I'HE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



373 



weak ones. I do it by placing a sheet 

 in front of the weak colony, and then 

 take a comb with the bees from a 

 strong colony, being careful not to 

 take out the queen, and shake them 

 off on the sheet. The young bees will 

 run into the hive, and will aid ma- 

 terially to build up the colony. The 

 proceeding is always safe to the 

 queen of the weak colony.— G. L. 

 Tinker. 



If a colony is queenless, to unite it 

 to a weak colony with a good queen is 

 desirable. Sometimes it is good 

 policy to unite two weak colonies 

 when each have queens, just before 

 the white clover blooms, especially if 

 the production of comb honey is the 

 object.— The Editor. 



^ovvcspomltncz. 



This mark © indicates tliat the apiarist is 

 located near me center of the State named; 

 6 northof the center; ? south; O* east; 

 ♦Owest; and this (^ northeast ; ^D northwest: 

 o» southeast; and ? southwest of the center 

 of the State mentioned. 



For the American Bee Joomoi. 



Onr Varieil Cliinate, etc. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



I do not think I have ever been so 

 impressed with the vastness of this 

 country of ours as I have the past 

 spring. Especially was this forcibly 

 brought to mind in reading page 307 

 of this paper, where the editor says : 

 " The losses (in bees) have been very 

 light, both in winter and spring, and 

 if the weather continues favorable, a 

 good crop of honey maybe expected." 

 Now while I do not doubt that the 

 editor was correct regarding his 

 locality, and the larger part of all the 

 States west of New York, yet in this 

 locality, Pennsylvania and the East- 

 ern States, our loss has been quite 

 severe, nearly equalling any we have 

 ever sustained, and what colonies did 

 survive are generally weak. 



Any reader of the above extract, 

 who did not take any other bee-paper 

 than the American Bee Journal, 

 nor had any correspondence outside 

 of his own neighborhood, would sup- 

 pose that there might be "no end" 

 to bees and honey the present season ; 

 but taking several papers, or being in 

 a position to receive comuiunicatious 

 from all over the United States and 

 Canada, there is no cause for alarm 

 along this line. 



On the same day that 1 read the 

 above quotation, the following was 

 . noticed in the Bee-Keepers'' Advance 

 for May, which I quote so the reader 

 can see that something more than his 

 immediate surroundings governs the 

 matter of loss, or no loss, as well as 

 an over or under production of honey. 

 The Advance says : 



" The past winter, if it can be said 

 to be past, was the hardest on bees 

 for many years. A continuous cold 



winter, with little or no opportunity 

 for bees to get a flight for the entire 

 winter, and the result is that fully 

 two-thirds of the bees in this region, 

 wintered on their summer stands, 

 have died." And yet while this was 

 being written, bees were booming and 

 having a lovely time in the Western 

 States! Why the difference ? It is 

 all answered in the words, '■ no oppor- 

 tunity to get a flight," and " frequent 

 flights " during the winter. 



As I read through the reports on 

 wintering bees from Illinois, Indiana, 

 Ohio, Michigan, and other States of 

 the West, saying " bees had a splen- 

 did flight to-day," or "a day or two 

 ago " along in January, February and 

 March, I said that bees in those 

 States will winter well; and when I 

 got reports from States here at the 

 East, saying " no flight for five 

 months," it vi'as easy to predict the 

 result. 



The question regarding the winter- 

 ing of bees is not in diarrhea or no 

 diarrhea, but in frequent flights or no 

 flight ; or at least so it seemed to me 

 more than ten years ago ; and with 

 every succeeding winter that idea is 

 strengthened. It now looks as 

 though we of the North have only one 

 desideratum, and that is cellar-win- 

 tering. With a cellar of the proper 

 temperature, bees can endure six 

 months of conflnement better than 

 they can four months out-doors, I 

 care not how well packed. My bees 

 were conflned in the cellar for 181 

 days, yet all came out in good condi- 

 tion except one which starved ; while 

 my loss among those wintered on the 

 summer stands, which were conflned 

 151 days, was fully 25 per cent. 



LOCALITY AND POP0LOUSNESS OF 

 COLONIES. 



While on this subject of diversity 

 of country, I vpish to speak regarding 

 something which causes many words 

 and often hard feelings. It is about 

 the ordering of bees and queens from 

 a cold and unpromising place, to be 

 sent early in the season to a warmer 

 and more genial locality, the party 

 ordering making no allowance for the 

 difference of latitude. A party in 

 any of the Southern States should not 

 expect a colony of bees shipped from 

 New York or Michigan during the 

 month of May, to be equal in brood 

 and bees to one bought in his own 

 locality ; yet there are apparently very 

 many who think this should be the 

 case. It seems to me that common- 

 sense should teach any one better. 

 Only a few days ago I got a letter 

 from a Southern party, using very 

 bitter words regarding one of our 

 most respected apiarists,claiming that 

 he ordered full colonies and received 

 only what ought to be termed nuclei 

 in return. A little correspondence 

 regarding the matter showed that the 

 apiarist had sent out all of his strong- 

 est colonies and kept all the weaklings 

 to build up for his own use, yet was 

 being censured for being more than 

 generous. 



If large numbers of bees are wanted 

 early in the season, order of parties 

 in a more Southern latitude. If im- 

 provement of stock is what is wanted. 



order of parties North, expecting 

 nothing great unless you are willing 

 to wait until July. 



MISTAKES IN ORDERING QUEENS. 



Now about ordering queens : Many 

 seem to suppose that where a person 

 has a yearly advertisement in a paper 

 quoting prices for queens, that queens 

 can be had at any time of the year. 

 It is nothing uncommon for such a 

 queen-breeder to get an order while 

 the snow is on the ground, saying, 

 "Enclosed And $1 for an untested 

 queen, which you will please send by 

 return mail, as I want her imme- 

 diately." Such persons do not stop 

 to think that they could not possibly 

 get untested queens (no not even the 

 queen cells which would prove of any 

 value) thus early in the season. Then 

 when the party of whom the queens 

 are ordered, writes a kind letter ex- 

 plaining the matter, he will often get 

 curses, the letter winding up by say- 

 ing, " Send my money back at once ;" 

 or, " it is early queens I want." 



How much better it would have 

 been for all concerned, if such parties 

 would stop and reason a little, which 

 would of necessity lead them to know 

 that what they could not do, the 

 breeder could not ; and the result 

 would be, if early queens must be 

 had, they should send to the South 

 for them. Then again, the originator 

 of the " dollar queen " business keeps, 

 or has kept, as a standing advertise- 

 ment in his paper for years, that no 

 such queens will probably be sent out 

 before July ; yet hundreds of bee- 

 keepers seem to expect " dollar 

 queens " bv return mail during the 

 month of May 1 



But those ordering queens are not 

 wholly to blame for this state of 

 affairs. In the May issue of a certain 

 beepaper I saw it stated by a noted 

 queen-breeder, that after the first of 

 May he would be able to send out 100 

 untested queens a week, his facilities 

 for sending out increasing with each 

 week. As this breeder lives in about 

 my latitude, I wondered how this 

 could be done ; but now the matter is 

 plain, as the June number of that 

 paper has arrived, and in it I find that 

 owing to unfavorable weather and 

 circumstances, expectations have not 

 been realized, but it is hoped that he 

 will soon be able to fill all orders ! 



Brethren, on both sides of the 

 house, " these things ought not so to 

 be." We cannot afford to have our 

 dispositions soured and our lives 

 made miserable by misrepresentation 

 or unreasonableness. To do away 

 with this state of affairs, would it not 

 be well for the purchaser to drop a 

 postal card to the breeder, asking 

 him to fix a date when he could fill an 

 order, then if the agreement was not 

 lived tip to, the breeder could be 

 avoided in the future V A standing 

 advertisement is no certain criterion 

 to follow. 



Borodino,© N. Y. 



[Our remarks about the losses in 

 winter and spring were intended to 

 apply in general— in the broad ex- 

 pause of territory of North America. 



