44 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



No Honey from Buckwheat. 



I started, last spring, with 21 colo- 

 nies, all in fair condition ; increased 

 to 31 ; took 4,000 pounds of surplus 

 houey, all extracted except 100 pounds. 

 The first part of the honey season was 

 good, but after the basswood bloom, 

 my bees stored scarcely no surplus. 

 There were acres of buckwheat with- 

 in a radius of 2 miles, yet I extracted 

 only I}^ pounds of buckwheat honey. 

 Bees are now in good condition. "I 

 have wintered in a cellar for four suc- 

 cessive winters without the loss of a 

 single colony. I. J. "Wheeler. 



Monona, Iowa, Jan. 9, 1884. 



Prefers the Cellar for Wintering. 



AVe are having some very cold 

 weather here this winter. The ther- 

 mometer ranges from 20-^ to 2.5- below 

 zero. I am wintering 1-5 colonies of 

 Italian bees in the cellar, all in good 

 condition. As yet, I think the cellar 

 wintering preferable, as it took only 

 from 5 to 8 lbs. of honey to a colony, 

 last winter, to get through. 



R. C. Cressy. 



Battleboro, Vt., Jan. 7, 1884. 



Producing Dysentery. 



To produce dysentery, feed the bees 

 with honey thai has been exposed in 

 the cold from 10- to 20^ below zero, 

 when they cannot fly freely after- 

 wards, and dysentery will follow every 

 time ; at least it has witli me. pollen 

 or no pollen. I think frozen honey 

 will produce it. ■ :My cellar is kept 

 from 4,'5-J to .50- all the time. 



Mattison, Ills. A. "W'icherts. 



My Report for the Season. 



I commenced the season with 23 

 colonies ; increased to 41. It being a 

 busy season with me, I lost 6 swarms 

 that went to the woods. My vield is 

 000 pounds of extracted and 1,830 

 pounds of comb in two-pound sec- 

 tions. I sold my honey at 18 and 20 

 cents for comb, and 12J^ cents for ex- 

 tracted. J. I. LtrcAs. 



Stanton, Mich., Jan. 8, 1884. 



Is Comb Foundation Valuable ? 



On page 671 of A'ol. 19, Mr. Doolit- 

 tle says the use of foundation for 

 brood-chambers is an unnecessary ex- 

 pense, or words to that effect. From 

 actual experience I beg leave to differ 

 with him on that point. Although I 

 have not been m the business as manv 

 years as Mr. D.. I have given thorough 

 experiments, and have proven it to be 

 of untold value. I am inclined to be- 

 lieve that if a little foundation or wax 

 guide is good, that more is better, 

 whether it be in the brood-chamber or 

 sm-plus boxes. One of my experi- 

 ments, last summer, consisted of hiv- 

 ing 3 swarms of equal size and value 

 at the same time on the following 

 plan: Xo. 1 was placed in a hive 

 without any foundation ; Ko. 2 I gave 

 starters 3 inches wide, and Xo. 3 was 

 liived on full sheets of foundation. 

 Now. for the results : At the close of 

 the honey season I had taken 7 pounds 

 of honey fromXo. 1 ; from Xo. 2 I had 



taken 60 pounds, and from Xo. 3 I re- 

 ceived 168 pounds, which puts me on 

 the list of those who would not do 

 without foundation in the brood- 

 chamber. This is not the only experi- 

 ment I have tried, but manV otliers 

 that gave as good results. I use the 

 Langstroth frame, and use three wires 

 the long way of the frame, and the 

 eggs never fail to hatch on the wires, 

 and my combs are always straight. 

 So. before any one discards the use of 

 foundation for the brood-chamber, try 

 it yoijrself , and see if I am not right. 

 Macomb, 111. J. G. Xorton. 



Out-door Cellar for Wintering Bees. 



In 1880 I had 7.5 colonies of bees, of 

 which I was proud. In the spring of 

 1881 I had only one left, but I have 

 again increased to 22, this summer. I 

 have an outdoorcellarinwhich they did 

 well last winter. Mr. Sargent, who 

 has helped me along eonsiderablv, has 

 3-5 colonies in my cellar this w'inter. 

 My neighbors all winter their bees 

 out-doors, luiprotected, and are care- 

 less about them. 



.Jacob C. 'Wiiitisg. 



Twin Lakes, Mich. 



Bees Packed on the Summer Stands. 



I have all my bees in the cellar ; 

 they are as quiet as thej can be, after 

 this cold weather, 30^ below zero. 

 'We had tnindreds of dead bees on the 

 bottom boards ; two days before the 

 cold you could not see a single bee. I 

 have them packed thus : I lay thi-ee 

 sticks across the frames ; then lay a 

 cloth over them, put on tlie second 

 story and fill it full of chatf. I have 

 sweet clover growing all around. It 

 will be in blossom next summer. I 

 had about }4 acre of Alsike last sea- 

 son ; that is a great honey plant, but 

 it is no field crop. I hope there will 

 be an early spring, as some of mv 

 colonies have only "about 10 pounds of 

 honey (all they gathered all summer, 

 as they were weak in the spring). I 

 suppose they used it to rear brood. 

 HUGU Williams. 



Racine, Wis., Jan. 9, 1884. 



Beginning with Frame Hives. 



I commenced the spring of 1883 with 

 7 colonies of bees, mostly blacks, and 

 some hybrids, in box hives. I trans- 

 ferred most of them to frame hives, 

 and also transferred some for my 

 neighbors, and they all liave done 

 well. I received 155 lbs. of honey from 

 one of them, and they have 40 poiuids 

 left to winter on. but they never 

 swarmed. I liave kept bees "for over 

 .5 years, and like to work with them, 

 and have never been run off by any 

 bees I ever saw. I liave never seen 

 any Syrian or t'ypriau bees in this 

 part of the country. I never used a 

 smoker until this season, and I found 

 it a great help to me. I bought 5 col- 

 onies this fall, in box hives, which I 

 will transfer in the spring, making 18 

 strong colonies. 3 weak ones and one 

 nuclei (22 colonies), from 7, spring 

 count ; besides 200 pounds of extrac- 

 ted and 425 pounds of comb honey, 

 which was all sold at home at an 



average of 12}^ cts. per pound. I win- 

 ter my bees on the summer stands, in 

 the same way as Mr. Dadant, of Ham- 

 ilton, 111. They are all right so far; 

 the weather has run below zero for a 

 week, and was 31- below zero on Jan. 

 5, 1884. I have been reading the Bee 

 Journal for a year, and lay the most 

 of my success with my bees to it. 



Henry Erbrodt. 

 La Harpe, Ills., Jan. 7, 1884. 



Bees Banked up with Snow. 



I came liere on March 7, 1883, and 

 brought 8 colonies of bees from Iowa 

 County, Ind. Of course the bees were 

 short of honey, on account of being 

 moved. The spring was wet and cold, 

 but fruit bloom gave the bees a start; 

 clover was simply immense, but the 

 honey from it was thin ; there was not 

 much linden honey, but the proceeds 

 from the bees was S6 per colony, spring 

 count, and they increased to 24 colo- 

 nies. They are on the summer stands, 

 and have plenty of honey and bees. 

 They are now banked up with snow. 

 AVji. S. Buchanan. 



Elizaville, Ind. 



Premiums at the Iowa State Fair. 



In reference to the Premium List 

 presented by O. Clute, allow me as an 

 Iowa bee-keeper to say that I think 

 Cyprian and Syrian bees should have 

 the same premiums as Italians. All 

 races should have an equal chance for 

 the same premium. A\ Ji. Malone. 



Oakley, Iowa, Dec. 29, 1883. 



The Season's Work. 



The past season was rather a poor 

 one for bee-keepers ; part of the time 

 it was too wet, and the latter part of 

 the summer and early fall were dry ; 

 and besides that we had a very hard 

 frost on Sept. 10, which killed most of 

 the fall flowers. Last fall I had 8 col- 

 onies of bees, in pretty good ctindition 

 for winter, but I did not get them 

 packed in time, so I lost all but one 

 colony. I got no increase, but I had 

 80 pounds of honey from it, from June 

 8 to Sept. 10. On June 1.5 I purchased 

 6 three-frame nuclei, and put them 

 into Langstroth hives, and gave them 

 frames of comb that I saved from 

 bees that died the winter previous. 

 One of them swarmed on July 20 ; this 

 one also swarmed twice afterward, on 

 July 20 and Aug. 10 ; tlie last one 

 " left for parts unknown '' the next 

 day after being hived. I returned this 

 also several times, but on Sept, 4 it 

 came out, and I did not see them un- 

 til they were ready to leave, I think 

 this rather late swarming for this sec- 

 tion of country. I have a colony in a 

 chaff Electic "hive, which I think is 

 the best chaff hive I have seen, or 

 seen described. J. S. Barb. 



Bristolville, O., Dec. 6, 1883. 



Satisfactory Results. 



In the spring of 1883 I had 11 colo- 

 nies of bees ; in'the fall they had in- 

 creased to 27 colonies. I obtained from 

 them 1.600 lbs. of honev. 



C. W. Johnson. 



Xorwood, Mich., Jan. 8, 1884. 



