44 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 





Wiring Foundation.— What weight 

 of comb foundation will do to use with 

 wires, ;ind linw large should the wires 

 be V Will Olra's No. 4 machine make 

 foundation that will do for brood 

 combV E. F. Taylor. 



Canton, N. Y., Dec. 20, 1881. 



[About live feet to the pound is best 

 for wiring, or without. Use No. 36 

 tinned wire. We suppose Olm's No. 

 4 machine will make foundation suit- 

 able for brood chamber, if your frames 

 are not too large. You can correspond 

 with him and learn full particulars as 

 to size of sheets made.— Ed. 1 



Wintering: Bees in Texas. — We have 

 liad no cold weather this winter. 

 Mustard, turnips, lettuce, garden 

 peas, radishes, cabbage, and in fact 

 nearly all kinds of garden vegetables, 

 are growing here now from seeds 

 scattered in autumn. Mustard and 

 peas are commencing to bloom, though 

 I think a little freeze would put an 

 end to some of them. This is the lirst 

 winter that I have had to feed my 

 bees. I am feeding about 20 colonies, 

 some of my strongest colonies that 1 

 am feeding have brood in all stages, 

 though only on one or two combs. 

 There are no signs of disease, as tliey 

 have had an opportunity for tlight 

 every few days. 1 wish the Weekly 

 Bee Journal success. 



W.M. II. Howard. 



Kingston, Tex., Jan. (i, 1S82. 



Italianizing and Transferring. — I 



liave colonies of Italians and 3 colo- 

 nies of hybrids, if they live until 

 spring. Would you advise me to Ital- 

 ianize my iiybridsV IIow is best to 

 transfer from a large frame to a 

 smaller oneV I want them all in one 

 sized hive. A. L. Baker. 



Lansing, Midi., Dec. 25, 1881. 



[yes; Italianize all of them. Any 

 time in early spring will ilo to trans- 

 fer them, and the job will be easily 

 performed, as you have only to cut 

 down larger combs to fill smaller 

 frames. Trimming will be done at 

 ends and bottoms to save the brood, 

 and the pieces can be lifted in frames 

 and thrown to the outside, where tliey 

 will not interfere so much witii brood- 

 rearing, and soon as Idled with honey 

 can be lifted out for winter stores ; or 

 the pieces can be thrown in the waste 

 box, and melted u|) f(u- wax. — liD.] 



Bees Prosperous.— My bees wintered 

 well. I lost only 4 colonies out of 30 ; 

 I increased them to ■50 and obtained 

 over 1,000 lbs. of honey in sections, 

 which I sold at 20 and 25 cents per 

 pound. M. E. Mason. 



Andover, O., Jan. 2, 1S82. 



Extracting.- Please answer the fol-' 

 lowing questions in the Be;e Jour- 

 nal: 1. I have 11 colonies in Langs- 

 troth hives, lialf of them blacks, and 

 half of them pure Italians. I wish to 

 run 4 colonies for the extractor, and 

 the rest for sections. Which bees will 

 do the best in the section boxes, the 

 blacks or Italians V 2. How shall I 

 proceed in fitting my double-story 

 liives for extracting V Fill each upper 

 story with 10 frames of foundation, 

 and put them on when it is time to 

 put on surplus boxes, or shall I 'iiook'' 

 out two or three empty combs from 

 each of my hives, in apple blossom 

 time, replacing with foundation, and 

 thus get empty combs to till the upper 

 story V 3. Shall I put on the upper 

 story full of combs at the time when I 

 put on sections V D. D. Marsh. 



Georgetown, Mass., Dec. 27, 1881. 



[I . Run tlie blacks for box honey ; 

 they will do nearly or quite as much 

 work in the boxes as the Italians, 

 while the latter are better to handle 

 around the extractor, and not so easily 

 discouraged by being robbed so fre- 

 quently. 2. Fill your second stories 

 with straight combs, selected from the 

 brood chambers of the other hives, 

 for extracting, supplying their place 

 with foundation. 3. Put on the upper 

 story full of combs soon as honey be- 

 gins to come in freely from any 

 source. — Ed.] 



A Oood Showing.— In the spring of 

 1881, 1 had left only IS colonies ; I sold 

 3, leaving me 15 to begin tlie summer 

 with, and some of them were very 

 weak. I increased tliem by natural 

 swarming to 44. after selling 5 first 

 swarms. 



To bees sold $60 00 



Comb honey, sold at 20c 284 20 



Extracted, at 15c 2.5 00 



Increase, 29 colonies, at $7 203 00 



Total $572 20 



My bees are in good condition for 

 winter. They had a good tly on 

 Christmas. Tliey are wintered on the 

 summer stands, jiacked in tine hay. 

 Allow me to congratulate you, Mr. 

 Editor, upon your success with the 

 Weekly Bee Journal. I hope you 

 may still prosper, and keej) the old 

 reliable American Bee Journal at 

 the head of all bee papers of the 

 World. John IUxter. 



Pickering, Ontario. 



A tiood Investment. — Bees are Hying 

 to-day. .1 bought 3 colonies in the 

 spring of 18.S1 ; increased to 5 ; sold 

 comb honey for $6. .50. I tliink my two 

 extra colonies are worth ?8.00, and 

 this with the $6.50, ma-kes S14,.50, 

 clearing myself in one season, whicli I 

 tliink pretty good for a green hand. 

 F. B. McQueen. 



Brownhelm, O., Jan. 7, 1882. 



Cold.— The mercury stood at 18--' be- 

 low zero here yesterday morning. 



G. M. Doolittle. 

 Borodino, N.Y., Jan. 6, 1882. 



The Pollen Theory. — I went into 

 winter quarters in the fall of 1880, 

 with 19 colonies of bees ; put in cellar 

 15 hives, left 4 on summer stands, well 

 protected ; 2 of them were movable 

 comb hives and 2 box hives. The 

 bees in 2 movable comb hives and one 

 box hive died with dysentery. Two 

 of those in the cellar died with dysen- 

 tery, 1 with mice, and 3 of them died 

 after setting them out; 1 was robbed, 

 and 1 dwindled. So you see I came 

 out with 8 colonies. There was about 

 2 quarts of pollen in the box hive 

 where the bees died. I think too 

 much pollen killed the bees; my 

 reason is this : I had 5 or 6 colonies 

 in the cellar with little or no pollen in 

 the combs, and they came through all 

 right and clean. Tliose that had no 

 pollen were second and third swarms, 

 and one lirst. Some of these were 

 among my best colonies. One of these 

 third swarms gave 115 lbs. of honey, 

 all basswood, so I cannot see what is 

 the good of so much i)ollen in the 

 hives. If bees can get miieli pollen in 

 the fall, they will gather more than is 

 good for them. My bees gathered a 

 great quantity of pollen in the fall of 

 1880 ; this fall they luive gathered very 

 little. Some localities produce more 

 pollen than others, just as some local- 

 ities produce more honey than others. 



1 am one of the mimlier that stands 

 10 to 1 on Mr. lleddon's theory. I 

 will give the result of the season's 

 work : Obtained 400 llis. of extracted 

 honey, and 300 lbs. of comb honey in 



2 lb. sections, and could have obtained 

 100 lbs. more if I had had time to at- 

 tend to them. The fall wheat harvest 

 began before the basswood was over, 

 and I had to attend to it. 1 sold the 

 comb honey for 20 cts. per lb., and the 

 extracted for 15 cts. Send along the 

 Bee Journal, as I cannot get along 

 without it, for it is a very welcome 

 visitor. William Colkman, Jr. 



Devizes, Ont., Canada, Dec. 12, 1881. 



Deserted by the Qneen.— My 37 colo- 

 nies of bees were put into winter- 

 quarters Nov. 1st. all strong with 

 bees, plenty of honey, and all right 

 with young queens. Yesterday eve- 

 ning I found one of my queens in 

 front <jf the hive with a. few bees 

 around her, about dead. I examined 

 the colony, and found them in good 

 condition minus the queen. Would 

 like to know the cause of the queen 

 coming out at this time of year. 



W. It. TH03IS0N. 



New Iberia, La., Jan. 4, 1882. 



[We cannot give a reason for the 

 queen deserting the hive with so few 

 bees attending her, unless she was 

 driven ont by robbers, or, not having 

 been fertililized, took advantage of a 

 line day to tly out to mate.— Ed.] 



Tlie Wrong Man.— I notice in the 

 Bee Journal, page 21, remarks 

 quoted as coming from me, which 

 should have been credited to some 

 one else. If I remember rightly it 

 was Dr. Ashley, of Ann Arbor. 



L. C. Whitinc?. 



East Saginaw, Mich., Jan. 11, 1882. 



