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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Food for Shipping' Qiiee»e.— On the 

 13tli of September (if I am wrong in 

 dates I hope the parties will correct), 

 Mr. I. R. Good, of Nappanee, Ind., 

 sent a cage of bees, rationed with the 

 above food, to Prof. Cook, Lansing, 

 Mich. The Professor remailed them 

 to Mr. Paul L. Viallon, of Bayou 

 Goula, La., with the request to reruail 

 them to me, to bring to the Conven- 

 tion at Cincinnati. I left home before 

 they arrived, but my assistant in- 

 formed me that they were taken from 

 the postoffice on the 26th— 13 days after 

 they hrst started on their tiresome 

 journey. One side of the cage con- 

 tained a queen and a few workers, 

 alive and in good condition ; while the 

 other side contained only workers, 

 which were all dead. Both parts of 

 tlie cage had still plenty of food ; but 

 in the part containing only bees, the 

 entrance to the food was blocked up 

 by dead bees. The above, I consider 

 a severe test of the mixture, and 

 speaks well for it. The desired im- 

 provement would seem to be — greater 

 accessibility to the food. 



J. P. H. Brown. 



Augusta, Ga., Oct. 10, 1882. 



[We received a similar cage of bees 

 from Mr. Good, and sent them to Dr. 

 Howard, of Texas, on Aug. 26. They 

 were received by him all alive (not 

 one bee dead) on Aug. 30, and he re- 

 turned them to this office, where they 

 were received Sept. 4th, 2 bees only 

 being dead. We sent them back again 

 to Dr. Howard, Sept. 5th, and he re- 

 ceived them Sept. 9, when 5 of the 

 bees were still alive, after a confine- 

 ment and constant travel of 4 weeks. 

 Dr. Howard then filled the cage with 

 food of his own preparation and a 

 fresh lot of bees, and sent tliem to 

 this office. These came in good order 

 and we sent them to Dr. Brown, 

 Augusta, Ga., and he sent them back 

 to Dr. Howard. 



Mr. Henry Alley has also sent some 

 bees with food prepared by himself. 

 These were forwarded to Mr. C. F. 

 Muth, of Cincinnati, O., and they 

 were, by him, sent back to Mr. Alley. 

 They had been queenless for several 

 weeks and we doubt not but that bet- 

 ter results would have been obtained 

 had the bees been taken from a colony 

 having a good queen. 



My. Alley remarks as follows on the 

 *' Good " food, and the manner of us- 

 ing it : 



I do not think the bees starved, but 

 died from long contjnement. You 

 probably noticed that I inclosed the 

 " Good " food in paper when the cage 

 was prepared— there were no loose 



f rains in the cage when it came back. 

 f that one trouble can be obviated I 

 shall call the " Good " food, perfect. 

 Perhaps, by putting paper about the 

 food, or inclosing it in something so 

 that the cage will not absorb the 

 honey, the grains of sugar will not 



rattle off so much. Of course the bees 

 cannot use the sugar, as they have no 

 water to dissolve it. I think bees will 

 soon be excluded from the mails if the 

 " Good " food is used as it has been ; 

 complaints will soon be made about 

 so much sugar in the mail bags — 

 those who use a sponge will have to 

 be careful not to get on too much 

 honey, as it will run out and soil the 

 mail. Wooden cages should be coated 

 with hot beeswax and rosin in the 

 cavity, where the food is put. 



Bee and Honey SIiow at St. Joseph, 



Mo. — We had a good bee and honey 

 show here. There were about 2,000 lbs. 

 of honey, 6 nuclei and 5 colonies of 

 bees. The premiums were many and 

 large, and tlie interest was more than 

 double that of last year. Thousands 

 of people said it was the best bee and 

 honey show they ever saw. Many 

 traveled hundred of miles to see our 

 display, and went home well pleased 

 with what they had seen. In 1879 I 

 showed one colony of bees, and 1 with 

 others had about 25 lbs. of honey — so 

 we think we have done well, but we 

 will try to do still better next year. 

 May the Bek Journal live till glu- 

 cose and dollar queens shall be num- 

 bered with the past; then may the 

 Jouk'nal and its editor still live to 

 bless our bees and us. 



D. G. Parker. 

 St. Joseph, Mo., Oct. 14, 1282. 



An Excellent Report. — Commenced 

 the season with two colonies ; in- 

 creased to 5, and have obtained 200 

 one pound boxes of honey. I took 65 

 from one colony. The fore part of the 

 season was very poor ; the honey is of 

 prime quality. B. W. Peck. 



Richmond Center, O., Oct. 12, 1882. 



Almost a Failnre. — Honey is almost 

 a total failure here this year. I did 

 not get surplus enough to pay expenses. 

 Have 50 colonies in good condition for 

 winter. W. H. Francis. 



Frankfort, Mich., Oct. 11, 1882. 



Yellow Variety of Sweet Clover.- 1 



had an acre of sweet clover in bloom, 

 the past season, among which were a 

 few stalks of the yellow variety. I 

 watched curiously to see if the bees 

 made any distinction. To all appear- 

 ances they worked upon the yellow 

 with the same satisfaction as upon the 

 white. There seem to be two varieties 

 of the white, one with a pure white 

 blossom and light green stem ; the 

 other a pale pink blossom and dark 

 green stem. As I sowed imported and 

 native seed mixed, I surmise it might 

 have occurred in that way. 



D. P. Norton. 

 Council Grove, Kan., Sept. 30, 1882. 



Botanical. — Bees were working last 

 week on tlie inclosed flowers. What 

 are they V They were picked near Qu' 

 Appelle, North Western Territory. 

 I hear bees do well in Manitoba. 



R. F. HOLTERMAN. 



Fisherville, Out., Sept. 28, 1882. 

 [They are asters, and yield excellent 

 honey.— Ed.] 



Wonderful Success.- 1 would like 

 to make a statement through your col- 

 umns of what I have done this year 

 with the investment of $1.50. Seeing 

 there was considerable interest mani- 

 fested throughout the country in sci- 

 entific bee-keeping, with 2 flourishing 

 apiaries in our little town, I thought 

 I would invest in a colony of bees as 

 1 could purchase them for $1.50. I 

 wanted to see if there was not much 

 humbug in this "profitable" modern 

 bee-keeping, but I think by this time 

 I am fully convinced, that scientific 

 bee-keeping must be one of, if not the 

 most profitable business in existence, 

 for I have to-day 8 colonies of bees 

 worth (without hives) $40. and have 

 sold $40. worth of honey. What busi- 

 ness or occuiiation can compare with 

 that V A profit of $78.50 on the invest- 

 ment of 1.50. My success is due to 

 Mr. Thos. Balcomb, of the Lone Star 

 Apiary, who kindly offered to "work" 

 my bees to prove that bee-keeping was 

 profitable. Mr. Balcomb and others 

 have assured me that this has been aa 

 exceptionally good honey season, but 

 notwithstanding all that I am con- 

 vinced that scientific bee-keeping is 

 one of the most remunerative occupa- 

 tions of the age. 



Thomas Wilson. 



Luling, Texas, Oct. 11, 1882. 



No Surplus Honey.— I had 6 colonies 

 in the spring, which I have increased 

 to 12 ; the honey fiow all through the 

 summer was small, and the hives were 

 almost without stores, but the fall 

 crop is filling the hives rapidly. I 

 have had no honey yet, but will have 

 all that is needed for winter. My bees 

 are all in the Langstroth hive. 



A. E. Foster. 



Covington, Ky., Oct. 2, 1882. 



Well Done.— My honey crop of 1882 

 is 6,000 lbs.— 2,000 lbs. of comb honey 

 and 3,000 lbs. of extracted. I com- 

 menced in the spring with 57 colonies ; 

 increased to 85 and I think that I have 

 done well this year. 1 find the Bee 

 Journal a great help to me. 



James Cokbit. 



Palmyra, Mo., Oct.lO, 1883. 



Sections, Frames, etc.— I increased 



from 9 to 42 colonies, by natural 

 swarming. Swarms in August were 

 larger and built up better than in June. 

 I never before had drones fly as late 

 as Oct. 10th. A part of my bees are 

 the Cyprians, crossed with Italians; 

 they are best for docility, and prolific- 

 ness, but the Italians are best for 

 honey. Please answer the following : 

 1. What is the difference between prize 

 boxes and sections 'f 2. Is a frame 

 as good without a bottom bar as with 

 it V I got some from Mr. Salisbury of 

 that kind. D. S. Kalley. 



Mansfield, Ind., Oct. 13, 1882. 



[A prize box, holds 2 lbs. of honey, 

 and must be nailed ; sections are 

 usually known as those that are dove- 

 tailed, or made all in one piece. 



2. No ; they are not as strong, and 

 therefore we should not approve 

 of them.— Ed.1 



