180 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 





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Moldy Combs. 



I have some combs badly mildewed, 

 can you tell me how to get them in 

 good condition asrain V A party, who 

 has kept bees for 6 years in Colorado, 

 told me that he took off 7 tons of 

 honey from 150 colonies, and that the 

 average is 200 lbs. per colony. 



Fhil. Rearden. 



Jamestown, Colo., March 17, 1883. 



[The bees will clean up the moldy 

 combs, if given them, one at a time, in 

 spring.— Ed.] 



Bees Confined 130 Days. 



The bees have been confined since 

 Nov. 13. I put 23 colonies in the 

 cellar, and left 7 out, 3 of them were 

 floated some distance by water being 

 dammed up, in the snow. about the ttrst 

 of February. I expect some loss from 

 those that have had no flight yet ; the 

 thermometer is down to zero every 

 morning, and we have snow drifts 

 from 3 to 1.5 feet deep. Those in the 

 cellar seem to be all right, yet some 

 are getting a little uneasy. 130 days 

 without a flight, who can beat that? 

 Perry McKay. 



Spofford, N. Y., March 23, 1883. 



Matrimony Vine, Etc. 



Last season was a pretty good sea- 

 son for our " pets ;" crops of all kinds 

 have yielded well; but just how well 

 bees could have done, cannot be said, 

 from the fact that there are no prac- 

 tical bee-keepers, to my knowledge, 

 in this section of country, thfe bees 

 being kept by farmers, in box hives 

 or the cottage bee-hive, a patented 

 concern, worse than a box hive. I 

 have 2 colonies, one good and strong, 

 the other rather weak from the effects 

 from dysentery. I put my bees in the 

 cellar, Dec. 1, 1882. One colony be- 

 came very uneasy the beginning of 

 February; every few days a large 

 quantity of dead bees accumulated on 

 the bottom board; the hive became 

 very damp. 1 bored a hole in the top 

 of the hive, and they became more 

 quiet (after boring the hole. I laid a 

 bunch of wool on the top, to keep the 

 bees in), with fewer dead bees, till 

 Feb. 1-5, when we had a uleasant day, 

 but much snow was on the ground. I 

 brought the affected colony up, let 

 them fly out, and returned them to 

 the cellar ; this cured them ; tliere 

 were no more dead bees nor dysen- 

 tery, but the colony is weak from dis- 

 ease, and bees perished on the snow, 

 the day 1 let them liy. The bees are 

 the common black bees, which I cap- 

 tured iri the woods last August. I 

 found 4 bee-trees ; the bees I united 

 into 2 colonies, let them build comb, 

 then bought "wild honey" and fed 

 them up for winter quarters. I now 

 have them on their summer stands, 

 doing well. The elms are yielding 

 pollen at present. I think I will make 

 a practical apiarist, for I " fill the 



bill " exactly, as given by Dr. C. C. 

 Miller, in February number of the 

 Bee Journal. Yes, I not onlv lay 

 awake at night; talk about bees so 

 much, that my wife and chiklren also 

 talk about bees in their sleep, and 

 take as much delight in the lioney- 

 bee as I do. When the proper time 

 arrives, I shall transfer them to some 

 movable frame hive. In the mean- 

 time I will content myself with read- 

 ing the Bee Journal and the A B 

 C in Bee-Culture, etc., and build u\> 

 an apiary as fast as my means and 

 experience will admit. Please give a 

 description of tlie matrimony vine, as 

 spoken of by \Vm. StoUey, of Ne- 

 braska, in the Bee Journal, and 

 give its botanical name. 

 Fulton, Mo. D. R. Phillipps. 



[The matrimony vine, Lycium har- 

 barum belongs to the order Solanaceie, 

 which includes the potato, tomato, 

 night shade, horse nettle, ground 

 cherry, bitter sweet, egg plant, etc. 

 It is easily propagated by layer- 

 ing.— Ed. 1 



A Long Winter, but Bees AH Right. 



Bees have had a long winter, but 

 mine are all right yet, and I think it 

 is the same in this vicinity generally. 

 L. M. Roberts. 



Fort Atkinson, Wis., March 28, 1883. 



Used 80 Bi?fehels of Chaflf. 



I have kept bees for 30 vears, and 

 once thought I knew all about them, 

 but have since found that I knew but 

 little. Wintering bees battles me yet. 

 1 tliink Mr. Heddon is riglit in his 

 pollen theory. If one tries all the 

 plans of wintering, he will have no 

 time for anything else. I have used 

 SO bushels of chaff this winter, and 

 have bees prepared in five different 

 ways ; some are in the cellar, some in 

 cold frames, some with pollen and 

 some without it. One colony, having 

 no honey. [ fed till Feb. 10, when the' 

 bees all died, as it was too cold to 

 feed, 10 degrees below zero. 



Nineveh, Ind. W. D. Smyser. 



All Hopeful— Bees have Wintered Well. 



Bees have generally wintered well, 

 and we are all hopeful, but can hardly 

 expect another such honey season as 

 the last. J. L. Wolcott. 



Bloomington, 111., March 27, 1883. 



Lady's Report for Two Years. 



The terrible winter of 1880 made sad 

 havoc with bees here, as elsewhere, 

 and of the 47 fine, strong colonies, so 

 carefully packed in the fall, June 1, 

 1881, found us with beesinliut 9 hives, 

 and of these, only 5 colonies were 

 tlirifty. We equalized bees and brood, 

 and felt we had but a pom- start for 

 the season. Were not discouraged, 

 though things went somewhat askew. 

 I did my work alone for a family of 

 7 to 9, till the middle of September. 

 Mr. Parsons was seriously ill the en- 

 tire month of October, and a part of 

 November, and Nov. ], the "cham- 

 pion queen " of the county, our 



daughter Mabel," took up her abode 



in our home. " Blessed bees "' failed 

 to receive all the attention they could 

 have endured that summer, but our 

 expenses were only 75 cents,and recom- 

 pense 278I4 lbs. of salable comb honey, 

 and 175 lbs. of extracted honey ; the 

 wax I had to let go. We obtained 20 

 cents per lb. for comb honey, and 15 

 cents for extracted honey. Some of 

 the 1.S80 crop also brought 20 cents, 

 thereby bringing the average price of 

 that year's crop to 18 cents per lb. I 

 packed the bees, which had increased 

 to 13 colonies, on the summer stands, 

 in building paper and boards ; they 

 were left in summer hives, with sec- 

 tions at sides and above them. (We 

 were too ill to do more for them.) 

 Ttiey came through the winter, 9 colo- 

 nies being strong and thrifty. Our 

 expenses, this year, were $6.25, and 

 recompense 1,1133^ lbs. of salable 

 comb honey, 354 lbs. of extracted 

 honey, and 10 lbs. of beeswax. The 

 stock increased, by natural swarming, 

 to 23 colonies. They are on summer 

 stands ; some in summer hives with 

 straw in ends of hives and covers; 

 some in winter hives with division- 

 board at each side of the frames, and 

 straw in the covers. All are encased 

 in building paper and boards, and are 

 well banked at the front and back; 

 have good board roof with tar paper 

 roof over it, lapped well over the edge 

 of the roof boards at each side ; have 

 35 lbs. and upwards of early made, 

 well-capped honey, and we hope for 

 the best. All are now quiet, and I 

 find no indication of frost at the en- 

 trances of the hives. We have had 

 steady, cold weather and good sleigh- 

 ing since Thanksgiving day ; the mer- 

 cury having fallen as low as 16° below 

 zero ; that is the extreme. 



Mrs. MyraL. Parsons. 

 Linwood, Mich., Feb. 6, 1883. 



Red Clover, Italian Bees, Etc. 



In the report of the Maine conven- 

 tion, in the Bee Journal of March 

 7, page 123, 1 am made to say that I 

 " iiad often observed black bees on 

 red clover, but no Italians."' It was 

 not me, but another man who said 

 that. I have been looking, during the 

 last three summers, to find bees gath- 

 ering honey from red clover ; having 

 partially Italianized my black bees, 

 with that end in view, there being 

 lots of red clover about here, with 

 piles of honey, as well as money, in it ; 

 yet, never have seen the first h<mey 

 bee, either black or Italian, gathering 

 honey from red clover. I have seen 

 them buzzing around and over it, but 

 when they settle, they invariably 

 alight on white or alslke clover, or 

 some flowers beside red clover. 



Were I to offer .50 cents ahead for all 

 the honey bees found gathering honey 

 from red clover about my locality, "I 

 do not think I shall be called on for 

 the first 50 cents. 



So far as my experience goes with 

 Italians, they are poor comb builders, 

 tliat is, they make it uneven. My 

 Italians produced dark comb and dark 

 honey ; at the same time, the blacks 

 were producing white comb and white 

 honey, that sold from 2 to 3 cents per 

 lb. more in market than that put up 

 by the Italians. 



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