THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



265 



nipuhitiiig tlie honey, will make ex- 

 cellent vinpgiir. The wax can be 

 melted in ;i jkui over bi)ilin2; water, 

 and sliouki be ponred, when melted, 

 tliroiigli a hot coltee strainer, and 

 when cool, will be of a light straw 

 color. 



Frost autl Swarms.— This morning 

 when I arose I tlignght of the frosty 

 mornings of JSToveniber. The ground 

 was wliite with frost. About 10 

 o'clock I was in the apiary listening 

 to the merry luini of the beautiful 

 Italian bees, when, to my surprise, a 

 swarm came rusliing out of the hive 

 as if some one had cried lire. As I 

 clip all my queens' wings, of course 1 

 had no trouble in hiving them. I had 

 the job about completed when the 

 second came. I began to think I was 

 employed for the day, if it was Sun- 

 day. The lirst swarm weighed 9 lbs., 

 and the second 8 lbs. This sounds a 

 great deal like a whopper, but it is 

 true, nevertheless. 1 have a hive of 

 Italian bees that are in good condi- 

 tion, plenty of brood, and the queen 

 was hatched the 1.5th Of June. 1881. 

 They are not populous enough to 

 swarm. They built a queen cell, and 

 she batched the 4th of April. They 

 killed her immediately. To-day they 

 have two more queen cells about 

 ready to hatch. What is the matter V 

 They are not ready to swarm ; they 

 have plenty of room yet. The queen 

 is young and prolilic." J. F. Kight. 



Poseyville, Ind., April 16, 1882. 



[The bees are determined to super- 

 sede the queen — why, you will have to 

 ascertain from future observations. — 

 Ed.] 



Queen Feeding: a Drone. — I* have 

 never seen a queen bee embrace a 

 drone, but I have seen a queen feed a 

 drone. I once was exhibiting bees at 

 a fair, and for the purpose of giving 

 more interest to my enterprise, I took 

 the queen out of the liive and placed 

 her with a drone in a small paper box 

 covered with glass, so that they could 

 be seen. I put a small bit of candy in 

 tlie box, thinking they might want to 

 eat. I was much surprised to see the 

 queen suck the candy, and then go to 

 the drone and go through all tlie mo- 

 tions that bees do in -feeding one an- 

 other. This she repeated several 

 limes. The drone soon died. They 

 had not been in the box but a short 

 time. We are liaving quite a cold 

 spell here. Fruit must be greatly 

 damaged. I never had bees winter 

 better, and do better, than they are 

 doing now. No sick bees this spring. 



Waveland, Ind. Isaac Shakp. 



Trepared for IMvldiiig.— Thinking 



you would perhaps like to hear from 

 this region in regard to bees, I am at 

 liberty to say my bees wintered un- 

 usually well, 5 colonies of Italians, 

 and are now very strong. On last 

 Saturda.v and Sunday (Easter) one 

 colony in iiarticular showed its 

 strength in laying out, and I think it 

 wo"ld have swarmed on Monday last, 

 only that the weather on that day 

 turned suddenly cold, and has re- 

 mained so until now, which had the 

 eftect of keeping them very quiet. I 

 had all my preparations made for di- 

 viding Ihein, but the weather inter- 

 fered. 1. Doyoti think this cold snap 

 will injure the brood? 2. What i.s 

 the siguilicance of linding, in the 

 morning, say from 20 to 50 little round 

 caps of wax at or near the entrance, 

 which look like cell cappings '? 3. Do 

 you think it would pay for me, only 

 having a few colonies of bees, to in- 

 vest in a honey extractor, when prices 

 remain so high V 



Herman Knirihm. 

 New Albany, Ind., April 15, 1882. 



[1. Where colonies are somewhat 

 weak, the late cold snap will be found 

 to have done considerable damage. 



2. The linding of the little wax caps 

 signilies, generally, that bees are un- 

 capping honey preparatory to carry- 

 ing it to the center of the brood-nest. 

 In other words, that they have been 

 obliged to resort to their reserved 

 stores. 



3. If you purpose remaining in the 

 business, you may find it economy to 

 obtain an extractor, because an ex- 

 igency might arise for its use. — Ed.] 



risen 28 i"clies ; April 1st. 11 inches; 

 Maicli 30 and 31, 11 and 13 inches re- 

 spectively. You will know the ex- 

 tent of the disaster when I state the 

 crop of cotton at 1.500 bales, sugar 

 1,700 hlids., molasses 2,000 bbls., in 

 1881. Worni.s follow overdow to cut 

 down corn, worms eat the cotton, 

 cane is killed. We are simply done 

 for. Well, we are in a bad tix— sick- 

 ness will play havoc, and run riot here 

 this fall. My father's large practice 

 here will be charity for a year to 

 come, and losses — many due for four 

 year.s— will be §20,000. Well, we will 

 bear it, and make our bees educate 

 us ; you will see if they do 7iot do it ! 

 J. W. K.Shaw. 

 Loreauville, La., April 9, 18S2. 



Loss About Ten per cent.— My bees 

 have come through the winter very 

 strong, with only the lossof onequeen. 

 and one drone-laying queen. I started 

 in the winter witii 15 colonies packed 

 in chaff. Have to-day 13 in good con- 

 dition, and two queenless. The loss 

 in this ueigliborhood is about 10 per 

 cent. We liave had a favorable spring 

 but to-day (April 10) is a cold, blustry 

 day. P. A. Eiegle. 



Arlington, O. 



Water I Water !— We in the Tiche 

 country— east side — are under water, 

 3 to 20 arpents (arpent 192 feet) from 

 the bayou. My father's place is 25 

 arpents, and the water from the bayou 

 is under the house, and 20 feet above 

 low water. Our bees are still 2 feet 

 above water, 23^ to reach hives. 

 April 1st we ext)-acted 12 lbs. from 1 

 hive; April 8th 15 lbs. from another, 

 to^iveroom. We have 20 with sec- 

 ond stories all nearly full. We could 

 extract -300 ibs. to-day from all. We 

 have 5 that are about ready for sec- 

 ond stories. Ten days ago a swarm 

 of black bees came to us. We gave 

 them a home and put them to work. 

 An actual inspection of all colonies 

 shows no queen cells started. We 

 have a sad record for others of your 

 subscribers. Mr. Garrett has lost by 

 water 50 colonies — has 30 left. Mr. 

 Henry Steckler is in water, 3 miles to 

 land, and his 140 colonies are quien 

 sol/e, in the garret of his house. We 

 think he is equal to the emergency. 

 We cannot get any news of him. 

 There is not enough cane left from 

 the lands not overliowed to plant 14 

 of the land (now planted and under 

 w.tter) next season. Forty arpents of 

 corn and cotton i)lanted and up, do 

 not remain, anil the water is rising 

 in the bayou 2 inches in 24 hours. 

 Back the water is at a stand to-day. 

 Since (i p. m., April 2d, the water has 



Not Very Plain.— In the Bee Jour- 

 nal of April 12. jjage 226, you give 

 directioiis for rearing queens, and say, 

 when all is finished to shake the bees- 

 in front of the new hive, and place 

 the frames in the hive removed (the 

 black cohniy), then release the queen. 

 Do you mean to release the queen in 

 the new hive, or return her to the 

 hive removed 4 or 5 rods distant ? 

 Please make this plain through the 

 Journal. I think I understand the 

 rest. I have.never tried to rear queens 

 yet J. IlAlIBLY. 



Stirton, Ont. 



[Return her to the hive removed 

 (the black colony). The object in 

 caging the queen is to have an abso- 

 lute certainty that she does not get 

 into the new hive on the old stand, 

 and that is quickest guarded against 

 by caging her.— Ed.] 



Fruit Blossoms All Killed.- We had 



splendid weatiier from the first of 

 April until the 10th inst. Peach, ap- 

 ple, cherry and pear trees were in 

 bloom, and the bees had a good time 

 and gathered pollen and honey in 

 abundance ; but on the night of the 

 11th the wind changed to the north, 

 and was accompanied by a heavy 

 snow storm. From that time up to 

 date we had heavy frosts, killing all 

 the bloom, and bees have had no fly 

 up to date. The indications are that 

 we will have a change by to-morrow. 

 iSees are in good condition, however, 

 full of brood and honey. We hope 

 that we will haveagood honey harvest 

 this season, although the fruit bloom- 

 was killed. Our Association in Frank- 

 lin Countv, Ind., will meet on the last 

 Saturday " in April, to adopt a consti- 

 tution and by-laws, and I think we 

 will make a grand success of it. 



J. W. Sturwold. 

 Raymond, Ind., April 17, 1882. 



Jnbilant.— To-day bees fly nicely, 

 after some cold weather. I linished 

 taking out my bees April 4, the last 

 having been confined 5 months lack- 

 ing a day. Out of 177 I have lost only 

 1, and that was |)ut in weak and 

 queenless. Throwing up hats is in 

 order. Cherry blossoms killed, but 

 we can feed" at that time and apples, 

 will soon bloom. C. 0. Mtllek. 



Marengo, 111., April 15, 1882. 



