THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



159 



■easily do, as I can move the frames in 

 the rear of my hives without taking 

 them out of the hives, and almost 

 without disturbing the bees. My bees 

 are in splendid condition. S.E.Brown 

 has 8 colonies ; Robert Stevens has 10 

 colonies ; M. Harneigan has 2 colonies, 

 and John Snyder has 3 colonies, all 

 on tlieir summer stands in good con- 

 dition, and all Italians but one. They 

 are all in the Centennial hive, pro- 

 tected as mine are. On the 2d and 3d 

 inst. we had the heaviest sleet I ever 

 saw ; it did great damage to the Judas 

 trees, willow, peach, cherry, and 

 plum trees. Some ask about the 

 marks of the Holy Land bees V In 

 reply, I say I have several pure colo- 

 nies of them, and when the weather 

 is warm, it never gets too dark, nor 

 rains too hard for them to meet their 

 visitors at the gate; if you just tap 

 at their door steps, in a moment they 

 will make you acquainted with their 

 natural markings. I have 1 colony 

 that can sting through buck gloves, 

 and I do not see any difference in 

 them and the Italians, in winter 

 breeding. The deepest snow was 6 

 inches, and the prospects for 1883 are 

 good yet. R. M. Osborn. 



Kane, 111., Feb. U, 1883. 



Some Corrections. 



Dear Mr. Editor. — I think I am 

 wrongly reported in the matter of 

 "" Overstocking," as given by the sec- 

 retary of the Northeastern Michigan 

 Association. I did not mean to say 

 that it is well-nigh impossible to over- 

 stock a locality. In fact, I incline to 

 the opinion ttiat it is quite possible. 

 1 only said, or meant to say, that the 

 matter was involved in doubt. That, 

 perhaps, we had been all wrong in this 

 matter. In notice of Central Michi- 

 gan Association, I am represented as 

 president. The Rev. Mr. Ashworth 

 tills that office, and so well, that to 

 him belongs all the honor. 



A. J. Cook. 



Lansing, Mich., March 0, 1883. 



[We cheerfully make the corrections, 

 but in both cases, we give it exactly 

 ■as the copy was written. The fault 

 was not ours, therefore. — Ed.] 



Experience of a Beginner. 



I bought 4 colonies of bees and 

 «ome empty hives of a neighbor who 

 was going away, and put them in my 

 front yard under some apple trees, 

 last spring; on June 7, one swarm 

 ■came out, and I put it into one of the 

 empty hives, which I had cleaned, 

 and from that time they kept me 

 scraping hives and hiving them, till I 

 had 19 colonies ; then in about a week 

 out came another swarm, and liaving 

 no hive, I put them into a cracker 

 box ; before they all got in, out came 

 another, and went into the .same box ; 

 before they were all in, out came the 

 third, and tliey also went into the 

 same box ; the next forenoon another 

 swarm came out and pitched right for 

 that box, and all went in. Then I 

 had 4 colonies in a cracker box ; they 

 killed all the queens but one, and 

 filled the box witti honey. I put a 10 

 lb. box on the top, and that they 



filled. I had two early swarms that 

 each gave a swarm and stored 60 lbs. 

 of comb honey each. I had from the 

 4 colonies, spring count, 440 lbs. of 

 coiub honey, and increased my stock 

 to 20 colonies. I sold the honey at 

 from 18 to 2.5 cents per pound. I then 

 sent for the Bee Journal and Cook's 

 Manual. I sold 2 colonies in the fall ; 

 united 3 weak colonies, and bought 14 

 more. 1 packed one in sawdust, and 

 one in clover chaff on the summer 

 stands ; put the otlier 27 colonies in 

 my cellar ; they are all doing nicely, 

 so far. Would a refrigerator be a 

 good place to winter bees in, where it 

 is perfectly dry, has a circulation of 

 fresh air, and will not freeze V Has 

 any one tried it V It strikes me that 

 it would be just the thing. I intend 

 to build one to keep eggs in, through 

 the summer, and I could keep my 

 bees ill it through the winter. 



W. S. SquiRE. 

 Emerald Grove, Wis.,Marcli5, 1SS3. 



Honey Season in Sweden. 



The past season here was only a 

 moderate one ; not much swarming, 

 generally. I had quite a number of 

 swarms, and consequently my honey 

 crop was proportionately small, only 

 12 pounds per hive. For the past 2 

 years I have given my bees plenty of 

 comb foundation, and will increase 

 the use of it, by hundreds of pounds 

 yearly ; all other bee-keepers here also 

 commenced to use it liberally ; when 

 well made, it is invaluable. The win- 

 ter came in very early, in the middle 

 of October, and since then they have 

 had no flight ; still they are all right, 

 on the summer stands, packed inchatf , 

 and well ventilated in front, half the 

 way down— an essential thing in win- 

 tering successfully. 



T. G. Stalhammer. 



Gothenburg, Sweden, Feb. 2, 1883. 



Bees Carrying: in Flour. 



My bees have wintered well, and 

 are strong and lively. They are car- 

 rying unbolted flour at a lively rate. 

 They have brood in all stages, and 

 young bees taking their first flight. 

 They were wintered on the summer 

 stands. 1 lost 2 weak colonies that 

 were queenless until late in the fall, 

 and let one good one starve to death. 

 1 have 41 colonies, all in good condi- 

 tion, and I have no fear of spring 

 dwindling. Half of them are Syrians. 

 • M. Mahin. 



Huntington, Ind., March 9, 1883. 



Bees in Canada. 



As far as I can learn, what few bees 

 are kept in this section of country, are 

 doing well, in spite of the severity of 

 the winter. Since they were packed 

 for the winter, the mercury has only 

 once or twice, for a few hours, stood 

 at 40^ in the shade, so there lias been 

 no chance for a flight, and to-day, 

 Feb. 26, old Boreas is roaring away as 

 if his strength is not nearly all ex- 

 pended yet. I have 9 colonies in a 

 bee house, all doing well, as far as I 

 can judge, though the temperature 

 has not kept as high as I would wish, 

 being from 34° to oS-^ most of the time. 



Two colonies are out of doors in the 

 Jones, wintering hive. In one of these 

 the bees are so quiet I should suppose 

 them to be dead, if I did not know to 

 the contrary, and this colony has lost 

 very few bees apparently. The other 

 colony seems uneasy and noisy, and 

 many more bees have died in the en- 

 trance and bottom of the hive than 

 with the others. I wonder what 

 causes the difference, as they are 

 packed alike, and the entrances of 

 both have been protected from drift- 

 ing snow by small boxes set up in 

 front. The first sunny day I shall try 

 giving the uneasy ones a flight, by 

 putting a large box over the entrance 

 with a glass sash sloping like a hot- 

 bed frame. I highly approve G. M. 

 Doolittle's suggestions as to the way 

 to use the Bee Journal, and another 

 time will tell you how I keep mine 

 without the expense of binding. 



Henrietta F. Buller. 

 Campbellford, Ont., Feb. 26, 1883. 



Fastening Comb Foundation. 



The subject of inserting foundation 

 comb has been very perplexing to 

 many, though it seems so easy to me, 

 and one of the least of the troubles 

 with which I have to contend in bee- 

 culture. The method I have adopted, 

 I have used for 4 years, and is a suc- 

 cess in every particular, and far su- 

 perior to any I have seen or read of. 

 For tlie beneflt of the numerous read- 

 ers of the Bee Journal, I will try to 

 give a brief description : I use a tun- 

 nel, about 3 inches in diameter, and, 

 say, 4 or 5 inches long (that is the 

 cylinder), with an abrupt tapering off 

 to about }4 inch, then a long, slim 

 tapering (say 5 inches) to a point, 

 only leaving a small liole, say, 3-16 of 

 an inch. The top has a circular 

 handle made of tin, with an opening, 

 through which a wire, bent with 

 openings toadmitaHnger, by which it 

 is regulated, and said wire passing 

 from the hand (top) entirely to the 

 bottom, closing the hole, from which, 

 when lifted, the melted wax, contained 

 in the tunnel, flows, and is thus 

 moved along the line where the comb 

 is to be attached to the frame, thus 

 welding it solid. The comb is, of 

 course, joined, placed in the inverted 

 frame, with a cross-bar, cornerwise, 

 just to steady it, during the operation. 

 I can set foundation comb of any 

 width in 100 frames, perfectly, in less 

 than 20 minutes " by the watch," and 

 it will sooner break somewhere else 

 than come loose from the frame. 



Elroy, Wis. D. C. Talbot. 



My Bees All Right. 



My 21 colonies of bees came through 

 the winter without the loss of one. 

 They commenced brood-rearing on 

 Feb. 7 ; brought in pollen on the 21st, 

 and have been at it ever since, except 

 a few days. We had a light frost on 

 March 6, which stopped the bees a 

 day or so. I was looking over some 

 of my colonies to-day, and found 

 hatclilng brood and some sealed drone 

 comb. Fruit trees are in bloom, and 

 bees are doing finely. 



Marvin M. Binklet. 



Sherman, Texas, March 12, 1883. 



