60 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Bees in Good Condition, etc.— P. B. 



Thaxton, Blue Springs, k3 Mo., on Jan. 

 18, 1886, says : 



In the fall of 1883 I bought colo- 

 nies of bees. I have held my own 

 very well, having now 120 colonies in 

 apparently good condition. I have 

 made but little money in the business, 

 still I am not discouraged. I have 

 read Prof. A. .7. Cook's and Henry 

 Alley's works on bee-keeping, ■which I 

 consider very good, but the Ajieki- 

 CAN Bee jduKNAL has been worth 

 more to me than everything else. I 

 could not do without it. The article 

 on page 6, by Mr. G. W. Demaree,is 

 worth money to me. I am through 

 feeding sugar syrup to my bees. All 

 who have not done so, should read 

 ■ that article, and then work in the 

 interest of the honey market, and, as 

 Mr. Demaree says, " Let the sugar 

 market take care of itself.'' 



Bee-Keeping in W. Virginia.— W. 



B. Zinn, Holbrook, xjW. Va., on Jan. 

 12, 1886, writes : 



Last spring we had a fine apple 

 bloom here in W. Virginia, and our 

 bees did finely while it lasted. They 

 gathered some honey and got a good 

 start in brood-rearing. After that 

 was gone they had scarcely anything 

 for a while. We had no white clover 

 bloom. The past summer was too dry 

 for bees to gather very much honey. 

 We had some red clover that the 

 Italians worked on. The black-gum 

 bloom was good and the bees made 

 good use of it. The linden-bloom was 

 pretty fair, so the most of the old 

 colonies gathered enough to winter 

 on and some little to spare. I had 21 

 colonies last May ; during the season 

 I had 9 natural swarms and I made 13 

 nuclei. I sold 4 colonies and 4 nuclei, 

 which left me 3.") colonies. My swarms 

 and nuclei did not gather any honey 

 to winter on. In October I commenced 

 to prepare them for winter. I doubled 

 them back to 2-5 colonies, and have 

 them all in chaff hives with chaff 

 cushions on them. They were all in 

 nice condition up to the past week. 

 The bee- business has been pretty dull 

 here for the last 2 seasons ; some lost 

 their bees last winter, and last sum- 

 mer being so dry, some have become 

 discouraged. I winter my bees on the 

 summer stands. 



Heavy Frosts in Florida.— Jno. Y. 



Detwiler, New Smyrna,© Fla., on 

 Jan. 11, 1886, says : 



The heavy frosts in this vicinty 

 have utterly ruined our prospects for 

 the coming crop of mangrove honey. 

 The mercury is reported by various 

 parties as being as low as 10^ to 20° 

 above zero. Fish have been frozen 

 by the thousands, green turtles are 

 floating on the water perfectly be- 

 numbed, and oranges are frozen as 

 hard as chunks of ice. Tliere has 

 been nothing like it since 18.3.5, when 

 the mangrove was entirely annihi- 

 lated. On the Peninsula the mercury 

 was 20^ above zero. I will report 

 later, as to the extent of damage, 

 when this '" cold snap " moderates.' 



Amiability of Italian Bees.— Peter 



Billing, Pawnee City, cxNeb, on Jan. 

 1.5, 1886, says : 



I am somewhat in darkness concern- 

 ing the amiability ot Italian bees. I 

 have often heard and read that 

 Italians were more gentle than the 

 common bee, but with me this has so 

 far proven the reverse. About 7 years 

 ago I began with the common bee, 

 and soon I could hive and handle 

 them without much smoke or protec- 

 tion ; but after a few years they be- 

 came hybridized, and were ugly 

 things to handle. So I concluded to 

 Italianize them ; but the bad temper 

 has by no means subsided. They 

 have their 3 distinct yellow bands, are 

 good honey-gatherers, fast to increase, 

 and I might say moth-proof ; but woe 

 unto the man that jars the hive ov 

 comb when manipulating, or crushes 

 a bee, or blows his breath among 

 them ! for sometimes, seemingly with- 

 out any cause, they will dash forth 

 and attack one furiously. I would 

 like to have some light thrown upon 

 this subject through the Journal. 



[The bees are evidently cross hy- 

 brids ; not Italians.— Ed.] 



Decreasing Breeding, etc.— C. P. 

 Dadant, Hamilton,K3 Ills., writes : 



On page 25, Mr. C. W. Dayton 

 seems to be of opinion that the breed- 

 ing should be decreased 37 days be- 

 fore the end of the honey harvest. I 

 wish to warn the reader against too 

 early a decrease of breeding. First, 

 young bees are needed in the hive for 

 nurses, comb-builders, etc.. till the 

 end of the harvest, or else older bees 

 will have to remain at home in their 

 place. Again, apiarists never know 

 the exact date of the beginning, much 

 less of the ending, of the honey crop, 

 until it has taken place. It is safe to 

 say that the apiarist who will try to 

 forsee the date of the closing of the 

 crop 37 days ahead, and decreases the 

 breeding in anticipation, will, as a 

 rule, be unsuccessful. Again, in 

 Illinois and many other States there 

 are two crops— the clover crop and the 

 summer or fall crop. Mr. O. N. Bald- 

 win mentions them on page 24, but he 

 thinks that they are shorter than the 

 real average of "the past 20 years. The 

 date of these crops is not fixed, and 

 it is very difficult to be always pre- 

 pared just in time, unless the bee- 

 keeper remains fully prepared through 

 the season. To sum up ray views: 

 Keep the colonies strong at all times, 

 but have them the strongest during 

 the flow of honey. 



Red Clover Italians, etc.— Isaac 

 M. Myers, Millersburg,5 Ind., on 

 Jan. 12, 1886, writes : 



I purchased a colony of red clover 

 Italian bees last spring, and I find 

 that they are very quiet bees, and 

 the honey is nicer than any that I had 

 ir 1884. I got 5 colonies from the one 

 weak one. About half of the bees of 

 the colony were dead when I received 

 them, and I am wintering colonies 

 of tlie red clover Italian bees. I think 



that we should work to rear a bee 

 that has a long proboscis, as well as 

 for purity. Their honey is very clear 

 and thick, and tastes nearly the same 

 as bumble-bee honey, which is gath- 

 ered from red clover and thistles. I 

 find that they work largely on red 

 clover. I will give my cure for bee- 

 stings. I have been stung a great 

 many times, and it swells on me 

 nearly like a rattle-snake bite. I did 

 use tobacco ou it to draw the poison 

 out at first, but one day I had some 

 alum in my pocket and I thought I 

 would try it ; I found that it did not 

 swell hardly any after I wet the alum 

 and rubbed the place where it was 

 stung. 



Honey and Beeswax Market. 



Office of the American Bee Journal, i 

 Monday, 10 a. m., Jan. 35, 1886. f 



The following are the latest quota- 

 tions for honey and beeswax received 

 up to this hour : 



CHICAGO. 



HONEY.— There is an easier tone to the comb 

 honey market, and prices are fully one cent per 

 pound less than at last quotations. 15c. being the 

 price for white comb honey in l-Ib. sections, and 

 some extra nice brings liic. This is owing to small 

 lots coming into different commission houses, and 

 all being eager to sell, they underbid regular honey 

 houses in order to do so. Extracted honey brings 

 6@Hc. per lb. 



BBESWAX.-24826C. 



B. A. BtjRNBTT. 161 South Water St. 



NEW YORK. 



HONEY.— The market for honey continues dull, 

 and prices are ruling lower; however, if the cold 

 weather continues, it may improve the triide in a 

 short time. We quote us follows : Fancy white 

 combin ] -lb. paper cartons. I3(ail4c.; the same in 

 1-Ib. glassed or unglassed sections, I2@l3c.; the 

 same in 2-lb. glassed sections, ii^@llc., and in un- 

 glassed 2-lbs.. Il@li2c. Buckwheat honey in 2-lb. 

 sections, glassed, ijc,; in 1-lb. sections, glassed 

 or unglassed, 10@ric. E.xtracted— white clover 

 eJ^fS'Hc.; buckwheat, .'ihjfsifi^o. 



BEESWAX.-Prime yellow, 26@28c. 



MCCA0L & HILDRETH BROS., 34 HudSOn St. 



ST. LOUIS. 



HONEY.— The market is quiet and the demand 

 light just now. We quote prices as follows:- 

 Choice comb honey. 10@l2c. E.vtracted. in bar- 

 rels, 4J^'g„5c. E-vtra fancy of bright color and in 

 No. 1 prickages, M advance on above prices, 



BEESWAX.— Firm at 22Hc. for prime. 



D. G. TUTT & CO., Commercial St. 



CINCINNATI. 



HONEY.— There is a very slow demand from 

 manufacturers, for extracted honey, with a large 

 supply on the market, while the demand is very 

 good for clover honey in square glass jars. Prices 

 for all qualities are low and range from 4(&8c. a lb. 

 Supply and demand is fair for choice comb honey 

 in small sections, whicli brings 112<*15C. per lb. 



BEESWAX.— Good yellow is in good demand, 

 and arrivals are fair, at 20(S.-J2c. per lb. 



C. F. MUTH & Sun. Freeman & Central Ave. 



CLEVELAND. 



HONEY.— The market is not quite as active as it 

 has been, owing, no doubt, to many attractions of 

 the Holiday Season. Best white, 1-lb. sections 

 sell at 15c., and 2-lb3. for l.3(gil4c., but there Is not 

 80 much sale for the latter. Second grade honey 

 is dull at 12®i:3c. Old white, 10{3il2c. Extracted, 

 liaSc. per lb. 



BEESWAX.— Very scarce at 22@25c. 



A. C. Kendel. 115 Ontario Street. 



KANSAS CITY. 



HONEY.— Sales are extremely light and prices 

 are very low. Choice comb honey in 1-lb. sections 

 brings i4<g)15c.; 2.1bs.. I2®13c. Dark fall honey I 

 to 2 cents less. Extracted honey is very dull and of 

 slow sale. We had to unload a lot of very flne ex- 

 tracted honey this week at 5c., and stocks continue 

 to accumulate. 



BEESWAX.— Scarce and higher— 22®2.'ic. 



CT.EMONS.CLOON & CO., cor. 4th & Walnut. 



BOSTON. 



HONEY.— It Is selling very well hut prices are 

 very low, and we are often obliged to shade our 

 prices in order to make rates. We quote comb 

 honey in l-lb. sections at 14@16c., and 2-lb. sec- 

 tions at 12@14c. Extracted. 6(3J8c. 



BBESWAX.-30 cts. per lb. 



Blake & kiplet. 57 Chatham Street. 



