1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



191 



STILL IN THE LEAD. 



HIL,TOX"S Cliaff Hives, T-Sii- 

 Iters, While Polished Sections, 

 Foundation, Smokers, and ever- 

 ything^ needed in llie Apiary. 



—Send for 1895 Catalog— 



GEO. E.HILTON, FREMONT, MICH. 



11A13 Mtntlan, Uie American BeeJoumal. 



In-Door & Out- Door Brooders. 

 112 FIRST PREMIUMS. 

 Seud for 114-pag'e Illustrated 

 Prairie State liieiibator Co. 



UoMER City, Pa. 

 Mention the American Bee Journal 



C. D. Diivall is in Floridti 



Breeding- Early Italian Queens, from his 

 old original strain of iTlarylaiid Italians 



Tvhicli has given such general satisl'action as 

 Comb Honey Producers, etc. 



Untested Queens, ready March 1st. $1 each. 

 6 for $5.00. Write tor prices on large lots, and 

 " special " Circular, Safe arrival guaranteed. 

 Address until Apr. 15— 



C. D. DliV.AIjIi, San Itlateo, Fla. 

 Mention the Amt^ican Bee Jo^muL 8A7t 



TAKE NOTICE! 



BEFORE placing your orders for SUP- 

 PLIES, write for prices on 1-Piece Bass 

 wood Sections. Bee-Hives. Shipping -Crates 

 Frames. Foundation, Smokers, etc. 



PAGE & LYON niFO. CO. 



NEW LONDON, WIS. 



PATENT WIRED COMB FOUNDATION 



Has No Sag In Brood-Fraiues 



Thin Flat-Bottom Foundation 



Has Ko Fishbone in the Snrplns Honey. 



Being the cleanest Is usually workeo 

 the quickest of any Foundation made 



J, VAN DECJSEN & SONS, 



Sole Manufacturers, 

 Sprout Brook Montstomery Co.. N. Y. 



BEGINNERS. 



Beginners should have a copy of the 

 Amateur Bee-Keeper, a 70-page book by 

 Prot. J. W. Rouse. Price 25 cents; if 

 sent by mail. 28c. Tbe little book and 

 the Progressive Bee-Keeper (a live, pro- 

 gressive 28-page monthly journal) one 

 year, 65e. Address any flrst-class dealer. 

 or 



LEAHY MFG. CO., HigginsviUe, Mo. 



300 Colonies of A No. 1 Italian 



Bees in 8-fr. Dovetailed Hives, for sale tllEAP. 

 Also a Full Line of Apiarian Goods, all new, 

 at living prices. Send for Catalogue, to— 



E. T. Planag-an, Bo.\ 783. Belleville, Ills, 

 11 A 1 tn'mimi the American Bee J:iunuk, 



SAVE 

 MONEY 



i^.^J^S^^^^^'r^ ITALIAN QUEENS 



Foundation al Wholesal.' Prire^ IliveK, 

 suited for the South, or StjPPl,lES, seud for 

 Price-List— to 



J. P. II. mnx ^^^^^.z^' 



lOAlSt Mention the American Bee J~umal. 



Tl»e Catalogue and 4iiiiide, issued 

 by John Bauscher. Jr., of Freeport, 111., is 

 one o£ the handsomest Poultry and Seed 

 catalogues we have seen in many a day. It 

 has 64 fully illustrated pages and cover, and 

 is printed all through in colors. If you 

 would like to see a copy of it (and of course 

 you do) send 10 cents in silver or stamps to 

 the above address, and it will be mailed 

 to you promptly- 



Qcj^cral licnfs^ 



Bees Appear All Bight. 



Mr. Smith winters his bees on the sum- 

 mer stands. He was out among them this 

 morning to see how they stood the severe 

 storm we have just passed through. He 

 said they appeared to be all alive, and 

 doing as well or better than one would ex- 

 pect. I hope we have seen the last of Old 

 Winter, or at least of the terrible cold 

 weather. 



A word for the Bee Journal : It appears 

 to us to grow better as it grows older, and 

 we would not know bow to do without it, 

 at least while we keep bees. 



Mrs. L. M. Smith. 



Canandaigua, N. Y., Feb. 15. 



Zero Weather in North Carolina. 



The ground here has been frozen nearly 

 every morning since Christmas, and my 

 bees have not had a good flight since about 

 Feb. 1. For nearly three weeks the ground 

 has been covered with snow, with zero 

 weather part of the time. 



W. H. Pridgen. 



Creek, N. C, Feb. 22. 



Had a Good Bain. 



A most welcome, refreshing visitor came 

 last night and to-day. It commenced to 

 rain last night, and kept raining for 24 

 hours steady. We have had a very nice 

 winter so far, the coldest being 20 degrees 

 below zero, but that lasted only a few days, 

 but I think it was very severe for the un- 

 protected bees on the summer stands. I 

 winter mine in the cellar, and they are 

 doing finely. I have 14 colonies in 10-frame 

 Simplicity hives, and the self-spacing Hoff- 

 man frames. I failed to find anything bet- 

 ter for this locality. 



I bought :i golden Italian queens last year 

 that I will try the coming season. 



John H. Rupp. 



Washington, Kans., Feb. 27. 



Thinks that Bees Freeze to Death. 



I have kept bees about five years. I use 

 the Langstroth hive, both S and 10 frame, 

 but I prefer the s-frame, because in the 

 winter the bees fill the hives from side to 

 side, thereby stopping any cold current 

 of air from passing up ; and as bees hang 

 in a perpendicular mass best, the S-frame 

 hive suits a perpeodicular mass best. 



I see that Mr. Abbott says bees don't 

 freeze. Now I had 3 colonies to die in the 

 last blizzard, and one in particular was in 

 good condition at frost — it had plenty of 

 bees and honey, and I said to myself, " Con- 

 dition extra good." But the day of the 

 blizzard I closed the hive doors all but 

 about an inch, but something pulled the 

 stopping out of that very hive, and the 

 next morning the bees were dead, leaving 

 about 14 pounds of honey. So you see they 

 did not starve, but froze to death. So Mr. 

 Abbott and I don't agree. Bat he is all 

 right. J. A. Bearden. 



Cyruston, Tenn.. Feb. 15. 



Preventing Propolis on Top-Bars. 



In the southwest Texas convention re- 

 port the question was asked, •' What de- 

 vice can be used to keep bees from sticking 

 propolis on the top-bars of brood-frames ?" 

 No one was able to answer, and I am not 

 sure that 1 can. but I offer the following 

 suggestion : 



Take a strip of zinc or tin the full length 

 of the top-bar, and ^.I'-inch wider than its 

 width, (. ('., if Js top-bar the strip should be 

 1\ inches wide, if one inch top-bar, then a 

 l.'.V-inch strip. Turn the sides of the strip 

 down at right angles, thus ' ', so that the 

 space between will fit over the top-bar snug; 

 and fasten it by driving a few small tacks 

 or brads in each side. 



I have never seen or used anything like 



this; the idea struck me while reading the 

 report, and the more I think of it the more 

 I am convinced of its utility and its sim- 

 plicity, and the small cost would certainly 

 make it desirable. If the idea is original 

 with me. bee-keepers in general, and tbose 

 of southwest Texas in particular, are wel- 

 come to use it without the payment of roy- 

 alty. All I ask in return is that if any one 

 considers it worth a trial, that he or she 

 will report results through the American 

 Bee Journal. Jno. W. Hoffman. 



Evanston, 111. 



Wintering Tolerably Well. 



This has been a beautiful day. Bees are 

 coming tlirough tolerably well, though a 

 few colonies I judge have considerable 

 diarrhea. They had a splendid flight yes- 

 terday and to-day. We have had about 

 two months of severe weather, the coldest 

 days being Jan. 28, 10 degrees below zero, 

 and Feb. 12 at zero. Jacob Mooke. . 



Ionia, Mich.. Feb. 2C. 



Coldest Weather Known in Texas. 



There has been some of the coldest 

 weather down here in Texas known since 

 the oldest men can recollect. The snow fell 

 for 24 hours, and covered everything up. 

 We lost 2 colonies of our bees — cold weather 

 and starvation was the cause. We are 

 having nice weather now, though, and are 

 expecting a good honey-year. 



Spurlock Bros. 



Spurger, Tex., Feb. 20. 



The Cold Weather in Florida. 



Florida has experienced unprecedented 

 cold weather this winter, and it is feared 

 that many orange, lemon and fig trees will 

 not leaf out again. There was a severe 

 storm of snow and sleet Feb. 14, followed 

 by feezing nights. On Feb. 5 I was de- 

 lighted watching the bees of a strong col- 

 ony carrying in big loads of lemon-colored 

 pollen, gathered from the ti-ti. Freezing 

 weather soon destroyed the bloom. Many 

 colonies will starve unless fed. 



Mrs. L. Harrison. 



St. Andrews, Fla., Feb. 19. 



Wintered Well— A Report. 



Bees in this section of the country have 

 wintered so far well — no signs; of diarrhea 

 yet. The extreme cold spell has taken a 

 turn, and the mercury has risen to 4 de- 

 grees below the freezing point. The snow 

 is nearly all gone, and I am watching an 

 opportunity to give my bees a cleansing 

 flight. I have 125 colonies in my bee-house, 

 and one outside in a chaff hive. The sea- 

 son of 1894 proved with us here a light one 

 for honey. My surplus amounted to only 

 3,000 pounds in all. We hope for a good 

 and prosperous season this year. 



Stephen Roese. 



Maiden Rock, Wis., Feb. 25. 



German Bees — An Experimenter. 



I should like to hear from some who make 

 a specialty of rearing German queens. I 

 have been experimenting with bees on a 

 small scale for several years, and I have 

 been interested in the races and strains of 

 bees in regard to their merits for comb 

 honey production. I am convinced that I 

 can run an apiary in my locality (Alderson, 

 W. Va.) with profit, and expect to engage, 

 in the future, exclusively in fruit and bee 

 culture, and expect to continue my experi- 

 ments as to which bee is best adapted to 

 the exclusive production of comb honey, 

 and will give such experience from time to 

 time in the American Bee Joarnal. 



So far my preference is decidedly in 

 favor of the German pure, and next Italian 

 queens mated to pure German drones. I 

 have tried both the so-called golden and 

 3-banded, and can't tell the difference 

 in honey-gathering qualities. I have never 

 had a queen of either variety whose bees 

 were any more gentle than my German 



