300 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Beb Journal, I trust, will cure that 

 maiad\. They do not possess it on 

 purpose. AH "they require is teach- 

 ing. I will strive, as soon as we see 

 the crops are safe, to get you up a 

 class. J. E. Lay, M. 1). 



llallettsville, Tex., April 28, 1882. 



Floatiiia: Apiaries Unprofitable.— One 



of our principal honey plants is the 

 black jack, a vine wliich grows in our 

 woods here in great abundance. They 

 have been in bloom about two weeks, 

 .and will continue three weeks longer. 

 The flowers are small, liang in clus- 

 ters, and contain large quantities of 

 clear honey. The woods are in a per- 

 fect hum with the bees, which are 

 busy bringing in honey and pollen. 

 Black jack is not the only plant from 

 which the bees gather honey. There 

 are hundreds of other plants and 

 trees. Mr. Henry Steckle is feeding 

 his bees. Mr. Garrett recovered 2U 

 out of 70 colonies. lie says he does not 

 admire a floating apiary very much. 

 His loss on bees and honey was 

 about SSG.5. C. H. Sonnemann. 

 New Iberia, La., April 28, 1882. 



[The vine referred to is wrongly 

 named; black jack {Quercus nigra) is a 

 species of oak, growing usually very 

 scrubby and barren. This vine is 

 Solannm dalcainara, and frequently 

 calleil bitter sweet. We have it grow- 

 ing in the Northern States, but it Is 

 not so great a favorite with tlie bees 

 as in the South. If we mistake not, 

 it is also called " tie-vine " in Arkan- 

 sas, and other States South. The 

 reference to Mr. Garrett's floating 

 apiary will be explained by turning to 

 Mr. Shaw's letter on page 265 of the 

 Bee Jouknal.— Ed.] 



some of their drones this early in the 

 season V I also want to kiiow if bass- 

 wood will grow well along creek 

 banks, and what time to transplant V 

 Frank B. Rife. 

 Malaby, O., April 27, 1882. 



[They are killing off drones because 

 honey is not coming in fast enough to 

 feed them and the working popula- 

 tion. 



Basswood will grow well along 

 creek banks if the ground is gravelly 

 and tilled with water near the surface, 

 as is usually the case in the vicinity 

 of running streams. Any time will 

 do in the spring for transplanting 

 basswood, if the leaves are not set. 

 Probably for the next two or three 

 weeks.— Ed.] 



Feeding.— The cold weather has 

 taken the early swarming fever out of 

 our bees, and they have concluded to 

 wait till a more convenient season. 

 We have not lost hope yet of a good 

 honey yield from poplar and white 

 clover. These are our main sources 

 of supply in Southern Indiana when 

 colonies are strong enough to secure 

 it. Judicious feeding is what should 

 be done now to keep colonies up to 

 their full capacity. 



W. C. R. Kemp. 



Orleans, Ind., April 29, 1882. 



again became warm he put them out, 

 and we watched them, but could see 

 no robbers around ; ni the evening 

 they commenced (ightingagain, in the 

 same way, and made it worse than 

 ever— killing a terrible lot. That colo- 

 ny filled 8 spaces before, and afterward 

 only 6, so it must have been their own 

 bees. It is something new to us. If 

 you know why it was, please let us 

 know through the Bee Journal. 



XT T ^"iVfTT'TT 



Burlington, Wis., Aprii27, 1882. 



[Most likely robbers were at the 

 bottom of the trouble, but not neces- 

 sarily so. We have noticed, upon 

 several occasions, the phenomena of 

 bees killing members of their own 

 colony, and accounted for it upon the 

 supposition that they were either old 

 bees, or that the colony was more 

 numerous tlian convenience or neces- 

 sity required, or perhaps their safety, 

 and not being provided witli the re- 

 quisites for successful swarming, they 

 adopted this plan for depleting their 

 population. For some one wlio has 

 the time at disposal and tlie inclina- 

 tion, this would afford an interesting 

 subject for investigation.— Ed.] 



A Heginner.— Bees are doing splen- 

 didly, regardless of the bad weather. 

 They have been gathering pollen ever 

 since in March. I purchased 7 very 

 strong colonies this spring. They are 

 black bees, wintered well, and are 

 working well. The drones liave been 

 flying for three weeks. I expect early 

 swarms. I am situated in a little val- 

 ley, near a small stream of water ; the 

 woodlands are decorated with wild 

 flowers of different kinds, on which 

 the bees are busy at work. I think 

 the coining season is very promising 

 to bee-keepers, as nothing but the 

 peach bloom has been killed. This 

 locality affords an abundance of white 

 clover every season. I am going to 

 try the plan of sowing buckwheat the 

 Is't of May, and at intervals through- 

 out the summer, which has proved a 

 success in former years. My hives 

 are old-fashioned box hives, in which 

 I believe, taken one year with an- 

 other, bees will do better than in any 

 patent hive made, unless they are 

 different from any I have seen. I 

 liave known iny neighbors to buy 

 more than oO jiatent hives, and lost 

 all the bees they put in them except 

 one colony. The Langstroth hive 

 may be better— I have neverseen one. 

 Wliv is it that bees are killing off 



Cold Weatlier.— The weather is 

 quite cold yet. March 8th set in with 

 northwest winds, which remained till 

 the 17th, when the weather became 

 warm so bees could fly again. They 

 gathered pollen and some honey from 

 the willows, and I had a chance to 

 look some of them over. I found 

 them in splendid condition, with 

 brood in G frames, and capped drone 

 brood in every colony I examined. I 

 observed one colony where the bees 

 flew very fast, so I opened it and 

 was surprised to find they had started 

 to build comb on the outside of the 

 division boards. They had 2 pieces 

 about 3 inches square. It has 8 frames 

 of brood, and is as full of bees as in 

 June. We have been feeding flour to 

 our bees ever since-they have been 

 flying, and I never saw them work on 

 it as they did this spring. I think 

 that is what makes them breed so. 

 The outlook for a lioney crop is good. 

 White clover looks .better than last 

 spring, and bees are in better condi- 

 tion. I think I will get considerable 

 lioney from fruit bloom. I think I 

 can say, with Mr. Deane, " out of the 

 woods,'' as there is plenty of brood to 

 prevent spring dwindling. I wintered 

 2fi colonies, and one nucleus with 

 about a pint of bees, without loss. 

 Mv bnither had one colony. When 

 he" first put it out they flew all right 

 in the day time, but toward evening 

 fighting commenced, and in the 

 morning, when we looked, there were 

 about a pint of dead bees in front of 

 the hive. We supi)osed they were 

 robbers. The next day was cold, so 

 we could not watch them, and he put 

 them in the cellar again. When it 



Grubs.— I inclose two grubs. I 

 found two hives that have them in. 

 They are very active when you touch 

 theiii. 1. Would like to know whether 

 you have such travelers,a.nd what you 

 call them ; whether they are very de- 

 structive y These I found in hives 

 packed on summer stands, with saw- 

 dust filling. 2. Will old tin boilers, 

 that are not rusty, do to press out for 

 separators? 3. Are the perforated 

 the best V A. L. Etherington. 



Milton, N. S. 



[The grubs sent are the larva; of a 

 small beetle, black in color, about % 

 of an inch long. They subsist mainly 

 on vegetable or wood fibre, after it 

 has been long damp, and partly de- 

 cayed. They are common throughout 

 the United States, and are frequently 

 met with underneath the bark of 

 partly decayed logs and stumps. We 

 do not think they are at all injurious 

 to either the bees or honey. 



2. So long as the tin is not rusted 

 badly, it will not matter what it has 

 been used for. 



3. We doubt whether the perfora- 

 ted tin is enough better for separa- 

 tors to compensate for the difference 

 in cost.— Ed.] 



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 written on a separate piece of paper 

 from items of business. 



Advertisements intended for the Bee 

 Journal must reach this office by- 

 Saturday of the previous week. 



