TYRONE, ONTARIO, July 16.--Bees are doing very well here this year. I
have got forty pounds surplus honey from some of my hives already.--J.
MCLAUGHLIN.
WASHINGTON HARBOR, WIS., July 16.--This has been the best honey season,
thus far, seen by me. A second swarm hived on Tuesday June 21st, on
Wednesday night the 29th, weighed twenty-five pounds, besides having
yielded thirty-eight pounds ten ounces taken by honey machine in eight
days. I had given the swarm seven old combs and one empty frame, placed
it on the old stand, and removed the old stock to a new place. On the
25th and 26th, it gained twenty-one pounds six ounces in two days, on
raspberry and clover blossoms. This is the best day’s work and week’s
work I have noticed. The queen began to lay on Monday the 27th, so they
had no brood to nurse.
The next fourteen days they lost four pounds each. Basswood began to
bloom July 13th. One hive gained fifteen pounds in four days; and in the
next ten days I expect my five hives to gain thirty to forty pounds
each, which closes the honey season here. The last two years the hives
lost more in weight from the 1st of August to the 1st of November, than
in five months in the cellar to 1st of April.--H. D. MINER.
BORODINO, N. Y., July 16.--I think that you publish by far the best Bee
Journal.
GANSEVOORT, N. Y., July 20.--I think the American Bee Journal worthy of
every bee-keeper’s attention, whether he keeps one stand or a hundred.
I would like to learn from some more experienced bee-keepers than
myself, the best way to set bees for summer; whether exposed to the sun,
in the shade of trees, or under a shelter made of boards.
It has been very dry here all summer, and flowers have nearly all dried
up. Bees have swarmed but little and have not stored much cap honey. Box
hives are mostly used here, though there are some others of different
kinds.--THOMAS PIERCE.
RICH VALLEY, MINN., July 20.--The season for bees has been fair thus
far; but I do not think this location so well adapted to the business as
most of the States south.--L. M. LINDLEY.
RIDGEWAY, MICH., July 21.--I have one hundred and thirty colonies in box
hives, somewhat like T. B. Miner’s equilateral hive. I shall have about
twenty hundred pounds of honey for sale this season.
I cannot learn that it would be wise for me to adopt the movable comb
hive, as I have five hundred dollars invested in box hives, and have
been successful with them. So far as I can learn I have the largest
apiary in Michigan, and have perhaps, in the last thirteen years sold
more surplus honey than any apiarian using box hives, or perhaps any
other kind of hive. Honey sells for twenty to twenty-five cents per
pound.--J. F. TEMPLE.
AUGUSTA, ME., July 22.--This is a very dry season with us. Bees will not
give much surplus honey; and in some cases old stocks will not get honey
enough to winter.--H. B. CONEY.
GEBHARTSBURG, PA., July 22.--This has been a remarkable honey season,
and also for swarming. I practice artificial swarming, yet in spite of
all precautions I got two natural swarms, and that too without the least
preparation by the bees, for no queen cells had been started. This is
contrary to the books and my previous experience.--W. BAKER.
HAMILTON, ILL., July 24.--No Bee Journal either on the old continent or
the new, can vie with the American Bee Journal.--C. DADANT.
NIAGARA, ONTARIO, July 30.--We have had a good honey season, through
June and part of July, from white clover; but I do not think bees are
doing much now. I lost some honey for want of shade. The combs melted,
though in double boxes.--F. G. NASH.
EXCELSIOR, MINN., July 30.--Bees have done very well here, until the
middle of this month, the season having been an unusually fine one, up
to that time. Since then, we have had a change of weather and bees are
doing nothing. The season has been a very dry and hot one, thus
indicating--not for the first time--that dry warm seasons are the best
for honey in this latitude.--J. W. MURRAY.
EAST FAIRFIELD, OHIO.--Bees are doing very nicely here this year. I
should like to see your valuable Journal have a wide circulation, and if
it were carefully read, I think bee-keepers would generally do well.--J.
HEUSTIS.
SPRINGFIELD, ILL., August 4.--Our pets have done nothing since 20th of
June, but eat up what they saved before. The “heated term” has been
unusually severe and long. We look for better things, now that the
weather has changed and vegetation begins to revive. This morning one of
my early June swarms (Italian) threw off a very large swarm. On
examining the hive, I was not a little interested and surprised to find
five beautiful young queens, evidently stretching their legs (my queens
have legs) for the first time. Three went “where the woodbine twineth.”
I had use for the other two. Is not the simultaneous hatching of so
great a number unusual?--W. L. GROSS.
NORTH TUNBRIDGE, VT., August 7.--We have had a very great season here
for honey, but not as much swarming as usual. My bees have given me a
profit of twenty-four dollars per swarm, in box honey.--D. C. HUNT.
CLEVELAND, OHIO, August 8.--I think we have a very poor locality for
bees--the land being too flat, wet, and cold. No honey in the white
clover blossoms this year.--R. HONEY.
VIRDEN, ILLS., August 8.--We never had so good a season of white clover,
in my recollection, as the past has been; but it has been so dry since
that the bees have done nothing since the 1st of July. Our fall
pasturage too will be short, on account of the drouth. Last year I got
all my surplus honey after this time, mostly from Spanish needles and
red clover. There will be very little of either this fall, consequently
I do not expect much more surplus honey. I have increased my bees from
twenty-five colonies to sixty-five.--J. L. PEABODY.
PAW PAW, MICH., August 8.--The ever welcome American Bee Journal was
received as usual. It contains a variety of reading matter from all
sources, and it sounds like glad tidings unto all people. I have only
one fault to find--it should come on the first and fifteenth of each
month. How can that desirable end be accomplished? Will not our brother
bee-keepers co-operate to bring it about? Bees have done finely here,
this season.--A. F. MOON.
RIPON, WIS., August 8.--The Journal comes to hand promptly every mouth,
accept my thanks for the effort you make to furnish us with a first
class paper.--R. DART.
TOWANDA, ILLS., August 9.--The season for honey in this section of the
country has not been the best or the poorest. Bees on the prairies did
not swarm much, and there was great complaint of their leaving for the
timber. One man here found fourteen (14) bee trees in one grove. But in
the timbered portion of the country, the bees swarmed wide and gathered
the usual amount of honey, namely fifteen to twenty-five pounds per
stand.
Increased attention is being given to the culture of bees here, and I
hope I shall be able to send you a much larger list of subscribers for
your _excellent_ Journal.
An accident occurred in the apiary of Mr. Cyrus Jones, in this township,
that would probably come under the head of “Anger of Bees.” While his
hired man with the team, was hauling some old lumber from the yard, the
horses became frightened and ran directly among the bees, knocking over
seven stands and becoming fastened for a short time in a cherry tree.
The bees swarmed out not only from those stands that were run over; but
from most of the others (there being some twenty stands in all) stinging
the horses terribly. The horses became frantic, rearing and plunging,
broke loose from the tree, and ran into the next lot, breaking the wagon
badly. One of them died in about three hours, and the other in the
course of the day. While they were fastened in the tree, one of the men
in throwing water on the horses, to _cool_ I suppose the anger of the
bees, lost his hat. The bees lighting on him stung his head and face so
badly that his life was in danger. The horses were stung in their ears,
nostrils, and bodies so badly that by taking a corn knife and scraping
their sides, you could draw out thousands of stings. Mr. Jones estimates
his loss at about five hundred (500) dollars. This accident occurred
last spring. What would have been the best to do, in such a case?--S. C.
WARE.
WENHAM, MASS., August 11.--The weather has been very dry and hot all
summer; but during the last few days we have had plenty of rain, though
the air is not cooler.--H. ALLEY.
LEXINGTON, KY., August 12.--The July number of the Journal failed to
come. I began to fear you had ceased to publish the Journal, as I did
not receive one for so long. _That_ I hope will never happen, as long as
it is doing the good to the bee-keeping public, that it now is. Long
life to you and it.--DR. J. DILLARD.
LISLE, N. Y., August 12.--As your correspondents commenced boasting
early, I should like to hear from them again, to learn whether the
drouth affected them as much as it has us, in this part of the country.
I think bees never did better than they did during raspberry time. It
then became so dry that they have not got much since, till now that they
are working on buckwheat freely. From one double Langstroth hive we have
taken seventeen full six pound boxes, and the bees are working in six
more. They filled both hives themselves, except six frames that were
transferred. I think this is doing very well, as it will make eighty
pounds in frames more than they need to winter on. We are sure of
thirty-six pounds more. We have a good many young swarms that have
already over one hundred pounds of box honey taken off. I will give you,
this fall, the total result. I think it will convince people that
bee-keeping pays.--H. S. WELLS.
CAMPBELL’S CROSS, ONTARIO, August 12.--I have the first four volumes of
American Bee Journal bound in two, and would not take five times their
cost if I could not get them again. I would freely pay double to get
them twice a month. It would pay to get them, if a person has only one
hive, or no bees at all.
Bees have done well, in this section, this season. They swarmed two
weeks earlier than usual. We have plenty of swarms and surplus honey.
Second and even some third swarms will gather honey enough to winter on.
My bees are all in frame hives. The Thomas hive is all the go in
Ontario. My bees are nearly all Italians, bred from the stocks of J. H.
Thomas, Brooklin, Ontario, and Henry Alley, Wenham, Mass.,--both of whom
I could recommend, their stock of Italians being very pure and well
marked.--H. LIPSETT.
GNADENHUTTEN, OHIO, August 15.--We have had a prosperous season, this
summer, both for honey and swarms. The weather was good from the time
the fruit trees blossomed until the close of the white clover blossoms.
It is refreshing to the drooping spirit to have a season of plenty after
such poor seasons as the previous two were. Our success would be better
if we had some reliable plants to supply honey, after the white clover
is past. That is now our main dependance, and when it is a partial
failure our late swarms cannot gather sufficient store to last them over
winter; and buckwheat is at best an uncertain source for honey.
As there is considerable rivalry among inventors about patent hives, and
divers contrivances are recommended to bee-keepers as the _ne plus
ultra_ of perfection, I will state that some years ago I invented a
side-opening leaf hive, with a sliding bottom board. Either front or
rear side is a door, through which the bottom board slides. At the
opposite end of the hive from the door, in the side of the hive, is a
frame or yoke, fastened to the sides of the bottom-board and reaching
half way up the side of the hive. On top of said yoke are clasps
fastened loosely to the yoke with wire rivets. These clasps hold the
frames by means of wire hooks driven into the frames and hooking over a
shoulder on top of the clasps. The clasps move sideways, and allow the
frames to be moved sideways, like the leaves of a book, and also to be
taken off. The part of the hive with a hook in, has a piece of wire
driven in at the bottom, to serve as a pivot, and works in a gimlet hole
in the bottom board. In operating with the bees in, the door is opened
and the fastenings made by the bees are to be cut loose; then the bottom
board with the frames is drawn out of the hive. It is perhaps as good a
side-opening hive as any, with the additional good quality that there is
no patent on it. Any one is at liberty to use the invention. For myself,
I prefer top opening hives, as more convenient.--S. LUETHI.
* * * * *
[For the American Bee Journal.]
Death of James T. Langstroth.
MR. EDITOR:--I desire to offer, through the medium of the American Bee
Journal, a slight tribute of respect to the memory of JAMES T.
LANGSTROTH, the only son of Rev. L. L. Langstroth, whose death was
announced in the July number of the Journal.
Mr. James T. Langstroth was well known to most of the leading
bee-keepers of the country, either personally, or through business
correspondence relating to bee-culture, during the last ten years; and
certainly no young man could have more completely won the confidence of
all with whom he came in contact, than he has done, by his intelligence,
modesty, strict integrity, promptness, candor, and perfect manliness in
all his transactions. Aside from bee-culture, he took an active interest
in, and was generally at the head of, all patriotic, charitable, or
social organizations in his immediate neighborhood. In fact, he was the
leading young man in the town in which he lived. But above all his other
excellent qualities, stands, in my estimation, his unselfish and
untiring devotion to his aged, infirm, and dependent parents. Next to
the care of his own little family, his father’s, mother’s, and sister’s
comfort, wants, and wishes, were uppermost in his mind. Although
suffering many months from the insidious approach of consumption, yet
fraternal and filial devotion nerved his wearied spirits to active
labor, almost to the last day of his life. I saw him on his return home
from his office for the last time, with glazed eye and haggard cheek,
yet full of hope and plans for the future, after a few days of rest and
recreation.--But his earthly career is ended, and that father’s only
support is taken away. Who will take that son’s place? Who _should_ take
his place, unless it be the bee-keepers of America? Brother bee-keepers,
laying aside all prejudice, and all minor points of difference, and
detracting nothing from any man’s merits, are we not indebted to the
Rev. Mr. Langstroth, more than to any other person for a part of our
success in our noble pursuit or pastime?
There is one point, I believe on which the bee-keepers of the country,
and even all patentees of bee hives, of _whatever kind_, agree--namely,
that Mr. Langstroth _introduced_ movable frame hives into this country.
Admitting for a moment, that that was all he ever did for the benefit of
bee-keepers, does not even that act deserve some compensation from our
hands? I think it does. Again, Mr. Langstroth was among the very first,
and but for an accident would have been the first to introduce into this
country the Italian bee. He has imported them every year since, and has
every year furnished the leading queen breeders of this country with
their choicest queens to breed from. Do we owe him nothing for this?
Again, he was the first to introduce into this country the Egyptian bee,
the merits of which are not yet fully developed, but the importance of
which will in time come to be duly appreciated. And, lastly Mr.
Langstroth, was among the first to introduce to the notice of the
bee-keepers of America, the invaluable Honey Extractor. Does he deserve
nothing at our hands for this? Gentlemen, talk as you will, Mr.
Langstroth has been the pioneer bee-keeper of this country for the last
quarter of a century; and there is a fearful account against us, and in
his favor, that I fear we shall not be able fully to pay. But we can do
something. We can make him comfortable for the balance of his days, and
still be vastly enriched ourselves through his labors.
If we are so indebted can we not, in part, liquidate that indebtedness
_now_? Can we not make up our minds to send him, _at once_, some
substantial token of our appreciation of his labors of a lifetime for
the advancement of bee-culture? He and his family, and his son’s family
now dependent on him, need all that is rightfully due to them. If you
feel that you owe him five, ten, twenty, or a hundred dollars, don’t
wait for somebody else to begin or to join with you; but send a check or
a post-office order for the amount directly to his address. If you have
honestly paid him his price for the right to use his invention, don’t
let that entirely satisfy you. Ask yourself whether you have not made
too good a bargain, and whether you ought not to restore to him, to-day,
a part of your profits? Don’t stop to inquire whether Mr. Langstroth
owns territory where you live, send him a five dollar or a ten dollar
bill at once, and pay the rightful or legal owner of the territory, as
soon as you find him out. You could better afford to pay five dollars
royalty on every movable frame hive you use, than use the old box hive.
This deferred payment, let us call it, made _now_ will do much good, and
will give you a clear conscience, no matter whose patent you are using,
for they are all modifications of the Langstroth hive, although they are
not all infringements. Brother bee-keepers, don’t wait for each other to
respond, but send at once to this address--Rev. L. L. Langstroth,
Oxford, Butler County, Ohio; and may heaven prosper you for so doing.