r>E:voT3E;r> to S£::e:h A.T»ir> hoiveiy, A]vr> hoime hvtehests. 



Vol. V. 



NOVEMBER 1, 1877. 



No. 11. 



A. I. ROOT, ~) Publisbed Montbly. rTERMS: «1.00 Per Annum in Ad- 



PubUsher and Proprietor, > ■< vance; 3 Copies /or $2.50; 5/oj-%3.76; 



Medina, O, ) lEstaljlislied. In 1873. ClO or more, 60c. each. Single Number 10c. 



SOME OF the: trials "res: folks" 



HAVE TO ENDURE. 



fjIHE latter part of July, I sent $5.00 to friend 

 Blood, and In about two weeks received r- queen 

 I by mail, but she was dead. Returning her 



promptly, he sent me another which arrived dead 

 also. I returned them without delay, not liavin^ 

 opened the cage in either case. Some time after, I 

 received the third queen which arrived alive, to my 

 great satisfaction ; she was fair in color but not very 

 large; but here came the r«<7 of ^t'or. She was prompt- 

 ly liberated on combs of hatching brood, with plenty 

 of honey and water in the liive ; it was Saturday, the 

 first of September ; it turned suddenly very cool here 

 and the ha telling bees died about as fast as tliey 

 hatched. There was also some unsealed larv;e in the 

 combs, that crowded out of the cells, which together 

 with the dying young bees was a very painlul sight 

 for a beekeeper. I tiiought it would not do, and ac 

 covdingly put in three combs with adhering bees and 

 caged the queen. The next day I let her out. but the 

 bees hailed her, and I had to cage her again. So I 

 tried to introduce her during the week, day after day, 

 with the same lepult. I destroyed three lots of queen 

 cells during this time: was that right? Saturday af- 

 ternoon I released her again; in half an hour I tried 

 to look her up but did not flncl her at once, and rob- 

 bers being troublesome had to quit, and night coming 

 on I left tham. The greater part of the night I passed 

 in thinking al)out queens, and much against my will, 

 the picture of a ban of excited bees, enclosing in their 

 desperate emnrace, my queen, again and again floated 

 across my mind, and disturbed the lull of slumber. 

 Next morning early, I rescued her from the veritab'e 

 ball a!id caged her again, finding her very hungry, 

 and mysell very blue. 



A short time a^olread in the Country Gentleman 

 an article on introdncing queens: and the writer said 

 that a great mistake svas often made in introducing 

 a valuable queen to a queenlcss stock ; bettor untjueen 

 a good colony to put her in. 1 therefore unqueened 

 a good colony and gave them the queen in a cage ; 

 apparently they did not notice the change, but car- 

 ried in pollen and honey as usual. Looking after 

 them later in tlie day, but very few bees remained 

 about the cage and I thought the queen might be lib- 

 erateii at once (especially after reading your own re- 

 port in Sept. No). She was tiien released on the quilt, 

 but the bees attacked her so fiercely in a twinkling all 

 went down netwecn the combs, and wlien last seen, 

 one bee was on her back trying its best to sting. 

 With the bellows smoker I again succeeded in res- 

 cuing her, but she looke<l sick, kept wiping her body 

 with her legs, and I feared she was injured ; however 

 she lived, but seemed to be feeble, and 1 thouglit it 

 unsafe to cage her more. 



1 put a division board in the first hive and let the 

 queen out on two combs of brood, and shut them up. 

 1 then had to leave home, but in two days I examined 

 them again. Bees and queen were lively, and I felt 

 much elated; but alas, my pleasure was of short du- 

 ration, the (jueen suildeniy cook wing, and away she 

 went. I had tried her before on a window, and at- 

 tempt=! to fly were rot at all successful, but now— O 

 dear ! she could fly, and vvell enough too. As far as I 

 know, up to (late. .s/)e has never returned again, and 

 m.y plan of Italianizing my bees this lall has failed. 

 The queen I took from the second colony in the morn- 

 ing, I put back in her own hive the same evening, and 

 she was killed in less than one minute. 



One of my colonies produced drones with red heads 

 as you describe ; the queen Is hybrid. 



I must have another queen but will buy it In a nu- 

 cleus and as near home as I can get it, and I will first 

 practice more with cheap queens. 



I commenced the season witli 11 stocks in fair con- 

 dition and have, up to date, sold .550 lbs. of honey. 

 There is plenty ot honey in the hives, and I have in- 

 creased tiiera to ."56 good stocks, which satisfies me 

 very well. 



You remember the 58 lbs. fdn. which ynu made for 

 me? I thought it vvas a great <ieal too much for II 

 stocks, but I used all but 5 or 6 lbs. It is a decided 

 success; if introducing queens were as easy and sure 

 as the using of fdn., I wnuld not have tailed. My 

 hives contain from 8 to 18 Qtiinby frames full of hon- 

 ey, bee-bread and bees. R. Stahle. 



P. S. — I made a promise, never to o^en a bee hive 

 on Sunday and had kept it up to this lim'- ; but the 

 imported queen came to hand on Saturday, sind I, 

 very anxious to do all I could, broke my promise in 

 caring for her on Sunday and lost her, after all my 

 cai'e. Had I not done so, I could have fared no worse, 

 and I now think I ivould not have lost her. 



R. Stahle, Marietta, O., Sept. 34th, 1877. 



It seems that friend Blood too, has had some 

 losses as well as the rest of us ; and I am very 

 glad indeed to find him so ready to make them 

 all good. As he is a sufferer as well as your- 

 self, friend 8., I think it a duty of yours, to 

 make your future purchases of him. He has 

 sent you three queens that must have cost 

 him f 12.00 at least, and all you have paid him 

 is $5.00. 



When selecting comb* of hatching brood, 

 endeavor to have such as contain no unsealed 

 larva', and you will have no loss of brood. 

 The bees and queen should always be shut in 

 the hive, and if the weather turns cold, take 

 them into the house. They will very soon 

 form a cluster about the queen and she will 

 begin to lay. If they were kept shut in the 

 hive until nearly a week old, it would be just 

 as well for them. I have never known a queen 

 to fly away and not come back, yet so many 

 have reported losses like the above I think it 

 would be well to clip the wings of all queens 

 as soon as they are laying. 



You should not have alloiced the bees to kill 

 their old queen friend S. Had you flrst fixed 

 j^our smoker in nice trim, and had it right in 

 your hand, 7 do not believe a bee could have 

 stung her beforo you came to her rescue. 

 Your work was probably all done just as the 

 honey season was closing, and bees at such 

 times are very difficult for anyone to handle. 

 I sympathize most fully with you, as I think 

 we all do, but perhaps your very lifelike nar- 

 ration of your trials, may be the means of 

 saving many times the amount for others : so 



