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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Aug. 17, 



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The Cyprian Bees.— I bought an im- 

 ported Cyprian queen of Mr. D. A. 

 Jones about a year ago, but not being 

 prepared to rear as many queens from 

 tier last season as I wished to, I took 

 tier to my friend, A. T. Williams, of 

 St. Charles, Mo., who reared from her 

 a number of queens for himself, and 8 

 for me. This spring I sold the im- 

 ported queen to him, and he has been 

 rearing queens from her for both of 

 us all this season. I have now over 30 

 in my yard, and expect to have one in 

 every one of my 95 hives before cold 

 weather sets in. I like them very 

 much. My experience with them is 

 very different from that of Mr. Hay- 

 hurst. I can handle them as well 

 as the Italians. It is very likely 

 that all the Cyprian queens I now have 

 have mated with Italian drones. It 

 will take 2 or 8 years to tell the rela- 

 tive merits of the two races. 



A. W. Windhorst. 



Ferguson, Mo., Aug. 9, 1881. 



The Causes of Loss in Winter.— Bees 



have done remarkably well here since 

 the first blossoms in the spring until 

 within the last 2 weeks. The dry 

 weather at present will seriously af- 

 fect the fall crop of honey. I have 

 thought of saying something about 

 the cause of severe losses last winter, 

 but so many have hit the point it is 

 hardly worth while. The long con- 

 tinued cold with poor honey is about 

 all that can be said. I think poor 

 honey the main trouble. In some 

 cases the honey soured in the combs ; 

 good rich honey will not do that. We 

 had the same trouble 9 years ago, 

 when one of my neighbors lost 72 col- 

 onies in an above-ground cellar, where 

 he had previously wintered success- 

 fully. The honey and pollen soured, 

 and foamed out of the cells. 



L. C. Whiting. 

 East Saginaw, Mich., Aug. 4, 1881. 



Kingbirds. — Before we commence a 

 war of extermination on these birds 

 we should be sure that they do more 

 harm than good. We recently saw a 

 kingbird alight on the dead limb of a 

 cherry tree and then tly off and catch 

 a rose-bug, which it brought back, 

 and ate a part of it and dropped the 

 rest. It kept this up for some time. 

 We watched it awhile, and counted 

 over 50 rose-bugs that it caught. There 

 were bees Hying to and from their 

 hives under the trees, but I did not 

 see it catcli one. If the kingbirds 

 would do nothing more than to keep 

 the rose-bugs thinned out, so that we 

 could do away with poisoning and 

 picking them off by hand, to save our 

 fruit, vines, trees, etc., from its rav- 

 ages, we might well spare a few thou- 

 sand bees, if the birds want them. I 

 think the time spent and money for 

 powder and shot to kill birds with, 

 costs more than the damage they do 

 to the bees. W. C. Jemison. 



Natick,Mass., Aug. 3, 1881. 



Half a Crop of Honey.— Bees did 

 well in Jasper county early in the sea- 

 son, but a local drouth has cut the 

 honey crop in two ; half a crop is all 

 that can be reported. From 13 colo- 

 nies, mostly light in the spring, I have 

 taken 405 pounds— 100 pounds 2-pound 

 sections; the balance extracted. They 

 still have honey enough to winter if 

 they hold their own from this time 

 until winter. M. Leidy. 



Carthage, Mo., Aug. 4, 1881. 



Our Experience with Cyprian Bees. — 



We want to get rid of them as fast as 

 possible. It is impossible to control 

 them. When their anger is aroused 

 you cannot get them quiet ; smoke is 

 useless, unless you put sulphur in the 

 smoker. My son opened a Cyprian 

 colony at one of our apiaries ; they 

 stung every animal around the apiary, 

 ducks, chickens, etc. They went inside 



the house to sting the good woman, 

 who was quietly sitting in her chair. 

 You cannot look in front of a Cyprian 

 colony without being assailed ; you 

 cannot move a block at the entrance 

 without 5 or 10 bees darting to your 

 face, like sparks from fireworks. 

 While extracting, my son received 

 hundreds of stings from them. We 

 do not want any more such bees, even 

 if they were better than Italian bees 

 — and this is not proven to be the case. 

 My grandchild was assailed by these 

 furies while standing in front'of one 

 of the hives. I hastened to bring him 

 into the house, and was, of course, 

 followed by a cloud of angry bees. 

 After 15 minutes or more, while we 

 were still bathing his head, we were 

 again assailed by these bees, who were 

 angry at not finding their way through 

 the window. They do not know how 

 to gorge themselves with honey when 

 you smoke them ; they shake their 

 wings, and fly to sting. They act ex- 

 actly as the Egyptian bees do, and are, 

 no doubt, of the same family. 



Chas. Dadant. 

 Hamilton, 111., Aug. 5, 1881. 



Short Crop of Honey. — Had a poor 

 honey season — not more than '4 the 

 crop of last year, on account of long 

 drouth. Bees have a plenty to keep 

 them through the winter, if they make 

 no more. If it rains soon there will 

 be a good crop of bitter honey this fall. 

 E. P. Massey. 



Waco, Texas, Aug. 2, 1881. 



The Mint Family.— 1 send, by mail, 

 a sample of a plant for name. No one 

 here knows what it is. It gives every 

 indication of being a grand honey 

 plant, of long-blooming duration, and 

 we wish the name and its tenacity to 

 the ground given through the Bee 

 Journal. James IIeddon. 



Dowagiac, Mich., Aug. 8, 1881. 



[This is Brunella vulgaris — self-heal 

 or heal-all. It belongs to the mint 

 family. It is a common perennial, 

 about a foot high, or much less on poor 

 land. I have before received it, as a 

 bee plant, as in fact I have a large 

 number of different species of mints, 

 such as catmint, germander, spear- 

 mint, bugleweed, several basils, mar- 

 jorum, thyme, calaminth, balm, pen- 

 nyroyal, horse-balm, sage, bergamot, 

 Scutellaria, horehound, hedge-nettle, 

 motherwort, dead-nettle, and others. 

 The plant above referred to, is consid- 

 ered quite a weed in some meadows 

 and lawns.— Prof. W.J. Beal, Mich- 

 igan Agricultural College.] 



Honey Crop in California. — This is 

 a poor season for honey ; many bee- 

 men will do well if they carry their 

 bees through without a general loss. 

 Very few have extracted any this sea- 

 son, and only in limited quantity. 

 Mrs. Sarah A. Fairchild. 



Pomona, Cal., July 21, 1881. 



Cyprian Bees Handsome and (Jentle. 



—My Cyprian queens from Mr. Jones 

 arrived too late for me to get a correct 

 idea of their qualities this season. 

 They are, most certainly, the prettiest 

 bees I have seen, and as gentle as any 

 to handle. Chas. F. Mutii. 



Cincinnati, Aug. 10, 1881. 



The Honey Harvest. — The very hot 

 weather of the past week culminated, 

 last night, in a terrible wind-storm, 



followed by a light shower. For 2 

 days the thermometer reached 102 in 

 the shade. Notwithstanding the long- 

 continued hot weather, honey has 

 been coming in quite steadily. My 

 colonies that have been run for comb 

 honey have averaged about 46 pounds 

 each, of the very best quality of clo- 

 ver honey. I think that they would 

 nearly have doubled this if ( had not 

 "divided the colonies" at the begin- 

 ning of the clover harvest. My in- 

 crease will be about 300 per cent., 

 nearly all by division. With plenty 



of rain we will have quite a long fall 

 harvest of golden rod, etc. The 

 Weekly is indispensable. 



Harry G. Burnet. 

 Blairstown, Iowa, Aug. 6, 1881. 



Basswood, Bee-House, etc.— When 

 is the right time to plant basswood, 

 and how should it be cultivated ? The 



forests on the creeks are being cut 

 away, and there is none on the Missis- 

 sippi bottoms. I will give a descrip- 

 tion of my bee-house, in which I have 

 wintered successfully for (i or 7 years. 

 Last winter I lost 3 colonies — one a 

 nucleus, one starved, and one with 

 plenty of honey. The house is 10x16 

 feet, by 10 feet high ; studding 2x8 

 inches; lined with the cheapest lum- 

 ber ; outside boarded up and down ; 

 space of 8 inches filled with sawdust ; 

 6-inch square ventilator in north and 

 southend, just above the floor; floor 

 12 inches above the ground ; filled be- 

 low with sawdust; one ventilator in 

 the center ; ceiled with cheap lumber, 

 filled in with sawdust, and covered 

 with cheap shingles; door filled. The 

 house is also very handy for summer 

 use. I commenced this spring with 2 

 colonies, and now have 9. Success to 

 the Bee Journal. J. S. Jackson. 

 Keithsburg, 111., July 24, 1881. 



[Basswood or linden (Tilia Ameri- 

 cana) is indigenous to a large portion 

 of the North American continent ; 

 growing, often, to a very large size, 

 and vieing with other forest trees in 

 height. It is quite hardy, and grows 

 readily and thriftily from the seed. 



Leaf ami Illussoins of Basswood. 



We have heard of its blooming and 

 secreting honey in 6 years alter plant- 

 ing. The seeds should be sown in 

 drills and cultivated for one year, then 

 transplanted, setting from 10 to 14 feet 

 apart each way. It prefers the prox- 

 imity to water-courses, bottom-lands, 

 and gravelly soils in which water 

 stands near the surface the whole sea- 

 son through. It would be most satis- 

 factory to transplant yearling seed- 

 lings from the bottom-lands. It pos- 

 sesses a magnificent foliage, and is a 

 great favorite with the bees. — Ed.] 



Bobbing, a Fine Art. — Taking ev- 

 erything into consideration, we are 

 having the poorest honey .season for 

 years past. The season was good from 

 the middle of May until June 20, about 

 4 weeks. Our bees were not strong 

 enough at the time to do much in the 

 way of surplus. First, too much 

 rain, then excessive hot weather— 106° 

 in the shade was not uncommon. To 

 sum it up in a few words, rain, heat. 

 and drouth has shortened our honey 

 season at least 4 weeks. The drouth 

 still continues at this writing (Aug. 9) 

 and we have bees by the bushel to con- 

 sume the winter stores, and to prac- 

 tice the art of robbing. Cyprian bees 

 are no "sneak theives," they just walk 

 over the dead and the dying like l!o- 

 man soldiers shod with iron. We hope 

 to civilize them, bye.-and-bye. 



(i. W. ItKMAKKlC. 



Christiausburg, Ky., Aug. 5, 1881. 



Immense Yield of Honey from Bass- 

 wood.— The basswood bloom closed 

 with July, and it lias produced one 

 of the largest yields of honey I ever 

 knew. I have 106 colonies in good 

 condition. M. S. Snow. 



Osakis, Minn. 



Honey Crop Flush. — The honey crop 

 is Hush in this locality. The flow of 

 honey from the linden was fair, and 

 from white clover it was excellent. 

 J. YanDeusen. 



Sprout Brook, N.Y. 



Short Crop of Honey in California. 



—The honey crop of this State will be 

 short this year. The Weekly Bee 

 Journal is very much appreciated 

 here in California. The universal re- 

 port is : "I like it even better than I 

 thought I should." (Jo on with your 

 improvements; we. out here, will be 

 fully satisfied with your excellent 

 judgment. J. 1). Enas. 



Napa, Cal. 



Bees Booming. — Bees were booming 

 during July,— all else was at a stand- 

 still. W. P. Henderson. 



Murfreesboro, Tenn. 



The Queen's Marriage Flight. — I 



saw a queen and drone together a few 

 days ago. When I first saw them they 

 looked to me like a small ball of bees, 

 moving in the air. They were not 

 over 10 feet high, gradually coining to 

 the earth ; they lodged on a weed that 

 had been cut down and was leaning 

 against a fence rail, and separated ; 

 the drone flew to the right and the 

 queen to the left. What I saw took 

 place in less than a minute. Our honey 

 yield was not large here, although it 

 was the best honey season for years. 

 Bees were too much reduced in num- 

 bers to gather and make it profitable 

 to their keepers. J. T. Wilson. 

 Mortonsville, Ky. 



Bee-Keeping Does Pay Better Than 

 Farming. — About 60 per cent, of the 

 bees died in this neighborhood last 

 winter; I lost 1 out of 9, all in box 

 hives on their summer stands unpro- 

 tected. They have now increased, by 

 natural swarming, to 29. I have 7 of 

 them in movable frame hives. I do 

 not know anything about foundation, 

 extractors, or anything else concern- 

 ing bees, but if I do not get the en- 

 thusiasm all taken out of me I in- 

 tend to learn. My bees are all blacks; 

 they are always hunting for something 

 to quarrel with, but I could manage 

 them without smoke, if I only under- 

 stood what to do for them. There 

 has been a continual How of honey 

 here since the 1st of May, and I have 

 a good location for an apiary. If I 

 understood the business I think it 

 would pay better than farming, or 

 anything that I could do. 



Blake Baird. 



Cush, I'enn., July 16, lssl. 



Cheap Fares.— On the 5th of Oct. 



(the day the Convention meets) the 

 Cotton States Exposition opens in At- 

 lanta, Ga.; round trip fare from Chi- 

 cago to Atlanta will be J 15. Tickets 

 good, 1 suppose, till the close of the 

 Exposition, in December. Now, you 

 see, the bee-keepers in the North and 

 West can have no excuse, on the score 

 of high fare, from attending the Bee- 

 Keepers' Convention. On the same 

 ticket they can layover at Lexington, 

 for a lew days. Just think ! only §15 

 round trip from Chicago to Atlanta, 

 via. Lexington. .1. P. |[. Brown. 

 Augusta, Ga., Aug. 6, 1881. 



Too Wet or Too Dry.— In May and 



June it was too wet, now it is too dry 

 for honey gathering. Bees are storing 

 a little from buckwheat on the morn- 

 ings when we have any dew. 



A. J. Adkinson. 

 Winterset, Iowa, Aug. 9, 1881. 



I®" The Southwestern Wisconsin 

 Bee-Keepers' Assocjation will hold its 

 next meeting in Platteville, Grant Co., 

 Wis., Nov. 30, 1881. 



N. E. France, Sec, Platteville, Wis. 



