1881. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



173 



ish-yellow ; quills deep brown, exter- 

 nally margined with yellowish-red. 



This species feeds principally on 

 insects, and especially coleoptera, some 

 of which are often of a larger size than 

 a bird of the dimensions or the summer 

 red bird might be supposed capable of 

 swallowing. It seldom alights on the 

 ground, but prefers pursuing insects on 

 the wing, which it frequently does from 

 the dried twigs at the extremity of the 

 blanches. 



A subscriber gives further light on 

 the subject, to-wit : 



I have just been reading your valua- 

 ble paper, and see among other things, 

 a question asked by a correspondent for 

 the name of a red bird that has been 

 destroying his bees. I suppose it is the 

 same bird that 1 have been troubled 

 with ever since I have been raising bees. 

 I rhink it is the same bird that orni- 

 thologists call the tire bird, from his 

 brilliant red. I have known him to be 

 a destroyer of bees for years, and con- 

 sequently declared unceasing warfare 

 against him. My boy says they are 

 more numerous this season than ever 

 known. They only eat the thorax, then 

 leave the abdomen of the bee. Our 

 greatest trouble in bee-keeping is from 

 birds. Wm. W. B. 



Elizabethtown, Ky., May 7, 1881. 



s£g%g»M&*L 



■diMl'£ 



The Season in Indiana. —Mr. Frank 

 L. Dougherty, in the Indiana Farmer, 

 says : 



With us fruit bloom has come and 

 gone. We are now in the midst of the 

 honey dearth between fruit bloom and 

 white clover, the latter of which is be- 

 ginning to make appearance, although 

 as yet it contains no honey. The bees 

 must be watched now, so as not to al- 

 low them to run out of stores. The 

 queen should be kept laying to her 

 full capacity, for it is on the bees 

 raised this month that we must depend 

 for our main honey crop. In an apiary 

 of only a few colonies, seemingly in the 

 same condition, we find some colonies 

 will far outstrip others in brood-rear- 

 ing, consequently for the best results 

 we are compelled to take from the 

 strong to assist the weak. Examine all 

 the colonies, mark their condition, re- 

 moving frames of brood and bees from 

 those that can spare them and give to 

 the weaker ones, thereby putting them 

 in better condition for the honey yield 

 when it comes. If this work be done 

 in the middle of the day but very few 

 of the bees removed will return to the 

 parent colony, as at that time most of 

 the old bees are in the fields at work. 

 When 2 or 3 frames are given at one 

 time it is better to take them from sev- 

 eral hives, for by thus mixing them up 

 they are less liable to injure the queen. 

 In manipulations of this kind it is al- 

 ways best to ascertain the whereabouts 

 of the queen, so as not to remove her 

 from the hive. 



Selling Bees by the Pound. — Mrs. Har- 

 rison remarks as follows on this sub- 

 ject in the Prairie Farmer : 



A new industry has lately been de- 

 veloped, viz: that of selling bees by 

 the pound. They are sent by express 

 in boxes made with 3 sides and bottom 

 of wire gauze ; the top and ends are of 

 of light wood. Little feeding troughs, 

 in which candy is poured in a liquid 

 state, which hardens on becoming cool, 

 are fastened in each end of the cage. 

 In these cages bees can be sent long 

 distances safely and cheaply. 



During the last almost unprecedently 

 cold winter, many persons in the North 

 and West lost all their bees, and yet 

 have % of their investment in the hives 

 and combs remaining. It would be 

 better for those who have lost their 

 bees to purchase a qeeen and bees by 

 the pound, than let the moth-worms 

 destroy the comb. . We received bees 

 by express (sent in the way described) 

 yesterday, putting them on combs, giv- 

 ing also a frame of uncapped brood 

 and honey, and to-day (May 18) they 

 are working like beavers. Bees are 

 being shipped from Texas, Alabama, 

 and other Southern States to the North. 

 The bees were not destroyed by " bliz- 

 zards" there, and are now at the swarm- 

 ing point. 



Loss by Fire. — Last month my house 

 was burnt. I lost all of my Bee Jour- 

 nals, honey extractor, over 700 lbs. of 

 honey, and a lot of apiarian supplies. 

 My bees gave but little surplus last 

 year, and many died with dysentery 

 early in the winter. Some were in the 

 cellar and some packed in chaff on the 

 summer stands; those left are now 

 doing well. E. J. Rockefellow. 



Farragut, Iowa, May 25, 1881. 



Bee Losses in Virginia. — As near as 

 I can learn the losses in Virginia among 

 bees are about as heavy as in the North 

 and West. My losses were less than 10 

 per cent, wintering on summer stands 

 with chaff above. The first natural 

 swarm issued May 2, unexpectedly, as 

 I do not allow much swarming when 

 attending the bees. Our season has 

 begun handsomely. One hive kept on 

 the scales gained 17 lbs. on the 15th, and 

 10 lbs. on the 10th. It is in full two stor- 

 ies. The locust bloom was very abund- 

 ant; the Liriodendron is now blooming. 

 I can get heavier work with the full 

 size wide frames, holding 6 sections, 

 4)4 x; >% in them, with clamps. I use 

 both ; but it is fun to compel bees to 

 work above, by lifting brood up and 

 placing wide frames between. Besides 

 there cannot be too many bees, for one 

 can put on a third story, as I have done 

 till they could ripen and seal. It was 

 in that way I got my heaviest yield 

 last year, 96 sections filled from one 

 hive. As the Cyprian and Palestine 

 bees are coming into notice, I wish to 

 suggest a better name for the latter. 

 The Holy Land bee and Holy bee, (as 

 some shorten it), is hardly the thing. 

 Why not call them the Palestine bee ? 

 If it proves of value, it must have a 

 name. J. W. Porter. 



Charlottesville, Va., May 23, 1881. 



[That is precisely what the Bee Jour- 

 nal has been calling them for some 

 time. Syrian may perhaps be still bet- 

 ter. At all events, to call them " Holy 

 Bees" is not the correct thing.— Ed.] 



Bees in Texas.— Bees in this locality 

 are doing well ; the prospects for a good 

 honey crop are rather flattering. We 

 have 80 colonies, about 14 are Italians, 

 the others are blacks. We secured no 

 surplus of any consequence from black- 

 bees last season. We give the Italians 

 the preference in all respects. 



Flournoy & Foster. 



San Antonio, Texas, May 20, 1881. 



Does not want to Winter in Cellars.— 



I wintered my bees packed in chaff on 

 their summer stands. I put into win- 

 ter quarters 36 colonies and lost 9 by 

 starvation, and one became queenless, 

 which I wintered with another, leaving 

 26 colonies ; 5 are rather weak, but are 

 coming on finely. Drones commenced 

 to fly yesterday. The first pollen was 

 brought in April 19. No cellar winter- 

 ing for me. J. Chapman. 

 Home, Mich., May 19, 1881. 



How Bees have Wintered in Ontario.— 



I have been so "stiddy to hum" this 

 spring, owing to my having a new 

 place to fix up, that I have hardly been 

 out among the bee-keepers at all. The 

 echo of many sighs and groans has 

 reached me however, and while I can- 

 not give the percentage of mortality, 

 I am convinced that the winter of 1880- 

 81 has been a disastrous one for bee- 

 keeping in Ontario, as in most regions 

 of the North American continent. 

 " Old style " bee-keepers are pretty well 

 cleaned out, and not a few intelligent 

 and up-to-the-times bee-keepers are in 

 the same predicament. Mr. Ravel, the 

 best practical apiarist in my locality, 

 put into winter quarters 45 colonies, 

 and in view of the misfortunes of 

 others, blesses his lucky stars that he 

 has 10 left. I don't know how Mr. 

 Jones has succeeded. Does any body 

 but himself 'i In his correspondence 

 witli me, he says nothing as to winter- 

 ing. On that point he is silent as the 



F'ave. Perhaps no news is good news ; 

 hope SO; but 1 would like to have him 

 "rise and explain " how those 1,000 col- 

 onies of his have fared during the 

 unprecedented winter we have just 

 passed through. So I think would 

 many others. Wi\r. F. Clarke. 



Listowel, Out., May 12, 1881. 



No Surplus Honey.— Judging from 

 present indications this county will 

 produce little or no surplus honey. 



John S. Calkins. 



Los Angeles, Cal., May 15, 1881. 



Robinia Viscosia. — I would like to in- 

 quire if you know anything of the value, 

 as a honey-producing tree, of Robinia 

 Viscosia — clammy locust. I have been 

 told that the bees are very fond of it, 

 and work upon it in great numbers while 

 in bloom. Arthur Bryant, Sr., in his 

 work upon forest trees, states that it 

 sometimes blooms twice during the 

 season. As it conies into bloom before 

 the clovers, and is valuable for timber, 

 and of rapid growth, it might be worthy 

 of cultivation by the apiarist, if its 

 value as a good honey-producer is estab- 

 lished. It is a beautiful ornamental 

 tree. D. P. Norton. 



Council Grove, Kan., May 19, 1881. 



[Will some of our readers who are 

 familiar with this tree, please give the 

 desired information ?— Ed.] 



Honey Season in England.— We are 



having very dry weather here, with 

 easterly winds, so that the bees have to 

 be fed. We seldom expect a flow of 

 honey till June has really set in, for o 

 times out of 10 the spring is too cold 

 for the bees to do any good on the fruit 

 blossoms. Our first good crop is the 

 yellow trefoil, or" none-such," which is 

 in full bloom by the end of May. 



Samuel Simmins. 

 Ruttingdean, England, May 11, 1881. 



Bees for Pleasure.— I keep a few bees 

 for the pleasure derived therefrom, and 

 they never were so strong and doing so 

 well at this season of the year as they 

 are at present. White clover is begin- 

 ning to bloom, and locust bloom is just 

 passing away. We will soon have a 

 profusion of European linden bloom. 

 H. H. Littell. 



Louisville, Ky., May 20, 1881. 



Losses in Winnebago Co., 111.— An 



apiary of 2 colonies is what I had ; I 

 wintered them on the summer stands, 

 packed in straw and chaff, and they 

 starved to death. C. has 21 out of 40 ; 

 II. 16 out of 46 ; both wintered in a 

 house. S. has 22 out of 325 ; G. has 16 

 out of 16 ; M. has 6 out of 6 ; A. has 5 

 out of 5 ; A. has 22 out of 32 ; these all 

 wintered in the cellar. M. has 1 out of 

 14; these were out-of-doors without 

 protection. These are nearly all prac- 

 tical bee-keepers, and there are a good 

 many farmers in this vicinity who had 

 last fall from 1 to 10 colonies, but nearly 

 all are now dead. I wish I could get 

 the Bee Journal twice a week, or 

 even daily. D. L. Whitney. 



Rockton, 111., May 26, 1881. 



King-birds, Drones, etc. — I notice in 

 the Bee Journal for May 18 an article 

 about king-birds, in which the opinion 

 is expressed that they catch workers as 

 well as queens and drones. My opinion 

 is that they catch workers alone for the 

 honey in the sac ; I have noticed them 

 station themselves near the hives on 

 some dead limb of a tree and dart out 

 and catch the heavy laden ones as they 

 approached their homes. I have also 

 frequently noticed them perched on 

 the dead weeds in the midst of a white 

 clover field, and when a loaded bee 

 started to go home the king-bird would 

 dart out and gobble him up. I have 

 also noticed the pieces fall, as though 

 the bird had cut them in two, to swal- 

 low the part containing the honey sac. 

 At a neighbor's house one day I no- 

 ticed one of those birds perch himself 

 on the dead limb of a peach tree, near 

 3 colonies of bees. I asked my neigh 

 bor why he did not kill the bird ; it was 

 eating his best worker bees. He said : 

 "I reckon not." At that moment it 

 darted out, seized something, alighting 

 back in the same place. He told one of 



his boys to get the gun, and whilst he 

 was getting ready it made 2 other sal- 

 lies, each time getting something. He 

 shot it, cut it open and found :> bees, 

 freshly swallowed. I encourage all 

 around me to kill all they can, and kill 

 all that come near me. Others should 

 do so, too. I do not know whether 

 drones and queens have honey sacs or 

 not, or if the food they take goes direct 

 to the stomach. If they have no honey 

 sac the king-bird will not catch them. 

 Long live the Bee Journal and its 

 genial editor. G. W. Ashhy. 



Valley Station, Ky., May 2-5, 1881. 



Origin of the Italian Bee.— The pre- 

 vailing enthusiasm among bee-keepers 

 concerning the different races of bees 

 has, no doubt, induced an investigation 

 concerning the origin of the Italian 

 race of bees. Some suppose them to be 

 a cross between the Palestinesand black 

 bees ; I do not, however. What evi- 

 dence is there that the " saddles " on 

 the Cyprian bees are a distinctive 

 mark V There is a certain insect of the 

 beetle race, found on the Island of 

 Madagascar in great numbers, which 

 live on the nectar of plants, which have 

 a very long neck ; the plants are pecu- 

 liar and require this feature in the bee- 

 tles to obtain the nectar. These bee- 

 tles are found on other islands, but have 

 no "such peculiarity, showing that the 

 nature of the insect must comply with 

 the requirements of the plantor it could 

 not subsist. In many other instances 

 similar changes have occurred in this 

 insect, as shown in natural history. The 

 Italian and Cyprian races may be the 

 same — one generation may not have 

 perfected the Italian race ; it may have 

 taken ages. One common trait is still 

 found to correspond with all other in- 

 sects which will never be wholly extin- 

 guished. L. H. Pammel. 



La Crosse, Wis., May 10, 1881. 



Loss 15 per Cent.— My bees wintered 

 with a loss of 15 per cent, principally by 

 starvation, by not being properly pre- 

 pared for so severe a winter. 



John F. Eggleston. 



Eagle, Pa., May 24, 1881. 



Experiments in Wintering Bees.— My 

 loss in wintering was 7 out of 69, but I 

 have lost two more since, by being 

 robbed. My Italians stands the winter 

 the best. One colony I wintered on its 

 summer stand in a chaff hive ; they are 

 doing well. I wintered in a bee-house ; 

 there were put in 59 colonies the day 

 before winter set in. The house was 

 dry, dark, and in a uniform tempera- 

 rure, ranging from 42^ to 50°; no artifi- 

 cial heat used. The wall, 2 feet thick, 

 was filled with sawdust, and ventilated 

 in under the floor and up through the 

 ceiling and roof. They were taken out 

 April 14. and 3 of the colonies were 

 dead. Nine were put in the cellar 

 about the same time the others were 

 put in, and taken out about April 10; 

 4 of them were dead. The temperature 

 of the cellar was too cold, (below 30°), 

 about 15° colder than the bee-house. 

 J. H. Heard. 



Flesherton, Ont., May 17, 1881. 



Why the Defective Wings?— I have a 

 colony that I believe will oe ruined. A 

 large amount of defective brood is car- 

 ried out and some apparently perfect, 

 which cannot fly, but crawl all over the 

 ground by hundreds. There is no sign 

 of moth in the combs, and the queen is 

 a fine looking one and fast layer. I see 

 nothing wrong inside except the brood, 

 a large amount of which is pipped (un- 

 capped). The bees were shipped by rail 

 60 or 70 miles, 10 days ago, but came all 

 right sofaras I could judge. Twoother 

 colonies are similarly affected, but not 

 so bad ; in the fourth hive but few of 

 the drones can fly, but the workers seem 

 all right. Peter James. 



Waveland, Ind.,May 23, 1881. 



[The bees did not have ventilation 

 enough when moved, which softened 

 the combs and the outer ends of the 

 cells were distorted, thus killing or de- 

 forming the young bees. With a very 

 sharp knife shave off the surfaces of the 

 combs where there is not sealed brood, 

 and it may remedy the trouble.— Ed.] 



