THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



661 



duly excited, and clusterin the portico, 

 wliere they soon chill ; upon attempt- 

 ing to re-enter the hive, the entrance 

 quickly becomes obstructed and tlie 

 bees outside perish from starvation or 

 other cause.— Ed.] 



For the American Bee JournaL 



Bee and Honey Show at St. Louis. 



E. T. FLANAGAN. 



The great St. Louis Fair has just 

 closed, and was a grand success. 

 There were over 25,000 persons on the 

 grounds on Thursday, and it seemed 

 ' as if they all visited the " Honey and 

 Bee " department. Hundreds told me 

 they came to the fair only to see the 

 bees and honey, and learn something 

 in regard to modern, progressive bee- 

 keeping. The interest manifested was 

 unprecedented, and was unabated 

 from the openmg, on Monday morn- 

 ing, till the close, on Saturday even- 

 ing. Bee-Keepers from all parts of 

 the country were there, all inquiring 

 about the improved methods of ma- 

 nipulating the hive, making and using 

 comb foundation, sections, etc., the 

 relative value of the new races of bees 

 now being introduced, etc. 



I took down the names of over 550 

 bona fide bee-keepers, and a great 

 many promised to take the Bee Jour- 

 nal at the beginning of the year ; but 

 few of our prominent bee men were 

 on the grounds as they were all proba- 

 bly at the Cincinnati Convention. I 

 heard Judge Andrews, of Texas, was 

 present on Monday, but, unfortu- 

 nately, I did not make his acquaint- 

 ance. 



Mr. Armstrong, of Jerseyville, and 

 Mr. Barber, of Bloomington, 111., had 

 exceptionally fine displays of honey, 

 and the former obtained a full share 

 of first premiums, and deservedly, too, 

 as his display would be hard to excel. 



The Fair managment were pleased 

 with the display, and seem disposed 

 to deal more liberally in the future 

 with the bee-keeping fraternity, and 

 I am sure they can afford to do so, as 

 it will do much to develop a growmg 

 industry, for which Missouri is well 

 adapted, but in which, at tlie last and 

 greatest fair ever held, and which is 

 really a National institution, she had 

 not an entry, and her sister State of 

 Illinois carried off all the premiums. 



Belleville, 111., Oct. 9, 1882. 



For the American Bee JournaL 



How I Managed my Bees. 



D. HIGBEE. 



The season of 1882 is over, so far as 

 the labors of the little busy bee are 

 concerned. To me, the year has been 

 satisfactory, though I am only engaged 

 with bees in a small way. 



I started in the spring of 1882 with 

 5 hybrid-Italian colonies and two 

 nuclei. I sold one colony in July for 

 $10. and increased to 17, and took over 

 800 lbs. of comb lioney. The most of 

 which has been sold at 2.5 cents per 

 pound at horiie. The nuclei were very 



weak and drew heavily on the colonies 

 to build them up. I offset them in 

 the count against the colony I sold, 

 and therefore Citll spring count 5 colo- 

 nies which would give me a yield of 

 honey for each (spring count). 160 lbs. 

 comb honey or S40 each, besides the 

 increase of colonies. 



I use the 2- story Langstroth hive. I 

 put the top stories on when the divid- 

 ing was done and the bees were all 

 equalized, and each was full below. 

 Then I put on tlie upper stories and 

 raise to the upper story one-half of 

 the frames from below, and put in 

 frames above and below, empty 

 frames alternating with full ones. 

 This started the bees with a boom 

 above as well as below. In ten days 

 I returned the old frames to their 

 places below, and pat the new combs 

 all above, I never saw bees work 

 faster than they did to linish up the 

 combs above, IJut I found that the 

 queens would work both above and 

 below, and I was troubled till Septem- 

 ber by brood in many of the combs 

 above, that I designed for surplus- 

 causing some of the combs when tilled, 

 to be dark and unsalable. I used a 

 few2-lb. sections; these generally were 

 foundation and were free from brood 

 but not uniform in shape. 



This is comparatively a new busi- 

 ness to me. If any one will tell me 

 how,witli the Langstroth hive, to still 

 get the same quantity of honey but in 

 better shape for market, and the qual- 

 ity to be of the tirst grade, they will 

 help me out of my difficulty. Perhaps 

 I should have used separators. I will 

 never be satisfied until my lioney shall 

 be both in shape and quality first class, 

 and if possible a large yield. 



Avoca, Iowa, Oct. 10, 1882. 



For the American Bee JoumaU 



Use of Onions when Uniting Bees. 



PROF. S. J. ROBBINS. 



I am exceedingly interested in 

 letters published asking and giving 

 information; oftentimes the very ques- 

 tions answered are tlie ones I would 

 ask. Last year, in reading some of 

 the discussions at Beekeepers' Con- 

 ventions, (I do not remember which 

 one) one gentleman said, in uniting 

 bees, lie took slices of raw onions and 

 put in the colonies to be united, the 

 night before, and tlie next morning 

 put them together. The bees all 

 smelling of onions, there was no fight- 

 ing. I have done this repeatedly with 

 the best of success and I desire to 

 thank the gentleman, although I don't 

 remember his name, for it has been 

 worth much to me. Last month I re- 

 ceived two beautiful dollar queens 

 from Kentucky. After receiving them 

 I put them into Peet combination 

 cages and having secured two black 

 queens I phu'e<l a caged Italian in 

 each queenless colony. After two 

 days I examined and found one of the 

 queens liberated and all right ; the 

 other I found in tlie cage dead ; also 

 the bees that came with her. There 

 had been no effort to liberate her. We 

 had a small nucleus in the yard, and 

 Mrs. It. put a piece of onion in it and 



a piece in the hive with the dead 

 queen. After two or three hours, tlie 

 comb from nucleus with queen and 

 bees were put in the hive and "every- 

 tiiing went merry as a marriage bell." 

 No disturbance among the bees ; and 

 the queen went right along as though 

 she had always been there. Now if 

 bees go entirely by scent, why not 

 make the queen and bees smell like 

 onions, and put them in without any 

 cage V Will any one tell us if they 

 have tried this V Why did the queen 

 and bees die that were caged on a 

 comb where they could get honey and 

 should have lived a long time, even if 

 the bees did not liberate them V We 

 have had a very poor season for bees 

 about here ; scarcely any surplus 

 honey, but they have a plenty for win- 

 ter. 

 Penfield, N. Y., Oct. 6, 1882. 



[They were evidently exhausted or 

 fatally injured by the journey in some 

 way.— Ed.] 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bee-Keepiug lu Utah. 



JOHN DUNN. 



I like the Bee Journal very much, 

 It is of much lieneHt to me. I have 

 taken from my bees this year, up to 

 the present date, 30 gallons of ex- 

 tracted honey (we don't go much on 

 comb honey), and still the bees are at 

 work every day it does not storm ; we 

 have had a few cold storms that has 

 kept them in. The mountains are 

 dressed now with part of their winter 

 covering; the leaves are turning yel- 

 low and red, and are beautiful to look 

 upon, if we are only prepared for the 

 cold embrace of "King Jack." I find 

 quite a lot of young brood in all 7 

 hives, and am only able to take off 

 one top box. I liad only .S hives with 

 them on ; the ot er 2 I was not able 

 to take off, for wlien I took the frames 

 of filled honey, in them, the bees 

 would cluster on the sides of the box, 

 so that I gave tliem some empty 

 frames to cluster upon and will let 

 them rest until I prepare them finally 

 for winter. There is a plenty of sur- 

 plus hcmev left in the hives to last 

 them for "the winter. I have taken 

 more honey fnmi one hive top in one 

 week than some of the bee men have 

 taken for a whole year. I intend to 

 give it more of my time, so that I can 

 get more honev than I have done even 

 this year, if I should not lose all, as I 

 did last winter. The bees are now in 

 better condition, and they are better 

 bees. Italians have proven them- 

 selves to be the best, and I have given 

 to tiee men here maiiv (pieeiis, when I 

 should have been looking after honey, 

 but I am satisfied that I have done 

 my own share of improving my neigh- 

 bor's stock, and would have been 

 pleased if I had been able to have 

 done more. I have found 2 fertile 

 queens in one hive, apparently at 

 home, for wfien I undertook to take 

 one out, I had to cage quite a number 

 of bees with her, and they fed her be- 

 fore they could be forced to leave her. 



Toole, Utah, Oct. 3, 1882. 



