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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sept. 21, 





Amount of Honey Needed for Winter. 



— I have 6 colonies — 3 are Italians and 

 3 are hybrids. The Italians done a 

 great deal the best. Flease answer: 

 How many lbs. of honey are plenty 

 for a colony to winter on in the cellar, 

 and how much on the summer stand ? 

 Chas. A. Pontius. 

 Canton, O., Sept. 8, 1881. 



[For an ordinary winter, in the cel- 

 lar, 20 to 2-5 pounds shouldbe sufficient ; 

 on the summer stand, 25 to 30 pounds. 

 In either case, 5 pounds more is better. 

 —Ed.] 



California Honey Crop.— In the Bee 



Journal of Aug. 24 (just at hand), 

 you quote from the San Francisco 

 Examiner, the information that south- 

 ern California will have an average 

 crop of honey this year. This is not 

 so ; as not one in ten of the bee-men 

 will have a pound of surplus. We 

 were very fortunate in securing about 

 !)00 lbs. from 140 colonies, but will 

 have to feed this winter. 



Holmes & Scott. 

 Los Angeles, Cal., Aug. 30, 1881. 



Maine Items.— Inclosed find speci- 

 men of plant which the bees work on 

 early and late. It grows in my bee- 

 yard with the spider plant and Simp- 

 son honey plant. Although in full 

 bloom, I have seen no bees on either 

 of them, but plenty of hornets on both. 

 What is the matter with the highly 

 extolled spider and honey plants V 

 There is doubtless honey in them ; I 

 have seen the drop of honey in the 

 spider plant, and as the wasps are on 

 the other, there must be honey in it. 

 I would like the name of the seecimen 



1 send. We started a bee-keepers as- 

 sociation — the first in Maine — called 

 the Northeastern Bee Association. 

 The yearly meeting is held the second 

 Tuesday in February. We have held 

 three quarterly sessions, which were 

 very interesting. Bees have done well 

 here this season. I started work last 

 spring with 26 colonies, run them for 

 honey all I could, have had 10 natural 

 and 4 artificial swarms. My bees are 

 mostly blacks— having 3 Cyprian and 



2 Italian queens. I shall have about 

 1,000 pounds. Lucian French. 



Sangerville, Maine, Sept. 3, 1881. 



[ Mr. French sends an aster. I sup- 

 pose the reason that the bees did not 

 visit the figwort and spider plant was 

 that they found something they liked 

 better. The bees worked well on our 

 Rocky Mountain bee plant until fall 

 bloom, when they left it altogether. — 

 A. J. Cook.] 



Great Trotting Week at Lexington. 



— Believing, as I do, that many bee- 

 keepers are interested in the best 

 strains of horses, as well as bees, 1 

 take pleasure in announcing through 

 the Bee Journal that the Fall Trot- 

 ting Races commence here on Tues- 

 day. Oct. 4, and continue four days, so 

 that those who attend the North Amer- 

 ican Bee-Keepers' Convention, and 

 desire to see the best strains of Ken- 

 tucky horses trotting on their " native 

 heath," will have an opportunity to do 

 so. The prospects for a large and en- 

 thusiastic attendance at the National 

 Convention are very flattering. The 

 following are among the most promi- 

 nent from a distance who have signi- 

 fied their intention to be present : D. 

 A. Jones, of Canada, the " Bee King 

 of the Islands," I might dub him ; Dr. 

 J. P. H. Brown and lady, of Augusta, 

 Ga.; Mrs. Frances Dunham, of Wis- 

 consin ; C. C. Coffinberrv, of Chicago, 

 111.; Chas. F. Muth,of Cincinnati. O.; 

 and Mrs. L. Harrison, Peoria, 111. I 

 should be pleased to hear from others. 

 W. Williamson, 

 Vice President for Kentucky. 

 Lexington, Ky. 



Autumn Honey.— The present ex- 

 ceptionally dry season, in strong con- 

 trast to the very wet season a year 

 ago, shows clearly that a dry season is 

 far less detrimental to the apiarist, 

 than a wet one. Last year we got 

 very little honey, while this year we 

 have a large yield of beautiful autumn 

 honey. We have increased from 5 to 

 12. and shall get from 500 to 600 lbs. of 

 honey. A. J. Cook. 



Lansing, Mich., Sept. 10, 1881. 



Well Sold. — I have just sold a part 

 of our crop of honey at 22 cts., put up 

 in our patent caps. I have sold to the 

 same party for the last 3 years. 



J. E. Moore. 



Byron, N. Y., Sept. 10, 1881. 



[That is a good sale. It is always 

 desirable to keep, as well as to get cus- 

 tomers. It is so much mere pleasant 

 to deal with those we know and have 

 had experience with. — Ed.] 



Those Italian Bees in Australia. — 



I have transferred the 2 colonies of 

 Italians received from Mr. A. H. New- 

 man, of Chicago, on July 2d. I found 

 in both hives the combs in the center 

 frames had been forced sidewise from 

 their original frames, in such a man- 

 ner as to lead to the frame adjoining 

 being attached to the comb intended 

 for its neighbor. I transferred them 

 without separation, and without the 

 long-coveted satisfaction of the sight 

 of an Italian queen. I shall eventually 

 separate them, when I can do so with- 

 out danger of robbing. The number 

 of bees in each colony is small. They 

 fly briskly every day, a few returning 

 with pollen. It seems to me that the 

 damage to the combs must have oc- 

 curred on the journey by rail from 

 Chicago to San Francisco, when they 

 must have been exposed to more rough 

 usage than on the sea voyage. I can- 

 not but think that it would have been 

 an improvement, if the combs had 

 been secured to the frames by wire or 

 other fasteners. S. MacDonnell. 

 Sydney, Australia, Aug. 8, 1881. 



[We are informed the weather was 

 excessively hot when the bees were 

 shipped from Chicago, and presume 

 the combs softened before reaching 

 San Francisco. Of course the colonies 

 were depleted of all the field-workers 

 possible before shipping, and if they 

 reached their distant destination with 

 bees enough to cover three frames 

 each, they done remarkably well. As 

 they were bringing in pollen on the 8th 

 ult. (which is pretty positive proof that 

 they have commenced breeding), they 

 will now soon breed up. We think 

 wooden binders much better for fas- 

 tening in combs for shipping than the 

 wires, for various reasons.— Ed.] 



Drone Eggs from Young (jueens. — In 



addition to the editorial reply to Mr. 

 A. B. McLavy, page 292 of the Bee 

 Journal for Sept. 14, 1 would say that 

 the young queens often lay drone eggs 

 even in worker cells for the first few 

 days of their laying. They do not have 

 ready control of the muscles which 

 control the spermatheca, and so the 

 required sperm cells are not forced on 

 to the eggs. Young birds and insects 

 often have to try awhile before the 

 muscles of flight will work, so this 

 lack of power in the young queen is 

 not anomalous. A. J. Cook. 



Lansing, Mich. 



Better than Expected.— When I last 

 wrote you (in August), the probabili- 

 ties were that I would have to feed 

 my bees ; but since then the honey 

 yield has been better. I will now se- 

 cure from my Italians about an aver- 

 age of 30 lbs. of comb honey from each 

 stand, and will leave the bees very 

 strong for winter. My 1 colony of 

 black bees finally died. They were 

 not worth their trouble. 



David Higbee. 



Avoca, Iowa, Sept. 14, 1881. 



Light Basswood Yield.— I had 45 col- 

 onies of bees in the best condition of 

 any I ever had during basswood bloom, 

 yet I only obtained about one barrel of 

 basswood honey ; it rained continu- 

 ously. I have but 1,200 lbs. for the 

 season's work. Jas. E. Cady. 



Medford, Minn., Sept. 8, 1881. 



Another of H. A. Burch's Customers. 



— I am one of the unfortunate ones in 

 the H. A. Burch & Co. swindle. As 

 they were highly recommended by Jas. 

 Heddon, I supposed them to be all 

 right, and sent them $5.75 for 6 queens 

 on April 25th, queens to be shipped on 

 or before June 20th, or the money to 

 be returned. I do not receive either 

 money or answer to my letters. Would 

 it not be best, for all who wish, to join 

 in a lawsuit against said firm, get a 

 judgment, then keep an officer to 

 watch them, and as fast as anything 

 shows itself to fasten upon it and sell 

 it to satisfy such judgment V It strikes 

 me he would rather settle up than have 

 a judgment of this sort, with contin- 

 gent expenses, over his head. 



Jas. E. Cady. 

 Medford, Minn., Sept. 8, 1881. 



[The above letter does serious injus- 

 tice to Mr. Heddon, who, as we under- 

 stand the matter, never endorsed H. 

 A. Burch & Co., nor their method of 

 transacting business, but did compli- 

 ment them on some bees which he pur- 

 chased from them, and gave them per- 

 mission to use his name that far only. 

 We fail to see any good that can be 

 derived from bringing suit and obtain- 

 ing judgment, if H. A. Burch £■ Co. 

 have nothing subject to execution, as 

 the costs of suit would have to be ad- 

 vanced by the creditors, thus " throw- 

 ing good money after the bad." If, 

 instead of being unfortunate, this firm 

 have been preparing to defraud their 

 customers, then ef course they took 

 precautions to secure their property 

 against execution , and the fact of their 

 referring their victims to Mr. A. I. 

 Root for payment would seem to indi- 

 cate that Mr. Burch considers it can- 

 not be collected from him by any legal 

 process. — Ed.] 



Bees Have Done Well.— My bees have 

 done very well, considering the season. 

 They have not gathered as much 

 honey this year as they did last year, 

 although those that did not swarm 

 did well. There is a general com- 

 plaint of bees not gathering much 

 honey all through this section of coun- 

 try. They swarmed too much to lay 

 up much honey. Where white clover 

 was plenty and close at hand, and 

 where bees had proper care, they have 

 done very well. Thos. Lashbrook. 



Waverly, Iowa, Sept 12, 1881. 



Bees and Honey in Georgia. —The in- 

 terest in bee culture here is not what 

 it ought to be, and what it would be 

 if intelligently pursued. I have sold 

 all my comb honey in 1 lb. packages 

 this year, for 20 cts.. and extracted at 

 15 cts., and it was spring honey at 

 that, which is always dark. The bees 

 are now storing honey from cotton 

 bloom and goldenrod, which makes 

 the finest honey we get. It is this 

 honey I expect to exhibit at our State 

 fair. I am sowing largely of melilot 

 this fall, and I hope to be able to give 

 a favorable report from the experi- 

 ment, when it begins to yield honey. 

 If we can only get something that will 

 be to us what white clover is to the 

 northern and western honey producer, 

 we should have the best country in 

 the world for bees and honey. We 

 do not know anything about the prob- 

 lem which so vexes the bee-keepers in 

 the colder sections — wintering bees. 

 I never lost a colony from winter 

 trouble in a movable frame hive, as I 

 can feed, if necessary, any day of the 

 year, and I always try to keep in- 

 formed as to the condition of every 

 colony. Your criticism on Mr. Root's 



proposition to make good losses from 

 delinquent advertisers, is to the point. 

 Of course publishers are expected to 

 exercise proper caution, but there, I 

 think the responsibility ends. I think 

 that an honest man would scorn to ac- 

 cept from a publisher what another 

 owed him. F. N. Wilder. 



Forsyth, Ga., Sept. 2, 1881. 



Three Hundred Pounds from One Col- 

 ony.— My bees have done well for me 

 this season. I shall realize from one 

 colony 300 pounds of comb honey, of 

 a fine quality. My importing has been 

 a very great benefit to me. 



G. H. Adams. 



North Nassau, N. Y., Sept. 10,1881. 



The Bee and Honey Show at Balti- 

 more, Md.— My "old reliable" bee 

 hive carried off the first premium ; the 

 society's gold medal. My " molded 

 foundation," 1st premium, $3.00; 

 Bingham smoker, 1st do ; best colony 

 of bees (Italians), 1st do.; best collec- 

 tion of bees, 1st do.; best crate of 

 honey, 1st do.; best 10 lbs. of comb 

 honey, 1st do. ; best collection of honey, 

 1st do.; best display of honey and bees, 

 1st premium special. A clean victory. 

 I turned loose 3 colonies on the 

 grounds within 10 feet of horses, and 

 in the midst of a crowd of 13,000 per- 

 sons, and handled them, removing all 

 the combs, showing them the queen, 

 and without dress, smoke, oranything 

 of any notion to quiet them ; not a 

 person reported stung. 



Chas. H. Lake. 



Baltimore, Md., Sept. 12, 1881. 



Good Honey Crop.— We have 11,000 

 lbs. of honey (most all white), and an 

 increase of 143 colonies from 156 in the 

 spring. Crop is cut short on account 

 of severe drouth. Geo. W. House. 



Fayetteville, N. Y., Sept. 12, 1881. 



Cyprian Bees.— I will give a little of 

 my experience with Cyprian bees. I 

 sent to a New York queen dealer last 

 year, for one of the first queens which 

 came from Cyprus, and the dealer 

 said he sent me a choice one. I 

 thought best to test her before breed- 

 ing from her. Lo ! after testing her, I 

 find her progeny to be the best fight- 

 ers that I ever saw. If the Cyprians 

 are all like mine, I would advise bee- 

 keepers to let them alone, or if they 

 have them, to get rid of them as soon 

 as possible. I am very glad that I did 

 not let them mix with my Italians. 

 I sent the queen back to the queen 

 dealer to-day. He can do as he likes 

 with her. M. II. Milster. 



Frohna, Mo., Sept. 13, 1881. 



A Ton of Comb Honey from 35 Colo- 

 nies. — Last spring my bees were re- 

 duced to 35 colonies ; they increased 

 by natural swarming to 65; they have 

 done very well this season. I have 

 taken off about a ton of surplus honey 

 in sections, and 6 pound boxes. The 

 local demand for honey is good ; it 

 sells readily for 18 to 20 cents. 



L. F. Biglow. 



Brooklyn, Wis., Sept. 14, 1881. 



Bees in New Jersey.— My bees have 

 done very well this summer. Last 

 fall I had 54 colonies, and by May 1 , 

 I had lost them all but 14. I increased 

 to 37 by July 1. I only ran 1 hive 

 for box honey, and that gave me 26 

 lbs. of comb honey, and 45 of extrac- 

 ted. I intend to let the rest have all 

 they have gathered. We have had no 

 rain since July 4, and everything is 

 dying here. The bees today are gath- 

 ering a little honey from goldenrod, 

 and that will not last long if we do 

 not have rain shortly. Success to the 

 Bee Journal. 



Joseph W. Riker. 



Mont Clair, N. J., Sept. 8, 1881. 



Yirgil's Bee Lore.— Virgil says in 

 his Georgics, that the honey bee often 

 takes up stones or ballast on a stormy 

 day. Is this true now r Student. 



Agricultural College, Guelph, Out. 



[I doubt if it was ever true.— Wm. 

 F. Clarke.] 



