290 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



honey producers and manufacturers 

 of supplies (who will take an interest 

 in the show) will write us what they 

 desire to exhibit, so that we can se- 

 cure space iu the Industrial Exposi- 

 tion, whicli opens Aug. 1 and closes 

 Nov. 1. As secretary of Kentucky 

 State Bee-Keepers' Association, I 

 will do all 1 can to make the exiiibit 

 a success. Every bee-keeper in Ken- 

 tucky ouglit to have something on ex- 

 hibition, and bee-keepers and manu- 

 facturers in other States are invited 

 to help us. N. P. Allen. 



Smith's Grove, Ky., May 23, 1883. 



Cyprians, Motherwort, etc. 



I have 53 colonies of bees ; one be- 

 ing a Cyprian, which gives the most 

 honey, and are as gentle as any other 

 bee. I have not been stung by them 

 yet, and I have had them nearly a 

 year. A friend of mine says, " Give 

 me Cyprians after this;" some say 

 that Cyprians are hard to manage, but 

 I cannot see it. Motherwort grows 

 very easily. I have some of it, atid 

 will plant it all the time, as it blooms 

 always ; as fast as the old stock dies 

 down, younger ones take its place, 

 and I think it worth planting. It can 

 be planted any place, or along the 

 fences. G. E. Sonnemann. 



New Iberia, La., May 25, 1883. 



Fruit Trees Blooming. 



My bees have wintered very well. 

 I only had 49 colonies in the fall, 

 when put in the cellar ; I lost two, by 

 being queenless. We have had a cold 

 spring, and I have had to feed some. 

 Apple blossoms are just out ; the first 

 ones opened yesterday, and if it keeps 

 warm, they will strengthen up pretty 

 fast. D. S. McCallum. 



Big Creek, N. Y., May 26, 1883. 



Bees in Fine Condition. 



Our bees are in fine condition. The 

 white clover is very thrifty, and with 

 good weather will be apt to yield 

 well. F. A. Snell. 



Milledgeville, 111., May 27, Ism. 



Prospects Favorable in California. 



Our propects are very favorable. 

 vve have fine late rains, and the bees 

 are booming. K. Strathearn. 



Scenega, Cal., May 20, 1883. 



(Jone to the South . 



As frost, ic§ and cold winds had 

 been tlie order of the day, up to May 

 15, 1 made up my mind to come South 

 at once, and on the 17th inst., I char- 

 tered a car to Tullahoma, Tenn., and 

 loaded on 67 colonies of my bees with 

 household goods and started them 

 South. On the 22d inst., with my 

 family, I left Indiana ; when we left, 

 it was snowing and cold. We arrived 

 here on the evening of the 23d, and 

 found it pleasant and warm weather. 

 My bees came through in splendid 

 condition. I. R. Good. 



Tullahoma, Tenn., May 26, 1883. 



Prospects Flattering. 



The bees are booming and prospects 

 flattering. W. H. Stout. 



Pine Grove, Pa., May 28. 1883. 



Destroying the Queeu-Cells. 



No doubt many have read in the 

 books that when bees are making 

 preparations to swarm, because of 

 unfavorable weather or other causes, 

 the cells will be at once destroyed. 

 This has not always been the case 

 witli my bees. I found by experience, 

 that sometimes (though not always) 

 the young queens are allowed to 

 hatch ; and when such is the case, the 

 first queen that emerges will destroy 

 the remaing cells, and in a majority 

 of cases, kill the old queen too. As 

 this generally happens when our 

 queens are needed the most, I think 

 it is poor policy to let any capped cells 

 remain in a colony when the condi- 

 tions for swarming are not favorable. 

 Although when the bees wish to 

 supersede their queen, the young 

 queen will seldom kill her mother ; 

 but in swarming, this is not the case ; 

 at least such has been my experience 



H. J. SCHROCK. 



Goshen, Ind., May 29, 1883. 



Correction . 



In my letter on page 261, the printer, 

 in mistaking the word rather in my 

 manuscript for "either," and leaving 

 out a word altogether in another sen- 

 tence, spoils both. Allow me, there- 

 fore, to give the two sentences here 

 as they were written in my manu- 

 script, italicising the two words left 

 out : " But it would be rather disin- 

 genuous to say that one colony of bees 

 aid all this, without giving any ex- 

 planations. * * * * 

 Now, please bear in mind, I do not 

 wish to impeach the honesty or sin- 

 cerity of a single correspondent." 



Allen Prinqle. 



Selby, Ont., May 25, 1883. 



Swarmed in a Hurry. 



I wintered 20 colonies in Langstroth 

 chaff hives. They wintered well, and 

 came out very strong. Henry Alley 

 reccommends raising up the hives, a 

 foot or more from the ground, so that 

 they will not get snowed under. My 

 experience is, that bees will do better 

 if they are under a snow bank, then 

 they would if they were elevated and 

 exposed to the wind and cold. My 

 bees were covered with snow, or 

 nearly so, from the early part of the 

 winter until early in March, then I 

 shoveled out their entrances, and they 

 had a splendid fiight, and showed little 

 signs of dysentery. I gave them a 

 thorough examination about April 10, 

 and found from 2 to 4 frames of honey 

 that had not been touched in each 

 hive (I gave them 7 Langstroth 

 frames to start on). On the 26th of 

 this month I lost a large swarm of 

 bees, and as it was a little out of their 

 common way of doing business. I will 

 describe it. The queen was a hybrid, 

 and very prolific. I had taken 4 

 frames of capped brood from it, to 

 build up nuclei, but the hive was full 

 of bees. I examined the hive the day 

 before the swarm issued, and found 

 several queen-cells started, 3 or 4 con- 

 taining eggs, but no hatched eggs or 

 larvae ; so 1 felt sure the bees would not 

 swarm in 7 or 8 days, so I left home 

 at 8 a. m.; the swarm came out at 



8:20 ; I returned at 9:15 a. m., and met 

 the swarm a few rods from home, on 

 their flight to the woods. There was 

 no one to hive them, or I would not 

 have lost them. I examined the hive, 

 after they left, and found no eggs 

 hatched yet, and I do not know how 

 to account for their hurry. Can any 

 reader of the Bee Journal explain 



it y J. A. MURPHEY. 



Sterling Station, N. Y., May 26, 1883. 



Dysentery. 



I have a colonji of bees in my apiary 

 that seem to me to suffer from dys- 

 entery, or rather from the fact of 

 being unable to discharge their feces. 

 The hive is surrounded daily, on the 

 ground, with a quivering mass of ani- 

 mated bees, but unable to walk. In 

 the morning they are all dead, and 

 the process is repeated. Their bodies 

 are distended and filled with a large 

 amount of yellow matter. The col- 

 ony is appa<'ently in fair condition. 

 What is the cause and the remedy ? 

 F. C. Gastinger. 



Ada, O., May 31, 1883. 



[It is evidently a case of dysentery. 

 It might have been caused by poor 

 honey, or something of that nature. 

 As the summer is now upon us, fine 

 weather and new honey will remedy 

 it all. If they are not gathering 

 honey, give them some good white 

 clover or basswood honey ; or if you 

 have none of that, some sugar syrup, 

 made as indicated on page 283.— Ed.] 



Report for 3 Tears. 



I have kept bees for about 16 years ; 

 all of the time, except the last 3 years, 

 being in Ontario. During all that 

 time I never exceeded more than 25 

 colonies and 200 pounds of comb 

 honey, once or twice, and thought my- 

 self lucky at that. I moved here 

 (Michigan) in March, 1880, bringing 

 with me 2 colonies with dollar queens. 

 I moved them 28 miles from the rail- 

 road here on a lumber wagon ; still 

 they increased by natural swarming 

 to 10 good colonies, and gave some 

 surplus comb honey. I wintered 

 them on the summer stands, and all 

 came out strong in the spring of 1881 ; 

 and during that summer they in- 

 creased to 25, and produced 700 pounds 

 of comb honey. Again they were 

 wintered on the summer stands, with 

 the loss of 2, wliich I think were 

 queenless, which left me 23 in the 

 spring of 1882. During that summer 

 they increased to 63, besides 7 that 

 left for the woods, and gave me 2,200 

 pounds of surplus comb honey. I 

 again wintered them on the summer 

 stands, and now May 22, they are re- 

 duced to 50 colonies ; the past winter, 

 and especially this spring, has been 

 very hard on bees ; several of my 

 neighbors have lost heavily. I use 

 the Fisher deep-framed hive, and fill 

 the walls with sawdust. Bees do well 

 here; there seems to be a constant 

 flow of honey from early spring till 

 frost. Wm. Shier. 



Marlette, Mich., May 22, 1883. 



