492 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



with my foot hanging in the stirup, 

 and dragging me on the frozen ground 

 at a fearful rate of speed until I was 

 crippled, perhaps for life, I have 

 thought it best to retire from the bee- 

 business, at least for the present, and 

 keeping only a few colonies for family 

 use. With best wishes for the con- 

 tinued advancement of this ever in- 

 creasing industry, I now withdraw 

 from the active duties of tlie business. 

 F. M. Reeds. 

 Hiiidsboro, 111., July IS, 1884. 



Hybrids Better than Italians. 



I have 28 colonies of bees in two- 

 story chaff-hives. On June 10, from 

 2 hybrid colonies I extracted 56 lbs. 

 of honey, and from 8 Italian colonies, 

 196 lbs." I think the hybrids cannot 

 equal the Italians in honey-gathering. 

 I sold 100 lbs. of the honey at 12^ 

 cents per lb., which was shipped, and 

 the balance in my home market at 15 

 cents per pound. Ciias. Haas. 



Lower Salem, Ohio. 



No Basswood Honey. * 



Bees have done well here until June 

 20, when there was a sudden cessation 

 of tlie honey-flow. Some farmer's 

 colonies swarmed as many as 4 times. 

 There are a great many bees in Atchi- 

 son County, Mo., and Southern Iowa. 

 Kocky Mountain bee-plant grows in 

 large quantities on the bluffs of the 

 Missouri river, and bees do well when 

 it is in bloom. We have hundreds of 

 acres of goldenrod and other fall 

 flowers. I am now Italianizing my 

 colonies for the purpose of rearing 

 queens. I have 34 colonies. Bass- 

 wood was a total failure this year. 

 Chas. Harrold. 



Hamburg, Iowa, July 21, 1884. 



Neither Increase nor Surplus. 



On page 4.')2, migratory bee-keeping, 

 as practiced by JNIessrs. Flanagan and 

 Baldridge, is described. I received 

 90 colonies of bees from Mr. Flana- 

 gan, of New Orleans, La., on June 18, 

 1884. They were entirely destitute of 

 stores, and depleted in numbers ; and 

 having arrived in the midst of the 

 white clover bloom, they soon tilled 

 tlieir hives with nice honey, but have 

 yielded no increase or surplus, as we 

 are havhig a severe drouth— there 

 having been no rain for 4 weeks. 

 Basswood has yielded no nectar this 

 season, and the outlook is discourag- 

 ing at present. Large numbers of 

 bees are woiking on over-ripe red- 

 raspberry fruit, and searching every- 

 where for nectar. They are killing 

 drones and carrying all drone-brood 

 out of the hives. S. J. Youngman. 



Cato, Mich., July 20, 1884. 



"Tree-Trunk Method of Wintering." 



According to my declaration as an 

 expert bee-hunter, Mr. W. F. Clarke's 

 article has brought to my mind some 

 of my past experience in tree-trunk 

 wintering of bees. Last fall I knew 

 of 6 bee-trees, 3 in Ohio and 3 in 

 Pennsylvania, in which allot the bees 

 died during the past winter. Had 

 they lived, I intended transferring 



them into hives. I know of another 

 tree which contained bees every year 

 for 1-5 or 20 years, and the bees died 

 during every winter for that length 

 of time, when another swarm would 

 occupy it as soon as the next swarm - 

 ing-season arrived. As the tree had 

 been watclied for the above length of 

 time, Mr. C, in my humble opinion, 

 and judging from what my experi- 

 ence has taught me, must find some 

 other theory than " tree-trunk win- 

 tering," before he can claim the 

 cham'pionship of making a grand dis- 

 covery. With the best of feeling for 

 Mr. C. and his new theory, Ishould 

 have told the bee-keeping fraternity 

 that the tree of which I spoke on page 

 4.5!), contained about 1 wash-tub and 

 3 patent buckets full of honey, besides 

 many combs. Col. R. Walton. 

 Industry, Pa., July 17, 1884. 



Good Enough. 



I have increased my colonies of 

 bees 150 per cent., and taken from 

 them an average of 70 pounds of 

 white clover honey. A. B. Mason. 



Wagon Works, O., July 21, 1884. 



Still Hunting. 



The honey harvest, in this section, 

 is about ended for this year. We 

 have had an abundance of bloom, but 

 the weather has been anything but 

 what bee-men would desire. The 

 nights have been very cold. I have 

 colonies that swarmed about the mid- 

 dle of June, and have not yet finished 

 their first set of sections. Basswood 

 commenced to bloom on July 3, and I 

 think it is all gone now. White clover 

 will last sometime yet, but I never 

 knew bees to gather much from that 

 after July 20. We have seen some 

 few offerings of comb honey in the 

 market, but none finished well, so we 

 do not think that there will be more 

 than half a crop of comb honey, judg- 

 idg mostly from our own. We have 

 waited patiently for Mr. H., of Centre 

 Point, to explain something aboivt the 

 "glucose business." We know he 

 has used large quantities of the arti- 

 cle some way ; so much so that he 

 cannot sell honey in this market. We 

 do know it has hurt the sale of ex- 

 tracted honey in Cedar Rapids. As 

 we produce mostly extracted honey, 

 and deal in it exclusively, we know 

 what we are talking about. We 

 want to hear from Mr. H. through the 

 Bee Journal. T. B. Quinlan. 



Cedar Rapids, Iowa, July 18. 1884. 



Hiving Bees, etc. 



I hive swarms of bees somewhat 

 differently than Messrs. Hutchinson 

 and Ileddon. My plan is as follows : 

 Take a common peach basket, separ- 

 ate the partially separated staves, that 

 the bees may have ready ingress ; also 

 bore the bottom of it full of 3|-inch 

 holes, attach a 6-inch strap to the 

 centre of the bottom of the basket, 

 with a snap of an old suspender, or 

 of a tie-rein of a horse, at the end. — 

 Stick on the inside of each stave, and 

 ?:£ of its length, very narrow strips of 

 old comb (lengthwise), and some on 

 the bottom (inside) ; now have light 



poles, say two or three different 

 lengths, with a loop on the snap at 

 the end of the strap attached to the 

 end of the pole. AVhen the bees have 

 mostly collected on the bush or limb 

 of the tree, attach the basket to the 

 pole, jar the bees on the limb, hold 

 the basket up so its bottom will touch 

 the exact spot from which the bees 

 were jarred, and the bees will go into 

 it, then carry them to the bee-yard. 

 They are simply collected in a basket 

 instead of on a bush or limb. Put the 

 basket on the frames of the hive, 

 cover all with talile or other cloth, 

 shake the basket, and give two or 

 three minutes time for them to run 

 down into the hive. I would not take 

 S20 for my basket if I could not get 

 another. JSIr. Ileddon also tells us 

 how to draw the bees from the sec- 

 tions. This is my metliod : Simply 

 place a partition-board between the 

 case of sections and the brood-cham- 

 ber, first blowing in a little smoke to 

 awaken and scare the bees ; then 

 cover the case, except a J|-iuch slot 

 or opening for egress to the outside of 

 the liive. It is best to have it in front. 

 It works like a charm, and as soon as 

 robbers are troublesome, I bore holes 

 in the board at or near the front end 

 of the cap of the hive, and place in 

 the holes for egress, small wire-gauze 

 conical tubes, not unlike Mr. Alley's 

 to his drone or queen catcher. 

 St. Paul, Minn. Mouch Ajhel. 



Honey in Mountainous Regions. 



I agree with ^Ir. Pleasants, in his 

 article on page 375, and think the 

 time is not far distant when our 

 valley apiarists will have to be moved 

 back into the mountains, beyond the 

 range of fruit-men ; and besides the 

 honey-production is better, and the 

 honey is of a better quality, much 

 clearer than that gathered in the 

 valleys. Not nearly so much honey 

 is gathered along the coast. We also 

 have sections in this county which 

 are overstocked with bees. Within 

 an area of six square miles there are 

 over 1,.500 colonies kept; and from 

 observation I have never known any 

 of them to get any where near the 

 amount of honey, per colony, com- 

 pared to those with smaller apiaries 

 and larger ranges of bee-pasturage. 

 Where bees are left with plenty of 

 honey in the fall, thus leaving but 

 little cold air space, and having a 

 good queen, they come out in the 

 spring strong and vigorous, as such 

 an amount of honey encourages brood- 

 rearing earlier and stronger. They 

 seem to know that they have the 

 " backing " when they have so much 

 honey, the same as a man who has 

 plenty of capital in his business. I 

 have found that to stimulate bees in 

 February or ilarch, in this mild 

 climate, is a great advantage. Last 

 season I experimented in rearing late 

 queens, but found it unprofitable. I 

 have had them fertilized in Novem- 

 ber, but have had five failures to one 

 success. Drones are generally scarce 

 then, and the winds drive the queens 

 before it, causing much loss, and the 

 result is drone layers, etc., and they do 

 not live as long. M. H. Mendelson. 



San Buenaventura, Cal. 



