132 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



April 27, 



THOMAS C. NEWMAN. 



EIHTOK AND PUOPKIKTOH. 



CHICAGO, ILL., APRIL 27, 1881. 



Welcome, Spring ! Come at Last. 



Once more the robin's cheerful piping 

 and the bluebird's merry song can be 

 heard in the early morning, as the golden 

 sunshine tips the hill-tops, and the hills 

 and valleys are arraying themselves in 

 their gorgeous robes of emerald green. 

 Soon dandelions, maples and fruit trees 

 of all kinds will be in bloom, closely 

 followed by an abundance of white clo- 

 ver, the leaves which are already becom- 

 ing very numerous ; a little later will 

 follow a heavy bassvvood bloom, and we 

 now believe the goldenrods and other 

 wild (lowers will be equally plenty. 

 We hope our bee-keeping friends are 

 now prepared for a vigorous season's 

 work ; if not, they have no time to lose, 

 and especially is this true of those who 

 are obliged to re-stock anew. Bees 

 cannot now be moved too soon. Those 

 expecting bees from the South should 

 have them shipped at once, before the 

 hives are rilled with new honey to daub 

 the bees ; those about to purchase bees 

 should do so at once, thereby securing 

 the first swarms, which will soon be cast 

 in the South. We think now is tire best 

 time to buy, as every indication points 

 to much higher prices, as soon as bloom 

 is well developed and the prospect for a 

 heavy honey flow and a good market are 

 verified. 



O" Quite often we receive a rather 

 uncourteous letter because the Bee 

 Journal is discontinued when the 

 time is out that has been paid for. We 

 try to please all our subscribers, but it 

 is not an easy task for us to determine 

 who does and who does not want it 

 so continued. So we must ask to be in- 

 formed on the subject. The following 

 letter is just received and is just the 

 kind of a notice we wish all would send 

 who desire to have it sent without in- 

 termission. We then put this mark, || 

 after the name on the wrapper label, 

 and when so marked do not stop send- 

 ing the Journal until we receive an 

 order from the subscriber to do so. 



" Please continue my Journal right 

 along; if I do not send the money on 

 the day it runs out I do not want you to 



stop it', for I want every number ass 



as it is published. I will send you the 

 money just as soon as I can make it 

 convenient to go to the post office to 

 get a money order. W. C." 



Now, if all who desire it so continued 

 would drop us a postal card, or men- 

 tion it when they are sending a remit- 

 tance, it would save us much trouble 

 and themselves the annoyance of having 

 the Journal stopped. 



With this number several hundreds 

 of subscriptions expire, and we hope 

 all will renew at once or else send us 

 notice by return mail if they desire its 

 continued visits. 



®- The next meeting of the X. W. 

 Illinois and S. W. Wisconsin l!ec-Keep- 

 ers' Association, will be held at II. W. 

 Lee's, 2 miles n.w. of Pecatonica, Win- 

 nebago county, Ills., on the 17th of May, 

 1881. J. Stewart, Sec. 



Review of the Situation. 



From the East Saginaw, Mich., papers 

 we learn that Dr. L. C. Whiting has 

 received reports from parties owning 

 at the commencement of winter 1,859 

 colonies of bees. Of this number only 

 432 are now alive, and many of these 

 are weak — and the end is not yet. 



The Herald gives the following table 



showing the number of colonies last 



fall and the number lost : 



N '. last fall. No. lost. 



Orlando Cole 12 ". 



.1. Lyon 3 3 



■ las. Litchfield is 17 



Jas. Ure 60 10 



O. .1. Hetherinfjton 250 249 



— Br. wn 16 14 



John Kev is 17 



Conrad Fey 32 30 



c. w. Kimball »> 30 



Wm. C Mower 12 



C S. Grant 20 



— Costelle '.i3 93 



Frederick Suer 7 7 



Lucv Wilkins 50 - 



Samuel Goodrich H>d 105 



H. Cheenev 17 17 



H. Cheeney, Jr 11 10 



— Crawford, Chesaning 10 4 



— Milch 11. " 25 25 



— Jones. " Id 7 



— Kannoff 30 24 



— F' ep 6 « 



James Adams 5 5 



— Bailev 9 



— Sintle 15 12 



Wm. Smith 12 12 



Davis Hinckley 15 11 



— Green 30 lo 



Man at Flint 100 7h 



Wm.H. Co Weigh 28 27 



Wm. McNeller 9 9 



Wm. Leland S 6 



John McGregor 58 20 



Levi Fallcer 33 31 



('has. Fort 13 5 



Otto Vaasse 6 



ntto Vaaaae & Bro 4 4 



Hiram Fad 6 (i 



Ed. Hunger 8 5 



— Sheehe 30 30 



— Beeman s 8 



— Teff 40 2.". 



Dr. L. C. Whiting 90 50 



Of course we give the above table 

 from the Herald, without vouching for 

 its correctness, and without the knowl- 

 edge of the parties named except Dr. 

 Whiting, who very kindly sent us the 

 papers. 



It will be seen that the Misses Wil- 

 kins, of Farwell, have been the most 

 successful, losing but 2 colonies out of 

 50. These ladies are among the most 

 intelligent and progressive bee-keepers 

 —their honey is always very attractive, 

 and it is a pleasure to know that they 

 are so successful. On our Museum 

 shelves is a single-comb box of beauti- 

 ful honey from the apiary of these ladies. 

 It has been there since 1877, and has 

 never leaked a particle, but looks as 

 enticing to-day as ever. It was pur- 

 chased where they sold their crop, with- 

 out their knowledge. 



We make the following extract from 

 a recent letter froinD. D. Palmer. Mer- 

 cer county, 111. Mr. Palmer's neigh- 

 borhood has heretofore been one of the 

 most successful bee-keeping districts in 

 S. W. Illinois. The initials given rep- 

 resent apiarists of the highest order of 

 intelligence, and will be readily identi- 

 fied by persons familiar with the reports 

 of the Western Illinois & Eastern Iowa 

 Conventions : 



" I had 240 colonies, none left ; S. 180, 

 20 left; L. 50, 3 left: II. 60,20 left; L. 

 sun. but few if any left ; C. 103, s left ; 

 B. 56, 10 left: II. '40, 17 left; 11. 15, 

 left: K. 17. 7 left ; and so I might go on 

 through the list. Those that are left 

 are weak, and the end is not yet. The 

 words of Thomas Paine are applicable 

 to us bee-keepers, " These are the times 

 that try men's souls." 



.lames Ileddon, Cass county, Mich., 

 puts his loss at one-half, and those left 

 are very weak. (J. M. Doolittle, New 

 York, estimated his loss at 40 percent., 

 and was not yet "out of the woods.'' 

 A. F. McKenrich, Iowa, reports almost 



a total loss in his locality, and ('. W. 

 Ilellems, St. Catharines, Out., gives 90 

 per cent, as the average loss there ; at 

 Hartford. Wis., there are probably less 

 than too left out of 402. T. 1!. Quintan 



thinks not more than 1 colony in 10 has 

 survived around Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 

 Some weeks ago Mrs. Dunham, Brown 

 county. Wis., thought very few bees 

 would survive in that district. I. R. 

 Good estimates the loss at nine-tenths 

 in Northern Indiana. 



Losses in Maryland, Pennsylvania, 

 Ohio. Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, and 

 all States norih of this line will prove 

 unprecedentedly heavy. Those left are 

 generally in very light condition, and 

 will require close attention and scien- 

 tific management to fit them for a vig- 

 orous summer campaign. 



It will be observed, by a study of the 

 mortuary reports published in our letter 

 department from week to week, that no I 

 Northern locality has been exempt from 

 heavy loss, no manner of packing has . 

 been a guaranty of success, cellars have j 

 been more or less faulty, caves were 

 transformed into charnel houses, corn- 

 stalks, straw and hay covered over them 

 have failed to retain life, and the angel 

 of gloom has found them as surely, and 

 perhaps more quickly, where not pre- 

 pared at all. Nor has any particular 

 style of hive earned especial encomi- 

 ums; the best approved frame hive 

 has shared equally the odium with the 

 log gum and box hive, and patented 

 clap-traps have failed as life-insurance 

 policies. The bees have to a great ex- 

 tent died, and no bee-keeper, however 

 learned and scientific, need blush to ac- 

 knowledge that his bees, too, have been 

 decimated by the long and unprecedent- 

 edly severe winter just passed. 



We observe that at the late session of 

 the Rock River Valley Convention, at 

 the roll-call of colonies only 44 were re- 

 ported living out Of 207, 38 of which 

 were brought through by Mr. Lucas 

 without loss. We were requested to 

 give " the cause of bees dying with 

 plenty of stores, both in cellar and on 

 summer stands" (see page 131). We 

 must evade the question by the general 

 answer, "The long, cold winter;" and 

 yet, although an evasion, it is the only 

 correct answer that can be given. Du- 

 ring a mild or ordinary season, the 

 requisites for successful wintering are 

 not nearly so exacting as for a terribly 

 severe and protracted season. A little 

 defect in food is easily cured by one or 

 two purifying flights in January ; if all 

 are old bees, the mid-winter thaw gives 

 them a new lease of life, and the queen 

 frequently takes advantage of it to de- 

 posit a few eggs ; if the majority are 

 new bees, a flight (which perhaps some 

 have never had) gives opportunity to 

 change position, and invigorates them 

 for that " masterly inactivity" so neces- 

 sary to a prolonged life ; if perchance 

 the cluster has become divided, a broken 

 winter gives opportunity for reuniting, 

 and for diseased bees to become disen- 

 gaged from the mass : if dampness per- 

 vade the hive (which is more or less the 

 case in winter) it does but little if any 

 harm so longas not congealed, but with 

 extreme and protracted cold, it begins 

 freezing at the outside, and chilling to 

 the centre till it comes in contact with 

 the bees, when they become benumbed, 

 their physical organs cannot perform 

 their functions, proper digestion ceases, 

 ami the bees die. The foregoing re- 

 marks are more or less applicable to all 

 cases of out-door loss. 



The losses in cellars and eaves so pre- 

 valent the past winter are equally attrib- 

 utable to its length and severity. A 

 successful confinement of 4 too months 



requires that all the minuthe should be 

 very exact, and it is easy to imagine how 

 the absence of the least requisite to suc- 

 cess may become the principal factor in 

 producing death. Were it only the 

 lesser bee-keepers or the novices who 

 had suffered the heaviest losses, it might 

 perhaps be attributed to ignorance or 

 negligence in preparing them : but when 

 we take into account the heavy losses by 

 so many specialists and scientific bee- 

 keepers, we cannot but look upon such 

 a charge as an insult to intelligence. 

 All the approved methods have equally 

 proven failures. 



We have been much interested in a 

 series of experiments being conducted 

 by Mr. E. D. Godfrey, of Iowa, and 

 would be pleased to hear from him the 

 result of last winter, together with his 

 method of preparation, and the general 

 conclusions reached. 



But with the bee-keeper all is not lost, 

 though he has lost all ; with his hives 

 and combs left, he still retains one-half 

 or two thirds of his investment. The 

 fruit-grower expects frequent failures 

 in his crops, and is thankful that his 

 trees survive without injury; the far- 

 mer's wheat winter-kills, when he plows 

 up the ground in spring and plants anew 

 in corn or something else, and replants 

 if frost kills that ; the stock-raiser who 

 ioses part of his flock, gives the remain- 

 der better attention, and patiently toils 

 two or three years to repair his losses ; 

 the merchant has his seasonsof loss, but 

 with renewed push and activity makes 

 up for the dull times when the " good 

 time coming" has arrived; the stock- 

 broker loses on his World-Belt Railway, 

 projects a Short-Cut Line to the Moon, 

 waters his stocks, and rides on the fleecy 

 clouds of imagination to success ; the 

 speculator invests in anything possible, 

 loses a part or all, compromises with his 

 creditors, and with unconquerable zeal 

 pushes on to success, a living monument 

 to pluck ; and the energetic bee-keeper, 

 although many bright dreams may have 

 vanished, will not despond, but without 

 taking time to count the untenanted 

 hives begins immediately to estimate 

 the number he can refill. If the bees 

 are all dead, he procures enough for a 

 comfortable start, goes to work with a 

 will to retrieve his losses, and while 

 keeping time with the, musical hum of 

 his bees, in the " Sweet by-and-by" will 

 reap a more than commensurate recom- 

 pense for his vexations and disappoint- 

 ments. 



l^-Dr. N. P. Allen, President of the 

 National Society, intends to be present 

 at the Texas State Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation, at McKinney, Texas, on May 

 12 and 13, by invitation of Vice-Presi- 

 dent Collins. He is also invited by 

 Vice-President Hipolite to spend a 

 few days in the interest of bee-culture 

 in Arkansas. He also intends to be 

 present at the Missouri State Associa- 

 tion if the time be lixed for the 1st week 

 in June ; being specially invited by 

 Vice-President P. P. Collier. Dr. Al- 

 len starts on this trip during the first 

 week in May, and we shall expect many 

 items of interest from him concerning 

 bee-culture in these States. 



<gg° The Southwestern Wisconsin Bee- 

 Keepers' Association will meet at the 

 residence of W. B. Wallis, at Darling- 

 ton. Wis., on Wednesday, May 11, 1881, 

 at 10 a.m. 



