OlSVOTJEO TO BElElS=i A1NI> HOPiTEY, >%JVr> IlOIVnE IlVTDEItESTS. 



Vol. V. 



JUNE 1, 1877. 



No. 6 



A. I. ROOT, *) Publisbed Monthly. rTERMS: $1.00 Per Annum in Ad- 



Puilisher and Proprietor, > ■} vance; 3 Copies /or «2.50; 5/oj-»3.T5; 



Itledina, O. ) 3Bstal>llslxe«i in 18y3. CIO or more, 60c. each. Single Number lOc. 



REPORT FROM OEIORGE ORIMM. 



^jl^URENGr this spring au 1 aummer I intend to sell 

 mm out my own bees, (about 140 orilonSes) not be- 

 t-jBi^ cause I do not like the business or because it 

 does not pay, but because I wi^h to go to collage and 

 devote my time exclusively to study. I have lost only 

 (i swarms'durina: this winter and spring, and vvlth one 

 of tho^e I had been experimsnting in the fall. Th", 

 rest are nearly all in excilieat I'.ondition. They were 

 wintered ia a deep cellar. The weather is warm 

 here this spring, a striking contrast to the wet old 

 weather of lastspring. The bees in the neigtibor- 

 ho > i that have survived the winter, are g3nerally in 

 a better condition than last year at this time, although 

 heavy losses have been suuaiaed by some of the bee- 

 keepers of this county. 



AIEAL FEEDING, CAUTION. 



I have seen in one the b33 papers that a bee-keeper 

 advises to feed the be^s as much rye flour in the 

 spring, when they can get no pollen, as they will take. 

 I consider it a mistaken i laa and he will And it so. It 

 is certainly good to feel the beas rye Hour in the 

 spring to «thnalaC3 thern to brood rearing, but only so 

 mujh as they will easily consume in aehort time. I 

 have found by experience that if hees are fed too 

 abundantly with rye Hour they will store it away, 

 where it bsomes iiard; so hard that they will never 

 be abl3 to gat it out of the cells again without biting 

 away the combs with it: then again they have no 

 room left for natural pollen when they will be able to 

 collecs it. S^me advise not to feed any rye flour; 

 but when bees must rear brood and have no pollen, 

 they must have some substitute for it. I have found 

 this spring, strong colonies with plenty of honey, hav- 

 ing no trace of bee bread in consequence of which 

 they quit brood raising. Such <? .varms it is absolutely 

 necessary to give access to fl lur, unless there is a 

 good prospect that they wi'l 'loon be able to gather 

 elsewhere. A few of my bees are getting short of 

 honey and I am now at work feeding th'ira. I think 

 there is pros))ect of a good honey year. Surely we 

 ought to have a good one after these two poor ones, 

 and this last severe winter. 



In regard to selling bees : Mother shipped to very 

 distant parts and all but a (ew arrived salely. Con- 

 cerning those, she settled all satisfactorily. I know 

 this to be the case, as I personally supervised all the 

 work and in a large measure cared for the bees my- 

 self. . This spring the advertisement appeared again, 

 and already several large orders have come in. 1 feel 

 confident that she will ue able to sell all she has. 



Jefferson, Wis., April 20th, 1877. 



We nave never fouud any such trouble with 

 meal feeding as Mend Grimm mentions, but 

 we think it quite probable in localities where 

 they gathered natural pollen to excess. With 

 us, we never knew too much pollen in a hive, 

 yet we have letters from friends stating they 

 find it a great nuisance at times. 



MEAL, EEEDIKG; DOES IT EVER DO HARM? 



Since writing the above, we have found in 

 front of one of the hives we bought of neigh- 

 bor Blakeslee, some white lumps of the shape 

 of the bottom of cells of a honey comb. On 



biting these, which were nearly as hard as 

 bullets, we found they were iu reality flour, 

 and an examination of the hive showed that 

 the bees had literally torn down a great part 

 of one comb in tb^ir eff)"ts to dislodge the 

 hardened flour. The flour w'aen made into 

 polleu aud deposited in their calls, is a smooth 

 sweetish paste, and it would seem that they 

 had found natural pollen after having stored 

 quite a quiutity, and liking the latter better, 

 liad ailoived the flour pa>te to harden by dry- 

 ing. Whe'i they "were ready to use the comb, 

 it seems '.liey had a "nut to crack," that was 

 too hard f >r "bae sense," and so they excava- 

 ted th ' bl )cks, and tumbled them out, comb 

 and a'l. This is certainly rather a bad fault 

 of the ra'-al feeding, but as it has never oc- 

 curred in our apiary before we think it will 

 do no harm if the meal is gradually with- 

 drawn, as soon as natural pollen begins to 

 come in. 



SOME QUERIES FROM ARKANSAS. 



^jf^iOR several years of my life I have had a few col- 

 %n onies of the common black bees in the common 

 i^i box or log hives to which I gave the usual at- 

 tention—robbing them once or twice a year. It is un- 

 necsary to tell you my 'luck," for everything depends 

 on luck, you know, so say the old folks. Well, " luck 

 or 11' > luck" I clearly saw it did not pay to be " both- 

 ered" with them, and conclnde>l to change my luck 

 either for better or worse by substituting the "Italian 

 f >r the black bee and the American hive for the box. 

 Two years ago, having then 5 colonies of blacks, I' 

 sent to Iowa and got 3 Italian queens and from the 3 

 queens and 5 colonies I now have 55 colonies pure 

 Italians and hybrids, principally in the American 

 hive, f have sold 9 colonies, making in all Of from the 

 beginning, my business caUing me away from home 

 during the swarming season. Many swarms went to 

 the woods. So you see my luck changed. Swarming 

 has already commenced, and I am having on an aver- 

 age about two swarms a day, and have no idea how 

 many I shall have. Perhaps it would be well enough 

 to state that I have wintered my bees on their summer 

 stands, and have not lost a single colony except a 

 very late swarm which was put in a box hive and 

 starved to death in the spring. 



Would you advise me to continue with the Ameri- 

 can hive? [N'o.] If so, can I not make frames more 

 profitable than boxes by simply converting it into a 

 double story hive and working the same frame in 

 both stories? [Frame is too deep lor two stories to 

 work to advantage.] How would it do to have a 

 double hive setting horizontally and work the frames 

 end to end ? [The plan has been well tested, and Is 

 discarded generally.] Can the extractor be used on 

 new comb in very hot weather without injuring the 

 comb? [Most certainly.] Is not the swarming pro- 

 pensity of the Italian bee an objection to It? [Not 

 with the extractor, and we hope not in any case.] 

 Are not the Italians less disposed to work in boxes 

 than the black bees ? [We believe not if rightly man- 



