378 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



no purpose. Then I removed lier .ind 

 introduced her into another small 

 hive, and she proved to be a perfect 

 queen, producing workers and drones 

 at will. What was the trouble V Was 

 it the scent of the drone she met that 

 caused the bees to attack her, or do 

 all queens have to go through with 

 this pow-wow on such occasions V If 

 (and I shall never doubt it) they in- 

 tended to kill her, d<ies this not ac- 

 count for the loss of a great many 

 queens V Wji. M. Barnes. 



Boaz, Wis. 



[The circumstance you mention is a 

 matter of not in frequent occurrence. 

 We liave heretofore supposed that the 

 queen having been out an unusual 

 length of time, had probably been 

 deprived qf her scent by long contin- 

 uance in the open air, then having 

 met a foreign drone, and returning 

 immediately to the hive after contact 

 with him, the bees may liave mis- 

 taken her for an intruder. Had you, 

 after her first release, put her under 

 a comb-surface cage and placed the 

 comb back in the center of the hive, 

 she would have been fraternally wel- 

 comed after a few hours conlinement. 

 We liad a fine young Syrian queen 

 pass such an ordeal last summer, in 

 which one wing was disabled, but af- 

 ter caging on the comb from one 

 o'clock until evening, she experienced 

 no further trouble.— Ed.] 



Have Dwindled.— Mr. G. M. Doolit- 

 tle's spring report is my experience 

 to a dot. In the fall of 18801 put 35 

 colonies in my cellar, and iuthesprnig, 

 about the iOth of April, set out 84. 

 Some of these I united, so that 1 had 

 24 good colonies, and 7 that I built up 

 to good by fall. From the 24 that I 

 worked for honey, I obtained 830 lbs. 

 of box honey, in 1;?^ lb. sections, and 

 200 pounds of extracted honey, be- 

 sides what we used in the family and 

 gave to the neighbors. Last winter 

 was a very mild one here, and my 

 bees used very little honey while in 

 the cellar, but there came a warm 

 spell about the middle of April, and 

 I set them out, and — oh dear ! how 

 they have gone down ever since. I 

 put 53 colonies in last fall, and set 

 out 49 this spring. All appeared 

 good, but it turned around cold in a 

 couple of days, and my bees had only 

 4 days in April that they could fly, 

 while May has not been much better. 

 The little fellows tried their best to 

 get out and work on soft maple and 

 willow, but they dropped down and 

 died, many of them on the alighting 

 boards. I looked them all over the 

 first warm day in May, and most of 

 them had honey plenty ; those tliat 

 did not I gave combs of honey saved 

 over on purpose for such emergencies, 

 but in spite of all I could do, they 

 have dwindled, died, and swarmed 

 out, and with what I have united, I 

 have 36 good and 2 poor colonies to 

 begin the season with, if we ever get 

 any warm weather so bees can work. 



Fruit is in full bloom here now, and 

 the bees would be very busy, but it 

 has rained most of the time for two 

 weeks, and been so cold they could 

 not do much. The heavy colonies are 

 breeding up fast, but it seems up-hill 

 work for the light ones to get started. 

 My Italians died off and spring 

 dwindled more than the natives. I 

 think the coming bee will be i)ure 

 Italian and pure German brown bees 

 crossed. Such of mine are larger, 

 stronger and do not die or dwindle. 



E. P. LOVEJOY. 



Greig, N. Y., June 5, 1882. 



Negroes .as Bee-Keeners. — 1. How 



far can bees see i* 2. Why do negroes 

 not keep bees; is it because 



" Tlie Lord doth love the negroes well. 

 And he alwrtya tells them by their smell ?" 



I have never known a negro who 

 owned bees. E. C. Jordan. 



Stephenson's Depot, W. Va. 



[1. How far bees can see we do not 

 know. Worker bees are supplied 

 with two sets of eyes — compound or 

 ocelli, and simple eyes. Prof. Cook 

 doubts not their eyes are best suited 

 to long distances, as they depend 

 more upon their keen sense of smell 

 to guide them aright when the object 

 is present. We have often thought 

 one set of eyes might be adapted to a 

 very distant range, while the otherset 

 were adapted to perfect observation 

 in the dark, as we know much, and 

 perhaps the most perfect of their 

 work, is performed in the hive at 

 night amid total darkness. Who that 

 has passed through an apiary at mid- 

 night during a season of bountiful 

 honey flow, has no* heard the busy 

 roariny of the bees within the hive, 

 though several rods away. 



2. We never saw nor heard of a 

 negro who was a successful bee- 

 keeper; and although excessively fond 

 of haney, nine hundred and ninety- 

 nine out of every thousand, would do 

 without it, even if told to go to the 

 hive and help themselves. — Ed.] 



Working Drones.— As I write, a 

 neighbor has just called in to ask if 

 drones worked. I replied, no. He 

 affirmed that he had witnessed a col- 

 ony, the drones of which were at work 

 carrying in pollen as busy as the work- 

 ers. The same colony have been 

 killing off the drones since. I re- 

 plied that it was an exception. What 

 think you of it y Our bees have had 

 a good spring harvest; working al- 

 most incessantly for 3 months, while 

 yours have been frequently interrup- 

 ted with frost and freezes. I am in- 

 formed by a neiglibor just from your 

 city, that it was snowing there on the 

 23d, yesterday week. 



W. A. Milling. 



Biard, Tex., May 31, 1882. 



[There must be some misiake about 

 the drones carrying in pollen. — Ed.] 



Too Cold and Wet.— I had last fall 12 

 colonies which wintered well and 

 strong, but they have dwindled badly 

 this spring, causing the loss of one. 

 Most of them have but three frames 

 of brood. There is not much show 

 now for honey until fall or late sum- 

 mer. The weather is too cold and 

 wet for bees to work much on what 

 bloom there is. That open letter to 

 Doolittle hits me exactly. I hope he 

 will give a reply soon. 1 use hives 

 holding 10 frames, inixl2i^ inches in- 

 side. 1. For extracting honey should 

 I have an upper story to get the best 

 results, or is the one story roomy 

 enough ? 2. I tried sections a little 

 last year, but the bees did not go up 

 at all ; why ? 3. Are there any bees 

 that can gather honey from red clover ; 

 mine do not ? Page. 



Shenandoah, Iowa, June 3, 1882. 



[You will find Mr. Doolittle's answer 

 to Dr. James' open letter, which was 

 published in the Bee Journal, page 

 329, in this number, on page 372. 



1. For extracting we prefer the 

 second story, as it gives an opportun- 

 ity for tiering up, to meet exigencies 

 of weather or time, and for ripening 

 honey, when flow is very abundant. 

 If but one story is used, then a " long 

 idea " hive is often desirable, as with 

 a very prolific queen, if but 10 frames 

 are used, the labor of extracting will 

 have to be continually in progress, or 

 a light yield will be the result. 



2. Your honey flow may have been 

 very light, or the bees been too long 

 storing in the brood chamber. Sec- 

 tions should be put on early in the 

 season, if comb honey is wanted ; that 

 is, soon as the weather has become 

 warm and settled. 



3. There are several who claim their 

 bees gather freely from red clover. 

 We have frequently seen our bees 

 working busily on it, but never when 

 the flow was plentiful from other 

 honey plants, nor do we believe any 

 bees will do so.— Ed.] 



Putting on Sections.— In your an- 

 swer to D. W. Bellemey on page 331, 

 question 4, your advise and my expe- 

 rience do not agree. I used to do" as 

 you advise, but found sometimes a 

 difficulty in getting the bees into the 

 sections after they commenced to 

 store honey in the combs below. I 

 now put on the boxes as soon as the 

 bees have clustered below. Swarms 

 thus treated have, as a rule, given a 

 large yield of section honey. If not 

 done within 2^1 hours, the bees will 

 put so much honey in the brood 

 combs as to materially interfere with 

 the brood, leaving insufficient room 

 for the queen. If honey is what we 

 are striving for, on this point hangs 

 success or tailure. I hope other bee- 

 keepers will give their practice on 

 this (to me) important point. 



L. C. Whiting. 



East Saginaw, Mich. 



