A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to the Interests of Honey Producers. 



$L00 A YEAR. 

 w. z. HUTCHINSON. Editor and Proprletoi. 



VOL. XIX. FLINT, MICHIGAN, JULY 15, 1906. NO. Z 



F©r Malf a Yearc 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



\T7HERE are two reasons for giving- 

 ^t^ the Northern Michigan apiaries 

 the "go by" this month: One is that 

 to develop plates, get cuts made, and 

 give an account of a trip in the same 

 month in whicli it is made, delays that 

 issue of the Review. Another reason 

 is that I have several interesting things 

 that I wish to tell about the apiary 

 here at Flint. 



There were about 100 colonies in the 

 cellar, and the wintering was perfect. 

 Some of the colonies were light in 

 stores, but none starved, and there 

 was not a trace of dysentery. Every 

 colony came out alive. 



BKES OUGHT TO BE FED IN THE FALL, 



IK NECESSARY, ENOUGH TO CARRY 



THEM TO THE NEXT 



HONEY ILOW. 



I knew last fall that some of them 

 were short of stores. They all had 

 enough to carr\- them through the win- 

 ter. I knew that; and I also knew 

 that feeding would be needed to bring 

 them through to the harvest. I decided 

 to wait and feed in the spring. Ordin- 



arily, this would have been all right, 

 but, as it turned out, it was something 

 of a mistake, and inis^ht have turned 

 out ver3' disastriously. The reason will 

 appear as the story develops. 



TROUBLE FROM THE BEES "DRIFTING" 



OR MIXING WHEN SET OUT 



IN THE SPRING. 



The bees were carried out of the 

 cellar in the night, the hives placed in 

 rows, but quite a distance aoart. The 

 next day was not very warm, but the 

 bees flew some. I watched them from 

 the window, but there was no "drift- 

 ing" or mixing up. I had been sick, 

 and was not very strong, but, just at 

 dark, I bundled up and managed to go 

 from hive to hive and lift the covers. 

 All were clean and healthy, clust- 

 ered nicel)', and about the same number 

 of bees .in each hive. The next day 

 was warm, and, for a while, the air 

 was fairly black with bees over the 

 hives. Along about noon they seemed 

 to be gathering at one corner of yard. 

 The fronts of the hives in that part of 

 the apiary became black with bees. 



