : I use your drone- 

 ancl-quecn trap and think it A 1. 



BrockviUe,Ont., Can. W.M.Osborne. 



EXTRACTS FROM PIJIVaTE LICTTERS. 



Brother De Witt, Sunny Side, Md.> 

 says in a letter just to hand : "I think the 

 parties that have been slandering you 

 and your bees had better keep quiet. I 

 purchased queens of some of them last 

 summer and they are worthless." 



They are quiet, friend D., and all of 

 them wish they had kept so. 



Mr. J. E. Giles, New York city, says 

 this of the Bay State bee-hive : "Most of 

 my bees are now in Bay State hives and 

 I expect to use that style of hive alto- 

 gether, after this. I do not think that 

 anyone who has on^e used the closed- 

 end frames, such as_ are used in the Bay 

 State Iiive, will ever go back to the hang- 

 ing frames." 



"Api just received," says Mrs. A. L. 

 Hallenbeck. "How could it help being 

 good with such a list of contributors as 

 those of the February number?" 



I have been trying to think of some- 

 thing that would express my ap|)reciation 

 of it, but it is like a little boy with a 

 mouthful of candy trying to talk, I can't. 



D. R. Phillips, of Fulton, Mo., says he 



has received a sample copy of the Api i 



and that it is a sensible, practical Jour- < 

 nal. Bees, he says, "went into winter 



quarters in very good condition. A few j 



professional bee-killers will lose their I 



bees on account of extracting too much j 



of their stores." \ 



BEES DID NOT DO WKLL. (?) 



Bees have not done well in this locality. 

 I had a little over five thousand pounds 

 from 250 colonies. 



Oronoco, Minn. G. W. AVirt. 



SATISKIED WITH THK DRONE TR\P. 



Mr. Alley: Enclosed find 75 cts. for 

 the API. 



We would not keep bees without your 

 queen traps and so we tell our neighbors 

 all the time. Tliinlv they will send to you 

 for some in the spring. 



3It. Carroll, III. Annie Hurley. 



