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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 





Willows and Maples Budding. 



Spring has just opened, and the soft 

 maples and willows are beginning to 

 bloom. M5' bees are getting some 

 pollen to-day : just six days sooner 

 than last spring. We expect a good 

 summer for bees and honey. I will 

 start with 35 colonies this spring. I 

 wintered 4-5 on the summer stands: 

 but lost 5, and sold .5. Bees are light 

 in honey. I had to feed some. 



John Key. 



East Saginaw. Mich., April 6, 1SS4. 



Cyprians in 3 years: and that died of 

 old age. My 32 colones have produced 

 4,SCK) pounds of extracted honey, and 

 1,9.50 pounds of comb honey in one 

 season. So much for the abused 

 Cyprians. Give them the credit they 

 deserve. I helieve that their being so 

 cross, is the result of the manner in 

 which thev are handled. 

 Medford, Minn. J. E. Cady. 



Bee-Keepers' Excursion to Iowa City. 



Bees, in this vicinity, as far as re- 

 ported, are in much better condition 

 than last year at this time. Miss 

 Katie Case, out of 5 colonies, lost 1. 

 The loss of O. Clute, of Iowa City, is 

 nominal. G. B. Eugall's loss, out of 

 1-56 colonies, is 40. They were win- 

 tered in a house packed with sawdust, 

 and the bees drew dampness. My own 

 loss is' 3 per cent. I shall send to all 

 the members of the Davenport Asso- 

 ciation for a full report, and endeavor 

 to have it at farthest by May 1-5. All 

 bee-keepers who wish to join the ex- 

 cursion from Davenport to Iowa City. 

 in the latter part or May, as fixed by 

 resolution at our last annual meeting, 

 will please report to me at once, by 

 mail ; and if we can raise a sufficient 

 number to hire a car. the fare will be 

 much reduced, and the facilities for 

 convenience and comfort much in- 

 creased. I. V. McCagg. 



Davenport, Iowa, April 7, 1884. 



Drones Flyinpf. 



My bees are in fine condition : I lost 

 but one colony in wintering, out of 70. 

 I saw drones tlying on the last day of 

 March, from two different colonies. 

 James Ronias. 



Villisca, Iowa. April .5, 1884. 



Bees Gathering Pollen. 



My bees have wintered well, but 

 consumed more food than usual. Out 

 of 176 colonies. 14 have starved. The 

 remaining colonies are in fine condi- 

 tion. On March 18. we had 2 feet of 

 snow : and on the 31st bees were gath- 

 ering pollen from soft maple. 



C. Theilmann. 



Theilmanton, Minn., April 9, 1884. 



My Experience with the Cyprians. 



Ill the fall of I8SI, I procured some 

 bees from a neighbor. Among them 

 was a colony of Cyprians. They are 

 reported as being a very cross race of 

 bees. I set them in the cellar, along 

 with my other bees, not caring 

 whether they lived or not. Upon put 

 ting them out, in the spring, I was 

 astonished to find only about a dozen 

 dead bees ; but they were later in 

 commencing to fly" than any other 

 colony in the yard. They cared noth- 

 ing for smoke, and I soon discovered 

 that I succeeded best "without it. I 

 am now handling my whole apiary 

 mostly without using the smoker. 

 My experience in handliHg Cyprians 

 has been of great value to me, and I 

 think, after one week, I can success- 

 fully handle the crossest bees, without 

 smoke. I have lost only one colony of 



My Experience with Separators. 



Last spring I had a tinner cut 600 

 tin separators, and I gave them a fair 

 trial. I do not like them. I had very 

 nice honey, as straight as I want. I 

 could have glassed it, but there was 

 not enough of it. I use the two- 

 pound sections, and one separator be- 

 tween each ; putting the sections on 

 the top of the frames, the thickness of 

 a lath between them and the sections. 

 I use the "Simplicity'" hive. My 

 Cyprian colony produced 1.56 lbs. of 

 comb lioney during the past season. I 

 had 3 stories in the hive : the two up- 

 per ones without separators, and the 

 lower one with separators. They filled 

 the upper ones, but the lower one was 

 not more than half filled. Why did 

 the bees go through the first story, 

 which had separators, to the upper 

 stories wliich had no separators V An 

 Italian colony did likewise. I use the 

 best thin comb foundation that I can 

 procure ; and I shipped the honey pro- 

 duced on that, without separators, to 

 Boston, and it went through all right. 

 From this time on I shall discard the 

 use of separators ; or only use one to 

 everv 3 sections. 

 Casey, 111. D. R. Rosebrough. 



My Bee Feeder. 



I have sent you one of my bee-feed- 

 ers. I make" them to cover .5 or 6 

 frames, or enough to cover frames for 

 winter. You will see it can be set on 

 the frames in the fall, and all the 

 troughs used to quickly feed for win- 

 ter : and there let it remain until they 

 are ready to applv sections. As tliey 

 are already on the frames, a very 

 little feed can be given in one trougli, 

 for stimulative feed : or water can be 

 given, and that, too, just where we 

 wish, as we caii see where the cluster 

 is, right through the screen. As there 

 is a passage way all over the frames, 

 the bees can reach all the feed either 

 in the combs or feeder. You will see 

 one very great advantage, viz : the 

 cloth can be lifted, or rolled up from 

 over the feeder, and not enrage the 

 bees : nor can they fly out. As it is 

 so low, there is ample room for cush- 

 ions and any amount of warm pack- 

 ing, etc., so we can keep the bees just 

 as warm as if no feeder was used. To 

 apply the syrup, set a funnel over the 

 wire" cloth, or centre of a trough, and 

 turn in the feed slowlv : or it does 

 fairly well if no funnel is used. You 



will see that the rim that holds the 

 wire cloth is loose, so that if we wish 

 to clean out the feeder we can do so ; 

 and again, to ship the bees we take 

 off the rim with the wire cloth, and 

 pack all the troughs with moss ; then 

 return tlie rim. and wet the moss ; and 

 invert over the frames, of course, on 

 another wire cloth, which covers the 

 whole hive. After used as a shipping 

 waterer, the moss can be removed, 

 and used as a feeder again. You see, 

 with this feeder, the feed is right 

 where it is warmed by the bees, and 

 where a light stock will hive ; when, 

 if awav down at the side, they would 

 starve." The feeder is large enough to 

 feed up winter stores very ciuickly, 

 and still feed as little as we wish. In 

 fact, it answers a variety of purposes ; 

 even as a passage way, and one 

 through which we can see the bees. 

 In my mind it is very desirable. I 

 am testing it on some of my colonies ; 

 and I am much pleased, as are all who 

 have tried them. I think they are 

 well worth -50 cents : and as I have no 

 patents on any invention, I feel 

 pleased to show it to the bee-keepers, 

 with a feeling that I have done a 

 little good, at least. I have been 

 studying on this thing for a long time. 

 I like everything connected with bees. 



E. P. CnURCHILL. 



Xorth Auburn, Me. 



[The feeder is placed 

 seum. It looks as if it 

 practical one.— Ed.] 



in our 

 might 



Mu- 

 be a 



"What was the Trouble ? 



Last June I removed an imported 

 queen from a large colony for the pur- 

 pose of exchanging wi'th a friend; 

 the colonv was kept queenless about 

 five days," and then a young queen was 

 introduced, accepted, and began lay- 

 ing. In 4 or .5 days after, I found this 

 queen balled, and she died the next 

 day. I introduced another queen to 

 this colonv ; she was accepted, began 

 laying, and continued so to do for 

 some 6 or 7 davs, when, at night, I 

 found her alive in front of the hive, 

 and queen-cells started. I introduced 

 this queen at once to another colony 

 by exchange, where she now is, and 

 the queen exchanged with her was 

 introduced into the first colony. She 

 began laving, and filled several combs, 

 when the tees went for her, and drove 

 her out of the hive, and started more 

 queen-cells. This time I allowed the 

 colony to take its own course, and 

 rear "a queen for itself, which was 

 done, and all has been quiet since. 

 Can any one give a satisfactory reason 

 for the above ? J. E. Fond, Jr. 



Foxboro, Mass., March 20, 1884. 



Bees in Southern Michigan. 



Upon examination, a few days since, 

 I found my bees all well and in fair 

 condition. We hope for a good crop 

 of honey this season, in southern 

 Michigan ; and if our hopes are rea- 

 lized, it will be the first good season 

 for 4 years. Willow and soft maple 

 are in bloom ; but qo pollen is being 

 gathered. F. L. Dresser. 



Hillsdale, Mich., April 8, 1884. 



