THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



315 



Unnsuallr Early.— The interest lu 

 bee-keeping is increasing fast and 

 greatly. I luui a very line Italian 

 swarm come out to day. This is un- 

 iisuallv soon for us. Please answer: 

 1. 1 have a large number of sections 

 partly tilled with honey, and others 

 with thick and thin dry comb ; is it 

 advisable to put them on the hives to 

 be filled V My bees do not till thick 

 combs satisfactorily. 



E. C. Jordan. 



Stephenson's Depot, Ya., May -5. 



[Use the sectious. Many make a 

 point of having their section combs 

 built out the previous season, for 

 early use. Unless very bright and 

 clear, first extract the honey from the 

 partly filled sections. We have ob- 

 served that bees rarely fill extra-thick 

 combs as satisfactorily as the medium 

 or thin ones, i'ou can probably 

 remedy this by shaving down the sur- 

 face of the combs with a thin, very 

 sharp knife. — Ed.] 



Excessive Swarmiiigr.— I am having 

 a lively time with my bees now ; they 

 are swarming very fast. 1 had .30 

 colonies to start with, and they have 

 increased by natural swarming to 50, 

 and not half of them have swarmed 

 yet. I have had as many as 6 swarms 

 from one hive. Two escaped to the 

 woods, because 1 could not attend to 

 them in time, being so many out at 

 one time. They are storing honey 

 pretty fast, and I am in hopes they 

 will stop swarming. 1 have been a 

 constant reader of the Bee Jouunal 

 for several years and have noticed 

 tlie views of some men as to [lure 

 Italiaus, hybrids, etc., and so far as 1 

 liave experimented with bees, I find 

 the ci'oss of the Italians and blacks to 

 be as good as any pure Italian for 

 honey, and better for increase, though 

 increase is not the thing for me now, 

 for I cannot sell pure Italian bees, in 

 a painted, movable frame hive, for S5. 

 They do not know how to keep bees 

 unless they can go to the swamp and 

 cut a hollow black-gum, and cut it off 

 with an axe, and set it by the meat 

 house, and let it stand till June, then 

 take a lot of rags and a hammer and 

 go for some honey, bee-bread, young 

 bees, etc. They say to me, how do 

 you have such luck with your 



luck, it is in management. I do 'wish 

 1 could induce the people here to get 

 to paying some attention to them. 1 

 have done all I can to get some of 

 them to take the I3ee Journal one 

 year ; but no, they say they are too 

 poor. I am satisfied if I had time to 

 give the proper attention to my bees, 

 I could make more from them than 

 any one man can in cotton. 1 want 

 to ask a question or two to be answered 

 ill the next issue of the Bee Jour- 

 nal : 1. Will a non-fertilized queen's 

 drones mate with a virgin queen the 

 same as any drone V 2. Will a drone 

 from a half-bieed queen be pure, 

 that is. will a pure Italian queen 

 mated with a black drone, produce 

 pure Italian drones ; if not, how can 



the Dzierzon theory be true. Please 

 answer the above as I am a seeker of 

 knowledge in the bee line. 



II. M. Williams. 

 Bowden, Ga.. May 7, 1882. 



[1. It is generally conceded they 

 will. 



2. The best authorities heretofore 

 have been nearly unanimous in the 

 opinion that if the queen herself is 

 pure, the drones will also be pure. 

 There are, however, some very in- 

 telligent dissenters from this view. 

 Our observations and experiments on 

 the two questions have not been 

 satisfactory.— Ed.] 



Sweet Clover.- My pets are doing 

 well. I had (pieens and drones flying 

 the first day of May. They are very 

 busy on the maples, which are in full 

 bloom. I have two colonies that they 

 are trying to rob, and there is some 

 hard fighting on both sides. 1. Please 

 tell me what to do to prevent their 

 fighting, as I have tried everything I 

 know of. Enclosed yon will find a 

 specimen of a very good bee plant. It 

 blooms from the middle of June till 

 late in the fall, has a small white 

 blossom, is very fragrant, and grows 

 by the roadside. 2. What is it V 



F. A. Gibson. 



Racine, Wis., May 9, 1882. 



[1. Close the entrance to the hive 

 being robbed so but one bee can pass 

 in or out at a time. 



2. You have sent us a specimen of 

 our favorite honey plant — sweet 

 clover ( Melilotits ulba). All will recog- 

 nize its value when they have become 

 familiar with it.— Ed.] 



A Prolific Queen.— As I gave in uly 

 report last fall, perhaps 1 had better 

 tell you what 1 :im doing now— busy 

 hiving bees, 1 to o swarms per day. 

 I put up my y.Sd swarm to-day. My 

 first swarm" came out on the 2.5th of 

 March, and now has 10 frames of 

 brood and is ready to swarm. I have 

 a colony of bees in my apiary that are 

 rather a curiosity. The queen is a 

 fine Cyprian mated with a German- 

 Italian drone, that is a hybrid drone. 

 Slie was raised November, 1880, and 

 bees* mated on the nth of December, and 



i tell them there is no such tiling as* ''began laying a few eggs on the 10th of 



the same month : was wintered in a 

 three-frame nucleus, built up rapidly 

 last year, and gave a nice surplus and 

 a few frames of brood. They went 

 into winter quarters in 1881 on S 

 frames, with si)ace left for two more 

 frames, which they filled with comb, 

 and on the first of March the 10 combs 

 were full of brood, and I gave them a 

 full story with 10 frames of founda- 

 tion. By the first of April these were 

 full of brood, and I added a third 

 story with 5 frames of comb and 5 of 

 foundation, and 4 of these are to day 

 full of brood, and eggs in three others 

 — 24 frames (standard Langstroth) al- 

 most solid brood. I extracted 12 lbs. 

 of nice honey from the third story last 

 week, and as long as the queen con- 



tinues to lay as she has I will give her 

 room ; but 1 see our great honey 

 plant, horseniint, is now beginning to 

 bloom, and this army of bees will need 

 more room soon. I never saw such 

 demons ; the smoke from a steam en- 

 gine would hardly quiet the rascals; 

 the moment the hive is opened at you 

 they come. I prepare for them with 

 gloves and veil, and work on as if 

 they were my favorite Cyprians that 

 behave so nicely. I have about 30 

 coienies of Cyprian bees in their 

 purity, and a better bee never landed 

 on the shores of America. I have 

 had tliein in iny apiary since August, 

 1880, and I know they are good. I 

 started to tell you, I commenced oper- 

 ations this spring with 40 colonies; 

 sold 32 colonies for $231.60, and I now 

 have 45 colonies, which I think will 

 go up to -50 by natural swarming. I 

 am now harvesting my early wheat, 

 and will soon have cake and honey 

 raised in 1882. B. F. Carroll. 



Dresden, Tex., May 1, 1882. 



Bees in Utah.— I am well pleased 

 with the Bee Journal, and as an 

 amateur in the bee business. I have 

 received many valuable hints that 

 would have been to my benefit last 

 year. I had 3 colonies of bees last 

 winter, but the winter has been the 

 hardest we have had since this was a 

 settlement, and many have lost 

 heavily in bees. I lost all of mine; 

 dysentery was the cause. This spring, 

 seeing the advertisement in the Jour- 

 nal of Paul Diiiiken, of Freeman, 

 Mo., I sent for 2 colonies of Italian 

 bees, which I received in first rate 

 condition on the 17tli of April, and it 

 was 2 days after before 1 could let 

 them out, owing to the snow storm 

 tlien raging in tills place. Since that 

 time the bees have done well. Now 

 we have the peach, apple, apricot, 

 pluins, Cottonwood, and May flowers 

 all in bloom. Bees are streaming in 

 with pollen and honey. I find in one 

 hive a queen cell started, and plenty 

 of young brood and drones hatched 

 out, and bv all appearance will have 

 to divide in"a few days. Some of the 

 hives are rather weak, but in general 

 the bees of this settlement are doing 

 nicely, with plenty of bloom— clover 

 and lucerne. We have in the past at- 

 tended to the milk, but now we are 

 beginning to attend to the honey, and 

 it will soon be as the Prophet has 

 said, a laud flowing with " milk and 

 honey." John Dunn. 



Tooele City. Utah, May 6, 1882. 



Well for Philadelphia.— A rousing 

 big swarm to-day. How is that for 

 latitude 40- V This swarm issued on 

 the 4th, but as they were clustering 

 it threatened to rain, and they re- 

 turned to the hive. 



F. Hahman, Jr. 



Philadelphia, Pa., May 8, 1882. 



All Ahniitiauce of Bloom.— Bees are 



doing well in this locality so far this 

 year. I had two fine colonies on the 

 .5th inst. White clover is beginning 

 to bioom and there is an abundance 

 of it. Elvin Armstrong. 



Jerseyville, 111.. May 8, 1882. 



