THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



411 



ber correctly, I read an article in the 

 Bee Journal early this year from a 

 bee-keeper of about 40 colonies, who 

 lirofessed to have fed about 500 lbs. 

 of bran or rye tlour in his own apiary ; 

 possibly I am mistaken, but think 

 not. To sav the least, I cannot see how 

 it was done, and what the necessity 

 was. Beginners are often troubled 

 about getting bees started in the 

 surplus boxes. I have had but little 

 trouble in that way ; first supply the 

 boxes with starters of natural comb 

 or foundation, and then raise a frame 

 of brood or honey from the brood 

 •chamber to the storage apartment, 

 and the bees will commence business 

 at once, unless the hives be too warm; 

 in tliat case, give good ventilation. 

 The vacant space in the brood cliam- 

 ber must be supplied with a frame of 

 foundation or comb. E. F. Smith. 

 Smyrna, N. Y., June 15, 1882. 



Spring Dwindling.— Bees wintered 

 well in this part of the country. One 

 man living near me only lost one 

 colony out of 106 up to the time he 

 took "them from the cellar, but since 

 the bees were put on the summer 

 stands they have gone back a good 

 deal, owing to tlie cold, windy weather 

 we have had in the month of May. 

 The loss of bees since putting them 

 out tills spring, up to the present 

 time, will range from 10 to 25 per 

 cent., and a good many of those re- 

 maining are not in a promising s a e. 



S. HiNMAN. 



DundonaM, Ont., June 14, 1882. 



(Jiieen Shipping Cages.— As the safe 

 shipping of queens by mail does not 

 seem to have yet reached perfection 

 by every shipper, I will give a little of 

 my own experience in tliat line — not 

 as a shipper, but as a receiver of 

 queens. During the last few years I 

 have had sent me between 100 and 200 

 queens, by about a dozen different 

 breeders, lio two of whom have put up 

 their queens in exactly the same man- 

 ner. Some lots reached me all dead, 

 some all alive, with attendant bees 

 bright and clean as \vhen first started 

 on their journey, and some in all 

 kinds of condition between the two 

 extremes. Tiie shipper who has had 

 the most uniform success, uses the 

 old-fashionod wood cages, sends about 

 8 or 9 attendant bees with each queen, 

 and i)rovisions with candy in the 

 cages and a sponge or bit of cotton 

 saturated with honey at the sides of 

 ■each cage, with wire-cloth between 

 the bees and the honey. This man 

 has sent me some 50 queens in all, 

 every one of them having reached me 

 not only alive, but clean and bright, 

 and what is still more uncommon, the 

 same is true of all their attendant 

 bees, with the exception of one bee 

 only. It is a great advantage to know 

 that a certain number of queens is 

 sure to arrive in good condition within 

 one or two days of a known time. 

 My poorest success in receiving 

 queens in good condition has been 

 with those sent in Peet cages. I sup- 

 posed this experience of mine was 

 unusual, until I was told by an ex- 

 tensive shipper, while at the National 



Convention last fall, that after having 

 lost heavily by using this cage for 

 shipping purposes, he had abandoned 

 it, and gone back to the old-fashioned 

 wooden cages. I do not know by ex- 

 perience how uiijileasant it must be to 

 a shipper when he receives notice of 

 a loss of queens while in transit, but 

 I do know how much it bothers a re- 

 ceiver to take dead queens out of the 

 postoffice, and liave to wait two to 

 four weeks for others in their place. 



O. O. POPPLETON. 



Williamstown, Iowa. 



Enigmatical.— I send you to-day, by 

 mail, a queen cage with a piece of 

 comb partly filled with sugar. This 

 was stored in the past 10 days, and I 

 am at a loss to account for it. You 

 will observe that the honey has be- 

 come solid as fast as deposited, and 

 it is out of the question to extract it. 

 I am at a loss to know what to do. I 

 cannot extract, and the hives are 

 about full ; bees are idle for want of 

 room. I have about 400 wired frames 

 in this condition. Will you please 

 examine and advise ? I cannot tell 

 what the honey is stored from ; the 

 hives liave been extracted regularly 

 this spring, so it is not old honey. 



H. N. Wilder. 



Forsyth, Ga., June 17, 1882. 



[The piece of honey referred to 

 above has been received, and it is a 

 great curiosity. There are no cells 

 capped on the piece sent us, but the 

 honey in them, which is white as 

 basswood honey, is crystallized quite 

 solid in the cell, with a watery ap- 

 pearance. These pellets or crystals 

 can be lifted out entire with the point 

 of a knife, and do not exhibit that 

 tendency to crumble or run generally 

 found in granulated honey. The 

 strangest feature about the honey is 

 its taste, which is neither like honey 

 nor sugar, but more nearly that of 

 epsom salts, sweetened — at least the 

 sample received appears so. We do 

 not know what it could have been 

 gathered from, never having seen 

 anything like it before; nor can we 

 advise what to do with it, as we do 

 not know what effect it will have on 

 the bees. If it will agree with them, 

 it might be saved over for spring 

 feeding, but we would be afraid to at- 

 tempt to winter on it, at least without 

 having experimented with its sanitary 

 effect. You might liave some compe- 

 tent chemist in your city analyze it. — 

 Ed.1 



Difference in Location.— I have 10 

 colonies in tiie country on the river 

 bottom, and 18 here in Clarinda. To- 

 day I went out to see how they were 

 getting along in the country, and 

 found tliey liad gathered but little 

 honey, wliile those I have here are 

 breeding nicely and in some hives are 

 sealing up new honey. The distance 

 between the two places does not ex- 

 ceed two miles, and I cannot account 

 for it, unless it is a washing rain that 

 swept off the river two days before, 

 almost missing us here, just giving us 

 a gentle sliower. We have more 

 white clover here than on the bot- 

 tom ; but out there is sumac and bass- 

 wood — tlie former now almost ready 

 for the bees. I think when we figure 

 up at the close of the season, that the 

 results from the country will compare 

 favorably with those in town. I have 

 succeeded beyond my most sanguine 

 expectations in making comb founda- 

 tion. After taking a lesson from Mr. 

 Craig in Missouri, I melted the bees- 

 wax, and the first dip I made peeled 

 off the plate without trouble. Feeling 

 somewhat elated at my success, I 

 kept on until I had 40 lbs. of nice 

 sheets, and afterward succeeded as 

 well with the machine as in dipping. 

 J. L. Strong. 



Clarinda, Iowa, June 14, 1882. 



Things Look Brighter Sow.— Tliis 

 has been tlie worst season on bees I 

 ever knew, but things look brighter 

 now. We are having a good flow of 

 honey now, It has also been the 

 worst spring for queen-rearing I ever 

 experienced. D. A. Pike. 



Smithsburg, Md., June 15, 1882. 



Large Yield Expected.— This spring 

 has been so late, cold and wet here 

 that it has been very discouraging to 

 bee-keepers. My bees wintered ex- 

 cellent in my plastered hives, on the 

 summer stands, better than those in 

 single-walled hives in the cellar. 

 They went into winter quarters with 

 a good supply of honey, out it was so 

 warm and pleasant in February the 

 queens commenced laying early and 

 rearing brood, which caused the con- 

 sumption of a great amount of honey, 

 and the cold rainy spring and unfavor- 

 able weather caused thein to spring 

 dvpindle badly. Some colonies died. 

 On the first day of June the weather 

 changed from ridiculous to sublime ; 

 white clover put in an appearance, 

 and' bees are now "booming;" in 

 fact, I never saw bees gather honey 

 and rear brood so fast as during the 

 last week. They are working in sec- 

 tions and swarming in every direc- 

 tion. Bee men that a montli ago were 

 blue as indigo, now feel like "the cow 

 that jumped over the moon." We 

 are having a large white clover bloom, 

 which is our principal honey resource, 

 and I look for a big honey flow from 

 this out. A. W. FisK. 



Bushnell, 111., June 19, 1882. 



Osage Orange for Honey.— Bees in 



this county wintered extra fine. The 

 first of April they were strong in 

 numbers. but the cold and wet weather 

 has liad its affect. Fruit bloom done 

 but little good. The 4tli of May was 

 a glorious lioney day; the bees worked 

 with the spirit of desperation till 4 

 o'clock p. m., and then the blizzard 

 struck. The next day that was good 

 (.June 9), my 25 colonies all flew 

 strong. I kept a close watch of all 

 colonies, and when their honey was 

 exhausted I fed moderately with 



