THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



267 



leaving plenty of honey iu the hive. 

 We have 14 splendid colonies, and 2 

 weak ones. They are very busy now 

 carrying in honey and pollen. Soft 

 maple is in bloom, and is the best we 

 have ever seen it. Box-elder will be 

 in bloom in a few days. Colonies are 

 very strong, and we look for early 

 swarms. 



Strong Colonies. — Esau Russell, 

 Tiffln,olowa, on April 18, 1886, writes : 



I put my 40 colonies of bees into the 

 cellar on Dec. .5, and took them out 

 on April 8 and 9. Every colony was 

 living and was extra strong. They 

 commenced to carry in pollen imme- 

 diately, but would hot take to meal. 

 They seem to have plenty of natural 

 pollen. The colonies are stronger 

 than I ever saw any in the spring. 

 My cellar is not walled, and I have 

 never found but one dead colony in 

 It since I have kept bees. 



House Wintering of Bees. — W. 

 Mason, Fillmore,*o Ind., on April 16, 



1886, says : 



My bees had a few days about March 

 IS for a flight, and took in some pol- 

 len and stores fed them. I carried my 

 bees to their summer stands on March 

 10. I have rather weak colonies, 2 

 being queenless. I had lost 3 before my 

 last reijort, but I have 26 that are very 

 strong in bees and brood. I like the 

 house-wintering, but there is some- 

 thing to be learned from experience 

 to make it a success. Being at Green- 

 castle, on April 14, 1 visited Mr. A. O. 

 White's apiary ; we examined his 

 bees, and found them in fine condi- 

 tion, 4 being a little short of stores 

 and being fed ; one we noticed in 

 particular was very full of brood with 

 a fine lot of young drones, and almost 

 ready to swarm. The most of his 

 bees were wintered in the cellar. He 

 will try it again. 



Profitable Experience with Bees.— 

 Mrs. J. F. Upton, Bath, ? Maine, on 

 April 18, 1886, writes : 



I had 3 colonies of bees a year ago in 

 March, which I bad wintered in the 

 cellar. I moved 3 miles on March 10, 

 so the bees had to be put out at that 

 time after going so far. I lost a good 

 many in the light snow on their first 

 flight, still they did well, and each 

 colony swarmed in June. I gave 

 away one swarm, leaving five from 

 which I got 17.5 pounds of honey; 

 95 pounds I sold at the house at 25 

 cents a pound ; 40 pounds I gave to 

 friends, and I have now on hand 40 

 pounds more. All of it was in two- 

 poiand boxes, but as nearly every one 

 wanted one-pound boxes,! shall not 

 use any more two-pound boxes. I 

 wintered 4 colonies safely, as the fifth, 

 being in very poor condition in the 

 fall, died ; but as they were nearly all 

 drones, and were in a " Cotton '■ hive 

 I was glad of it, as I wished to get 

 rid of that kind of hive. My cellar 

 was so warm, and the bees so uneasy, 

 that I put them on the summer stands 



early in March. On April 16 I sold a 

 colony for $10, and have two more 

 engaged as soon as they swarm. I 

 like to keep bees, though they sting 

 me often and poison me very badly. 

 I think they have paid their way 

 though ; but of course I am not mak- 

 ing a fortune at the business. My 

 expenses have been light, so there has 

 been some profit. 



Good Prospects.— VV. Frank Storm, 

 Lexington,© Ky., on April 18, 1886, 

 says: 



The loss of bees in this part of 

 Kentucky is fully one-half. There 

 has been almost a clean sweep among 

 the bees of box-hive bee-keepers, but 

 ourpropects for a crop of clover honey 

 is good. 



Bees in their Glory.— S. L. Sher- 

 man, Oskaloosa,9 Iowa, on April 20, 

 1886, writes : 



The weather here for the past two 

 weeks has been warm, and the bees 

 are in their glory. I have now 84 

 colonies out of 86, fall count. The 

 last 2 or 3 mornings the bees have 

 just been a-booming from before sun- 

 up till about 9 a.m. ; then again from 

 about sundown till darkness puts a 

 stop to operations. Can they be work- 

 ing on honey-dew V They come in 

 heavily ladeii, but have no pollen on 

 their legs. Tlie blossoms on the box- 

 elder are the only bloom I can see the 

 bees at work on. Currant and goose- 

 berry are just beginning to bloom. 

 Everything is favorable for a good 

 honey-season. 



P. S. — I have just been out examin- 

 ing the bees, and I find them at work 

 on the soft maple and cotton-wood, 

 which are just coming into leaf, the 

 blossoms having fallen off. I ex- 

 pected to have to feed some, but if 

 this flow continues a few days more I 

 will have to extract. 



When to Put a Section-Case On.— 

 John W. Brockenbrough, Coffee,© 

 Va., on April 14, 1886, asks : 



I had much trouble with my bees 

 sticking the top of the hive to the 

 frames, when I took the section-case 

 off for the winter ; and now, when 

 should I put the section-case on { 

 They also stick the section-case to 

 the frames. Please let me know what 

 I can do to keep them from doing so. 

 I use the Langstroth hive with the 

 Heddon section-case. 



[Put on the cases when! the honey- 

 flow begins. To prevent the brace- 

 comb trouble you mention, use the 

 skeleton, zinc, break-joint honey- 

 board, and proper bee-spaces, a scant 

 % inch.— James Heddon.] 



Bees and Grapes. —H. Sontag, Cuca- 

 monga,o. Calif., writes : 



I have a vineyard about one mile 

 distant from my apiary, sustaining 

 much loss by ground-squirrels and 



quails, but 1 had a notable experience 

 last year about the damage it is said 

 that bees do to the grapes. I usually 

 dry my raisin-grapes in the apiary or 

 by the side of it. I expected a heavy 

 loss of raisins by the bees last season, 

 as it was a dry one ; but I saw less 

 bees working on the grapes than any 

 previous year. The reason was, that 

 I do not remember of seeing one yel- 

 low jacket. These and the quails 

 puncture the berries first, and then 

 the bees of course suck them after 

 that, but not before, as bees are not 

 able to cut the skin of grapes, because 

 their mandibles work like scissors, 

 not like a gimlet or a knife. That 

 is the reason that they are able to 

 cut paper, cloth, etc. 



Killing the Young Bees.— Thos. J. 



Bell, Opelousas,© La., on April 26, 

 1886, writes : 



I have one colony of bees that I 

 cannot tell what is the matter with 

 them. The old bees are killing the 

 young bees, or pulling them out of the 

 hive. They drop on the ground and 

 are unable to fly. The bees of the 

 colony are pure yellow Italians, with 

 a large, beautiful, and very prolific 

 Italian queen. There is plenty of 

 pollen, and the bees are storing honey, 

 and as it is the only colony so affected 

 in the apiary of 100 colonies, I do not 

 know what to make of it. Does any 

 one know why they should kill the 

 young bees ¥ 



Not One Colony Lost.— D. D. Her- 



rick, Libertyville,(5 Ills., on April 18, 

 1886, writes : 



I carried my 13 colonies of bees into 

 the cellar on Dec. 15, 1885, and left 

 them until March 15, when I took 

 them out for 3 days, and then put 

 them back until April 15. When put 

 out again they carried in pollen iu 

 less than an hour. I never have seen 

 colonies stronger or better, and I did 

 not lose one. 



Half Bee-Spaces.— M. M. Baldridge, 

 St. Charles, 6 His., writes as follows : 



It is said by some that there is 

 nothing new about the Heddon hive. 

 This may be true, but as yet I have 

 seen nothing in print to convince me 

 that Mr. Heddon is not the first and 

 original inventor of the half bee-space 

 over and under the brood-frames, or 

 over and under the wide-frames for 

 sections; or the full bee- space over 

 and under the brood-frames, and wide- 

 frames for sections, when secured at 

 will, as described by Mr. H., and 

 when used for the purposes set forth 

 by him. As Mr. H. does not claim a 

 hive made simply of two or more 

 stories, unless provided with a half 

 bee- space over and under the frames, 

 or with a full bee-space over or under 

 the same at will, bee-writers are 

 surely wasting time and space in 

 describing old hives, having two or 

 more stories, that never had these neto 

 features. " Honor to whom honor is 

 due," should be the motto of every- 

 body. 



