30 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Questions.— Last spring I kept my 

 queens laying very profusely by feed- 

 ing cheap syrup. This fall, as soon as 

 -the honey flow began to shrink, I fed 

 double the amount of pure heartsease 

 honey. About Oct. 5, they stopped 

 laying. Why did they not keep on 

 laying ? Will cutting out drone-comb 

 discourage bees V How far will a 

 •queen go from her hive to find a mate? 

 Why do queens not lay in the second 

 story of a hive as readily as in the first 

 story V How can two strains of bees 

 be kept pure in the same apiary. 



M. L. Tkester. 



[They stopped breeding because of 

 -the cold nights ; and the impossibility 

 of properly caring for tlie young. 

 Bees will not become discouraged 

 from cutting out drone comb, if honey 

 ■Is coming in good witli which to patch 

 up, or if good worker combs or foun- 

 •dation be furnished to replace the 

 drone comb. Queens are supposed to 

 go a distance of \}4 to 2 miles, if nec- 

 essary. Queens, as a rule, accept the 

 lower story as a liome, because they 

 ^are nearer the bulk of the brood-nest, 

 and pollen and honey are first stored 

 'there. Two strains cannot well be 

 kept pure in the same yard, with 

 .queen- breeding going on in both 

 strains. 



Remedy for Whooping Gondii, Colds, 

 etc.—Tlie following is one whicli I 

 consider unsuri)assed: Mix of good 

 whisky, 1 pt., pure extracted honey, 

 ;1 pt., and 12 tablespoonfuls of pine tar. 

 iDose for children, from 1.) to 20 dro))s 

 :,aud increase. For adults, teaspoon- 

 'ful— given when the cough is trouble- 

 •souie, 3 to 10 times a day. 



This is a lovel v day. The thermom- 

 eter indicated 62- F. in a cool, sliady 

 place at 3 o'clock p. m. 15ees are 

 actually ga%?rinK lioney from a small 

 .patch of uumiuiotli mignonette. 

 'Queens are laying as if spring was 

 ne;tr at hand. I never saw a better 

 prospect for a large increase, 3 montlis 

 lieuce. Our queens stopped laying 

 last year a.bout Nov. .5,an<l began Jan. 

 1.5 ; but this is a year when you may 

 record bees laying iniinteruptedly,for 

 a whole year— a, thing I have never 

 seen before in Texas. Our prospects 

 for a wheat crop is good ; oats, rye and 

 barley all look well. One more week 

 and then comes the busy season witli 

 us— oats to sow, and corn-land to pre- 

 pare. B. F. t^AllllOI.L. 



Dresden, Tex., Dec. 25. 1881. 



cess to tlie Bee Journal. 1. What 

 seed will be best to sow with sweet 

 clover V Will white clover do ? 2. 

 Where can I get Simpson honey plant 

 seed ? Answer through the Bee 

 Journal. J. C. Miphler. 



Ligonier, Ind., Jan 1, 1882. 



[Yes, white clover will do to plant 

 with sweet clover ; but, if sown in the 

 fall, wheat is the best, or as good as 

 anything to mix with it; if in the 

 spring, oats or anything of a summer 

 crop will answer. 2. We do not know 

 just at present, but presume dealers 

 having it for sale will advertise the 

 fact in the Bee Journal, long before 

 planting time arrives.— Ed.] 



A Begrinner.— I kept bees for 6 years 

 on the old plan, till 1881. In the fall 

 of 1880, 1 had 11 colonies of black bees 

 on the summer stands, and in the 

 spring of 1881 they all died except 1 

 queen and 72 bees. I had no honey 

 but what we used in the liouse. Last 

 spring I bought 3 colonies (2 Italians 

 and 1 black), caught one wild hybrid 

 -swarm, and I paid $5 for learning to 

 handle bees, and never was sorry for 

 ■it. This fall I put 19 colonies in win- 

 ;ter quarters in good condition. Sue- 



Repairing Losses. — The spring of 

 1881 found me, like many others, with 

 few bees, and as I wished to build up 

 again, 1 bought 5 colonies of Geo. 

 Grimm, for $.30.00. The express 

 charges, caps and sugar for feeding 

 cost SIO more, making $40 in all. 

 These gave me 8 swarms and 517 lbs. 

 of comb honey, which I sold at 15 

 cents per lb.— S76..55; the 8 swarms 

 are worth $36. After deducting the 

 cost of the 5 colonies, I have $72.55 

 for my labor. E. Pickup. 



Limerick. 111. 



Linseed Oil .as a Medicine.— Mr. 



Twitchel's caution in regard to the 

 use of linseed oil as a medicine, on 

 page 12 of the last number of the 

 Journal, I think hardly necessary, 

 since the druggist would be liard to 

 find who would sell " boiled " linseed 

 oil for that purpose, and few would 

 go to the paint- shop for it. The arti- 

 cle used as a medicine and kept in 

 stock by druggists, is cold-pressed, and 

 often prescribed by physicians, on ac- 

 count of the mucilage it contains, in- 

 stead of castor oil. G. L. Tinker. 

 New Philadelphia, O., Jan. 7, 1882. 



Bees Doing Well.— My bees are all 

 in good condition now. They have 

 had a flight about once a week all 

 winter. I owe my success to the Bee 

 Journal. Long may it live andcon- 

 tinue as good as it has been in the last 

 year. S. 0. Smith. 



Wheeler's Grove, Iowa, Jan. 3, 1882. 



all shingled, except about 20 inches 

 in width on the South side, which is 

 of matched boards in two sections 

 the length of the building, made so 

 as to open at any time the weather 

 may be warm enough to give them a 

 flight, or to warm them up if desired. 

 My plan of preparing them is to tack 

 a piece of coffee-sacking over the 

 frames after I have placed two or 

 more 9i by % inch strips of boards 

 across ttie frames. I then put quite 

 a thick quilt; on the top of that I 

 put two dry blocks, resting on the 

 cross-pieces and put, on the cap. I 

 cover tliem up with old quilts, carpets, 

 etc. I have two small ventilators in 

 the roof; a two-inch pipe near the ends 

 of the building. O. B. Scofield. 

 York, Maine, Dec. 19, 1881. 



Preparing Bees for Winter.— I am 



6-1 years old, but not too old to enjoy 

 the company of my blessed bees. I 

 bought two colonies last May, and 

 increased to eight, (4 natural swarms 

 and two nuclei,) but got no surplus 

 honey. White clover was almost a 

 total failure. June was wet and cold 

 and bees hardly gathered enough to 

 live on, until the golden rod, of which 

 there is two varieties here, and asters, 

 several kinds also blossomed, and 

 then my bees gathered their winter 

 stores. Had there not been a large 

 flow of honey from these, tliey would 

 not have had enough to winter on. 

 I built a small house 19x6 feet, one 

 roof, double boarded and packed with 

 saw-dust on the North side and ends, 

 with double door and double floor, and 

 two thickness of paper between floor. 



A Good Honey Crop.— I wintered all 

 my bees without loss, and they came 

 out very strong in the spring, and the 

 yield of honey was as large as we ever 

 had— from 100 to 150 lbs. to the colony, 

 besides a line increase of stock. Suc- 

 cess to the Bee Journal. 



Sunbury, Pa. Martin Kinney. 



Prodnction and Sale of Honey.— I 



began the last season with 15 colonies 

 which had survived the fearful win- 

 ter, but they were by no means strong. 

 Most of thein were the dark Italians. 

 Not having enough to occupy iny time, 

 I prepared my hives and went to work 

 on my farm. When a swarm issued, 

 my wife hived them if I was not at 

 home. On April 17, they began to 

 bring in pollen ; the weather at once 

 became warm and balmy. The last 

 lialf of April and all of May, the 

 weather was warm and clear ; there 

 was hardly a day that tlie bees could 

 not fly. The spring bloom was in 

 abundance ; the later part of May they 

 began to swarm. My best colonies 

 swarmed 3 times in 10 days, for which 

 I refused to take $25.00 as soon as 

 hived. By the last of June I had 32 

 colonies ; I sold one, and 2 left for 

 parts unknown. I returned 10 of them 

 to tlie parent colonies, after taking 

 away the queens. I took 850 lbs. of 

 comb honey. This was a small yield. 

 I can sell all my honey at my door at 

 20 cts. per lb. We have an abundance 

 of soft maples and willows, whicli 

 gives our bees early pollen. The soil 

 is very rich, and we have an abund- 

 ance hi linden, some trees growing 3 

 feet in diameter. A good colony will 

 store 100 lbs. in 10 days. I have sown 

 since last March, alsike clover, sweet 

 clover, motherwort, catnip and Rocky 

 Mountain bee plant. It is to the in- 

 terest of every one to plant and sow 

 as much as possible for the bees. 



H. Clark. 

 Palmyra, Iowa, Dec. 26, 1881. 



Queen Excluders.- Prof. Cook, in 

 his address before the Michigan Con- 

 vention, refers to a plan mentioned by 

 Mr. .Tones at the National Convention, 

 " of preventing flight of queens and 

 drones by means of perforated zinc 

 over tlie entrance of the hive." Please 

 give the plan more fully. H. Z. S. 



[It is described in the Journal 

 for March 30, 1881 , page 98.— Ed.] 



