1881. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



109 





Correction.— In the Bib Journal 

 for March 16, page So, the number of 

 my colonies is given as 25 ; it should be 

 85. So far as I can learn they are in 

 good condition. I winter them in the 

 cellar. I have been handling bees for 

 6 years. Osage is a growing city, and 

 will consume all the honey produced in 

 this locality. There are about 500 colo- 

 nies of bees in Mitchell County, and I 

 will do my share in supplying the mar- 

 ket with honey. Chas. Follett. 



Osage, Iowa, March 21, 1881. 



Come Gentle Spring.— I have 60 colo- 

 nies in the cellar ; they are in poor con- 

 dition and will all die if Ycnnordoes 

 not give us line weather soon, so that 

 the bees can have a flight. They were 

 all right .March 1st. I like the Weekly 

 much better than the Monthly. 



W.M. C. (iRAY. 



Pre-emption, 111., March 24, 1881. 



Mated better than any bees I have seen 

 this season; he has 16 colonies to day, 

 alive, and apparently in good condition. 

 Perhaps there is more in ventilation 

 than chaff hives or cellars. Will some 

 one please rise and explain ? 



S. GOODB1CH. 

 Urbana, 111., March 23, 1881. 



Good Enough.— My bees wintered 

 well. I only lost one out of 02 colonies. 

 Some have lost all they had ; others %, 

 etc. The spring is backward. As yet 

 we have had but few days that bees 

 could fly. W. II. Howlett. 



Union. Ky., March 22, 1881. 



Using Old Combs.— Is it not dangerous 

 to use combs with dead brood in from 

 defunct colonies ? Is there not danger 

 of getting foul brood started ? I have 

 a good many of them, and I am unde- 

 cided whether to melt them up or save 

 them. The losses here have been fear- 

 ful. I do not think there are 10 live 

 colonies in Dixon outside of my apiary, 

 and I have lost 1 3 '. Those lost were 

 packed in dry chaff, as Prof. Cook's 

 Manual directs, in Langstroth and Sim- 

 plicity hives, while Root's chaff hive 

 has come out ahead, only 2 or 3 hives of 

 this kind have failed, out of about 30 

 chaff hives in use. There were as many 

 as 10 or 12 differeut apiaries in and near 

 Dixon, and I can count 8 of them now 

 that are all dead ; the most of them were 

 small, containing from 6 to 30 colonies 

 each. And the end is not yet. Those 

 yet alive may die soon unless spring 

 opens at once. B. F. Pratt. 



Dixon, 111., March 27, 1881. 



[It is hardly possible there is a great 

 deal of dead brood in the combs to be re- 

 moved. We should not hesitate, if the 

 brood is dry and shrunken, to place the 

 combs in strong colonies ; but if the 

 brood is putrid and ropy, and sticks to 

 the cells, we would not wish to use them, 

 as it is easy to imagine the possibility 

 of foul brood or other diseases arising 

 therefrom. If, as we suspect, your 

 combs are filled with starved bees, you 

 can easily remove them by adopting the 

 plan recommended in the Weekly Bee 

 Journal of March 16, page 86. Mr. 

 H. T. Collins gives his method in this 

 number of the Journal.— Ed.] 



Bees All Right.— I have lost 2colonies 

 out of 16, and the remaining 14 are 

 strong. I had them packed in buck- 

 wheat chaff, which is considered the 

 best packing we can get. I have win- 

 tered for 4 years with it, and had suc- 

 cess. In the winter of 1877 and 1878 I 

 had 45 colonies packed in kiln-dried 

 shavings and wheat chaff: but 4 were 

 packed in buckwheat chaff and those 

 4 lived ; the rest died. There was a 

 very heavy loss around here among 

 those that were left unpacked. I am 

 well pleased with the Weekly Bee 

 Journal. W. S. Bair. 



Rollersville, O., March 24, 1881. 



Lost <! out of 100 Colonies.— The snow 

 is all gone now and our bees have had 

 several flights. On the 16th they 

 gathered some pollen ; but this has 

 been the most disastrous winter among 

 bees in Maryland for many years ; 7.5 

 per cent of all the bees in north Md. 

 are dead. We had a very poor honey 

 season last year, excepts weeks during 

 the first crop of red clover, which ended 

 about the 1st of July; and after that 

 but little honey was gathered. The 

 bulk of the loss was from neglect or 

 starvation. As I had a fair demand for 

 queens and I was breeding for improve- 

 ment I kept up the queen breeding un- 

 til the last of Oct., and my bees were 

 in poor condition for an ordinary win- 

 ter ; much more for such a one as we 

 have just passed through. I have lost 

 6 colonies at home, that starved ; I have 

 96 left in fair condition. I wintered in 

 a cellar expressly arranged for the pur- 

 pose ; it is perfectly dark, and the tem- 

 perature in this place was kept all 

 through the winter at 46° and 47°. 

 All those that wintered in cellars fared 

 the best. I am much pleased with the 

 Weekly. I should lose a friend were I 

 to be deprived of it. I wish it every 

 success. S. Valentine. 



Double Pipe Creek, Md., March 22. 



Xever Give Up. — Bees are nearly all 

 dead. A long winter is the cause, of 

 course. " Never give up " is and must 

 be our motto, but we must learn not to 

 venture too far without experience to 

 back us. N. J. Longsdon. 



Byron, 111., March 26, 1881. 



Good Prospect.— There is every pros- 

 pect of a prosperous season now, as we 

 are having rain enough, and I never 

 saw bees in better condition. I com- 

 menced on the 3d of March to divide 

 colonies, rear queens, &c. I have my 

 hives nearly completed for the season's 

 operations. There is quite a contrast 

 between northern Iowa and southern 

 Cal. for bee-keeping. I commenced 

 the last season with 48 colonies in very 

 poor condition, and this season I start 

 with 108 in extra good condition ; in 

 fact, the poorest colony I have is in as 

 good condition as the best was last sea- 

 son at the same time. 



Elisha Gallup. 



Santa Paula, Cal., March 18, 1881. 



Spring Come at Last.— The weather 

 is spring-like here, and has been since 

 March came in. The snow has all dis- 

 appeared, and our roads are dry and 

 dusty. As I write the blue birds and 

 robins are singing merrily. 



Henry Alley. 



Wenham, Mass., March 23, 1881. 



Bees Confined 5 Months.— Yesterday 

 my 115 colonies of bees had their lirst 

 flight since the last week in Oct., hav- 

 ing been confined to their hives 5 

 months, lacking 2 or 3 days only. This 

 is a month longer than I have ever had 

 them confined to the hive without a 

 flight, during the past 12 years, and to 

 my very great satisfaction as well as 

 astonishment, I do not find a single 

 dead colony. Some 5 or 10 are consid- 

 erably diseased, and a few are almost 

 sure to be found queenless. I expect to 

 lose from 5 to lSbetween this and honey 

 harvest. Bees generally have wintered 

 very poorly in this section. From % to 

 - 3 of all the bees put in winter quarters 

 last fall, have died. I winter entirely 

 in chaff hives, and from what I hear I 

 judge that that method of wintering 

 has succeeded better than any other 

 during this past winter. 



O. O. POPPLETON. 



Williamstown, Iowa, March 25, 1881. 



Bee Journal for March !) Mr. Doolit- 

 tle's article on " Bee Moths'' contains 

 an error. A year or two ago I was at 

 a friend's in Allegan Co., in this State, 



in September, and he told me that the 



moths were killing all of his bees. I 

 then thought like Mr. D., that they did 

 not hurt good colonies. He said they 

 did and showed me swarms, with new 

 white combs, the queen and brood all 

 right, but the sides of the hives were 

 white with moth cocoons. They were 

 all black bees; I do not think they 

 would have troubled Italians. I like 

 the Weekly Bee Journal very much, 

 but do not know that it will be of much 

 value to me now. The cause of the 

 death of my bees was, I think, the long 

 steady cold, with no flight ; and not the 

 extreme cold ; but why did one of them 

 live through all right? It was just 

 like the rest in the fall. A. C. Balch. 

 Kalamazoo, Mich., March 12, 1881. 



Vexed and Perplexed.— When I go into 

 my bee lot and look around I am vexed 

 over the situation and perplexed to 

 know what to do with my hives and 

 combs. I put into winter quarters 16 

 colonies (all blacks) and now have one, 

 very weak. I have a lot of nice, well- 

 made and painted hives on hand, and a 

 lot of combs. As I have never han- 

 dled Italian bees, and have concluded 

 to purchase, and I hear they are larger 

 than the blacks, will you please answer 

 these 2 questions in the Bee Journal: 

 Are comb cells of the black bee too 

 small for the Italians to raise brood in ? 

 Will it not cramp them in size ? Will 

 it be safe to feed the thin uncapped 

 honey that has caused dysentery to 

 other bees V The bees in this vicinity 

 are all dead. Success to the Bee Jour- 

 nal. D. S. Kally. 



Mansfield, Ind. 



[The difference in size of cells is not 

 perceptible. If bees are flying freely, 

 you can feed the thin honey with im- 

 punity.— Ed. 



Orchard Apiary.— The following is 

 my report for 1880 ; My bees came 

 through very strong in spring, and bred 

 rapidly, and were in excellent condition 

 to take advantage of fruit bloom, which 

 lasted about a week, during which time 

 they filled the hives well with honey, 

 and it is well that they did, for rasp- 

 berry and white clover proved a total 

 failure here, on account of bad weather 

 in June. My surplus all came from 

 basswood, which produced well for 

 about 10 days. Notwithstanding the 

 poor season, and it was the poorest we 

 we have had, I realized a profit of over 

 S8 per colony ; but went into winter 

 quarters strong and with plenty of good 

 wholesome stores. E. A. Thomas. 



Coleraine,Mass., Feb. 1, 1881. 



Loss in Cellars, etc.— I put 95 colonies 

 in the cellar on Nov. 15. I took them 

 out yesterday, which was the first day 

 they could fly with safety since about 

 the first of last Nov. Loss 4 (one prob- 

 ably queenless when put in, and 3 

 starved). A few are weak, but most of 

 them are in good condition. This has 

 been a very hard winter on bees that 

 were not properly cared for. Those 

 left out are nearly all dead, as far as 

 heard from. A good many have 

 died in cellars and special repositories, 

 for want of a knowledge of the proper 

 conditions for success. I like the 

 Journal very much. 



J. E. Hunter. 



Wyoming, Iowa. March 25, 1881. 



Ventilation.— I have met 14 different 



Blasted Hopes.— For the first time, t 

 enroll myselt in the army of " blasted 

 hopes." My 150 colonies of bees are (all 

 but one) among the things that were. I 

 had no honey from them last season, or 

 at least none but what I fed back in the 

 fall, and a good many were entirely des- 

 titute, so that I broke them up. Some 

 had a little honey and I gave that to 

 those that had a little more, and still 

 had 150 left. Winter set in early, about 

 the middle of Nov., before I had packed 

 any of them. I waited for milder 

 weather so that I could pack them, but 

 that did notcome until the 6th of March. 

 Never a day did my bees have a fly uu- 



y 

 persons in the last few days that had, til then ; arid then I had but one colony 

 fast Nov., 168 colonies of bees altogether; fly, and I hoped they would come 



now they have in the aggregate 57 liv- 

 ing ; these were mostly in frame hives, 

 on the summer stands, and left to care 

 for themselves. Nearly all died with 

 plenty of honey to have carried them 

 through. This, I think, will be about 

 the average loss in the counties of 

 Champaign, Piatt and Moultrie, in this 

 State. Wm. H. Beckwith started in 

 the winter with 18 colonies in Lang- 

 stroth and box hives, with plenty of 

 bees and honey in each hive. The hives 

 were very poorly made, being open at 

 the corners, with a board laid on top to 

 keep the rain or snow from falling di- 

 . rectly into the hive. Nearly all of them 

 set on blocks from one to two inches 

 from the bottom board ; they were ven- 



through all right in my double hives, 

 but they did not. Most of them had 

 plenty of honey. All of those having 

 honey had brood and some of them 

 young bees ; such had soiled the combs. 

 The one that is alive is strong and has 

 plenty of brood. I thought that bees 

 did not commence to raise brood until 

 a warm spell, but it seems I was mis- 

 taken. I have heretofore boxed up a 

 part and left a part unprotected, and 

 have had success with both. I think I 

 should have done better to have boxed 

 them up this year. I have now a lot of 

 empty hives and a great plenty of nice 

 combs. I shall not need any founda- 

 tion nor bee supplies this year; but 

 need bees to cover my combs. In the 



The Outlook Encouraging.— The loss 

 in wintering has been very heavy in 

 this county during the past cold winter. 

 In one apiary near me, in Langstroth 

 hives, only 5 are now alive out of 100 

 last Oct. My home apiary of 175 colo- 

 nies last Oct., mostly in closed-end 

 Quinby-frame hives, wintered on sum- 

 mer stands packed with fine straw and 

 chaff, now numbers only 115. Theloss 

 has been much the heaviest in open end 

 frames, especially so in metal coiner 

 frames. Out of 78 in such frame hives 

 only 2 colonies are left. Last year was 

 the poorest season I have had in 12 

 years ; I had but one natural swarm 

 during the season. White clover was a 

 failure ; there is but little basswood 

 near here. By feeding I kept my bees 

 in good condition for the fall harvest ; 

 smart weed furnished a very little ; 

 Spanish needle (the best honey plant in 

 this section) was a total failure ; this is 

 the 2d year in 12 that it has failed. I 

 had one apiary near the Illinois river 

 which contained 120 colonies last spring, 

 in Quinby hives. The early part of the 

 season was poor, but I had during the 

 season 21 natural swarms and over 3000 

 lbs. of section honey for sale, with a 

 surplus of 3000 lbs. in brood frames ; 

 more than enough to winter them, 

 which I brought 10 my home apiary. 

 The above harvest was wholly from 

 smart weed, which was grown on over- 

 flow land near the Mississippi and Illi- 

 nois rivers. The loss in this apiary 

 will not exceed 10 from all causes. All 

 are strong and booming. The soft ma- 

 ples are now in bloom ; every fair day 

 the bees are carrying in pollen and a 

 very little honey ; the elm will soon be 

 in bloom furnishing an abundance of 

 pollen for rapid queen rearing. With 

 favorable weather I expect a spring 

 harvest from the willow privet bush and 

 red haw ; the honey from these is very 

 light colored and of excellent quality, 

 lour hopeful outlook for the coming 

 season is very cheering. The Weekly 

 is both a pleasure and a necessity with 

 me. A. T. Williams. 



St. Charles, Mo., March 24, 1881. 



Severe Winter, but Bees AH Right.— 



This has been the most severe winter 

 experienced by the oldest inhabitant in 

 Ky. I have 14 colonies well packed in 

 chaff, on their summer stands ; 3 in the 

 star chaff hive, 9 in the simplicity with 

 tight bottom and portico, and 2 in the 

 simplicity hive. Banked each of them 

 on 3 sides with snow ; 12 faced south, 

 2 north, with no winter passages ; used 

 the enameled cloth contrary to friend 

 Muth's advice. I packed on each side 

 of those in single-wall hives with loose 

 chaff, also on the top. I had from 3 to 7 

 frames in each hive. All wintered 

 equally well, and to-day the queens are 

 doing their duty nobly, shut in on from 

 2 to 3 frames, and crowded with bees. 

 I think the chaff hive unnecessary for 

 this climate, but it is necessary to pack 

 them well with an absorbent in order 

 to bring them safely through our gen- 

 erally changeable winters. Success to 

 the Weekly ; it is growing in interest 

 from week to week, and its coming is 

 anxiously longed for. C. H. Dean. 

 Mortonsville, Ky., March 18, 1881. 



Winter Bee House.— My bees have 

 wintered splendidly in my winter bee 

 house. L. Carson. 



Frederick, O., March 24, 1881. 



