THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



251 



I have a letter in my possession from 

 Mr. J. L. Davis, of jVIicliigaii, dated 

 Dec. 19, 1881. in wliioli he speaks of 

 an albino queen which lie obtained 

 from me in 1876, and also says he has 

 30 colonies of pure albino bees now in 

 his apiarv from her. I deem this, of 

 itself, su'liicient proof that I had the 

 bee in its puritv 3 years before Mr. V. 

 Smithsburg, Md. D. A. Pike. 



Standard Langstrotli Frame.— Allow 

 me respectfully to ask the Bee Jouk- 

 n.-vl's authority for asserting that the 

 " standard " l.augstroth frame is 17% 

 outside measure. Sin-ely. if there is 

 a standard it is that |)ut fortii by Mr. 

 Langstnith himself, vvhiidi, at page 

 372, 3(1 edition, "Hive and Honey 

 Bee," he gives : Bottom 17>>a outside, 

 iind inside tri;uiLrulari)iece of toiJ-bar, 

 l(i?8, his sides being Jj ineli thick. 

 This would not take eight -II4' sec- 

 tions. I lielieve this difference in the 

 size of frames :nid hives has caused 

 much inconvenienee. \V. 1'. T. 



Fitzroy Harbor, Ont., Canada. 



Tlie Laiiirsirotli Hive.— Please give 

 the size of the st;nid;ird l,;inu'stroth 

 hive and frame in the IIee JouiiN.XL. 



Van Wert. I). 11. II. Blaik. 



[This matter has heretofore been 

 called in question, and a reference to 

 it was made on p;ige 103 of the Bee 

 JouiiNAL for 1879. Mr. Langstroth's 

 book' was written more than 20 years 

 ago, and it is not to be wondered at 

 that a slight moditication should be 

 made in the frames, and the hives, 

 also, for that mittter, and. gain his 

 preference as this has done. The 

 standard Langstroth hive, therefore, 

 as recognized at the present day, is 

 ISJ^xl-lie inches inside measure, with 

 a capacity for ten frames n%x9yi 

 inches outside measure. — Ed.] 



Doing Splendidly in Florida. — Our 



bees are doing splendidly. To give 

 an idea, we will state what we did 

 with 2 frames of brood in making an 

 artificial swarm : Formed the swarm 

 by taking 2 frames of brood from an 

 Italian colony on the Kith of March ; 

 on the 26th of the same moiitli it sent 

 out a line swarm ; again, in 3 days af- 

 ter, it sent forth another swarm, be- 

 sides furnishing us with 9 queens in 

 the meantime. 



ALDEUMAN & RoiiEUTS. 



lola, Fla., April?, 1882. 



When and How lo Clip Queen's Wing. 



— I believe the majority of apiarists 

 of to-day prefer natural" swarming to 

 artiliciai. I have found it to be most 

 successful in several respects. 1. 

 Bees will swarm just as well with 

 honey boxes on as they will with them 

 off, and nearly as early. 2. You will 

 get from 10 to 2o lbs. of honeyWjefore 

 they swarin. 3. There is no danger 

 ■of robbing ; where, on the other hand. 

 It takes very close watching to pre- 

 vent it in divided colonies. There- 

 fore, it is necessary to devise some 

 plan to prevent bees from absconding 



and clipping the queen's wing is just 

 what will do it, for bees to abscond 

 without a mother means death. The 

 best, easiest and (piickest way to clip 

 a queen's wing, is to lift ttie frame 

 she is on gently, place iton your easel, 

 and with a pair of small pocket shears 

 gently lift her off the frame by put- 

 ting the shears under her, let her 

 crawl on your left fore linger, and now 

 just place your thumb on one of her 

 feet, and you have her at your com- 

 mand, raise one wing with your little 

 shears, clip about ^3 of it, and let her 

 crawl back. It is quicker done than 

 told. I clipped 36 in 2 hours, March 

 27th. They should be clipped before 

 fruit trees bloom, as they are easier to 

 find before the hive gets very popu- 

 lous. J. F. KiGHT. 

 Poseyville, Ind. 



Preparing to Swarm.— Bees are get- 

 ting ready to swarm, with sealed 

 queen cells and plenty of drones fly- 

 ing. It is no trouble to winter bees 

 herein Brazoria County, Texas. Keep 

 plenty of bees in your hives, and you 

 will have no moths. There was not a 

 week this past winter that bees did 

 not gather pollen— about December 

 and January from mustard, and in 

 February from an evergreen tree 

 called the wild peach. It is the tirst 

 tree in bloom here, and the prairie 

 and fields are full of blossoms now. 

 By-the-way, is 2^3 miles too far off 

 from the timber or woods for bees to 

 work protitably. Planted j-i acre of 

 silver hull buckwheat, which came up 

 infourdays. 1 do not know whether 

 it will do in this climate on the C4ulf 

 coast; will report in the Bee Jour- 

 nal if allowed to. Bee-keepers that 

 would like to correspond and find out 

 about bee-keeping in this iiart of the 

 world can address John W. Ross. 



Velasco, Tex., March 26, 1882. 



[Two and a half miles is too far to 

 work with profit, unless there are 

 forest trees like linden, or tulip, or 

 sourwood, where the bees can load 

 quickly and easily, without much 

 trouble.— Ed.] , 



Safely Through The Winter.— In 



looking over my bees, I find that they 

 are all in fine condition — not one lost 

 out of 135 colonies in the fall. I win- 

 tered tliem on the summer stand. 

 They are very strong indeed, and 

 have been working on soft maple 

 bloom for the last week ; in fact, the 

 hives are well filled with liees, and 

 have large sheets of brood in all 

 stages. I find in several colonies 

 capped drone brood. I would not be 

 surprised if they would cast swarms 

 this month if left alone. But this I 

 will iu">t do, as I intend to run them 

 for honey and queen-rearing. I will 

 just here state that I must convert 

 my bees into ready cash just as fast 

 as I can, for on last Thursday night 

 burglars entered my store, and with 

 drill, sledge and punch, broke open 

 both of mv safes and carried off all of 

 my watches, jewelery and money, to 

 the sum of S2.(i00, besides all of my 

 customers" watches, and now for the 

 second time the bees came to the res- 



cue. Four years ago my store was 

 broken open and robbed, but while 

 there is life there is hope. I do think 

 that my little pets will help me up the 

 hill again. I am forced to sell them 

 off closer than 1 otherwise would have 

 done ; but hoping that some of the 

 many readers of the Bee Journal 

 may wish some of my golden Ital- 

 ians, and in that w^y help " a friend 

 in need." L. J. Diehl. 



Butler, Ind. 



[Mr. Diehl certainly will receive 

 the sympathy of all bee-keepers 

 throughout the country. His loss must 

 be somewhat discouraging to him, 

 but we can assure him it is not as bad 

 as it might have been, were it not for 

 his well known reputation for integ- 

 rity, and his unblemished business 

 character.— Ed.] 



Honey Prospects in California.— At 



this date I have to report everything 

 in a prosperous condition. We have 

 had plenty of late rains to insure a 

 good honey crop (or at least such is 

 the opinion of the old bee men). We 

 think the outlook for a good yield has 

 not been as promising since the spring 

 of 1878 as it is now. The bees are 

 making every preparation for the 

 harvest that is now so very close at 

 hand. Between Christmas and New 

 Year we moved our apiary from the 

 mountains to the low lands, or v\'illow 

 country, where they have had the 

 time and opportunity to breed up 

 strong, and you can set it down for a 

 fact that they are strong. The black 

 willow is just coming into bloom, the 

 filliree is at its best, with the mustard 

 fast maturing, and then will come 

 the valley harvest. We hope to har- 

 vest tlie valley crop, and still have 

 time to move back to the mountains 

 in time for the sages, thus securing 2 

 crops, one of dark and one of light 

 honey— the valley being dark. One 

 word for the Syrians: Last year 

 being a poor honey year in California, 

 and the tirst season we had handled 

 the Syrians, we were not prepared to 

 say much about them, and even now, 

 only of their breeding qualities, which 

 isAl. Ours, this spring have bred 

 faster and earlier than the Italians, 

 and at this date (March 31) there are 

 some of the Syrian colonies in the 

 apiary that are as strong as Italians 

 usually are the 15th of May, when 

 sage harvest commences ; but for all 

 they are such extraordinary breeders, 

 I do not expect any better results 

 from them when the "summer harvest 

 comes than from the Italians. , We 

 aim to give each an equal chance 

 when the sage harvest comes, and see 

 wiiicli will carry off the laurels. Will 

 report results next fall through the 

 Bee Journal. A. W. Osburn. 

 El Monte, Cal., March 31, 1882. 



Watliering Pollen.— From 57 colo- 

 nies of bees last fall, I now have 50. 

 One starved and 6 smothered by the 

 entrance becoming choked. Bees 

 gathered pollen here from the tag 

 elder on April 1st. J. Chapman. 



Home, Mich. 



