THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



3G3 



Use New Honey Packages.— In this 

 ipart of Nebraska* as elsewhere, spring 

 is lagging behind very disagreeably 

 ■for the bee interest. The greater por- 

 tion of the weather so far has been 

 cool and chilling, and the bees appar- 

 ently being anxious to get out, ven- 

 ture forth when it is so unfavorable 

 that they perish by hundreds, and 

 some days even by thousands ; but we 

 are feeding a little to stimulate breed- 

 ing, and thereby our colonies are 

 gaining in strength, notwithstanding 

 the unfavorable weather. Bees passed 

 through the winter in good shape in 

 this locality. The following are some 

 of the reasons why Eastern Nebraska 

 is a favorable place for bee-keepers: 

 About Ai)ril 1st cottonwoods are in 

 bloom ; .Vpril 10th to 30th wild and 

 tame fruit, box elder, and, I believe, 

 soft ni;ii)le. During the fore part of 

 May wild llowers begin to make their 

 ai)i)earance, and keep coming more 

 and more until frost; April l.jth to 

 '2')\h willows are in bloom. About 

 this time, if we have attended to bus- 

 iness, rape will begin to bloom, which 

 will carry us into clover; then about 

 July Ist.'vervain, which grows quite 

 extensively along the streams, gets 

 up a terrible excitement among the 

 little bees, and about July 10th 

 lieartsease begins to bloom, which 

 sends everytliing booming ufitil 

 checked by late September frost. You 

 will readily see that we have fully two 

 months in which to build up our col- 

 onies and get ready for the honey 

 harvest. Would you recommend put- 

 ting extracted honey in old whisky 

 barrels, or would one extreme flavor 

 disagree with the other extreme V 



M. L. Trester. 



Lincoln, Neb., May 18, 1882. 



[By no means use old wiiisky bar- 

 rels, nor any other second-hand pack- 

 ages for putting nice honey in. If in- 

 tended for market, you cannot be too 

 careful, nor too tasteful, in the selec- 

 tion of kegs. Any flavor which is not 

 that of pure honey will be found de- 

 trimental. We recently sampled some 

 honey which had been sent to a dealer 

 in this city, and put up in a keg that 

 had contained maple syrup. The 

 honey was badly tainted, and both the 

 flavor of the honey and of the maple 

 syrup were so badly neutralized, that 

 several experts unhesitatingly ex- 

 pressed the opinion that it was more 

 sorghum than honey, through some 

 mistake of the shipper, who is one of 

 the most conscientious men in the 

 country.— Ed.] 



Warranted Queens. — Spring has 

 seemed to come at last. Bees are now 

 at work on apple blossom finely. I 

 have lost several weak colonies from 

 dwindling, owing to the cold weather, 

 but hope that now we will have some 

 good weather. It rained all last night, 

 and is raining still. If it clears off 

 -warm I shall be glad, as we needed 

 the rain. I ordered 4 warranted 

 •queens a year ago the last of last 



April. They were promised to be 

 sent me the lirst week in May. I re- 

 ceived one of the four which was im- 

 properly mated. I could not get the 

 rest until the middle of August, and, 

 as 3 of them were put into hybrid col- 

 onies, I could not tell for certain how 

 they were. I lind this spring 2 of 

 them produce about one-third black 

 bees ; one has bees pretty good. One 

 I put into an Italian colony, and knew 

 last fall that she was not pure or 

 purely mated ; but it had got to be too 

 late in the season to replace her, so I 

 said nothing, nor have I vet to the 

 breeder. Should he make them good 

 this summer? Or should I lose my 

 money V Answer in Bee Journal. 

 A. C. Balch. 

 Kalamazoo, Mich., May 27, 1882. 



[If ordered in reasonable season, 

 and received too late to test last fall, 

 they should be replaced this spring ; 

 but if you had ample time to deter- 

 mine their character last fall, you 

 should have promptly reported the 

 facts in the case to the breeder from 

 whom you purchased them, who 

 would undoubtedly have been glad 

 to make the warrant good. — Ed.] 



Duplicating Eggs. — I have a queen 

 bee which lays from 1 to 5 eggs in 

 each cell. The colony does not seem 

 to do well ; is it on that account, or 

 does that make any material differ- 

 ence with brood-rearing ? Please 

 answer through the Bee Journal. 



Eastville, Iowa. A. L. Conger. 



[If the brood chamber is honey- 

 bound, a prolific , queen would be 

 obliged to cease laying or duplicate 

 her eggs in the cells. If there is 

 plenty of room, and she persists in 

 the habit, better supersede her as 

 soon as possible. It is this duplica- 

 tion, whether forced or otherwise, 

 that retards the prosperity of the 

 colony. — Ed.] 



In the Sweet By-and-By.— May 22— 



Amid the bursting buds and spring- 

 ing flowers, through the balmy spring 

 days and under tlie laughing skies, 

 how pleasing the sight and sound of 

 the " blessed bees." Never did the 

 music of their tireless wings seem 

 sweeter, never did the apple blossoms 

 teem with more fragrance, never did 

 the prospect of an overflowing honey 

 crop gladden more the heart of ye 

 lover of liquid sweetness. A yearago 

 I seeded about half an acre to alsike 

 and white clover mixed. It is in- 

 tended for lawn. I never saw such a 

 luxuriant growth as it has made. If 

 the reality is anything like the pros- 

 pect, that |iatch ought to yield half a 

 ton of honey this summer. I have 

 seeded about twice as much this 

 spring in the same manner, and for 

 the same purpose. My object is to 

 make a lawn, and I thought that by 

 mowing twice during the summer I 

 could keep the clover sufliciently short 

 for so large a yard, and at the same 



time get two crops of white clover 

 honey. Whether any advantage will 

 be gained bv mixing the varieties re- 

 mains to be'seen. May 23— How vain 

 are human hopes and anticipations! 

 Last night there came a frost—" a 

 biting frost "—and to-day the tender 

 things look sick enough. The Mani- 

 toba wave struck Iowa, and struck 

 her hard. It will take several days 

 for nature to heal the sick flowers and 

 tender vegetation. Yet I hardly 

 think the apple blossoms are entirely 

 killed. The bees brought in pollen 

 from some source to-day. So we will 

 continue to hope. It is better to hope 

 against disappointment, than to des- 

 pair when prosperity is possible. 



Eugene Secor. 

 Forest City, Iowa, May, 1882. 



Winter in May. — This morning found 

 the ground covered with snow to the 

 depth of two inches. So far this sea- 

 son my bees have been able to work 

 only a very few days. Early forage, 

 including fruit liloom, has been almost 

 an entire failure, on account of the 

 cold and wet weather. My bees are 

 rapidly consiuning their stores, not- 

 withstanding I am feeding consider- 

 able. Bees have to be looked after 

 very closely, as they consume feed 

 very rapidly in rearing brood. White 

 clover promises to be very abundant- 

 saw it in bloom on the 21st. Should 

 the weather turn dry and warm, I 

 shall look for a bountiful harvest. 



W. C. NUTT. 



Otley, Iowa, May 23, 1882. 



Disgusting.— The disgust of bee- 

 keepers in tliese parts was perhaps 

 never greater than it has been with 

 the weather regulations since the 

 freeze-out early in April. Storms, 

 followed by frosty mornings and 

 windy days, kept the bees in or de- 

 stroyed those that ventured out until 

 many exhausted their stores and had 

 to be fed, and the stimulus of our 

 first honey flow was so great that the 

 queens filled the hives with brood and 

 young bees, so that swarming with 

 some commenced very early, the bees 

 taking advantage of our occasional 

 short spells of good weather to swarm, 

 only to be shut up in a starving con- 

 dition by succeeding bad weatlier. 

 After two days of rains, yesterday 

 was a fine day, and the flow of honey 

 for those in reach of the tulip tree 

 the best it has been since the disaster 

 to fruit bloom, in April— what little 

 white cloi'er is in bloom being aban- 

 doned for this more easily procured 

 nectar. In looking over one of my 

 colonies yesterday, I found some- 

 thing that so far exceeded anything I 

 had ever seen in my 4 years experi- 

 ence, that I have thought it worth re- 

 porting. During our short flow of 

 fruit honey, early in April, this colony 

 was storing up rather better than the 

 others ; I put on the second story, 

 with ten sheets of foundation in Lang- 

 stroth frames. Upon examination, I 

 found that the queen had gone up and 

 taken possession of the upper story 

 and filled eight frames, most of them 

 from end to end and from top to bot- 

 tom. Supposing that she had entirely 



