1881. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



69 



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Foul Brood, etc.— When the first No. 

 of the Weekly was received I was pret- 

 ty nearly disgusted with it, for I had 

 token it so long in the old form that I 

 did not like its shape "one bit," but 

 have become accustomed to it now, and 

 look rather anxiously for its weekly ap- 

 pearance. I at first wondered what a 

 weekly Bee Journal would do for bee 

 literature of a high character, but I 

 wonder no longer, and I believe it is 

 constantly improving. I am sure I am 

 not the only one that is glad that the 

 "unpleasantness" with the N. E. Con- 

 vention has been arranged to the satis- 

 faction of all concerned, and hope that 

 you will, in the future, so "mutilate" all 

 personal articles that their sharp edges 

 won't hurt any one. Am glad to see, 

 that the bee-keepers are waking up to 

 the importance of that terrible disease, 

 foul brood. Judging from what I know, 

 this region is badly affected by it, and 

 hope by another winter that the bee- 

 keepers in this state will be prepared to 

 see that a bill is passed by our legisla- 

 ture for its suppression. I expect to 

 have the pleasure of showing friend 

 Muth around to see the foul Drood in 

 this region as soon as the weather is 

 warm enough, and then perhaps you 

 will hear more about it from him. My 

 own bees are, as yet, free from it, and 

 wintering with very little loss. Success 

 to the Bee Journal. 



A. B. Mason. 



Toledo, O., Feb. 21,1881. 



An Excellent Crop. — I started with 50 

 colonies of black bees last spring ; in- 

 creased them to 110, and obtained 125 

 lbs. of wax and 11,400 lbs. of honey; 

 10,000 of it being extracted; the balance 

 of it is comb honey cut from Lang- 

 stroth frames, and put into cans. The 

 honey in this county is nearly all sold, 

 average price 10 1-3 cents per lb. 



P. Loucks. 



Fresno, Cal., Feb. 14, 1881. 



[Mr. Loucks certainly has made an 

 excellent report. Over200 lbs. of honey 

 to each colony in the spring, and more 

 than doubled in numbers is good enough 

 to satisfy almost any one. We would 

 like to hear further particulars of Mr. 

 L.'s management. — Ed.] 



Bees Wintering Well.— Bees are win- 

 tering very well in this section, even 

 better than usual, although we have had 

 the coldest winter and more of it, than 

 ever experienced in this latitude before. 

 Success to the Weekly American Bee 

 Journal. Long may it and its ed- 

 itor live, to give us weekly gleanings 

 from the various parts of the globe. 

 J. S. Tadlock. 



Kingsbury, Texas, Feb. 3, 1881. 



Hope Departing. — 'Tis said that mis- 

 ery loves company ; we are not philos- 

 opher enough to let ourselves down from 

 high hope to low despair without a great 

 deal of jolting. Our bees have tieen 

 confined 102 days. During the fore part 

 of last week, hope ran high. True, it 

 snowed, rained, sleeted and about every 

 thing it could, still the snow was grad- 

 ually going, and we were becoming 

 cheerful. Friday the wind set in brisk- 

 ly from the east, and by evening a gen- 

 uine blizzard was upon us from the n. e. 

 and shifting to the n. w. we got the 

 grandest snow storm for 23 hours we 

 have had for years. The cars are com- 

 pletely blockaded, no trains since the 

 11th inst. Bees are from 2 to 6 feet un- 

 der the snow, and hourly growing more 

 uneasy. We have made it a point to 

 keep them shoveled out ; but I shall 

 now have to abandon that ; for there is 

 no longer anywhere to put the snow. 

 My bees are all strong, but a majority 

 of them have soiled the entrance more 

 or less, and will perish in consequence 

 of the entrance becoming clogged and 

 the combs breaking down, thereby 

 drowning the bees. The best success I 

 ever had in wintering was last year, and 

 in spite of the poor summer they aver- 

 aged 56 lbs. each, and 46 per cent, in- 



crease. If Vennor takes away our snow 

 this mouth, according to contract, I will 

 give him leave to draw upon me for 1 

 bbl. white clover honey next fall. 



J. N. McColm. 

 Plymouth, Wis., Feb. 14, 1881. 



Ventilation.— I am wintering 00 colo- 

 nies in the cellar and 7 out of doors ; all 

 are living, but some in the cellar are 

 getting uneasy. I gave then a small 

 hard snow ball on the top to leak in for 

 water. Mr. Thomas gave the idea in 

 the Journal that it was a good plan in 

 long confinement, but I can tell better 

 after a trial. Mrs. Dawson has lost all 

 her bees ; they had no ventilation at 

 the top ; the frost accumulated so that 

 water ran on the combs, and the bees 

 drank the water instead of the honey, 

 and when broken open they found ice in 

 the honey-sacs instead of honey, and 

 says that was the cause of death, and 

 you know what a woman can't find out 

 it is no use for man to look after. 



L. POINDEXTER. 



Kenny, Ills., Feb 21, 1881. 



Bees and Bloom.— Mr. Editor : You 

 misunderstood the first sentence in my 

 letter, published on page 52. I had ret- 

 ference to articles written for, and pub- 

 lished in the Journal. I have always 

 found the American Bee Journal 

 ready to encourage everything that 

 tends to the advancement of apiculture 

 in America, and I think, Mr. Editor, you 

 deserve the thanks of all apiarists for 

 your untiring efforts in their behalf. I 

 was much interested in your remarks 

 about growing the flowers to the require- 

 ments of the bees. I will give my views 

 in regard to this matter in a future num- 

 ber of the Journal, if desired. 



Coleraine, Mass. E. A. Thomas. 



[We shall be pleased to have you do 

 so at an early day, to enable spring ex- 

 periments. — Ed.] 



3 bees could get out at a time. 



fixing, they die very fast. 



Bees Doing Well.— The past season 

 was very poor for honey here, still we 

 had about as many colonies as usual. 

 Bees that have been properly packed on 

 summer stands are doing well, but those 

 that have been left to take care of them- 

 selves have nearly all gone the way of 

 all the earth. I am more than pleased 

 with the present appearance of your 

 Journal. A. H. Claus. 



Rushford, 111., Feb. 22, 1881. 



Albinos and Losses. — There will be a 

 great loss of bees this winter^ through 

 this section of country. I have lost 5 

 colonies ; among them was one Albino 

 queen that I thought to breed a little 

 extra from the coming season. From a 

 colony of Italian bees which my brother 

 bought 16 or 17 years ago, we reared 

 queens, some of which produced part 

 Albino workers. It is possible from 

 some of these escaping to the moun- 

 tains, originated the first Albino bees 

 brought to the notice of the public. One 

 thing I am certain of : from a queen 

 reared and sold by me to Mr. Valen- 

 tine, originated the finest Albino bees 

 in this state. This queen was bred from 

 a strain of Italians we got from Argo, 

 which, in speaking of, we called the Ar- 

 go stock, (mentioned by Valentine in the 

 Jan. number of the Bee-keepers' 1 Maga- 

 zine), and mated with drones reared 

 from a queen producing part Albino 

 workers. J. M. C. Taylor. 



Lewistowu, Md., Feb. 9, 1881. 



Bees Dying.— The Bee Journal is 

 more than I ever expected it woubd be 

 in weekly form ; it is one of the most 

 useful publications on bee culture, I 

 think, either in the U. S. or Europe. 

 Bees continue to die here very fast. 

 The frame hives were prepared in the 

 following manner : in Oct. the honey 

 boards were removed from the tops of 

 the frames, and in their place was put 

 a nice clean piece of woolen felt blan- 

 ket, just covering the tops of the frames; 

 on this woolen blanket was put 6 inches 

 of clean wheat chaff, after first putting 

 the cap on. On each side of the cap near 

 the top was a % inch hole, for a free cir- 

 culation of air, on the north and west 

 sides was a tight board fence, to protect 

 the hives from the wind. The hives 

 were about 8 inches from the ground, 

 and entrance contracted so that out 2or 



Now 

 ifter all this 



and worse than anything 1 ever saw 



early. D. w! Fletcher. 



Lansingville, N. Y., Jan. 25, 1881. 



Come at last.— The long-looked-for 

 time has come at last, when my bees 

 could take a good fly. To-day is the 

 first time my bees have had a good fly 

 since Nov. 5. Bees that were left un- 

 protected are nearly all dead. Some 

 nave lost all. My way of wintering is 

 to pack with chaff on the summer stands. 

 Some that I did not pack before cold 

 weather set in appeared to suffer us 

 much as those left unprotected ; those 

 that were packed early, appear to be 

 wintering nicely. I am very much pleas- 

 ed with the Bee Journal. I could not 

 afford to do without ii. I think a per- 

 son keeping but one colony of bees 

 would be greatly benefitted by reading 

 it. Frank McCoy. 



Van Wert, O., Feb. 22, 1881. 



that he did not care to read it, as he was 

 busy, his bees were dying, and he was 

 becoming disgusted with the business. 

 I did not think this strange. I think I 

 should be about like him, under similar 

 circumstances. Had he been a reader 

 of your valuable Journal, and prac- 

 ticed its teachings. I think no doubt he 

 would have saved several times its cost 

 duiing the present winter. Success to 

 the Journal. W. C. Nutt. 



Otley, Iowa, Feb. 5, 1881. 



Queen Fertilization. — Dr. Love seems 

 to doubt my statement in regard to 

 queens, &c. ; as he is favored with a 

 warm climate, he will have an opportu- 

 nity of testing his proposed plan. Let 

 him test, then report. Not being a med- 

 ical man, I pass his analysis by. Nine- 

 tenths of all the bees in this locality 

 have perished by dysentery. For the 

 first time since Nov. my bees had a 

 flight on the 30th of Jan. I have lost 

 25 colonies, but there is one consolation, 

 almost every one of them left a rich es- 

 tate to administer on. M. B. 



Fincastle, Ind., Feb. 1, 1881. 



Wintering Well.— My bees are winter- 

 ing nicely. They are packed in chaff on 

 the summer stands. They had a splen- 

 did fly yesterday. I wish the Weekly 

 much success. T. W. Colbert. 



Smith's Valley, Ind., Feb. 23, 1881. 



An English Opinion.— I much admire 

 the energy and enterprise of Americans 

 in apiarian matters, and think they 

 have a powerful exponent in the Bee 

 Journal. F. R. Jackson. 



London, England, Feb. 12, 1881. 



Foul Brood Cure. — By using bromo 

 chloralum, J. M. Blanchard,of Delphos, 

 Kan., effected a complete cure of Foul 

 Brood in its worst form. The mixture 

 as used by him, was 1 part bromo chlo- 

 ralum, 10 parts water ; applied in the 

 usual way. M. Blanchard. 



Sherwood, Wis., Feb. 14, 1881. 



■Sees all Dead.— There is not a live 

 bee in all this county. Outof thousands 

 of colonies I have heard from, not one 

 is alive. Regardless of packing, put- 

 ting away in cellar, or any other plan 

 of keeping, nearly all die, with plenty 

 of honey in reach, and in my case they 

 bad bee candy. The long confinement 

 and cold weather, with not a first rate 

 quality of honey to winter on, has been 

 the trouble. J. F. Carver. 



Greencastle, Ind., Feb. 12, 1881. 



Errata.— On page 573 of the Dec. No. 

 of the Bee Journal, in the communi- 

 cation by L. II. Pammel, Jr., the 11th 

 and 12th line from the bottom of the 2d 

 column, reads "Hoarhound (Salvia offi- 

 cinalis), one of the mint family." Sal- 

 via officinalis is the scientific name of 

 the common sage. That of Hoarhound 

 is Warrubium milgare. On page 580, in 

 my report of Nov. 6, in the three last 

 lines, it reads : "all are covered with 

 pieces of rag carpet over the Novice 

 cushion, with cover removed." Cush- 

 ion should read bee-mat; the mats are 

 made of thin pieces of wood woven to- 

 gether with twine. There would be no 

 sense in putting carpetingover Novice's 

 cushion. Success to the Weekly Bee 

 Journal. J. Chapman. 



Home, Mich. 



Bees all Right.— Those bees that 

 were in good condition in the fall, and 

 placed in comfortable winter quarters, 

 are now all right. My wife had 11 col- 

 onies last spring, increased to 18 ; Ital- 

 ianized most of them and obtained 500 

 lbs. of comb honey in sections, but I am 

 bereaved— my wife is no more. She 

 was weakly, and in search of health 

 studied bee culture, and by the aid of 

 the Bee Journal, she was very suc- 

 cessful. Now I am in charge of the 

 bees, and thoughsad over the loss of my 

 wife, I shall try to be as successful as 

 she was. F. J. Stick. 



Macon, 111., Feb. 3, 1881. 



Notes from Otley, Iowa. — I must ex- 

 press my pleasure at the change of the 

 American Bee Journal to a week- 

 ly. It is excellent. I await its coming 

 as of an old friend. It is just what we 

 who are engaged in bee culture have 

 long felt the need of. Mr. Young, of 

 Monroe, Iowa, in a letter says : "I still 

 receive the Journal in the form of a 

 weekly, and admire the change very 

 much." We are having a very cold 

 winter. I should think that the ground 

 had been covered with snow for 8 or 9 

 weeks, with good prospects for its con- 

 tinuing so for some time yet. I think 

 the several methods of wintering bees 

 will be put to the test this winter. My 

 bees are stored away in tne cellar where 

 they are warm and dry. I think that I 

 should not deserve to succeed in the 

 business did I have them on their sum- 

 mer stands nearly or wholly unprotected 

 as some have. The other day I pre- 

 sented a friend (who has a few colonies 

 of bees in the above condition), with a 

 copy of the Journal to read ; he said 



Shade for Bees.— I have 18 colonies 

 left, out of 31 that were packed on the 

 summer stands; those that are left 

 seem to be in good condition. Nine- 

 tenths of the bees in this locality are 

 now dead. I know several who have 

 lost all they had ; some kept as many as 

 35 colonies; neglect, bad honey and 

 cold weather being the cause. Had the 

 poor honey been extracted, and the bees 

 allowed nothing but sealed honey, and 

 been packed in chaff on their summer 

 stands, losses would not have been half 

 as heavy. I gave sun-flowers a fair tri- 

 al last spring. For shading I planted 

 two plants to each hive; south and west 

 (hives facing east.) As the season ad- 

 vanced, the plants grew very fast, and 

 when the heated term came, I had a 

 grand shade, decked with beautiful 

 bloom. I think the Weekly Bee Jour- 

 nal one of the grandest productions of 

 the age. J. H. Thornburg. 



Winchester, Ind. 



Honey and Beeswax Market. 



BUYERS' QUOTATIONS. 



CHICAGO. 



HONEY— The market is plentifully supplied with 

 honey, and sales are slow at weak, easy prices. Quo- 

 table at 18O200. for strictly choice white comb in 1 

 and -2 lb. boxes ; at 14@16c. for fair to good in large 

 packages, and at 10@12c. for common dark-colored 

 and broken lots.— Chicago Times. 



BBBSWAX.-Choice yellow. 200240; dark, 15@17. 



NEW YORK. 



HONEY.— Best white comb honey, small neat 

 packages, 17@18c. ; fair do., 15016c; dark do.. 12@13 ; 

 large boxes sell for about 2c. under above. White 

 extracted, 9010c.; dark, 708c; southern strained, 

 80085c. 



BEESWAX.-Prime quality, 20@23c. 



CINCINNATI. 



HONE Y.— The market for extracted clover honey 

 is very good, and in demand at He. for the best, and 

 8@9c for basswood and dark honey. Comb honey 

 is of slow sale at Hie. for the best. 



BEESWAX-18024C C F. MUTH. 



SAN FRANCISCO. 

 HONEY.— We quote comb 12015c. Extracted. 

 clioice;wliite, DV'lTc. : offcolors, 606S^e. 

 BEESW AX-22S.23C. as to color. 



Stearns & smith. 123 Front Street. 



UST " What is the meaning of ' Dec. 

 81 ' after my name on the direction- 

 label of my paper V" This question 

 has been asked by several, and to save 

 answering each one, let us here say : It 

 means that you have paid for the full 

 year, or until "Dec. 31, 1881." "June 

 81" means that the first half of the 

 year is paid for, up to " July 1st." Any 

 other month, the same. 



