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Abundant Honey Crop.— C. Tlieil- 

 «iann, Theilmanton, Minn., ou July 13, 1SS8, 

 writes : 



Bees did not do much until witliin ten 

 "days. Tliey have been swarming at a great 

 rate, and filling up their hives with honey, 

 and iilacing considerable in the sections 

 from the white clover, which was, and is 

 still, abundant ; but it has not yielded much 

 the last tew days. Alsike and red clover 

 are the sources where my bees get most of 

 their honey at iiresent. -Linden is just 

 opening. It looks healthy, hut only aixiut 

 one-fourth of the trees have buds. The 

 weather is nice. We have a heavy hay crop 

 here this season. 



Join and Help tlie Union. — J. E. 



Breed, M. D., Embarrass, Wis., writes : 



1 send my dollar and vote for the Bee- 

 Keepers' Union, and wish I could stir up 

 the bee-men to join and help. It is a shame 

 that they do not ! Well, J am busy, though 

 1 am sorry to say I am rather shaky, and 

 gettinu on in years ; I cannot do much in a 

 day, though I am always astir, and never 

 idle. 1 have lots of " irons in the tire "—a 

 little office physic, lots of bee-watching, and 

 some work. What with watchiflg and re- 

 porting tor the United States Signal Office, 

 •company to visit with, and a garden, etc., I 

 have little time to lounge. Bees are doing 

 well, and the season is favorable. 



]\o Honey Taken Yet.— G. S. Heck- 

 man, Monroeville, Ind., on July 14, 1888, 

 says: 



The honey crop in this (the eastern) part 

 of Allen county is almost a failure. The 

 northern part of Adams county, Ind., and 

 the western part of Van Wert county, O., 

 is the same. 1 have about 20 colonies of 

 bees, and have kept them from swarming, 

 which was hard to do, as they gathered just 

 enough to make them "cranky." I have 

 'not taken otf a pound of honey yet, although 

 I have sections on every hive, and they are 

 partly finished. I have been a specialist for 

 14 years. 



Placing' tlie Hives — Spraying- 

 SM-arni!i« — O. B. Barrows, Marshalltown, 

 Iowa, on July 16, 1888, writes : 



On page 438, in Query .556, it is asked if it 

 is " necessary to put colonies as near as a 

 foot apart ; and will virgin queens on re- 

 turning to the hives be likely to enter the 

 wrimg ones ?" 



I have five rows of Concord grape-vines, 

 each about 70 feet long, aiul 6 feet apart ; 

 between these rows of grajies I keeji my 

 bees. I began about 16 years ago with 2 

 colonies, audi now have 84. I have had 98 

 colonies, and until two years ago, my liives 

 were all made after one pattern, and nearly 

 all of them were iiainted white. They were 

 often placed less than one foot apart, and in 

 all this time I have never had reason to 

 believe that one queen was lost by entering 

 the wrong hive. • 



There are other objections to placing 

 hives as close, if it can be avoided, and 

 there can be no harm resulting from paint- 

 ing the hives different colors. It may anuise 

 the bee-keeper, and can do no harm to the 

 bees, to tack red flannel and other distin- 

 guishing marks on the hives. Nor does the 



beating on tin pans and ringing bells do the 

 bees any harm when they swarm. I have a 

 pipe run right in among my colonies with 

 hose attached, and a pressure from our 

 water works, of 40 to 60 pounds, and have 

 given the spraying a pretty fair trial, and 

 now I am inclined to think that it did no 

 good in causing the bees to cluster. 



Bees are booming on basswood, and if it 

 lasts a few days we will get some surplus ; 

 but if it stops now, we will be no better off 

 than last year, unless we get a fall croj) like 

 we did six years ago. 



Bees are Booming;'. — Moses Bailey, 

 Winterset, Iowa, on July 16, 1888, says : 



The bees are booming in my yard, some 

 50 colonies, and more coming. My health 

 having been poor for the last two years, my 

 preparations for the bees are behind some- 

 wliat, but 1 am in a pretty fair way to be 

 up with them soon, Providence permitting. 



Results or tlie Season so Far.— 



Abe Hoke, Union City, Ind., on July 15, 



I8S8, writes : 



I will now make my spring report. As 

 reported last fall, I had 28 colonies packed 

 ou the summer stands in the best style that 

 I could possibly put them, though one col- 

 ony was queen less, which I expected to 

 lose ; but it began to "hibernate" in early 

 winter, and is there yet. The balance of 

 the bees came through to April in good con- 

 dition, but then the trouble commenced. I 

 had 6 more colonies que.enless, and some 

 that had unmated queens, all of which I had 

 to double up with the others ; the rest came 

 thrnuah th'^ winter in splendid condition, 

 and at fruit-bloom one-half were strong 

 enough to go into the sections, as they were 

 storing honey in the brood-nest very fast. 

 But in the middle of this jubilee we had 

 rain ; the wind shifted north, northwest and 

 northeast, and remained until the bloom 

 was gone. Bees made no more than a liv- 

 ing up to about June 13 ; from that time to 

 July 1, I do not think that I ever knew bees 

 to gather honey so fast as they did for that 

 brief space of time. What they got it from 

 I could not tell, as our white clover was all 

 dead, being killed by last year's drouth, or 

 last winter, as we had very little snow. Up 

 to this time I have had an increase of 3 

 swarms, one I made by division, and two 

 natural swarms. I am ashamed of this re- 

 port, but nevertheless it is a stubborn fact. 

 It I get as much surplus honey this year as 

 I did last, I will teel better than I do to day. 



Colonies Starving', etc.— Mr. D. R. 

 Rosebrough, Casey, Ills., on July 17, 1888, 

 writes : 



Bees are starving to death. It is very 

 gloomy. I have not had a swarm for two 

 years, and it looks as if it is going to be a 

 failure this year. My bees wintered in good 

 condition, but the spring was cold, and thev 

 did nothing until the middle of June, and 

 then was honey dew ; the bees just hummed 

 on that until it began to rain, and then the 

 honey-dew was gone. Starvation com- 

 menced then, as the queens had filled every 

 jiart of the comljs with eggs, when in a 

 short time after, the young bees commenced 

 to hatch out, and there being no white 

 clover (as it all died out last fall, on account 

 of the drouth) they had nothing to work on. 



A man lives near me who had 2 strong 

 colonies, and they looked as though there 

 was a bushel of bees in each hive. Two 

 weeks ago yesterday 1 was there, and he 

 told nie that liis bees were being robbed, as 

 the ground was covered with bees. One 

 colony was dead, and halt of the other. 

 They did not have a drop of honey, and the 



bees were in wads lying wound as though 

 they were numb. I told him that they were 

 starving ; after giving them some honey, 

 they went to drawing the dead bees out of 

 the hive, and clearing up the hive. I 

 have heard, for the last week, of the bees 

 swarming out and leaving their hives, so I 

 am safe in saying that one-half of the bees 

 have died in this township since spring 

 opened. It will take feeding to bring them 

 through till Spanish-needle and buckwheat 

 bloom appears ; and then if my bees get 

 enough to winter on, it is all 1 will ask for 

 this year. 



In some parts of this county, where there 

 was any linden in reach of the bees, they 

 are in good condition, t)Ut I am out of the 

 range of linden, there being but five trees 

 near my bees, and when they were on them 

 it sounded like a swarm passing over the 

 trees. Our main crop is white clover; it 

 looks well, but it had to come from the seed, 

 and will have no bloom to speak of this 

 year. 



Lend a Helping Hand.— Mr. T. E. 



Turner, Sussex, Wis., on July 14, 1888,says: 



I deem our Bee-Keepers' Union as very 

 important to the general interest of bee- 

 keepers in America. I do hope that more 

 bee-keepers will see the need of such an 

 organization, and lend a helping hand by 

 each one forwarding ills 81.00 membership 

 fee. If only one bee-keeper is aided in de- 

 fending himself against tne enemies of our 

 pursuit in each year, the general interest of 

 all bee-keepers is subserved, and the use of 

 the small sum (SI. 00) each, annually, is 

 justified, and much more. 



Honey from the I^inden. — Mrs. L. 

 Harrison, Peoria, Ills., on July 13, 1888, 

 wrote thus : 



There has been a hard, quick shower of 

 the nectar from basswood (Tilia Ameri- 

 cana). It was like the passing of the 

 "Salvation Army," with drum and fife, 

 singing to martial music, "Marching on, 

 Marching on," until the sound died away in 

 the distance. It made me think of the fast 

 trains on the Pennsylvania Central railroad 

 during tlie Centennial year, that scooped 

 up the water at stations without stopping. 

 This "flying train " left In its wake every 

 cell and cradle full of delicate nectar; no 

 time for building cells now, even if the 

 bees had the material, for the " flying 

 train" passed with a putf and a blow, sing- 

 ing, "Hasten on, hasten on." I wanted to 

 share with the bees some of this delicious 

 sweetness, and got out the almost forgotten 

 extractor. I knew there was not a spoonful 

 of honey when this angelic visitation came, 

 so it vfould be unmixed. I could not wait 

 tor it to be sealed, oh no ! so with a few 

 turns of the extractor, my eyes were glad- 

 dened once more with delicious nectar pour- 

 ing out of the spout. I tied cheese-cloth 

 over the top of tlie receptacles to keep out 

 insects, and put it out in the sun to ripen, 

 with the mercury at 100° in the shade. 

 Away back in the seventies. Dr. Geo. Lucas 

 lived in this city. He was an enthusiastic 

 bee-keeper, and planted basswood trees, 

 both the American and European variefies, 

 and gave to his neighbors to plant, until an 

 entire square is surrounded with this mag- 

 nificent tree. Heemiarated to Navada, and 

 shortly after fell dead from the back of a 

 horse, but he lelta grand monument behind 

 him. Every year these trees are dressed in 

 beauty, and otier up sweet perfume in grate- 

 ful remembrance. Peace to his ashes. Go 

 and do likewise. 



Your Full Address, plainly written, 

 is very essential in order to avoid mistakes. 



