THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



281 



Snakes Eating Bees.— I read with 

 a great deal of interest tliat article 

 in your last paper by Prof. C. F. 

 Kroeli on the parthenogenesis of bees. 

 I hope Prof. Cook, Mr. G. M. Doolit- 

 tle, and some of the other big guns 

 will favor us with their views on the 

 subject, liees here are doing well, in 

 spite of the water, which has ruined 

 most of us — that is all but those which 

 were placed upon sheds and rafts be- 

 fore the water came up. The snakes, 

 however, are devouring great num- 

 bers of them. I should like to know 

 whether tWy eat them for the honey? 



T. K. 



Point Coupee, La., April 20, 1882. 



[They probably eat them for the 

 same reason they devour flies, snails, 

 and other insects.— Ed.] 



My Early Work. — Bees are boom- 

 ing, gathering honey rapidly from 

 horsemint and various other flowers. 

 I have one of Root's chaff hives, with 

 80 1-lb. sections on it, and about half 

 a bushel of bees in it, if they were 

 dead and measured. About half the 

 boxes have been partly filled with 

 new honey for nearly 2 months. A 

 few rainy days causes the bees to 

 draw on the sections to feed the brood 

 and larvae in the lower story ; for 

 there lias been but very little space in 

 all my hives ; that is, the lower story, 

 for nearly 3 months for honey, it being 

 so completely filled with brood. I 

 notice in the Bee Journal of the 

 29th ult., that Mr. J. W. Eckman, of 

 Richmond, Tex., wants to know 

 " what it was that my bees were get- 

 ting so much honey from, that I could 

 extract so early V" Now, I did not 

 say that I was going to extract a bar- 

 rel of new honey, but I did extract 

 some new honey, just as I said I 

 would, and I believe it was gathered 

 from fruit blossoms. If Mr. E. will 

 come up and spend a day or two with 

 me, I think I can show him how I get 

 my bees in a condition in very early 

 spring to take advantage of the first 

 flow of honey from any source. I do 

 not want over 1,000 cubic inches of 

 comb in the brood-nest, a la Doolittle. 

 I use two styles of frames, the Langs- 

 troth gi^xlfSg, and a nucleus frame 

 9i8xl2?4. 1 use 7 of the former and 8 

 of the latter in the brood nest. In 

 early spring, that is, as soon as I see 

 a little white comb along near the 

 top-bar, I raise the two outside 

 frames, spread from the center of the 

 brood nest, making room for the first 

 two frames. This I do about every 

 ten days or two weeks, according to 

 the weather. Continue this way of 

 promoting brood-rearing, and you will 

 soon have the brood-nest so filled with 

 brood that there will be no place for 

 honey; then it is that the bees will 

 put the honey they gather into any 

 thing you may choose to give them ; 

 even a nail keg. I do not leave any 

 frames in the upper story in winter, 

 but take them all out, put two thick- 

 nesses of old corn sacks on top the 

 brood frames, fill the upper story half 

 full with good dry cotton seed, and if 

 not disturbed during bad weather, 

 nearly the whole force will live 

 through our winters here, besides the 



increase during winter that is being 

 added daily. Last fall I hadoO strong 

 colonies. About the last of January 

 I doubled back to 27. I have had to 

 date 26 new swarms (some I have re- 

 turned), besides about 40 three-frame 

 nuclei, keeping queens until their 

 progeny hatches, and I have done all 

 in my power to keep back all swarms 

 by giving more room, shading, and 

 some tiered up three stories high. 

 J. S. Tadlock. 

 Luling, Tex., April 17, 1882. 



Judge Andrews' Lecture. — A sub- 

 I scriber wishes to trouble you with a 

 few notes. Quite an interest is being 

 taken here on the subject of bee-cul- 

 ture. We have a County Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association,which meets monthly; 

 the State Association assembles here 

 on April 2.5th, and our citizens are 

 preparing to entertain all visitors and 

 members free of charge, and last, but 

 not least. Judge Andrews is deliver- 

 ing a course of lectures to a large 

 class, among which are some of our 

 best bee-keepers. The lecturer ad- 

 vises his class to read the books and 

 Bee Journal, but to do their own 

 thinking. He is especially severe on 

 so-called motli-proof hives and ven- 

 ders. The lecturer admits the theory 

 of parthenogenesis, and rejects the 

 "pure mother, pure drone theory." 

 He says the male of the bee, as in 

 other life, impresses his characteris- 

 tics more strongly and clearly on the 

 offspring than the female, and im- 

 pressed on his class the importance of 

 the pure blooded drone. The lecturer 

 dwelt at length on the queen bee. illus- 

 trating his subject and exhibiting 

 specimens from his apiary at every 

 stage of life, and wound up his last 

 lecture on the queen by giving his 

 class an opportunity to witness a 

 royal combat. During one of his lec- 

 tures the Judge exhibited to his class 

 some worked over comb. On several 



Eoints the Judge differed from the 

 ooks, but some of these he wished to 

 verify before positive assertion, and 

 lest 1 report him wrongly, I shall omit 

 them for the present. 



A Subscriber. 

 McKinney, Texas, April 22, 1882. 



Almost a Blizzard. — We have a cold 

 snap on hand now, which has lasted 

 from the 9th to the 23d, and bids fair 

 to reign with winter's rigor still a 

 while longer— a gloomy prospect for 

 my pets. We had a profuse apple and 

 peach bloom, but it was all lost to the 

 bees ; they had to stay in to keep the 

 young brood warm. Throughout 

 March the prospect was very fine, but 

 the greater i)art of April so far has 

 blasted our prospects. I have been 

 feeding my bees for two weeks. When 

 it was warm enough for them to ven- 

 ture out, some would gorge them- 

 selves, become benumbed, crawl off a 

 little distance, lay up and die, unless 

 cauglit up and put in a hive, of which 

 class I took up a great many and put 

 in at the top of tlie hive without any 

 bad results so far as I could see. The 

 first was so severe as to wilt some of 

 the young grape shoots and kill most 

 of the fruit, and fears are entertained 

 that it will fall off yet, though pro- 



tected more or less by the fog from 

 the river. We are in a beautiful vale 

 below Louisville, drained of its many 

 ponds, and now very fertile, produc- 

 ing line hay crops, wheat and corn, 

 and running back to the hills, with 

 tine ridges of sand suitable for garden- 

 ing purposes, grapes, melons, canta- 

 loupes, etc. Along some of the 

 smaller streams and wet places grow 

 some of the asters and goldenrods. I 

 have about one acre sowed in sweet 

 clover and mignonette, some of which 

 is looking very fine ; I have also sowed 

 some Alsike clover, and about one 

 acre in white mustard. This fall I 

 will sow 5 or f> acres in sweet clover, 

 and in the spring sow the same in 

 mignonette. 1 wish to treat my pets 

 well. I have now 37 colonies. Xa 

 swarms yet, though in March I ex- 

 pected a good many ere this time. I 

 have some now which from all ap- 

 pearances, will swarm as soon as the 

 weather will admit of their doing so. 

 We have a fair prospect for a good 

 locust bloom, should the weather get 

 warm enough for the bees to gather 

 it; if not, woe to the bees. I have 

 contracted 15 colonies to a man in 

 Louisville when I havo them, and 

 will sell more if I find a purchaser. 

 Success to the Bee Journal. I 

 would give up the business if it was 

 not for it. I gain all the information 

 I need from its pages. 



G. W. ASHBY. 

 Valley Station, Ky., April 23, 1882. 



Preparing Pasturage. — We have 77 

 colonies to commence spring work 

 with. The most of them are strong 

 for this time of the year ; 50 of this 

 number we bought this spring from 

 neighbors that wished to dispose of 

 their bees. The weather is very un- 

 favorable at this time, cold and rainy. 

 Bees cannot fly. Cherry and plum 

 trees are in bloom. We want a little 

 sunshine to make us and the little 

 workers happy. We have sown two 

 acres of alfalfa for forage, and intend 

 next season to sow Alsike. We sell 

 our extracted honey readily for 15 cts. 

 per pound. Every one that comes ta 

 get honey wants to see the extractor ; 

 it is a great curiosity to them. When 

 we extract they are coming to see the 

 honey taken out of the combs. 



Mrs. C. M. Kingslby. 



Elvaston, 111., April 24, 1882. 



Bee Notes from Kentucky. — Bees in 

 Kentucky are in line condition. We 

 have an encouraging outlook. I have 

 lately attended a meeting of the Bar- 

 ren County, Kentucky, Bee-Keepers' 

 Society ; we had a good meeting, and 

 all seemed in good spirits. I also at- 

 tended a meeting of the Hart County 

 Bee-Keepers Association, at Mun- 

 fordville, Ky., and assisted in or- 

 ganizing a county association. We 

 had a large attendance and organized 

 a society that i)romises to do much 

 good. The next meeting will be on 

 the first Saturday in June, at Wood- 

 sonville. Hart County, Ky. We hope 

 all the A'ice Presidents of our State 

 Society will call meetings in their 

 localities and organize. We have not 

 yet fixed the lime of the State meet- 



