December, 1913. 



417 



American Vee Jonrnal k 



also numerous other plants that the 

 bees work on, but they give no notice- 

 able amount of surplus. 



As you will notice, the hives are 

 placed an equal distance from each 

 other both ways, and in pairs. All 

 colonies face the east. The hives I use 

 are the 10-frame full depth. I have, 

 however, about 30 8-frame ones. I tier 

 up from the bottom by raising all su- 

 pers that are on, and placing the super 

 to be put on directly over the brood- 

 nest. I have a sufficient number of 

 supers to harvest a crop. The queen- 

 excluder is used on all hives, being 

 placed on about July 1. In 24 days all 

 brood is hatched, and then the honey 

 is taken off with bee-escapes and stored 

 in the honey house, where it is heated 

 to the proper temperature, extracted, 

 and run into 6()-pound tin cans, cased, 

 and then they are ready for market. 



I have one other apiary similar in 

 size run the same way. The tall hive 

 of bees shown in the picture produced 

 300 pounds of extracted honey in 1912. 



East Jordan, Mich. 



The Season of 1913 in Central 

 Illinois 



BY C. F. BENDER. 



THE difference in seasons is mar- 

 velous. Having kept bees in 

 one locality nearly 20 years, and 

 making honey - production my 

 business, I had begun to pride 

 myself on being a good guesser as to 

 future honey-flows. But my pride as 

 a forecaster has vanished. If some 

 one were to ask me now if we were 

 likely to get a honey-flow from mush- 



Mk. Ira U. Bartlett in His Apiarv. 



rooms, or whether ginseng honey 

 would be plentiful next year, I should 

 answer, " I don't know." 



Our season began in .^pril with a 

 heavy flow from dandelions. Bees 

 were wanting to swarm by May 1, and 

 about 10 pounds of dandelion honey 

 per colony was stored in supers. 

 That was broken record No. 1. I had 

 never had any surplus from dandelion 

 before, and never had to fight swarm- 

 ing earlier than June. 



The white clover looked good, and 

 we prepared for a record crop, but the 

 heat and drouth spoiled the bloom, and 

 the season ended about June 20 with 5 

 pounds of white-clover honey per col- 

 ony. Then we had 10 days of robbing, 

 with a little honey-dew coming in, 

 enough to spoil all sections of white 

 clover that were not completely sealed. 

 I cancelled my order for shipping- 

 cases, and otherwise took in sail. Ac- 

 cording to all previous experience we 

 were slated for a poor season. The 

 white clover was completely dried up, 

 and the dry spring had spoiled all 

 chance for a fall crop. 



But another surprise was in store. 

 About July 1 red clover began to yield. 

 I am pretty sure it was red clover, be- 

 cause I took great pains to sift the 

 evidence. To begin with, the weather 

 had been so remarkably hot and dry 

 that there was little else in bloom ; 

 then a great many of the incoming bees 

 carried the typical red clover pollen, 

 and we never get that shade of brown 

 pollen from anything else. The red- 

 clover fields showed great numbers of 

 bees at work ; and the men who cut 

 the hay complained that the hay forks 

 and mowing machines were all sticky 



with honey. I could find very few 

 plant lice on the clover plants, and the 

 bees seemed to be working altogether 

 on the blossoms. 



It was important to be sure that the 

 honey came from red clover, because I 

 wanted to know what red-clover honey 

 was like. I believe that the bulk of 

 my crop was from that source, and it 

 is even whiter than the white-clover 

 honey, and quite as fine in flavor. 



I have three small apiaries, and there 

 happened to be large fields of red 

 clover in reach of each. Perhaps for 

 that reason the crop was greater than 

 I ever got from red clover. 



With me the season was also peculiar 

 in giving a large crop of honey with 

 no swarming after dandelion. Only 

 one of my colonics tried to swarm 

 after June 1. We did not have the 

 usual intermission in August, the flow 

 continuing right along, and after the 

 red clover ceased to yield, or was all 

 cut for hay, the Spanish-needle began 

 and lasted until Oct. 1. 



About Sept. 20 some kind of wild 

 aster began to yield, which was an- 

 other unusual thing. I took off all 

 supers just before Oct. 1 as usual, for 

 the storing in comb-honey supers 

 nearly ceases when cold nights come. 

 But I was sorely tempted to put them 

 on again, for honey kept coming in 

 briskly up to Oct. 20, when we had our 

 first killing frost. Dandelion also 

 bloomed freely in October, and likely 

 helped. 



For once we have " gathered grapes 

 of thorns, and figs of thistles." That 

 the worthless dandelion should pro- 

 duce solid cash; that protracted drouth 

 should cause a bountiful honey crop; 



