THE AMERICAJSr BEE JOURNAL. 



87 



house, but could not save her. I 

 thought I would try and find out what 

 was the trouble, so I opened the hive 

 and examined it thoroughly. I found 

 the colony in good condition, with 

 plenty of eggs, brood in all stages, 

 and also a young, lively {and I believe 

 fertilized) queen. 

 Cato, Mich. S. J. Youngman. 



Buckwheat for Honey. 



It is customary for farmers, in this 

 section, to " summer tallow " a field 

 intended for wheat the next year. 

 This is done to enrich the land and 

 clean it of foul weeds. How would it 

 do to sow such a field with buckwheat 

 as early as possible after putting on it 

 the usual barn yard manure ? Would 

 it give the bees "a lift" in time to 

 plow under about the middle of Au- 

 gust, or would the hot weather kill 

 the flowers for honey i* Would it help 

 smother out the thistles, etc.? Tak- 

 ing all together, would it be a good 

 way to get honey, and yet help the 

 field for a wheat crop V The experi- 

 ence of bee men is solicited. 



John Yoder. 



Springfield, Ont. 



[Buckwheat, if sown about the mid- 

 dle of June, may be made to bloom 

 about the middle of July, instead of 

 in August as it usually does, but the 

 honey is inferior both in flavor and 

 color, and is generally undesirable for 

 market. It would be far better to 

 plant sweet clover for the bees, and it 

 would not interfere with farming op- 

 erations—as it can be sown iu waste 

 places, such as fence corners, road 

 sides, etc.— Ed.] 



Double-Walled Hives. 



The colonies of bees that survive 

 the last week's blizzard are entitled 

 to a chromo. For four days, last 

 week, the mercury stood between 2.50 

 and 30° below zero. I am wintering 

 16 colonies out of doors, in double- 

 walled hives, with dead- air spaces be- 

 tween the walls, made with ■ building 

 paper. If I have any success with 

 them, I may give you a description of 

 the construction of these hives, but 

 if I succeed in freezing the 16, I shall 

 doubtless remain as dumb as an 

 oyster. John Couscot. 



Madison, Wis., Jan. 26, 1883. 



Good Results. 



I started, in the spring of 1882, with 

 8 colonies of hybrid bees. I increased 

 them to 9, and took 375 lbs. of comb 

 honey. L. W. Gray. 



Bushville, 111., Jan. 22, 1883. 



Yellow Sweet Clover. 



Six weeks before the white variety 

 bloomed, I noticed in my stack yard 

 some of the yellow sweet clover in 

 bloom. Like the white, it does not 

 blossom the first year; but it com- 

 mences to bloom about May 10th, 

 while the white does not bloom until 

 about June 20th. It gives twice as 

 many blossoms as the white, and the 



bees work on it freely when the white 

 is blooming by its side. I suppose 

 the wild pigeons must have brought 

 the seed to my yard. 



S. P. Sowers. 

 Dunlap, Kansas. 



Bees Wintering Finely. 



The bees are wintering finely, in the 

 cellar, although it was the coldest 

 weather we have had many years. 

 L. E. Welch. 



Linden, Mich., Jan. 24, 1883. 



Comb Honey Rack. 



Please describe, in the Bee Jour- 

 nal, bow to make a comb honey rack. 

 L. A. Lowmaster. 



[It;would be very difficult to describe 

 it so as to be understood by the ordi- 

 nary reader. It will be far more sat- 

 isfactory to get a sample and examine 



— — — °- f 



engraving shows one used 



with cor^'jTQ^-nva rin t}ic» T aTifraf v/itli 



it. The 



It. i-ue engravuig snows one useci 

 with separators on the Langstroth 

 hive.— Ed.] 



Sweet Clover, etc. 



What parts of the country are the 

 best for the production of honey ¥ 

 What proportion of advantage has a 

 good timbered district over a prairie 

 pastural region for bees and honey ? 

 Will sweet clover form a permanent 

 sward, or does it die out when two 

 years old, as I have heard y Will it 

 continue in bloom nearly the year 

 round in our most Southern States V 

 W. M. Woodward. 



Wilmington, 111. 



[Any place near bass wood timber, 

 or where white clover abounds, would 

 be good. In the absence of these you 

 would have to depend on planting for 

 honey, such as sweet clover, alsike 

 clover, mignonette, cleome, figwort, 

 etc. Sweet clover should be planted 

 on the same ground two successive 

 years, in order to obtain a continuous 

 bloom. It blooms from June till frost, 

 and will thrive on any soil and in any 

 climate. A good timbered district 

 has the advantage of being better 

 protected from winds, and from many 

 of the trees the bees obtain honey and 

 pollen.— Ed.] 



Water Scarce and Wells Dry. 



We are having the driest winter in 

 Maine for many years ; the rivers and 

 lakes are very low, many small 

 streams and shallow wells are entirely 

 dry, and people are obliged to melt 

 snow and haul water for daily use in 

 house and barn. The weather is very 

 cold and dry. Bees wintering nicely, 



so far as I know. We are reading up' 

 and getting ready for next year's, 

 work. I am reading " Langstroth on 

 the Honey Bee." This book can 

 never go out of use among bee-keep- 

 ers. Why can it not be revised, and 

 some additions be made, so as to bring 

 it down to the present condition of 

 apiculture ? J. A. Morton, M. D. 

 Bethel, Maine, Jan. 26, 1883. 



[Mr. Langstroth has commenced a 

 revision, but his health is so poor, 

 that he may never finish it. It is an 

 invaluable work, and will always find 

 a place in every good library.— Ed.] 



Wintering Without Bad Symptoms. 



I now have 500 colonies of bees ; 460 

 out of doors, packed, and they have 

 no bad symptoms, so far. It was 20° 

 below zero, once, here. 



James Heddon.. 



Dowagiac, Mich., Jan. 26, 1883. 



Honey Plants of Florida. 



What are the principal honey plants 

 of Florida, and what part of the State, 

 is best adapted to bee-keeping. 



Gardiner, Me. O. L. Sawter.. 



[The principal honey plants are saw 

 palmetto, cabbage palmetto, sweet 

 gum, snow vine, sweet bay, basswood, 

 mangrove, etc. Many portions of the 

 northwest are good, but the south 

 coast, a little north of the 29th paral- 

 lel, is said to be unsurpassed for bee- 

 keeping. — Ed.] 



Bees Packed are Doing Well. 



Bees are wintering well so far, both 

 in the cellar and out of doors, al- 

 though we have had a very cold 

 winter so far. I have some packed 

 with clover chaff, on the summer 

 stands. They are all right so far. I 

 took a peep at them, one morning, 

 when the thermometer was down to 

 280 below zero. They were dry and 

 comfortable, with no ice inside of the 

 hives. D. G. Webster. 



Blaine, 111., Jan. 29, 1883. 



Honey as Food and Medicine. 



A new edition, revised and enlarged, 

 the new pages being devoted to n6r« 

 Recipes for Honey Medicines, all kinds 

 of cooking in which honey is used, and 

 healthful and pleasant beverages. 



We have put the price of them low 

 to encourage bee-keepers to scatter 

 them far and wide. Single copy 6 

 cents, postpaid; per dozen, 50 cents; 

 per hundred, $4.00. On orders of 100 

 or more, we print, if desired, on the 

 cover-page, "Presented by," etc., 

 (giving the name and address of the 

 bee-keeper who scatters them). This 

 alone will pay him for all his trouble 

 and expense — enabling him to dispose 

 of his honey at home, at a good profits 



