November 26 - 1866 Nov. 4th - My Egyptian queen imported
by T. T. Woodbury from Vogel came by steamer
City of Paris from Liverpool - Mr. Woodbury of Exeter England had put
her up most admirably in a Shaw Woodbury (Langstroth) hive - Did
not get them till the 12th - Were sent to Public Warehouse in New York
opened them at Brooklyn - found them in splendid order - queen all right -
clipped her wings. Did not open again to look for queen till 24th - here in
Oxford - had been allowed to fly in Philadelphia - Queen gone! Lost a splendid
queen (Italian) taken from a full stock and given to a nucleus caged for the
purpose of getting place for Woodbury Egyptian - Bitter disappointment. 
Hope it will do me good - November 12 - 3 Egyptian and one Italian queen
came in steamer Saxonia from Hanbey - Could not get them off ship
until too late 13th to let them fly - Italian queen dead - only a few workers
[illegible] alive - too much honey in new comb - and too few bees!
Opening next day Egyptian queens - one dead and gone - only a few bees living
another lame - 3rd all right - Too cool for bees to fly and empty themselves
15th - Opened them again at Philadelphia - had to give them new bees - caged the
queens - 17th - Arrived at Oxford - Found queen living - Too much hurried to
devise the best method - ought to have kept them with nuclei - and to have deprived
stocks of queens - In 48 hours would have been glad to get them - Gave two
of them caged - Found one dead in cage! seemed to be wedged fast! cage not
properly nailed. Liberated another - fear she too is gone! And that I have only
one dead Egyptian to show for all my time, trouble and money! In a
bottle have Egyptian Queen, Worker and Drone - The specimens are
complete! Drones beautiful very - workers wonderfully beautiful with their
yellow, black and white bands - form rings yellow on workers - colors much
brighter than of Italian bees - Shall send my nuclei boxes to Berlin
with honey and all arrangements for getting queens as early as bees fly next
Spring and hope to lose but little time - Eternal vigilance - and diligence
the price of importing bees. (27th) Overlooked hives - cut winter passages - do
not cut long narrow slot - leave too much open space centrally - Last Spring
bees for some time rossed out: illegible] brooded only on one side of slot - Think they
were retarded - When stocks are small notice that bees do not cluster
centrally but towards front of hive - This leads me to cut some holes for
such stocks thus [diagram] Bees are in better condition for wintering
than they were last Fall - Honey greatly in excess - [illegible] has
delayed fixing stocks for winter until very late - Shall put [inserted: old] woolen clothes
or something of the kind over the slats and under the cob boxes - do 
See [illegible]