A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to the Interests of Honey Producers 

 $LO0 a fear 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON, Editor and Publisher. 



VOL. XXIV. 



FLINT. MICHIGAN, MARCH 1, 191 



NO. 3 



Making $4,000 from Successful Migratory Bee 

 Keeping — A Novel Scheme. 



H. C. AHLERS. 



T AST Febru- 

 S ary my at- 

 tention was at- 

 tracted to an 

 advertisement 

 in one of the 

 bee journals, 

 offering- 1 6 

 colonies of bees 

 for sale at 

 $3.00 per col- 

 ony. The bees 

 were at Kenner, Louisiana. A cor- 

 respondence ensued with the owner. 

 Partly for my health I decided to take a 

 trip to Louisiana. 1 arrived at Kenner 

 Feb. 25th, and looked over the bees. I 

 found 134 colonies that had queens. I 

 sent a check for the amount, and became 

 the owner of the bees. I bought 19 colo- 

 nies more from another party. The 

 larger lot had mostly young, prolific 

 queens, but were deficient in comb- 



probably an equivalent of nine combs 

 per colony. 



GETTING A CROP IN THE SOUTH. 



When I arrived the bees were carrying- 

 in pollen very rapidly from willow. 

 About March 1st, they began getting- 

 honey from the same source. I had no 

 extra combs, so I ordered 200 pounds 

 medium brood foundation by express. 

 The bees were now breeding- very 

 rapidly, starting to draw out comb and 

 soon built up to two-story, 10-frame 

 colonies. Every effort was made to keep 

 the bees warm, and strengthen the colo- 

 nies in order to secure a honey crop. 

 The flow from willow lasted till April 

 1st. Three days later my total honey 

 crop was 6,000 pounds. I had a full 

 barrel of drained cappings. which gave 

 me 60 pounds of fine wax. 



After April 3rd, with the assistance of 

 one man, I made divisions as fast as 

 possible. A number of nuclei had been 



