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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



which stopped breeding, and gave us 

 nearly all old bees for Winter. I do not 

 know how it may come out about the 

 Spring dwindling. I intend to feed mine, 

 and have them breed and replenish the 

 hive with young bees, by the time I take 

 them out of the cellar. 



I put my bees in the cellar about Dec. 

 1. I examined three of the weakest colo- 

 nies yesterday, and found them in good 

 condition, with nearly as much honey as 

 when I put them in their winter quar- 

 ters. I got some California honey which 

 I intend to feed to them next Spring, to 

 build them up for early bloom. 



White clover does not appear very 

 promising here. I believe the drouth 

 has annihilated the most of it. Alsike 

 clover appears to be all in good condition. 

 We have had considerable rain and some 

 snow this Winter. Crops of all kinds, 

 as well as honey, were a failure in South- 

 eastern Iowa, but I am too enthusiastic 

 to harbor a thought of giving up my 

 bees. I would as soon think of giving 

 up my farm, for my farm-crops were a 

 worse failure than my honey crop. 

 There are not many bees in this locality, 

 and most of them are kept on the "take 

 care of yourself " plan. They are left 

 standing in old boxes from year to year. 



If there is a good season, and a swarm 

 comes out, they hive it in some old box, 

 and when there is honey they take it in 

 some way, and in almost any shape. 

 Many of their bees die from pure neg- 

 lect, as the old boxes are left standing 

 with the old comb in them to breed 

 millions of moths annually. This is bee- 

 keeping without bee-literature. Some of 

 those men know all about bee-keeping 

 when you approach them, and talk to 

 them about bee-periodicals. 



As one extreme follows another, after 

 this, the poorest season in 25 years, I 

 hope for at least an ordinary crop of 

 honey the coming season ; but the Spring 

 of 1890 seemed to be everything that a 

 person could wish for, with fine pros- 

 pects for a prosperous honey season. I 

 have some sweet clover that will bloom 

 this season. I have about 40 acres that 

 has a good portion of alsike clover, and 

 I am going to sow six acres of Japanese 

 buckwheat, and with the abundance of 

 wild flowers that produce honey, hope to 

 get enough to supply my bees next Win- 

 ter. Some men keep bees for pleasure, 

 others keep them for the profit that is in 

 them. The last season I have had a 

 good supply of pleasure without honey, 

 and next season I would like to have my 

 pleasure so well mixed with honey as to 

 have no pleasure taste in it. 



I cannot understand why it is that we 

 have so many practical apiarists in the 

 United States and Canada, and yet so 

 small a per cent, belong to the Union. I 

 think it is to the interest of every one 

 who is friendly to bee-keeping, to be a 

 member of the Union. It is true, we 

 made nothing from our bees last season, 

 but a bushel of potatoes, or five dozen of 

 eggs will more than pay dues to the 

 Union for one year. 



I am well pleased with the idea of a 

 trade-mark for honey-producers, and 

 hope the Union will take action in this 

 matter. 



Newport, Iowa, Jan. 28, 1891. 



Pecnliarily of a Queen, 



Last season, in ascertaining the con- 

 dition of one of my colonies, I noticed 

 that the bees were balling a queen, but 

 upon examination I found it to be an 

 Italian queen that had left a nucleus 

 colony and gone in this box, which con- 

 tained a Carniolan queen. Upon further 

 examination of the colony, I found that 

 there was nothing but sealed brood, and, 

 as they had 8 queen-cells capped, I 

 at once removed 3 frames and placed 

 them separately in nuclei, giving to each 

 a cell, thinking I would rear a nice 

 queen or two. 



Two or three days afterwards, I no- 

 ticed the cells, and to my surprise one 

 was torn down, and not thinking but 

 that the bees had torn it down, for some 

 cause unknown, as they sometimes do, I 

 concluded to give them another cell next 

 day, as I had not the time to bother with 

 it at that moment. So 3 or 4 days 

 passed before I had taken time to supply 

 the vacancy. But by and by, when I 

 got a cell and lifted out the frames, to 

 my great surprise, by an accidental look 

 in the cells, I found they contained eggs 

 and larvae of various ages, up to five 

 days old. 



The queen that I supposed was about 

 to be superseded by the stray Italian, 

 was at work in this nucleus, and why 

 she had failed to perform her egg-laying 

 duties at least eight days prior to my 

 looking in the hive, when I found the 

 other queen balled, or what she could 

 have been doing all this time, or just 

 how the workers acted toward her, is 

 something that I am not able to answer. 

 She left the hive full of sealed brood, and 

 when liberated by mistake- from the 

 other queen, and placed in the nucleus, 

 she at once began to lay. 



