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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



dry, so that scarcely a bee could be seen 

 about it; then I would pour water in it, 

 and the bees were soon about ic as thick 

 as ever. To prevent bees from drowning, 

 I have used chips, clover chaff, straw, 

 boards with holes in them, and allowed 

 to float on the water ; but I have also 

 tried- corn-cobs, and like them best. 



This part of the State has become so 

 drouthy that there are few locations in 

 which it will pay to keep bees, or at 

 least to trust to bee-keeping as a busi- 

 ness. For years I have been trying to 

 find some part of the United States 

 where skill and attention would give a 

 fair honey crop every year ; but so far 

 I have not been able to find such a 

 country. Here it hardly pays to keep 

 even a few for table honey, much less 

 for market. I do not think there are 

 over one-fourth of the colonies kept that 

 were here ten years ago. If the seasons 

 do not improve, there will soon be no 

 bees here except in a few river bottom 

 situations. 



I regret to be forced to say this, for 

 there is no pursuit more congenial to 

 my taste than bee-keeping. 



Wm. Camm. 



Murrayville, Ills., Aug. 9, 1892. 



Lots of Honey from Buckwheat. 



My bees have done very well this sum- 

 mer, and are now getting lots of honey 

 from buckwheat. G. W. Bell. 



Bell's Landing, Pa., Aug. 16, 1892. 



Bee-Keeping Near San Francisco Bay. 



This is the first year I have done any- 

 thing among the bees for five or six 

 years. Ours is not considered a good 

 location for bees — it is too near the 

 coast, being 3 miles from San Francisco 

 Bay, and about 12 or 13 miles from the 

 Pacific Ocean. 



The finest part of our crop was partly 

 extracted, when we received word that 

 our brother Andrew was sick. He was, 

 for a number of years, in the employ of 

 the Government, in the Pension Depart- 

 ment at Washington, D. C. After three 

 weeks' sickness, he died on June 2. He 

 was a young man of much promise, and 

 would in all probability have made his 

 mark in the world. His sickness and 

 death was the cause of our doing nothing 

 among the bees all through June and 

 July. The fruit season was then over, 

 and my two remaining brothers, who 

 are the youngest members of the family, 

 and yet school-boys, were given charge 



of a gang of boys, who were hired to 

 harvest the fruit. 



These brothers I speak of, are inter- 

 ested in the bees with me, and as I had 

 newspaper work to attend to in the 

 neighboring town, only about one-half 

 of the hives were extracted from since 

 June 1. We did not work for comb 

 honey, though a couple of colonies gave 

 us some very nice honey in the sections. 

 In all, we obtained nearly a ton of ex- 

 tracted sweets, and there must be yet 

 500 pounds to throw out of the combs. 



In looking through the hives recently 

 to introduce queens, etc., I found that 

 robber bees were exceedingly numerous. 

 In fact, it was bad to open a hive, for 

 the robber bees soon swarmed around. 

 W. A. Pryal. 



North Temescal, Calif., Aug. 8, 1892. 



Combed and Extracted. 



Some Extra Large Bees. 



Mr. J. P. Murdock, of Florida, writes 

 me that he has some extra large bees, 

 so large that 13 of their worker-cells 

 measure 3 inches, 7 drone-cells 2 inches, 

 and^nore than half the bees fail to pass 

 the ordinary perforated zinc. He says 

 these bees are the result of selection in 

 breeding from an Italian queen imported 

 11 years ago. He has sent me a copy 

 of the Florida Dispatch, containing an 

 account of his experience in getting 

 these bees, and of his discovering their 

 unusual size, and I make the following 

 extract from the article : 



" Last season all who saw my bees 

 would remark, ' what big bees !' This 

 occurred so often that I concluded to 

 test the matter and see how well I had 

 succeeded. So I sent to a number of 

 our bee-men of the North a sample cage, 

 and asked in return a similar favor. In 

 the meantime I rigged up a balance, by 

 which I could weigh to sixteenth grains. 

 By this I found the heaviest dozens 

 went a little more than 23 grains, and 

 the lightest about 17 grains. Now, a 

 dozen of mine went up to thirty -eight and 

 three-sixteenths grains, more than double 

 the size of some I received. Well, it 

 set the parties who saw these big fellows 

 to ' buzzing ' at once, and all wanted to 

 try them. The result is, I have at this 



