THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



217 



s^h5mS^MSSK 



ouM-'tEfSBp, 



Home Market for Honey. 



My lioney was all sold in niy home 

 market, and I would advise all bee- 

 beepers to adopt the same plan, at 

 least as far as possible. 



W, Z. IIUTCniNSON. 



Rogersville. Mich., March 20, 18«4. 



Wintered Well. 



Bees managed by improved methods 

 have wintered very well, but box hive 

 men and careless bee-keepers have 

 lost heavily in this section. 



DWIGHT FURNESS. 



FiirnessvUl§, Ind., March 21, lSS-1. 



Winter Severe, but no Loss of Bees. 



Our winter has been very severe, 

 bnt \ip to date my bees have wintered 

 well and withou'loss. 



"Wm. Bitzer. 



Wheeling, W, Va., March L'l, 1884. 



First Swarm of the Season. 



I hived my lirst swarm to-day. Elm, 

 maple, plum, peach and pear tiees are 

 in Uloom. It has been warm for about 

 two weeks; bees are booming, the 

 hives are full of young bees, and they 

 are working with vim. 



Z. A. Clark. 



Arkadelphia, Ark., March 2.5, 1884. 



Feeding Bees Now. 



My .D(i colonies of bees never win- 

 tered better. I have lost 7. all by 

 star\'ation. I never had them con- 

 sume stores as they have this winter; 

 caused by not having any flights to 

 decimate their numbers, and very 

 few dying in tlie hives. There was a 

 large "force to be fed all winter. I was 

 not aware of their condition. I am 

 feeding them heavily with confec- 

 tioner's sugar, and think I shall lose 

 no more. VVm. Morhous. 



Dearborn, Mich., March 2-5, 1884. 



A Good Beginning. 



The Bee Journal is read weekly 

 with great satisfaction. After Dr. 

 Bakersent it to me, I thought I could 

 not do without it, although I did not 

 nave a single bee ; so, of course, I 

 sent S2 for it. In the spring of 1883 I 

 bought 2 colonies, blacks, in box hives, 

 ■with a few moths in, which I cleaned 

 up. sent for Langstroth hives, which 

 came in time for the swarms, which 

 were hived according to its instruc- 

 tions and were worth the whole year's 

 subscription ; but that is not all the 

 value received from it, for in addition 

 to the 7 swarms — strange as it may 

 seem — I have taken S9ii^ lbs. of comb 

 honey, mostly in two-pound sections, 

 which I have sold at from 2^ to .5 

 cents above the market for crushed 

 jar honey. I had to feed but little 

 sugar besides the unfinished sections 

 (which were not w^eighed) to 3 colo- 

 nies. I have kept a strict book ac- 



count with them, which stands thus : 

 Hives, foundation, sections, smoker, 

 .lounN.M.. and 2 colonies of bees, cost 

 S2'). 400 ixMuids of honey at 15 cents, 

 brought ?iiO, hniving a balance besides 

 the bees, etc.. of S3). The result on 

 our market is our merchants return 

 very reluctantly to their jars at 12'2 

 cents. Tlieir customers alsodoso,only 

 after inquiry tor "the little bo.xes.'' 

 In canvassing for mv club to the Bee 

 Journal. I met oiie box-hive man 

 who had paid $10 for the right to make 

 a hive lor his own use, and nistruc- 

 tions how to feed his bees beef, and 

 they would make him honey all winter. 

 B. F. Hamilton, M. D. 

 Terre Haute. 111. 



Honey Granulated in the Fall. 



Spring opened beautifully, and l)ut 

 for the two or three freezing checks 

 since.the bees would have swarmed by 

 the middle of this month ; as it is, it 

 will be deferred until about the first 

 of April. Mv crop, the past season. 

 was 8,-500 poiuuls from 40 colonies, 

 spring count ; increased to 70. All 

 honey quickly granulated last winter, 

 and even in full colonies, both capped 

 and uncapped, honey granulated in 

 the cells. Can you "tell me why it 

 should have done so ? Can it be re- 

 moved in any way, or will the bees 

 do it V \V. T. Maddox. 



Alexandria, La., March 17, 1884. 



[The graiuilation was caused by 

 some peculiarity of the atmosphere, no 

 doubt. The bees will take care of it, 

 and use it all to advantage.— Ed.] 



Bees all Right. 



My 25 colonies of bees were put in 

 my cellar about Nov. l,with plenty 

 of honey, and I left all of the pollen 

 or bee bread in the hives this winter, 

 and they have been shut up by the 

 cold ever since. Up to this date they 

 are all right, with no signs of dysen- 

 tery, and have plenty of capped brood, 

 and brood in all stages. My cellar 

 was prepared for them with tile, and 

 has a 2-inch tin jiipe connected with 

 the stove pipe, and running within 

 about 2 feet of the cellar bottom. 

 The thermometer has been all winter 

 from i-'P to oO'^, until the last cold 

 snap, 2 or 3 weeks ago, when it went 

 down to 32^ ; but now it has got back 

 to 40°, and seems to stay there. My 

 bees seem to keep very quiet, and 

 every one answers to roll call. 



E. L. Fredenburg. 



Fentonville, Mich., March 21, 1884. 



How Far do Bees Fly? 



Mr. Pettigrew is certainly very 

 much mistaken in his opinion "of the 

 distance bees fiy for stores, else the 

 bees in the United States are better 

 travelers than those in the old coun- 

 try. I take pleasiu'e in adding my 

 testimony in corroboration of that of 

 Mr. Doolittle in regard to the matter 

 as follows : In 1SK.5-G6 I stocked my 

 apiary with Italian bees ; they being 

 the only ones within miles of me, ex- 

 cept those of a friend sorue five miles 

 south. During the fall of I860. 1 was 



asked to look, over some black bees 

 kept by a friend some i}4 miles north 

 from my apiary, and, after examining 

 them, was led by curiosity to see 

 W'bether any yellow bees were visiting 

 a field of buckwheat in the vicinity. 

 To my surprise I found at least one- 

 half the bees in this buckwheat field 

 were Italians, that either came from 

 my own ajiiary or from that of my 

 friend .') miles further oft'. The next 

 season, upon again examining these 

 same black bees, I found the old col- 

 onies were well mixed with yellow 

 bees, owing to the young queens meet- 

 ing my yellow drones. I do not know 

 how far' bees do really fly. but in the 

 above case they went in" large num- 

 bers, at least 4"miles in a liee line. 

 J. E. Pond, Jr. 

 Foxboro, Mass., March 20, 1884. 



Experiments in Wintering. 



All experiments and observations 

 show that the bees that have been 

 reared here for the greatest number 

 of years, and have consequently be- 

 corhe climatized, as it were, have" win- 

 tered best. Pure Italian stock, and 

 bees reared from queens bred in the 

 South, have nearly all perished, where 

 wintered on the summer stands. 

 Chaff packing has been of no advan- 

 tage, as used by the average apiarist ; 

 some losing all of their bees ; some 

 having a few sickly colonies, which 

 swarm out and leave the hive on 

 warm days. Hybrid and native bees 

 have come out ahead, and is another 

 victory for the old-fogy bee man, who 

 keeps his " black imps " in an un- 

 dressed box hive, and whom the mod- 

 ern and more intelligent apiarist will 

 be obliged to seek out and purchase 

 bees of again, to preserve his moldy 

 combs, and to continue his experi- 

 ments on the wintering problem 

 another season. I will give you the 

 result soon of experiments on winter- 

 ing on the summer stands, packed in 

 chaff; also, of cellar wintering and of 

 burying in the earth. 



S. J. YOUNGJIAN. 



Cato, Mich., March 26, 1884. 



From Tennessee. 



I have sold out here and intend 

 moving my apiary to Sparta, Tenn., 

 next week, where I will have a much 

 better place for an apiary than here. 

 Sparta is the county seat of White 

 County ; lies at the base of the Cum- 

 berland Moimtain. The bees will 

 have access to immence quantities of 

 whitewood. or poplar as it is called 

 here, sourwood, basswood. cucumber, 

 soft and hard maple, white clover, 

 etc. I am receiving a great many 

 letters of inquiry concerning thi's 

 county, or this State, from Northern 

 bee-keepers who think of coming 

 South. I advise them not to be in a 

 hurry to leave homes in the North to 

 come South. Moving costs money, 

 and while you will find some things 

 here that you will like better than in 

 the North, there will be many things 

 that you will not like as well. If you 

 do come South, do not be in too much 

 of a hurry to buy land. Stay out of 

 the hands of land agents ; if you want 

 reliable information, go to some na- 



