THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



187 



Clipping Queen's Wing.— Is it a good 

 plan to clip the queen's wing to pre- 

 vent the bees going off ; and if clipped, 

 how far from the hive will they go 

 generally, when the hive is close to 

 the ground, and where would the bees 

 cluster? Would they find her on the 

 ground or return to the hive V I put 

 my bees in the cellar on Nov. 11, the 

 temperature of which has been very 

 regidar at 42^ since, with one thick- 

 ness of cotton over the frames and no 

 cover on, and they have had no flight 

 except 1 colony that became uneasy. 

 I gave those a flight in the shop, as I 

 could not do so out-of-doors. I found 

 tliem very strong with plenty of 

 honey, and brood, in all stages on 4 

 combs, and about 2 quarts of bees be- 

 hind the division board. I gave them 

 more room, and returned them to the 

 cellar. I intend letting the balance 

 alone, unless tliey get uneasy. Is that 

 a good or bad record V 



Wm. a. Pearson. 



Lacolle, Queb., March 6, 1882. 



[If you cannot give your bees con- 

 stant attention, it is a good plan to 

 clip the queen's wing, then when the 

 bees swarm out she will get but a few 

 feet from the hive when the bees, 

 discovering her helplessness will 

 some of them cluster on her on the 

 ground, while the others will mostly 

 return to the hive from whence they 

 emerged ; some may go into other 

 hives. Should you find her on the 

 ground, destroy the queen cells in the 

 hive and return her. Your record is 

 good, but with so much breeding go- 

 ing on they will soon get uneasy, and 

 be better out-of-doors. — Ed.] 



A Reversible Frame.— I am using a 

 simple invention by which any square 

 frame can be reversed, or either side 

 turned up or down in an instant, also 

 any other frame having square corn- 

 ers, such as tlie Langstroth,can be re- 

 versed immediately. This is of great 

 advantage where bees are inclined to 

 store honey along the top bar. I 

 would like to hear from you and other's 

 on this point. My bees are in excel- 

 lent condition. One colony has about 

 8 or 10 square inches of drone brood 

 capped over, and five frames of brood 

 mostly capped. I fear the present 

 " cold snap " may destroy some of the 

 brood. I, like Mr. Alley, am glad to 

 see the "dollar" queen question 

 brought up. From my experience I 

 am satisfied that it will not pay to 

 rear queens for $1, nor to " warrant" 

 a queen for $1.50. Although I think 

 your classing warranted queens witli 

 untested as e<iually worthless, is hardly 

 fair ; at least the warrant I give them, 

 for they should be not only warranted 

 to be pure, but prolific and good queens 

 in every respect, but they cannot be 

 reared for less than S2. I hope this 

 question will be agitated until buyers 

 will see that it is to their interest to 

 pay a reasonable price for a good 

 queen, tested not only for purity but 

 business. L. C. McFatridge. 



Carroll, Ind., March 13, 1882. 



Foundation Holder.— I send you a 

 frame ready to iiutthe foundation in, 

 with a frame to hold it. A piece is 

 sawed out of the top-bar, beveled a 

 little ; tiu'u that piece the other side 

 up and that brings the two sharp edges 

 together, by looking at the end of the 

 top bar you can see ; I have left one 

 end piece off so that you can see how 

 it will take hold of the foundation. 

 I have tacked the frame to the board 

 so that it will not rattle around in 

 shipping, loosen the frame from the 

 board by drawing tlie tacks, then take 

 off the bevel piece ; lay on the founda- 

 tion, put the bevel piece on the top of 

 the foundation ; crowd the piece down 

 sufficiently to liold the foundation ; 

 put in two or three tacks and then 

 you have it fast, and if you ever want 

 to cut the old comb oiit and put in 

 new, take off this piece, put in your 

 foundation and tack it back, and it is 

 all right. It is but little work to 

 make the top bars of the frame like 

 this, for every one keeping bees has, 

 or ought to have, one of Barnes' foot 

 power saws. H. \V. Conklin. 



Kockton, 111. 



[The implement is an ingenious con- 

 trivance for holding the frame firmly, 

 and the foundation straight, while 

 tacking the strip to the top-bar to hold 

 the foundation.— Ed.] 



How I Bind the Bee Journal.— Hav- 

 ing adopted a cheap plan of binding 

 the Bee J(juknal. I will give its 

 readers the benefit of it. I take it for 

 granted that every subscriber is keep- 

 ing idl the numbers on file. I use two 

 strips of leather 6 inches long by J-g 

 inch wide, and cut 2 holes in each 

 near the fold at the edge of the paper. 

 I cut holes in the paper and insert in 

 each a shoe lacer ; as soon as a number 

 is received it is filed, and at the end of 

 the year they are all bound at a cost of 

 1 cent. Bee-keepers of Connecticut, 

 let us organize a State Society. I will 

 put my name on the roll. 



Fred. Offinger. 



Stamford, Conn. 



What a Contrast.— Last spring we 

 were all lamenting for the dead bees, 

 ready to exclaim, put me in the list of 

 " blasted hopers." This spring we are 

 all rejoicing, thinking, when we send 

 in our rep(ut next fall, it will be a 

 "whopper." Judging from the pres- 

 ent condition of my bees, they will 

 swarm early in April. What a con- 

 trast from hist spring! When I put 

 my bees into winter quarters on Nov. 

 10, I weighed each of the oO hives, the 

 total weight being 3,100 lbs., making 

 an average of ()2 lbs. each. On March 

 1st I weighed them again, the figures 

 being 2,7o0 lbs., making an average of 

 •55 lbs. each, the average consumption 

 being but 7 lbs. per colony. Who 

 would have thought a hive of bees 

 could have lived 110 days on 7 lbs. of 

 honey V Hardly an ounce per day; 

 and all are on sumnier stands at that. 

 Who wouldn't be a bee-man? I 

 wouldn't give my beesand fancy poul- 

 try for a little gold mine. 



J. r. KiGHT. 



Poseyville, Ind., March 13, 1882. 



Profits for One Tear.— For several 

 years I have run a farm and apiary to- 

 gether. Last year I ha/l my farm 

 worked on shares, and gave my time 

 and attention to the bees with the 

 following result: Commenced the 

 season of 1881 with 72 colonies; in- 

 creased by natural swarming to 120 ; 

 have sold 7,422 lbs. of comb and 749 

 lbs. of extracted honey, for which I re- 

 ceived $995.06 ; my expenses were 

 $118.70, which leaves $876.36 for my 

 work. I had empty hives and honey 

 racks left from 1880. I would advise 

 those who think of sowing sweet 

 clover for hay to try a little at first, as 

 it makes prettv coarse hay ; but is one 

 of the best of honey plants. There 

 are two kinds — white and yellow 

 blosson ; the white yields very white 

 honey. VV. S. Ward. 



Fuller's Station, N. Y. 



[The white sweet clover [Melilotiis 

 alba) is what is wanted by bee-keepers. 

 The yellow blooms 2 to 3 weeks earlier 

 than the white, but we have never 

 seen a bee working on it, either for 

 honey or pollen. However, we had 

 but a few stalks of it on trial, and, of 

 course, this was not a satisfactory 

 proof, as bees will frequently neglect 

 a few stalks of even the best honey 

 plant, to work on more profuse bloom 

 of some other and not so good a kind. 

 We destroyed the yellow-flowered 

 sweet clover before it went to seed. 

 —Ed.] 



The Winter in Nebraska.— After cele- 

 brating Christmas, while "on the 

 wing," ray bees were confined by 

 colder weather till Feb. 2, when the 

 thermometer went up to 54^ Fahr. in 

 the shade, and my bees had a good 

 flight again. Since then they were 

 out on the following days : Feb. 3, 

 thermometer 60^ F. in the shade; 

 Feb. 5, 64^; Feb. 6, 74^; Feb. 9, 57°; 

 Feb. 10, 62=^; Feb. 11,60°; Feb. 15, 

 70°; Feb. 25,60°; Feb. 26,60-'. The 

 lowest dip we had Feb. 18 and 19, 

 when the thermometer stood at sun- 

 rise at 2- below zero, and on the 20th 

 and 21st we had a snowfall of about 

 12 inches on the level, with thermome- 

 ter 2° F. below zero. So far my bees 

 are in a good condition, and fly but 

 little even on very nice days, although 

 they are strong and healthy. 



Wm. Stolley. 



Grand Island, Keb. 28, 1882. 



Doing Well.— Our bees are doing 

 well ; they gathered pollen on March 

 3d from soft maple. I will try and 

 give you my report next fall. I have 

 7 colonies, increased from 2 last year, 

 and intend to work one for honey to 

 see what they can do with my help, 

 and the rest I shall run for increase. 

 Morris Rossiter. 



Sunbury, Pa. 



Bees Feeding on Pudding and Molas- 

 ses. — I wish to say to Mr. Heddon 

 that I think his experiment proves 

 that bees will not winter well on 



