Voices from among the Hives. W. M. STEELY, California, Mo., writes :— "The black bees around here have all died during the past winter, except five colonies. I shall Italianize mine as soon as the weather will permit." MRS. ELLEN S. TUPPER, Des Moines, Iowa, writes:-"My bees have wintered well. They have come out of the cellar in splendid condition. There will be a small fortune in beekeeping this year." W. S. IRISH, Norton Centre, Ohio, writes: -"The AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL is a welcome visitor, and I wait anxiously for each number. Long may it prosper and continue in its good work." ABRAM BADGEROW, Georgina, Canada, writes:-"My bees are in splendid condition. I wintered them in the cellar under my dwelling-house. There was one hundred swarms, and I lost only two. I placed them on their summer stands March 18th. Last season I had about two tons of box honey." H. W. S. writes :-"I think it would be well to call the attention of bee cultivators who also raise grapes and other fruit to the charge made by many that bees depredate on fruit, and to request them all to notice particularly the coming summer to ascertain the truth or falsehood of the charge. It would also be well to notice whether bees do any service in fructifying blossoms of fruit or vegetables. If many observers would publish the result of their observations it would be of great benefit. Fruit-raisers who have no bees are threatening to poison the bees, which they can easily do, and it will be very useful to convince them that the bees are their friends and not their enemies." SAMUEL PORTER, West Ogden, Mich., writes:-"I have been engaged in practical bee-keeping for the last two years. In the spring of 1872 I transferred six swarms into the movable frame hive. I increased them to nineteen, and lost nine in the winter of 1873. I then bought three, which raised my number to thirteen. I increased the thirteen to twenty-seven last summer, and got two hundred pounds of surplus box honey. I think that is not so very bad for a beginner. Bees wintered well and are in splendid condition at this time. I am now feeding mine on corn and wheat flour mixed. They seem very fond of it. Take from two to three pounds per day." CHAS. F. MUTH, Cincinnati, O., writes:"Bees wintered well everywhere apparently. It is, therefore, no wonder that mine have done so well under their straw mats. At an examination on the first of March I found them all (thirty-four stands) in first rate condition. Only one (one of the strongest hives at that) had lost its queen, and had to be united with another. Twenty-nine stands had two sheets with brood. One hive had brood in three sheets; two in one sheet; and one hive had fresh laid eggs only. A few days ago I found a queen crawling on the roof. The hive she had come out of had two sheets with brood. It was not very strong, but would pass for spring. The queen died, and the bees had also to be united with another swarm. To sum the matter up-I do not believe that another lot of thirty-four hives of bees in our part of the country wintered better than mine did, whether they were wintered in-doors or not, or whether they had sugar syrup for winter stores or honey." H. E. CURRY, Cincinnati, writes:-" Vegetation is very forward. A week's fine weather will bring everything out in leaf. Bees that went into winter quarters in any kind of condition have come through with flying colors. I have heard of but few losses, and those were no fault of the bees. We are expecting the apples to bloom the middle of April, and then our honey season commences. If the weather is favorable, there will be considerable honey gathered from the fruit blossoms. All we need is the honey, and for that we have only to wait." D. M. HALL, Lima Centre, Wis., writes:"I commenced the winter of 1872-3 with 14 stocks of black bees and 2 of Italians. They came out all right in the spring. I did not lose any through the winter, but as soon as I stood them on their summer stands the black bees commenced swarming out and leaving their hives. I examined them, but saw no reason why they should, as they had plenty of honey. I changed them to eleven (Kidder) hives. But it did no good. They would swarm two or three together, till I had only six left, and some of them were very weak. My two Italian swarms went to work well. I increased my six to twenty-two, and Italianized them all. I kept them in the cellar under my kitchen last winter, and they have come out strong this spring, and do not show any signs of leaving the hive. They have gone to work with a vim, and every pleasant day they make the air ring with their music." BURNT CHILD from Georgia, writes :-I have been perusing the AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL of the last year, and like it so much that I want to continue it, and send herein the needful. I did not like the recrimination which was so rife, and am glad to see it lessened. Another objection I have is the space occupied by the business routine of the meetings of societies. It is not of interest to nine out of ten to read who is president or secretary of this or that society. Let us have more honey and less comb. But the article by Dzierzon-page 220 of the January number -is worth the full yearly subscription. In the March number, "Why don't farmers keep bees?" I will in part answer. Because they see some trying to do so, first swindled by a patent hive vender out of four times the worth of the article; then buying a swarm of Italian bees, and finding the queon but two thirds the size of the representations of her on letter backs, and having her killed in a day or so by her followers, and thus losing enough to buy honey for years." JAMES BOLIN, West Lodi, O., writes:"Where the bees were properly cared for. they have wintered well, but where their owners trusted to "luck in wintering, the loss, in some cases, has been quite severe. amounting, in one case that came to my knowledge, to four out of five, and in another to the entire stock. I put one hundred colonies in my bee-house Nov. 19th, and took them out March 2nd, and found them all right. but had the misfortune to lose one colony by starvation, with plenty of honey in the hive, during the severe cold weather that occured the second week in March. The bees had clustered at the south side of the hive, which stood facing east, and the honey being at the north side the cold wind prevented their reaching it, so they perished. I have made the loss all right again, however, by putting the bees from a bee tree I found in the woods in the hive with the combs and honey left by the swarm that perished. Becs are working on rye flour, with a rush, whenever it is warn enough for them to be out of their hives." M.D.D., Newburgh, N.Y.,writes:-"I have a little to relate in the bee line, having just commenced the business by purchasing three hives of common bees, one of them without any honey, as I soon discovered. Of course they had to be fed or starve. I determined to feed candy. Last fall a candy store in this city was overrun with honey-bees, so completely were they starved out here. I asked them what kind of candy they worked on, they showed me some made in bars called vanilla chocolate candy, that is candy made very soft and flavored with vanilla and covered with chocolate to keep it together. The bees would take every bit of the inside out and leave nothing but a mere shell of chocolate. I bought some and fed it to the bees, they seemed very fond of it, I also put some in sugar syrup and they were perfectly crazy for it. It appears to me to be just the thing with plain syrup making it taste almost as good as honey. Would not vanilla be a good thing to perfume the hive, to give them all one smell when uniting them etc., etc? Has any one tried it? I want a bee feeder, and getting an idea from one of your correspondents about a tin can with end melted off, I am going to make one a little different. I will describe it thus: Tin can, ends off, over this tie factory muslin (outside), letting it down inside to near bottom, placed over the hole on top of the box. Then fill nearly full of syrup. But you may say it will run out too fast. Well, that can be easily obviated, put clean fine sand into the bottom, with syrup sufficient to regulate the flow, then you have a feeder, and a perfect filter also, costing less than two cents.' J. P. MOORE, Binghampton, N. Y., writes: -"I commenced the season of 1873 with seventeen stocks of bees, having lost four in the spring and sold one. Ten were in fair condition by the 20th of May; the other seven were much reduced, but by taking brood from the strong ones, I was able to build up five of the weak ones by the time honey commenced to yield. The other two I run for increase and surplus queens, and was able by feeding and using my four hives of empty comb to increase the two to eight full stocks and five half stocks or nuclei. Two of the nuclei died in the winter, and the other three are very weak (I prefer full stocks for winter), and raised ten surplus queens. The fifteen that the boxes were put on, were run entirely for box honey, without increase, as we have things so arranged now that when we get a hive filled with brood, in time to put on boxes, we can have them put all their surplus in boxes, if the queen is prolific, without attempting to swarm, and without the trouble of handling the brood. The product of the fifteen stands thus: By returns from honey shipped, 1864 Total.... $498.32 $19.20 $8.00 $525.52 Or an average of about 135 lbs. ($35.00) per hive. Two of my neighbors have done quite as well, and perhaps better. Their average has not been quite as high on surplus, but they have more increase. Bees have wintered very nicely in this section, but the weather is quite cold now, and snow is on the ground." WM. HOUTZ, Milton Centre, O., writes:"My losses are heavy this spring. I say this spring, because I lost no bees until after the 4th of March. Since that date I have lost thirteen swarms, and am sure of losing more, because the weather is so cold that they cannot increase any, and the clusters are so small that they will not live long enough to raise any brood. Out of thirty swarms put in winter quarters I think I will probably have ten left. How is that for improved hives? I visited a bee-keeper that used nothing but a box about twelve inches square and fourteen inches deep. He started into the winter with thirty-six swarms, and let them set on the summer bench without any protection at all, taking off the surplus box that sat loosely on top, and laid on a thickness of brown paper, and then laid boards tight on that, and he saved every one. I was surprised to see that he lost none, while I lost heavily. Yet I am more enthusiastic than ever this season. I am determined to make it a success in winter. We can all raise bees and get honey in the summer-time to our satisfaction, but winter-or ought I to say long-continued cold springs?-is the great and importont question. Well, if I had worked last fall to the ideas that I had in view at that time, I would have been a good many stocks better off, but it got too cold before I commenced, consequently I could not handle the bees as I knew they should be." FRANCIS M. WOODLAND, Fairfield, Ill., writes:-"Last spring and early summer the rains were so constant that the flowers secreted no honey, or at least the bees could gather none in this part of south-eastern Illinois. In consequence, the drones were killed off, and the bees swarmed out to leave the few drops of honey in their hives to the hatching brood. They then turned their attention to the grocery stores, and bushels of them were destroyed in the windows before they could be relieved by feeding. On the first of June they were weaker than at any time in the winter, and were all poor, besides, with no brood. The black bees did not recover, but the Italians soon rallied, and became so strong by August that they poured out in large swarms to such an extent that I had my hands full for more than two weeks. Then the Spanish needle bloomed and I will only say that I believe Gallup and Hosmer both. Spanish needle bloom lasts ten to twelve days; does not yield as much as Lin, but is of a better quality, of the color of bright gold, and very thick. My bees are now in fine condition, with brood and stores, and peach buds are just opening. And now I wish to know if any one has a similar experience, as I do not remember to have seen anything written on the subject. It is this: when a fertile worker was running a hive" and a card of brood and eggs were given them, I have never succeeded in procuring queen cells on that card at the time. But always, upon the introduction of a second card with eggs and brood, queen cells were at once started on it. Query: Were the old bees of the hive too old, and the young bees from the first card too young, to start queen cells before the eggs were too old? And did the bees hatched from the first card start the cells on the second? Who will answer?" ABNER J. POPE writes:-"At the last meeting of the N. A. B. K. S., the following resolution was adopted: Resolved, That the Secretary make an official report, in pamphlet form, of the proceedings of our annual meetings, as soon as he has the funds to do so.' All that desire to become members and have the proceedings, should send immediately their hames and postoffice address, and the annual membership fee of $1.00, to Abner J. Pope, Sec'y, 170 Park Avenue, Indianapolis, Ind.' Not one letter in ten thousand is lost by mail if rightly directed. Single copies of the AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL are worth 20 cents each. Additional names to a club already formed may be sent at any time at the same club rate. Upon the wrapper of every copy of the JOURNAL will be found the date at which subscriptions expire. Any numbers that fail to reach subscribers by fault of mail, we are at all times ready to send, on application, free of charge. Subscribers wishing to change their postoffice address, should mention their old address, as well as the one to which they wish it changed. JOURNALS are forwarded until an explicit order is received by the publishers for the discontinuance, and until payment of all arrearages is made as required by law. Persons writing to this office should either write their Name, Post-office, County and State plainly, or else cut off the label from the wrapper of their paper and enclose it. The postage on this paper is only twelve cents a year, if paid quarterly or yearly in advance at the post-office where received. We prepay postage to Canada, and require twelve cents extra. When a subscriber sends money in payment for the AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, he should state to what time he thinks it pays, so that we can compare it with our books, and thus prevent mistakes. BINDING. We have been requested to get sets bound for some of our subscribers, and have made arrangements to get the nine Vols. bound in three vols. for $4.00, or the same in four vols. for $5.00. Those who wish to avail themselves of these liberal terms must send their numbers by express to the Manager. Honey Markets. CHICAGO.-Choice white comb honey, 28 @30c; fair to good, 24@28c. Extracted, choice white, 14@16c; fair to good, 10@12c; strained, 8@10c. CINCINNATI.-Quotations from Chas. F. Muth, 976 Central Ave. Comb honey, 15@35c, according to the condition of the honey and the size of the box or frame. Extracted choice white clover honey, 16c. fb. ST. LOUIS.—Quotations from W. G. Smith 419 North Main st. The Honey marked is improving. A No. 1, box honey is scarce, and can be sold at good figures. The spring is late and the bees are still confined to the hives. I have heard of very little mortality in the bees in Missouri, so far.Common strained honey will sell well here now and at good figures. We quote: Choice white comb, 25@29c; fair to good, 16@22c. Extracted choice white clover, 16@ 18c. Choice basswood honey, 14@16c; fair to good, extracted, 8@12c; strained, 6@10c. NEW YORK.-Quotations from E. A. Walker, 135 Oakland st., Greenport, L. I. White honey in small glass boxes, 25c; dark 15@20c. Strained honey, 8@12c. Cuban honey, $1.00 gal. St. Domingo, and Mexian, 90@95 gal. SAN FRANCISCO. - Quotations Sterns and Smith, 423 Front st. from The season is about two weeks late. The prospect is very flattering for a big yield. We shall have no new honey until June. We quote: Choice mountain honey, in comb, 22@25c; common, 17@20c; strained, 10@12c, in 5 gallon cans. Valley honey, in comb, 12@17e; strained, 8@10c. We want several copies of No. 1, Vol. 2, of the AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, and will pay 50 cents each for them. Who will send us some ? Every subscriber is requested to look at the date after his name on the wrapper label of this Number of the AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, and if it is not correct send a postal card to this office, and tell us and we will make it right at once. If you paste anything on a Postal Card, when you send to this office, we have to pay six cents postage on it. The law deinands that there shall be nothing attached to it in any way, without paying double letter postage. Some articles in this number are too personal. As the articles were of value, we concluded to publish them attended with this mild rebuke. The Michigan Association of Bee-keepers will meet at Kalamazoo, on Wednesday next, May 6th. Our subscribers in Europe, can now procure Postal Money Orders on Chicago. This plan of sending money is safe and economical. Our New Advertisements. As usual, fresh announcements are numerous this month, and our readers will appreciate a perusal of them. Bees in the Langstroth Hives are announced by "C. F." Books for Bee-Keepers may be obtained at this office. Agents are offered profitable employment. See notice. W. M. Steely has Queens at "Grange" prices, warranted. Samples of The New York Graphic will be | sent on application. Novice calls attention to his Metal-corner Frames, Extractors, Hives, etc. The Peabody Honey Extractor and its prices, with cut, is portrayed in good style. The Humane Journal is published at $1.00 a year, and humanitarians are invited to take it. The Italian Bee Company, of Des Moines, announce their "Queenly" Programme, and Price List. Those desiring Fancy Poultry and Eggs,are invited to read the Cottage Grove Hennery advertisement. H. A. King & Co. have an extended advertisement of their Hives, the addresses of manufacturers, etc. The German Bee-Sting Cure can be obtained at this office. Sent by Express for $1.00. It cannot be sent by mail. See notice. Langstroth Hives, well made of good seasoned lumber, may be obtained of a manufacturer in this city through the manager of this paper. Quinby invites you to send for his Price List of Bees and Supplies. His new Smoker can be seen at this office. It is ingenious and practical. The Scientific Farmer, the finest and cheapest paper of its class in the world, will be sent for three months for 25 cents, or with its Chromo, "Just One," for 50 cents. Back Volumes. Complete sets of back volumes are scarce. But few can be procured at any price. We have a set, consisting of the nine volumes (complete), which we offer for sale, either bound or unbound, for a reasonable sum. Many of the numbers we have paid fifty cents each for, to complete them. We have several single volumes (complete) which we will send postpaid for $2.00 each. Several volumes, which lack only a single number of being complete, we will send postpaid for $1.50 each. Vol. 1, we can supply in cloth boards, postpaid, for $1.25. Bound in paper covers, $1.00, postage 10 cents. This volume is worth five times its price to any intelligent bee-keeper. It contains a full elucidation of scientific beekeeping, including the best statement extant of the celebrated Dzierzon theory. These articles run through eight numbers, and are from the pen of the Baron of Berlepsch. Beginners in bee-culture, who desire to read up in the literature of bee-keeping, are earnestly advised to obtain these back volumes. Many of our best apiarians say they would not sell their back volumes of the AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL for ten times the sum they cost, if they could not replace them. They are exceedingly valuable alike to beginners and more advanced apiarians. We will pay 50 cents each for Nos. 7, 8 and 9, of Vol. iii. Also for No. 1 of Vol. vii. Send them to this office. In Mr. Kruschke's article on page 78 in April number, in the last line but two, the word catnip should read “ MILK-WEED." Send stamp for a sample copy of THE SCIENTIFIC FARMER, an illustrated monthly for the Farm and Fireside. It will be sent from now to the end of the year 1874, with the AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL one year for $2.50, or with the choice of Chromos-the Fruit Piece, or the new and lovely household gem, "Just One," for $2.75; or with both Chromos, $3.00. Isaiah Cutler, of this city, gave us a call, and desired to describe a cheap smoker to our readers. He says it will cost but two cents and a little labor with a jack-knife. It consists of a short-stem pipe filled with tobacco, covered with a pine cap, and having attached a hollow stem through which the smoke can be blown as desired. Mr. C. has kept bees for sixty years, and is eighty-four years of age. If there is an older bee-keeper who still reads the AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, Mr. C. would like to hear from him. AGENTS WANTED. PLEASANT and Profitable Employment for male or female, in every city of the Union. Active persons can double their small investment every day. Enclose stamp for particulars to THOMAS G. NEWMAN, Room 27, Tribune Building, Chicago. NOVICE. To those who care to know how he is getting along, at this 17th of April 1874, with his "tin corners" "pillow cases "tea kettles," "manure heaps etc., he would say with about his usual average of successes and reverses, In the first place he has succeeded in losing about one half of his bees in wintering, ("tinkered 'em to death ""P. G." says,) and probably would have gone wild on a project for building a Green House, to be independent of the weather, and to be enabled to build up all strong before the honey harvest, were he not almost prevented from thinking about the matter, by the number of orders received daily for Extractors, Hives, Frames, &c. He has succeeded in making a remarkably neat, light, Extractor, entirely of tin, cast iron. and steel, and for the sake of encouraging a Standard sized frame and hive, he offers it for $9.00, then the dimensions are for a frame just 1334 wide, by 114 deep outside measure; but where specially adapted to any other sized frame $10.00. Our Metal Corners are better made, and the machinery for making them has been much improved, as have also the frames and hives. Novice seriously began to fear in fact, that his reputation would suffer, it more care were not taken in the make of some of our wares, than what has been done in some cases heretofore; and we hope no one will feel backward in complaining if they feel so disposed. Please bear in mind: We always consider it an especial favor to have customers inform us by postal card whether goods are satisfactory; whether our mode of packing is efficient; time taken in transit; whether Express or Freight charges were reasonable, etc., etc. Medina, O. Respectfully, A. I. ROOT & CO. German Bee-Sting Cure To the Bee Fraternity: From time immemorial, since man has coveted the sweet nectar gathered and stored by the busy bee, the bee-keeper has feared the poisonous effects resulting from the sting of the honey bee, while many have been deterred from entering the apicultural arena, not a few have abandoned the pursuit for a like cause, while the world at large are cognizant of the fact that the virus from a single bee-sting has resulted in death to persons who have been stung. With these facts in view it need hardly be stated that the bee keeper has sought by all means in his power to discover a remedy for the sting of a bee. In the language of a recent editorial of the American Bee Journal," Any alkali application is good; soda and blue-bags are recommended; a drop of honey, garden soil, spirits of hartshorn, alcohol and tincture of iodine are among the external applications. But, (continues the editor of the American Bee Journal,) we have discarded every other application since becoming acquainted with a German remedy lately introduced. A drop or two will remove all trace and effect of a sting in a very few minutes. It costs but a trifle per bottle, and a single bottle will last a bee-keeper for a life-time." With such evidence as this, before the reader. we hardly deem it necessary to say one word further in commendation of this remedy. If you would go among your bees without the fear of being stung, use the German Bee Sting Cure, This preparation (imparted to the proprietor by a German friend, used by his ancestors for over an hundred years, and now for the first time prepared by scientific chemists,) after having been fully and throughly tested, is introduced to Apiarians to supply a want long felt by the fraternity. Its efficacy is thorough and complete when the directions are complied with. The German Bee Sting Cure is free from all poison, and may be successfully used for all insect bites. Price $1.00 per bottle. Sent only by Express. MR. S. HAWLEY, Proprietor, For Sale also by 116 Miller St., Utica, N. Y. D. L. ADAIR, Hawesville, Ky., And at the office of the AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. ITALIAN QUEENS. We are prepared to furnish Queens this season from the best Stock in this country. We send out none but tested Queens, warranted pure and prolific. We have a few tested last fall that we will send as early as possible, (last of April or 1st. of May) at $8 each. These are of special value to those who intend to rear Queens early. After June 1st. one queen, $5; three, $12; eight, $80; thirty, $100. |