76 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. 28, 1904. 



honey, makes itdiscouraging, to sayitlie least. 

 Farm laborers to-day, in Nevada, can save 

 more than the average bee-keeper with his 

 300 or 300 colonies run to their utmost capa- 

 city. 



Bees are wintering finely up to this date. 

 Hardly a day, so far, that the bees could not 

 take a flight. Rather cold nights, but not 

 serious. 



What has happened to Yon Yonson > He 

 must be off sleighing or skating; perhaps 

 digging a bee-cellar. About time he was bob- 

 bing up again. I guess he got mixed up with 

 " Central " over his pumpkin crop. Come 

 again, Yonsoo. CiSAGEBRUSH. 



Washoe Co., Nevada, Jan. 4. 



[ " Yon " will soon be on hand again. It is 

 not hie fault that he has not been heard from 

 lately. — Editor.] 



A Good Year for Swarming. 



I started last spring with 54 colonies of 

 bees. We had very warm weather in March, 

 and it was cool and dry during April and un- 

 til about May 7, but from that time on we had 

 plenty of rain all the rest of the summer and 

 fall. I got about 3800 pounds of honey, some 

 of the nicest I ever saw; only a little buck- 

 wheat honey. 



It was a good year for swarming. I did not 

 care for any increase so I tried to prevent it. 

 My first swarm came out June 27, and then 

 after that for 3 weeks they would swarm any 

 way if it did look like rain. I had a swarm 

 come out when it was raining hard. I have a 

 home market for my extracted honey, but 

 ship Fome of my comb honey to commission 

 merchants. 



1 siaried in the winter with 70 colonies; I 

 winter them on the summer stands. There 

 has not been a day they could fly since Nov. 

 13; we have had steady cold weather up to 

 this date. C. F. Baker. 



Allegany Co., N. Y., Dec. 30. 



Honey All Sold Out. 



Bees are doing ,well up to this date, and all 

 have plenty of stores. Honey is in good de- 

 mand, selling for S'.i cents wholesale here at 

 home, and none to be had at that. No snow 

 in the mountains at the present for irrigation 

 for another year. We can't tell what may 

 come before the first of next .June. 



G. W. Vangundt. 



Uinta Co., Utah, Dec. 29. 



Bees Did Well. 



I am in love with bees as much as ever. I 

 had 14 colonies to start with in the spring, 

 which I transferred into new hives, but found 

 the combs in very poor condition. I could 

 use only about one-third, and the rest had to 

 be built new. Taking all into consideration, 

 I think they did fairly, for they increased to 

 20 colonies (all in flrst-class condition), and 

 stored about 1000 pounds of fine comb honey. 

 I will be ready for business the coming season, 



I have been trying to get subscribers for the 

 American Bee .lournal, but have not suc- 

 ceeded so far. I have neighbors who are 

 keeping from 5 to 20 colonies, some get- 

 ting a little honey and others nothing at all. I 

 asked my next-door friend how much honey 

 he got from his 10 colonies; he said, "25 

 pounds.'' I told him the onl^' way to suc- 

 ceed is to take a bee-paper and study. But 

 most of them, rather than pay out a dollar, 

 go without it, and lose more than a hundred 

 by it. I would not think of keeping bees 

 without any bee-literature. Wm. Miller. 



Yakima Co., Wash., Dee. 31. 



A Wintering Experience. 



My bees were neglected a good deal this 

 year, for I was too busy to give them the 

 proper attention, but I got a small surplus — 

 385 sections and 3C frames of honey, by using 

 double hive-bodies, from 13 colonies, spring 

 count. Last winter I wintered my bees on 

 the summer stands, one-half facing south, 

 and banked up and over the top, and packed 

 between with straw held in place by boards, 

 the hives one foot apart. Now, in this half 



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 to be wonderfully helped on the way to 

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The book we mail for $1.20, or club 

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45A26t Please mention the liee J I 



CONVEN TION N OTICES. 



Utah.— The spring convention of the Utah 

 Bee Keepers' Association will ue held April 5, 

 at 10 a.tn. and 4:30 p.m. Among other important 

 qnestions to be considered will be the World's 

 fair, our State Fair, and the Portland Fair of 

 WOS. We also desire to formulate some plan, if 

 possible, to further increase the fraternal in- 

 terest for the mutual benefit of our bee-keepers. 

 We cordially invite all bee-keepers to be pres- 

 ent. We also invite them without delay to send 

 in their views on these and other topics. The 

 convention will be held in the City and County 

 building-, in Salt Lake City. 



Salt Lake City, Utah. E. S. Lovesy, Pres. 



Wisconsin. — The annual convention of the 

 Wisconsin State Bee-Keepers' Association will 

 be held in the Capitol, at Madison, on Wednes- 

 day and Thursday, Feb. 3 and 4, beginoinf^' at 

 10 a.m., Wednesday. We are and have been 

 doing- our utmost to make this the most enthu- 

 siastic convention ever held in the State, and a 

 most complete and interesting program will be 

 presented. We are at this time assured of S 

 papers on interesting subjects, by prominent 

 bee-keepers, among them George W. York, W. 

 Z. ilutchinson, and of course President and 

 tieneral Manager Franco. A free to all ques- 

 tion-box will also be a part of the program. We 

 urgently invite all who are not members, to 

 participate with us; it will pay you in every 

 way— in fact the social part alone is worth it. 

 Come and get acquainted with our visitors and 

 the bee keepers of the State. Reduced rales 

 will be given by the hotels, and the railroad 

 fare will bel'i for the round trip. Just ask 

 your agent for a V/i fare round. trip ticket. It 

 will save lots of time if members, and all those 

 wishing to become such, will remit their annual 

 dues to me prior to the convention. The dues 

 are tl.OO, which also makes you a member of 

 the National Association. Exhibits of honey 

 are solicited, and suitable premiums will be 

 awarded. Gus Dittmek, Sec. 



Augusta, Wis. 



Eo packed I lost 5 colonies; they had plenty 

 of stores, all the dead colonies having from 3 

 to 4 frames of honey. Now, the other half 

 was a trifle more exposed to the weather, and 

 were not banlied up excepting when there 

 was snow, then I shoveled snow up and 

 around them, and these came out without a 

 single loss; these latter faced east. 



This year I have 10 colonies in the cellar, 

 and 3 double-deckers out-doors. Those out- 

 of-doors are pretty " hot ones,'' and I don't 

 think it possible for a little cold weather of 

 30 or 40 degrees below zero to cool them down. 

 Anyway, they have over 100 pounds of honey 

 each, and from my experience with them I 

 believe them perfectly able to protect it. One 

 of those outside colonies is the colony I took 

 from that bee-tree I wrote about three years 

 ago. I have never taken a pound of surplus 

 honey from this colony, or captured a swarm 

 that issued, so I have concluded that where a 

 colony has been in the timljer in a wild state, 

 as this one was (it had been in the tree for at 

 least four years), they are predisposed to ab- 

 scond; at least my experience with this one 

 has so proven to me; and next spring, if 

 nothing happens, this queen will attend a 

 " pinching bee." Lewis Lamkin. 



Woodbury Co., Iowa, Jan. 11. 



No Rain in Southern California. 



To date. Southern California has had no 

 rain. Heavy rains in Northern California did 

 not reach us at all, so that now all are 

 alarmed at the prospect, and have about given 

 up hope for any honey in 1904. 



We have over .500 colonies of bees, and 

 fortunately have a car-load or so of honey to 

 feed back. G. F. Merkiam tt Son. 



San Diego Co., Calif., Dec. 31. 



Good Season for Bees. 



I commenced the season with 50 colonies of 

 bees in fair condition, and fed one barrel of 

 sugar in the spring before the honey-flow 

 commenced. The bees commenced gathering 

 about May 20, and gathered enough for brood- 

 rearing, and that continued until June 28, 

 when the real honey-flow from the linden be- 

 gan, and my crop from that source was aljout 

 2000 pounds of fine white extracted honey. 

 Then the How was slow again until the first 

 of September, when the asters and goldenrods, 

 of many varieties, commenced to yield another 

 real harvest for the bees. So ended the sea- 

 sou with bees in good shape for winter. I 

 have about 80 colonies in all, and 3000 pounds 

 of surplus honey. A. J. McBride. 



Watauga Co., N. C. 



Season of 1904— Selling Honey. 



I had 10 colonies, spring count, and on 

 Sept. 10, 11103, 1 had taken off and sold 2030 of 

 the finest one-pound sections of comb honey I 

 ever got; also 360 pounds of extracted honey 

 — poor sections mashed and pressed. I have 

 also on hand about 2.5 pounds of extracted 

 honey for home use, and about 23 pounds of 

 wax. I am not kicking, although I had to 

 do some hustling in June and July. 



My best record was from a prime swarm 

 hived June 4, and it gave me 219 pounds of 

 fine section honey. That queen will be my 

 breeder this year. 



My bees are all snugly packed in leaves on 

 the summer stands, and all were out very 

 thick on Dec. 31. 



Some may wonder how I got rid of my 

 honey so qtiickly. 1 have taken great pleas- 

 ure in reading in the " t)ld Reliable " about 

 how to peddle honey, but as I am situated I 

 can not go peddling, so I hit on a way of my 

 own — and it worked. 



I am located near a power-plant, which is 

 2'. J miles up the beautiful Iowa river, and the 

 same from Iowa City (State University), and 

 every tine Sunday there are crowds up to our 

 dam, boat-riding (also week days), and nearly 

 all take a rest and visit our electric plant. 

 Here is where I got my chance, and every 

 Sunday 1 always aimed to have two nice 

 supers of honey all cleaned up, and one super 

 just as it came off the hive, on my long bench 

 near a good window. Of course, I always had 

 nice, clean paper on the bench. Saturday 



