August, 1913 



AmQFican Vae Journal 



slope is just right. Land values are 

 from $1110 an acre up to $175. One 

 farmer raised 37 tons of beets to the 

 acre, last year. The wide sandy bed of 

 the Platte is nearly dry most of the 

 year, and sweet clover has taken most 

 of the bottom land. All the bee-men 

 locate within range of this sweet 

 clover. Alfalfa, of course, is an impor- 

 tant source of nectar, but the sweet 

 clover is necessary to help out. Not 

 many farmers have bees, as they were 

 put out of business by the poor seasons 

 several years ago. 



Mr. Danielson said they always got 

 some honey when the grasshoppers did 

 not take everything. He operates 

 about .'i.^O colonies, and his grown sons 

 operate the farm. In the feed lot are 

 2.ii head of line fat steers ready for the 

 market. They are worth about $100 

 each. I wonder that a man can afford 

 to keep bees who can raise such stock 

 as that. 



Mr. Danielson is getting along in 

 years, and is troubled somewhat with 

 rheumatism, so that he finds bee-keep- 

 ing well adapted to his abilities. His 

 crop last year was 15,000 pounds of 

 extracted honey from about 200 colo- 

 nies. He has sold practically all his 

 honey for 10 cents a pound. He has 

 an International motor wagon and 

 trailer, and can load KiOO pounds in the 

 box and 1000 pounds in the trailer. The 

 International seems to be quite a favor- 

 ite. I know of five other bee-men in 

 Colorado who have purchased Inter- 

 nationals. 



A visit to Mr. Danielson's home api- 

 ary is worth while. Surrounded on all 

 sides by a honey-locust hedge, it is 

 wonderfully well protected from the 

 winter storms. The honey house is 

 close by, and is tightand warm so win- 

 ter work can be comfortably done by 

 an elderly person as is Mr. Danielson. 



A track set on two by fours runs the 

 full length of the apiary; one row of 

 hives on each side of the track. The 

 fiat push car, shown in the illustration, 

 will hold all the honey the automobile 

 can haul out. Showing the precision 

 with which Mr. Danielson works, it 

 should be mentioned that the track is 

 level from one end to the other. 



Mr. Danielson has an extracting 

 house about 200 yards from his apiary, 

 close to the house, and here I found an 

 8-frame extractor ready to be hooked 

 up to the gasoline engine. 



The novel thing about the place that 

 appealed to me was the honey strainer 

 (shown in the illustration). Cheese- 

 cloth is roiled up on rollers, and with 

 the crank it can be turned, and a clean 

 surface had for straining without 

 touching the fingers to the strainer. 

 This strainer is taken ofif each night 

 and washed. A screen wire bottom is 

 used for the cheese-cloth to lie upon 

 when the honey is straining. Hooks 

 are placed along each side to fasten 

 the edges so that the honey will not 

 run over. The honey runs through a 

 pipe that passes through the capping 

 melter before flowing into the strainer, 



so that the honey is heated before it 

 goes into the strainer. 



Foul brood has not made its ad- 

 vances in Morgan county viry much 

 so far, but care will have to be exer- 

 cised to keep it out, as some has been 



brought into the lower part of the 

 county. In case it should gain a foot- 

 hold, it is possible that Mr. Danielson 

 will find it necessary to give up ex- 

 tracted honey for comb-honey pro- 

 duction. 



\w 



Cheesecloth Roller Strai.ner ot Daniel Danielson. 



Contributed 



Articles^ 



H 



The Flight of Bees 



BY t'.. W. lERRV. 



AVING noticed of late, in the Bee 

 Journal, this subject, " Do Bees 

 Fly in a Straight Line ?" and 

 having hunted them a little some 

 years ago, I feel constrained to 



"butt in." My first observation was ac- 

 cidental. I was not caring whether 

 they flew straight or not, but their per- 

 formance was so striking that I was 

 forced to take notice. I picked up a 

 line of bees that flew southwest. I fol- 

 lowed them, bee-hunter style, about 

 one-half mile, when all at once they 



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