Tulv IS, 191 1. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



461 



best plan to unite two or more weak colonies, 

 wliere eacli lias a queen and some comb and 

 boiiey. 1 desire to unite some of mine before 

 fall, as that is the only way I know of to pre- 

 vent the moth and miller from destroying 

 them. Acoordin*^ to my experience, no bee- 

 keejier can have his colonies too strong, 

 whether he is working his bees for jirolit or 

 l)leasure. The stronger the better, and one 

 extra-strong colony is worth about three 

 ordinary colonies, everything else being 

 equal. Such a colony will be able to give the 

 owner more honey than three weak ones, 

 which are almost certain to be destroyed by 

 the moth along in July or August. I have 

 .seen some weak colonies build up to a re- 

 spectable size, but it was a hard pull before 

 they stored any surplus honey, and it is the 

 surplus we bee-keepers are after, I believe. 

 John" Kexsedt. 

 Adams Co., Miss.. June 12. 



Winds Cut honey Crop Shopt. 



Our crop is about M or ".^.5 pounds tii the 

 colony of extracted honey. Hot. dry winds 

 dried up the basswood and clovers on short 

 notice this year. F. F. Zii.i.mek. 



(irant Col, Wis.. July li. 



A Downpour of Sweets. 



Williamson County, in which we did not 

 drown the elephant last spring, is now re- 

 ceiving a heavy downpour of sweets, and we 

 believe that the How now on is the heaviest 

 since IMi? or 1S9S. We have every iirosjject 

 that it will continue until frost. Bee-keep- 

 ers are smiling a regular " bee-smile.'' 



O. P. IlTDE & Sox. 



Williamson Co., Tex.. Julv ti. 



Long-Tongued Queens and Red 

 Clover. 



Considerable has been said. j>ro and con, 

 about long-tongued queens. Why not get 

 sodie red clover seed from Sweden ; A man 

 who was born there told me that the bees 

 •work on red clover there all the time. 



Bees are doing pretty well now. There is 

 lots of white clover, and it is full of nectar. 

 A. AxnEKSON. 



Greene Co., Iowa, June 25. 



Outlook Discouraging. 



The outlook for a honey crop in this 

 locality is very discouraging. It has been so 

 dry, and there have been such hot winds, that 

 there are scarcelj' any flowers in bloom, 

 although the bees are bringing in some honey 

 from alfalfa. 



A good many colonies starved to death last 

 winter. The spring was cool and wet until 

 about May 1. There is some surplus being 

 stored along the creek bottoms, but none in 

 the uplands. R. C. SrrPE. 



Woodson Co., Kans.. Julv 15. 



Losses Heavy— Large Yields Per 

 Colony. 



Our losses were heavy last winter. On ac- 

 count of the mild weather bees flew u]ost of 

 the time, and therefore became aged, and 

 <Ued from spring dwindling. I lost 2.t out of 

 15U colonies in this way, sold 25, and 24 were 

 queenless, leaving 76, spring count, as none 

 that were queenless have built up so as to 

 .store any surplus. 



All colonies that were strong early in the 

 season have done remarkably well, consider- 

 ing the fact that basswood did not yield on 

 account of hot winds and dry weather; white 

 clover secreted well during the early ))art of 

 June, but is now yielding very little, if any. 

 Catnip is about the only source from which 

 we are getting any honey, and it is not yield- 

 ing as profusely as last season. 



The greatest yield of extracted honey from 

 one colony up to July 1, is 40O pounds; 

 auother has finished 205 one-pound sections. 



We are not expecting a fall flow, as the ex- 

 tremely hot weather has prevented the growth 

 of the fall nectar-secreting plants. 



J. L. G.\xi>Y. 



Richardson Co., Nebr., July 1. 



The Bee-Keeper's Guide; 



Or, IVIauii;il ot tlie Apiai-y, 



BY 



PROE A, J, COOK, 



460 Pages-ieth (1899) Edition— 18th Thou- 

 sand— $1.25 postpaid. 



A description of the book here is quite unnec- 

 essary — it is simplv the most complete scientific 

 and practical bee-book published to-day. Fully 

 illustrated, and all written in the most fascinat- 

 ing' style. The author is also too well-known to 

 the whole bee-world to require any introduction. 

 Mo bee-keeper is fully equipped, or his library 

 complete, without The Hee-Keepeks' Guide. 



This 16th and latest edition of Prof. Cook's 

 magnificent book of 460 pages, in neat and sub- 

 stantial cloth binding, we propose to give away 

 to our present subscribers, for the work of get- 

 ting NEW subscribers for the American Bee 

 Journal. 



Given tor TWO New Subscribers. 



The following offer is made to present sub- 

 scribers only, and no premium is also given to 

 the two NEW subscribers— simply the Bee Jour- 

 aal for one year; 



Send us TWO new subscribers to the Bee 

 Journal (with $2.00), and we will mail you a copy 

 of Prof. Cook's book FREE as a premium. 

 Prof. Cook's book alone sent for $1.25, or we club 

 It with the Bee Journal for a year — both for only 

 $1.75. But surely anybody can get only TWO 

 NEW SUBSCRIBERS to the Bee Journal for a year, 

 and thus get the book as a premium. Let every 

 body try for it. Will YOU have one ? 



GEORGE W, YORK & CO.. 



144 & 146 Erie Street. CHICAGO, ILL 



QUEENS 



QUIRIN— The Queen-Breeder — has 

 now on hand, ready to mail, 500 youug, long-- 

 tongued Red Clover Queens, Golden or Leather 



Colored. 



We h.ive one of Roofs best breeders from his 

 200, lontr-tongued. Red Clover Oueen, and a 

 Golden Breeder which we are told is worth $100, 

 if there is a queen in the U. S. worth that sum. 



J. L. Gaudy, of Humboldt, Nebr., tells us that 

 the colony having one of our queens, stored over 

 400 pounds ^mostly comb' hone.v in a single sea- 

 son. A. I. Root's folks say that our queens are 

 extra fiae, while the editor of the American Bee 

 Journal tells us that he has good reports from 

 our stock from time to time. 



We have years of experience in mailing and 

 rearing Queens. Queens positively by return 

 mail from now on. Prices for balance of season 

 as follows: 



1 6 12 



Selected $ .75 $ 4.00 $ 7.00 



Tested 1.00 S.OO 9.00 



Selected tested 1.50 8 00 



Extra selected tested, the 



best that money can buy. 2:0'* 



H. Q. QUIRIN, 



Parkertown, Ohio. 



(Parkertown is a Money-Order Office. 

 By contract this ad. will appear twice per 

 month only. 14E13t 



27D6t Please mention the Bee Journal. 



Foundation Sagging in Brood-Frames 



C. DaveniiLirt describes in lileanin^'s in Bee- 

 Culture his plan to prevent this, which does 

 not require wiring nor splints, as follows : 



This sagging or stretching of the founda- 

 tion, as those who have had troulile in this 

 respect know, is next to the top-bar. a strip 

 two or three inches wide. After foundation 

 has lieen fastened in a frame, and while it 

 still remains in position on the board, the 

 point of a wax-dropper is held close up to the 

 foundation, two or three inches above the 

 top-bar; then a small stream of wax is forced 

 out. As the point is lowered to the top-bar, 

 this adheres to the foundation ; and if the 

 operation is repeated at intervals the whole 

 length of the top-bar, it will prevent the 

 foundation stretching when the bees first get 

 on it; and by the time they do, these strips 

 of wax oflf the foundation are usually drawn 

 out enough to hold it from sagging. 



Hive^Covers and Bottom. Boards. 



W. W. .Somertord says in (Jleanings in Bee- 

 Culture that he prefers the plain reversible 

 lioard cover for the climate of Cuba. Because 

 it is cheaper, and because they warp with less 

 force, he uses boards X"iicli thick in prefer- 

 ence to thicker. 



His bottom-boards are somewhat novel. 

 Alter struggling with difficulties connected 

 with ordinary bottom-boards, he says: 



I scratched my head, got on my wheel, and 

 started off with a Spanish-talking American 

 bee-keeper to a tile-brick factory. We soon 

 found the jolly owner, and told him just what 

 we wanted — smooth and straight flat-pressed 

 brick, 16 inches wide by 21 long. He smiled, 

 and said he had just the " American ma- 

 chine " to make them with, and made them. 

 And, gentlemen. I can tell you now. as I 

 place them on nice, flat ridges of earth, it is 

 with a feeling that I shall be grown old and 

 gray before the meanest one begins even to 

 show decay. The man who made them said 

 they would last forever. .Just think of a nice 

 bottom-board lasting forever, and costing 

 only 10 cents ! If you have no tile factory to 

 apply to. concrete or cement will make them 

 — are cooler than the coolest in summer, and 

 warmer than the warmest in winter. 



Please mention Bee Journal -when vrritinft 



Some Things About Queen-Rearing. 



The following conver.sation. taken from the 

 Australasian Bee-Keeper, will interest be- 

 ginners: 



Fred—'- 1 say. Will, you have introduced 24 

 queen-cells to-day — will they be laying in 10 

 days ; I think you said a queen commences 

 to lay in 10 days." 



Will—" Yes, Fred. I suppose I did say so. 

 but those were not queens I distributed, but 

 queen-cells, and most of them will not. emerge 

 until to-night, so I will count full 10 days 

 from then. /. c. I will e.xpect to find them 

 laying on the eleventh day. and will look 

 them up after that time." 



" Will you not look at the nuclei tefore 

 then ;" 



'• Oh. yes, I will make sure the cell has not 

 been destroyed. I will look up the virgin 

 queens in atjout two days, and if I find them 

 I will Hvt disturb them before the eleventh 

 day." 



"Have you any object in not looking 

 through them often ;" 



'' Yes, I have, and if it were not for the 

 frequent loss of queen-cells I would prefer 

 not to touch the hives until the queen was 

 due to lay. My rule is, doii'l disturb any hive 

 having a virgin queen— first, it is an unneces- 

 sary loss of time, iirid, secondly, the young 

 queen often gets exiited on the opening of 



