628 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



several minutes. I then took the most 

 of the brood, with the old queen and 

 bees, and removed them several feet 

 from the old stand, depending on one 

 of the young queens, and returning 

 bees, to make a colony at the old 

 stand, but the old queen was bound to 

 go, and go she did with a swarm to 

 the woods, when no one sjiw them. 

 Those remaining built another batch 

 of queen cells, replaced their queen 

 and built up to a fair colony, without 

 help, except a little feeding, and I 

 think vfill be as likely to winter as 

 well as any I bave. I would say in 

 their praise, they are beautiful three- 

 banded bees, smaller than the Italian 

 and quicker in. their movements. I 

 have handled them many times with- 

 out smoke, and think them the gentlest 

 bees I have yet found ; I never was 

 stung by one yet. S. J. Youngman. 

 Cato, Mich., Nov. 25, 1883. 



Irascible Cyprians. 



I have 67 colonies of bees in good 

 condition. I have done well with 

 them during tlie past season, although 

 it could not be called a good honey 

 season in this section. I have the 

 Cyprian, Italian, German, and Syrian 

 bees. Deliver me from the Cyprians; 

 when disturbed, they tight everything 

 in reach of them. Last summer they 

 attacked a horse hitched to a fence a 

 hundred yards distant, and would 

 have killed it had I not been close by. 

 At another time they attacked a tree 

 standing close by ; they covered it by 

 thousands ; but 1 could not see that 

 the tree sustained much damage. I 

 find them very prolitic, and want to 

 swarm all the time, when they ought 

 to be laying up honey ; but I find the 

 hives all full of honey in the fall of 

 the year. In the spring I expect to 

 move my bees out into the country 3 

 miles from town, and half a mile from 

 any house or public road, and Italian- 

 ize my apiary as fast as possible. I 

 expect to devote my whole time to my 

 bees hereafter. I find that it pays, if 

 only attended to. 



Nathan M. Woodman. 



Bushnell, 111., Nov. 26, 1883. 



Give a Frame of Brood to Swarms. 



On page 592, Mr. W. II. Stewart 

 says: -'If any one has lost a swarm 

 of bees that were hived on full sheets 

 of foundation, let us hear from him." 

 I will answer to that call. Sometime 

 during the uionth of June, 1881, I 

 transferred a colony of black bees 

 from a box to a Langstroth hive on a 

 full set of full sheets of foundation, 

 and. as there were moths in the box 

 hive, I did not move any of the old 

 combs. As there was a good honey 

 flow at the time, I considered this the 

 same as a new swarm. The first time 

 I hived them they remained only 24 

 hours, when out they came and clus- 

 tered in a tree. I examined the hive 

 and found the foundation partly drawn 

 out, and the queen had deposited eggs 

 in it. I again hived them, and they 

 came out again in 24 hours. This time 

 I clipped the queen's wings and re- 

 turned them, and on the next day they 

 came out again, but, as the queen 

 could not fly, this time she fell in the 



grass, and the bees came back and 

 clustered outside of the hive. I then 

 gave them a frame of brood, and all 

 went well. What then was the cause 

 of the bees absconding, if not for the 

 want of brood V In this case the foun- 

 dation did not keep them from leaving 

 the new hive, and they were only 

 quieted by giving them a frame of 

 brood. 



J. G. NOKTON. 



Macomb, 111., Nov. 28, 1883» 



My Report for tills Year. 



I had, in the fall of 1882, 27 colonies. 

 I wintered them all on the summer 

 stands, and had 27 last spring to begin 

 with. They increased to 47, by natural 

 swarming ; I sold 3 and have 44 now, 

 with plenty of white clover honey in 

 the hives to winter on, but I only got 

 an average of 27?| lbs. of honey to the 

 colony, spring count ; it was nearly all 

 white clover honey in 1 and 2 lb. sec- 

 tions, as nice as I ever saw. There 

 was a very heavy crop of white clover, 

 and it lasted longer than usual, but 

 while it was in bloom, the season was 

 so wet and cold that the bees were 

 kept in too much to make much head- 

 way, but when there did come a little 

 sunshine, they made use of it. When 

 the clover bloom was gone, the honey 

 season was over ; from that on until 

 frost, it was so dry that the bees 

 merely gathered enough for the time 

 being, so that they did not have to fall 

 back on their stores, and, as I did not 

 extract any, that accounts for my bees 

 having white clover honey to winter 

 on. I may be too much of " an old 

 fogy," but I do not believe in taking 

 the honey all away from them and 

 giving them something else to winter 

 on. Jacob Copeland. 



Allendale, Ills., Nov. 22, 1883. 



Damage by a Storm. 



The storm at Peotone, 111., on Tues- 

 day night, Nov. 20, split in two my 60 

 feet barn, killing 5 cows, 3 calves, 2 

 sheep and one fat hog, besides blow- 

 ing over half a mile of board fence. 

 My best colony, and 48 colonies of bees 

 on the sun\mer stands, are all safe. 



C. SCHRIER. 



Peotone, 111., Nov. 30, 1883. 



How I Winter my Bees. 



I have SO colonies of bees in the cel- 

 lar and 3 outside. My frames are \;i}4 

 x9)^ inches outside and run crosswise; 

 13 frames to the tiive. When the 

 honey season is over, I make a box 

 12x1414 inside to hold S of mv frames 

 which I select for winter. This box 

 will sit inside the hive, making it a 

 complete summer and winter hive. 

 Those wintered in the cellar, have the 

 outside box left on thesummerstands, 

 except the bottoms. I put a % inch 

 stick under .each corner of the hives to 

 give air, or rather to keep them dry. 

 I have a cushion on top for out-doors. 

 I make the tops as tight as possible, 

 and till in around with flax-tow. My 

 cellar is not very dry, but is well ven- 

 tilated by a pipe connected with my 

 kitchen stove, and an air tube of 4-inch 

 tile running 20 feet underground. I 

 have wintered my bees in this way 



without loss for 3 years. I put the 

 bees in on Nov. 13 and 14, and to-day 

 they are quiet with temperature at 42 

 to 4.5 degrees F. I have no fear of 

 losing any. With the three outside, I 

 am testing what the bees can stand 

 with open doors and closed tops on 

 deep frames. A. Wicherts. 



Matteson, 111., Nov. 18, 1883.- 



Prepared for Winter. 



The work in the apiary is done once 

 more, and my bees are packed and 

 prepared again for the winter. Last 

 spring I commenced the season with 

 32 colonies. The spring was cold and 

 wet, and bees did not get enough to 

 carry on breeding, so they had to be 

 fed some. On June 10, white clover 

 bloomed, but yielded less than half a 

 crop of honey. Basswood opened on 

 July 15, and gave a very good yield of 

 honey, but there is very little of it 

 here. With the help of sweet clover, 

 I obtained 300 pounds of comb honey, 

 and 650 pounds of extracted. The 

 comb honey is sold for 20 cents a 

 pound, and the extracted for 12^ cts. 

 200 pounds of honey I set aside for 

 family use and feeding next spring. 

 Tlie bees increased to 52 colonies. 

 Bees are in good condition for winter. 

 Wm. Bolling. 



Dunkirk. N. Y., Nov. 29, 1883. 



Bee-Keeping in the Indian Territory. 



Never hearing anything from this 

 country, I will write a few lines to let 

 the world know that we keep bees too, 

 but It has been a bad year for bees in 

 the Southern part of this Territory 

 and Texas. The spring was so cool 

 and backward that they swarmed but 

 little, and the balance of the season 

 was very poor for honey. I bought 

 several colonies, an extractor, and six 

 Italian queens ; made new hives and 

 transferred the bees. I use the Mitch- 

 ell hive, single story, for extracted 

 honey. They paid expenses, and I 

 realized a little on them. I will run 

 about 50 colonies for extracted honey 

 next year. I have a ready home mar- 

 ket at 15 cents for all my honey. We 

 had our first killing frost on the 14th 

 of this month, but it did not kill all of 

 the flowers. My Italians and hybrids 

 are gathering a little honey and pollen 

 to-day, from a little white blossom 

 that grows on the creeks, in the woods. 

 It is warm and pleasant to-day ; we 

 have had but two frosts this season. 

 G. P. Grinstead. 



Oakland, Ind. Ter., Nov. 20, 188;^. 



1^ The Northwestern Illinois and 

 Southwestern Wisconsin Bee-Keepers' 

 Association, will hold its annual meet- 

 ing in Temperance Hall, Freeport, 111., 

 on Jan. 15 and 16, 1884. 



J. Stewart, Sec. 



Rock City, 111., Nov. 30, 188;!. 



1^ The 5th annual Convention of 

 the Northeastern Ohio and North- 

 western Pennsylvania Bee -Keepers' 

 Association, will be held at Jefferson, 

 Ohio, Jan. 16 and 17, 1884. All are 

 cordially invited. 



C. 11. Coon, Sec. 



New Lyme, O., Nov. 26, 1883. 



