THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



203 



Sundry ftuestions— F. S. C, of 

 Wabash Co., 5 Ind., propounds the 

 following questions : 



1. Are bees that have been win- 

 tered in the cellar more liable to chill 

 when put out, than those wintered 

 out-doors V 2. If on a nice day in 

 mid-winter a colony is put out for a 

 flight, and the bees spot nothing ; and 

 on mashing a bee it is found almost 

 as empty as a shell, would a flight do 

 such bees any good V 3. Will bees 

 store as freely when excluded from 

 the queen, as when with her V 



[1. Yes. 2. No. 3. Yes.— Ed.1 



The Work in the Apiary.— A. A. 



Fradenburg, Port Washington,©*©., 

 asks the following questions : 



Having .50 colonies of bees in the 

 spring, all in good condition, how 

 much of one man's time should it 

 take to care for them properly for one 

 year y All are to be worked for comb 

 noney in one-pound sections, no al- 

 lowance being made for making new 

 supplies, or the care and marketing of 

 the honey after it is once put in the 

 honey-house. In other words, how 

 much time per colony, per year, is re- 

 quired to do the necessary work in 

 the apiary V 



[This question is practically an- 

 swered on page 196.— En.] 



Good Results.— Mr. T. W. Colbert, 

 (20), Smith's Valley,© Ind., on March 

 21, 1887, says : 



I commenced the season of 1886 with 

 9 colonies ; increased them to 20, by 

 dividing, and took 700 pounds of comb 

 honey in one and two pound sections, 

 which I sold at home at 20 cents a 

 pound. My bees have wintered finely. 

 I packed them in clover chaff, which. 

 I think, is better than anything I 

 have ever yet tried for packing. 



Bees Wintered in a Cave.— R. C. 

 Aikin, Sliambaugh, piowa, on March 

 18, 1887, writes : 



Bees have wintered well in this 

 locality. I put mine in a cave in a 

 dry hillside, and so far I have lost 

 only 3 colonies out of 52. The ones 

 lost were no better than nuclei last 

 fall ; two of them starved, and one 

 was queenless. I think I left them 

 out too long. They were put in on 

 Dec. 24, and taken out on Feb. 28. I 

 would have left them in longer, but 

 they were beginning to soil the hives, 

 so I put them out; after a flight I put 

 3 back, and they are quiet yet. The 

 temperature was from 30° to 40°. I 

 think they would have done better if 

 put in earlier and kept warmer. AVe 

 had a month of winter before I put 

 them in the cave. I had 28 colonies 

 in the same cave the winter before, 

 and lost none. I increased the 28 to 

 52, and produced 2,000 pounds of 

 honey, mostly extracted. That was 

 less than one-half the previous sea- 

 son's average. The dry weather ac- 

 counted for the diflerence. 



Young Bees Out, etc.— D. D. Dani- 

 her, Madison, 9 Wis., on March 20, 

 1887, says : 



My bees are all right so far— 24 col- 

 onies in the cellar and 6 out-doors. 

 Six colonies with Cyprian queens 

 have plenty of young bees out on the 

 combs already. There is a fair pros- 

 pect for a good honey harvest. I sold 

 half of my honey at 10 and 11 cents 

 per pound. Extracted honey is sold 

 here for 5 cents per pound. Every 

 store has plenty on hand. Some Chi- 

 cago comb honey is selling here for 12 

 cents per pound. I sell all of my 

 honey at home. I kept all my bees 5 

 miles in the country last summer, and 

 they did finely. I expect to keep them 

 there this summer. ■ There was 10 

 acres of Alsike clover close to my bees 

 last year, and they did a '• land-oflice 

 business " on it. 1 had only one nat- 

 ural swarm. 



Fastening Foundation — Feeding 

 Bees.— E. W. H.. of Indiana, asks the 

 following : 



1. I see that the top of the sections 

 I have purchased have a cut for put- 

 ting the foundation in. How is the 

 foundation to be fastened in V 2. Is 

 there any danger in putting out feed 

 for bees where there are no other bees 

 near, if the feed is a rod or two from 

 the hives V Will it set the colonies to 

 robbing each other ? 



[1. Use a foundation fastener ; or if 

 you do it by hand, run melted wax in 

 the " guide-groove," and the founda- 

 tion will be held firmly by it when it 

 cools. 



2. It is safe to feed at the entrance 

 by using a feeder, or to place honey in 

 combs over the frames ; but there is 

 always danger when honey is exposed 

 near the apiary. The further it is 

 removed, however, the less the dan- 

 ger.- Ed.] 



Wintered Well— Honey Thieves in 

 Prison. — Wm. H. Graves, Duncan,© 

 Ills., on March 21, 1887, writes : 



I began the winter with 100 colonies 

 of bee's, .55 on the summer stands, and 

 45 in the cellar. So far all have come 

 through in good condition, except 2 

 of those out-doors. I have put out 

 part of those that were in the cellar. 

 They gathered the first natural pollen 

 on March 12, the day I put them out 

 of the cellar. The next six weeks is 

 when I usually lose the most bees ; 

 the weather at that time being so 

 variable, they will '' spring dwindle " 

 in spite of any precaution on my part. 

 They fly out during bright spells of 

 sunshine, and are overtaken by cold 

 waves and clouded sky, preventing 

 their return to the hive. Two of the 

 parties who stole my honey last fall 

 are now serving two years' sentence 

 in the State's Prison of Ohio ; they 

 had broken out of jail and came here, 

 and were taken back asrain about Dec. 

 1,1886. 



White Clover all Right.-R. R. 

 Murphy, Garden Plains,-^ Ills., on 

 March 21, 1887, writes : 



Bees have wintered well. I lost 

 one colony out of 102 put into a bee- 

 house, and that was queenless last 

 fall. One colony had the diarrhea 

 pretty badly from some cause, but it 

 is a fair colony yet ; it will probably 

 die, though. The white clover has 

 not been winter-killed, so if the sea- 

 son is favorable, we will have a good 

 honey year. 



Not Lost a Colony.— Jno. B. Sam- 

 ple, Elizaville,©Ind., on March 21, 

 1887, says : 



My bees are doing well. I have not 

 lost a colony. They were gathering 

 pollen on March 12. There are not 

 many bees in this neighborhood. 



The Weather in New York.— G. 



M. Doolittle, Borodino,© N. Y., on 

 March 21, 1887, writes : 



This winter (it is winter here yet, 

 although the month of March is called 

 a spring month) has been a severe one 

 on the bees that are on the summer 

 stands in this locality. There has 

 been but one day during which the 

 mercury has gone as high as 44° in 

 the shade since Nov. 3, or for nearly 

 five months. As it needs 45° in the 

 shade for bees to fly, with snow on 

 the ground, it will be seen that the 

 bees have been confined all of this 

 time. The result is that many colo- 

 nies are uneasy, and a few are soiling 

 their combs and hives badly. Many 

 will die if an opportunity does not 

 come soon for them to get out. Those 

 in the cellars are in fine condition. 



Novel Way of Selling Honey.— M. 

 L. Barney & Bro., Hartford, o Wis., 

 on March 24, 1887, write : 



This is the way we sold our honey 

 last year : We accidentally met a 

 traveling-man who was selling gloves, 

 mittens, etc. ; we gave him a sample 

 of extracted honey in a J^-pint flask, 

 put $10 in his hand, and said, " sell.'* 

 In a few days we were over-run with 

 orders at 8 cents per pound, delivered 

 on the cars here. In 3 weeks our en- 

 tire stock of honey was sold to country 

 stores in northern Wisconsin, on 30 

 days' time, and all good sales. Over 

 3 tons was sold. Honey in pails we 

 sold for 10 cents per pound. 



Do you ^Vant a Farm AccouDt Book ? 

 We have a few left, and make you a very 

 tempting offer. It contains 166 pages, 1» 

 printed on writing paper, ruled and bound, 

 and the price is $3. We will club it and the 

 Weeljly Bee Jodrnal for a year and give 

 you both for ?2. If you want it sent by 

 mail, add 20 cents for postage. 



The Convention History of America 



with a full report of the proceedings of the 

 Detroit and Indianapolis conventions, and 

 the AiTEKiCAN Bee Journal for one year, 

 will be clubbed for $1.25. 



