380 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Plieiiomenal.— Recently while look- 

 ing over my bees, on opening a hive 

 and picking up a frame with brood, 1 

 discovered a ball of bees vvhicli I 

 could not understand. On separating 

 them 1 found they were balling their 

 queen— one that had wintered with 

 them. I liberated her, but they 

 followed her like a lot of wolves and 

 attacked her again. I took her out 

 and caged her. They had no other 

 queen or any cell from which one 

 could have hatched. Can you tell me 

 the cause of such a phenomenon ? I 

 I have had bees many years in Lang- 

 stroth hives, and thought 1 had seen 

 all the freaks bees are subject to, but 

 this one beat me. The queen was 

 stung so badly she died in a short 

 time. The same colony is without a 

 queen yet. I put into winter quarters 

 47 colonies, and took out 46. They 

 have gathered a little honey from 

 fruit blossoms, but the weather was 

 so cold it was mostly a failure, and 

 bees are now starving." I have fed a 

 few. It rains every otlier day and is 

 cold. F. II. Finch. 



Sharon Center, O. May 1.5, 1882. 



[If it were not that there was late 

 brood in the hive, we would think the 

 bees had some cause to supersede her ; 

 otherwise, it may have been a queen 

 that gained admission to the hive and 

 killed the one belonging there, after 

 which the bees attacked her. Possibly 

 an abnormal swarm, with their queen, 

 entered the hive, and after destroying 

 the queen proper, were forced out, 

 leaving the intruding queen in 

 custody. Being a phenomenon, of 

 course there is no arbitrary way of ac- 

 counting for it.— Eu.] 



Good Increase.— I had 18 colonies 

 at the beginning of the season, all in 

 fine condition ; have now 38 increase 

 by natural swarming. First swarm 

 March 29th ; had IS up to the 18th of 

 April ; had a rest of 28 days, and the 

 others came out since. Had one 

 swarm this morning, at 7 o'clock. In 

 my 8 years of bee-keeping I never be- 

 fore had a swarm before May, nor as 

 early as 7 o'clock a. ni. Honey flow 

 is immense from thistle and horse- 

 mint. Brood chambers are all full 

 and boxes and upper stories on 31 

 hives. E. P. Massey. 



Waco, Tex., May 29, 1882. 



Upward Ventilation.— Since my last 

 report the weather has been very un- 

 favorable for tlie production of honey. 

 AVe have had a great deal of raiii, 

 with low temperature. I never knew 

 • cooler spring. We are just begin- 

 ni:ig to have warm weather in earnest, 

 ami the bees are gathering honey 

 freely from white clover. I have 

 t.iken off 1.200 lbs. extracted honey 

 from a commencement of 256 colo- 

 nies. I shall work 4-5 of my colonies 

 for extracted honey. When I find my 

 bees hanginer out, with front and side 

 entrances entirely open, I elevate the 

 rear of the top of the hive and fold 

 back a corner of the sheet from the 



Langstroth frames to the extent of 3 

 or 4 inches, giving free circu.lation 

 from top to bottom. It acts like a 

 cliarm, and the bees are soon at work 

 again. O. M. Blanton. 



Greenville, Miss., May 22, 1882. 



Kingbirds. — The bird mentioned 

 by your Canada correspendent for a 

 name, on page 347, is called kingbird, 

 in this section. I believe that is the 

 name by which they are generally 

 known in the States. They are iii- 

 sectiverous, and considered very de- 

 structive to bees. Some have claimed 

 that they destroy drones only, but 

 that is a mistake, as has been proved. 

 Clarendon Butman. 



Plymouth, Me. 



[Kingbirds are numerous- too nu- 

 merous—in the Central and Western 

 States, with which we are familiar ; 

 but we have none decked in such 

 feathers as the few which were sent 

 us by Mr. Sanderson.- Ed.] 



]>oing Fine in Texiis.— My bees are 

 doing better, and making finer honey 

 than I have ever before seen in Texas. 

 They began swarming on March 10th. 

 I then had 80 colonies. I now have 

 150, in Adair and Langstroth hives. 

 The bees are very strong. lam busy 

 now taking honey— commenced Mav 

 15th. I find it all nicely sealed. Ilorse- 

 mint is splendid this spring. I think 

 it the best honey plant weliave. Corn 

 tassels are line. We are eating roast- 

 ing ears. The prospects are grand 

 for Texas this year. 



S. M. Cochrane. 



Gonzales, Texas, May 29, 1882. 



Disappointments. — We had the 



warmest winter I ever saw up to April 

 9, then set in cold and windy, so my 

 bees could not work to do any good, 

 all through April and May, with rains 

 every 3 days, and then cold again. 

 Bees strong and in line shape, and a 

 hundred acres of white clover in sight 

 of my apiary, and gallons of honey 

 wasting. I had 7 swarms ; lost 3 

 queens this spring, and if the weather 

 does not get better I fear our honey 

 crop will be very light. My bees have 

 done well considering the time they 

 could work ; a good many of the boxes 

 are full of comb and partly filled with 

 honey, and if we could have some 

 dry, warm weather, they would soon 

 do to take off, but to-day is cold, 

 cloudy and windy, with mercury 

 standing at 50^ in the shade. 



L. T. MOBBERLY. 



Long Grove, Ky., June 5, 1882. 



Myrrh on Bee Stings.— We feel to 

 give Mr. R. Ij. Aylor, of Waterloo, 

 Ky., our sincere thanks for his sting 

 remedy, which is a few drops of tinc- 

 ture of Myrrh applied to the puncture. 

 This is the best thing we have found. 

 We have52coloniesingood condition ; 

 the weaker ones have been greatly 

 improved by following Mr. G. M. 

 Doolittle's plan of strengthening and 

 doubling up. No honey or swarming 

 as yet. Daniel & Mary Mohr. 



Manchester, Iowa, June 7. 



Bad for Oiieen Rearing.— Clover is 



largely a failure here — wet and cold so 

 long it is dwarfed ; very fine stalked 

 and bloom light. Bees are getting 

 little honey for two days past. Have 

 had three clear days now. Have got 

 about 20 queens fertilized and 100 lost 

 in flight; saw a number return and 

 fall on the ground, not able to enter 

 the hives. Such were unsuccessful in 

 their flight. Some came out after 3 

 weeks' confinement in the hive on the 

 first warm day and were successful ; 

 but bees would not receive them on 

 their return, but damaged some and 

 killed others. A. Salisbury. 



Camargo, 111.. June 8, 1882. 



Backward, Cold anil Wet.— We have 

 a very backward, cold, wet season so 

 far ; hard on our bees. I fear we will 

 not get much honey this season. I 

 have had two swarms of Italians this 

 season ; the first on the 10th of May, 

 the second on the 25th, both from the 

 same hive. It set in so wet and cold 

 immediately, that I was afraid they 

 would starve, so I fed them in the 

 upper story, and happened to not put 

 on the cover right when the other 

 bees commenced robbing them the 

 first thing I knew, so I smoked them 

 in and shut up the hives, loaded them 

 into my buggy and moved them away 

 about 3 miles to my son-in-law's, 

 where I opened them up and they 

 seem to be doing well. It effectually 

 stopped tlie robbing. J. Brewer. 



Lincoln ville, Ind., June 6, 1882. 



Doing a "Land Office Business." — 



Bees are doing a " land oftice busi- 

 ness" here to-day. The spring has 

 been so cold and wet heretofore that 

 many bees have died of starvation. I 

 think mine will be all right now, as I 

 have been feeding sugar and honey. 

 Tnos. Lashbrook. 

 Waverly, Iowa, June 5, 1882. 



Interesting. — Below are the dates 

 for this year of the flowering of 

 some bee plants and trees in this 

 locality ; also the time of drones fly- 

 ing and commencement of natural 

 swarming. Latitude of this locality, 

 37^, 4.'f ; long. W. from Washington 

 10°, 35'. Such a table as below from 

 different parts of the country would 

 be of much interest to bee-keepers: 

 March 31— Peach and plum trees 

 dropping their bloom ; drones com- 

 menced flying ; pears coming in bloom. 

 April 2.— Cherries and apples begin- 

 ning to bloom ; 22— White clover be- 

 ginning to bloom ; 24— Locust begin- 

 ning to bloom. May 1— Tulip tree 

 and raspberry beginning to bloom ; 

 11 — Natural swarming commencing; 

 25— Catalpabeginning to bloom. June 

 4 — Raspberry nearly out of bloom ; 

 tulip tree about ten days out of bloom ; 

 catiilpa dropping bloom ; locust was 

 in bloom about a week. Bees worked 

 well on fruit tree bloom, sugar maple, 

 tulip tree and raspberry ; indifferently 

 well on locust, white oak, black (sour) 

 gum, and red-bud (.Judas tree); not at 

 all on catalpa. They have not put a 

 great deal of force on white clover as 

 yet, preferring raspberry. 



Gaston M. Alves. 



Henderson, Ky., June 4, 1882. 



