February, 1908. 



American Bac Journal 



commences to lay? That is, if I take strong 

 colonies and successfully introduce queens 

 reared next spring, will such colonies swarm 

 during the season of 1908 if they have plenty 

 of room? I can't remember having had one 

 do so where I knew the queen to be a young 

 one. Some writers claim a queen never lays 

 dronc-cggs the first season, and I never found 

 queen-cells started in a normal colony without 

 more or less drone-brood in evidence. 



3. If they won't swarm, do you imagine 1 

 have accidentally got near enough to the trail 

 of a man Davenport to hear his foot-steps? 

 I believe his wonderful secret is somewhere 

 along this line. 



If you "don't know I wish you would keep 

 your eye on any colonies you have with those 

 conditions. I will try 'A dozen colonies next 

 season unless you tell me it is no use. I 

 can't afford any more as I will have to buy 

 queens. We can't rear them early enough here. 

 New York. 



Answers. — 1. It must be both or neither. If 

 you want to stop experimenting, you must 

 stop the papers, for they will be all the while 

 suggesting, directly or indirectly, new things 

 to try. If you want to go on with the experi- 

 menting you must keep on with the papers, 

 unless you're a fool, because in order to ex- 

 periment intelligently you'll need all the light 

 you can get from the papers; and, besides, 

 being the philanthropic chap you are, you'll 

 want to take the papers so as to report in 

 them the things you've made a fool of yourself 

 by trying, so that I, and others as well, can 

 avoid making fools of ourselves by trying the 

 same things. 



The question then remains whether you shall 

 keep on with both or stop both. I don't know. 

 But you're in good position to know. You 

 stopped both for a time, and you can tell 

 whether life was more worth living then than 

 since you've started the papers again, for I 

 know you can't keep from exnerimenting if 

 you try. 



Y'our plan with the T-super is the best plan 

 in the world — for you. It's your baby. 

 Whether it would be the best for me de- 

 pends upon whether it takes less time or not 

 to empty the super than without that block. 

 In many cases I am sure it would take more; 

 where the bees have done a big lot of gluing 

 it ought to take less. 



2. The answer to your question must be a 

 little mixed. If you allow a young queen to 

 be reared in a hive, you may count on no 

 swarming before the next season. If you 

 introduce a young queen, it depends. If the 

 colony is in no humor for swarming at the 

 time the queen is introduced, then no swarm- 

 ing. If in the swarming humor already, they'll 

 swarm in spite of the tender youth of the 

 queen. I once had a queen swarm in less 

 than a week after beintr introduced, and she 

 had been laying only about a week. If I 

 had kept the colony queenless until swarming 

 had been given up, and then introduced the 

 young queen, it would i.ave been all right. 



3. The idea of thus getting in young queens 

 is all right and excellent, but hardly Daven- 

 port's plan, for you have to find queens be- 

 fore getting in young ones, and Davenport 

 says he never finds a queen. I know a plan 

 almost if not entirely certain to prevent sw-arm- 

 ing, that takes only'about 10 minutes for each 

 colony, and you need never see a queen; in 

 other words, if 1 understand correctly, it ful- 

 fills the conditions of the Davenport plan. 

 Do you think it would be wise for me to give 

 away the secret? 



^^experience^ 



Good Prospects in Texas. 



Bees arc gathering some pollen today. Car- 

 niolans have considerable brood, and some 

 drones are flying from strong Italian colonies. 

 Prospects are good. Grant Anderson. 



Sabinal, Tex., Jan. 31. 



Wintering — Bees Did Fairly Well. 



I have been more or less interested in bees 

 both in this St.ite and Iowa for the past 20 

 years. I have tried wintering in the cellar and 

 also on the summer stands, with both good and 

 bad results. Last fall I left them until about 

 Dec. 15 on the summer stands and then had 

 to move them about 4 miles. I am wintering 

 them out-doors protected on the north by a 



board fence packed between and on top with 

 flax straw. They have consumed so far an 

 enormous amount of honey, owing, I suppose, 

 to the weather. They have had 4 good flights 

 since I moved them, the last being yesterday, 

 Jan. 14. ... 



Last season being my first year with bees 

 in this State, and bees being new in this lo- 

 cality, I think they did fairly well, givmg 

 about 10 pounds surplus, as I worked them 

 mostly for increase. J. E. Bowder. 



Huron, S. D., Jan. 15. 



Watering Bees. 



To water an apiary of 200 to 300 colonies 

 of bees, I take an inch board 12 feet long, 

 cut shallow grooves in it, crossing diagonally; 

 nail a piece of i x 2 inches on e,ich edge, bore 

 a couple of holes at one end, run a wire 

 through the holes and hang one end to a 

 hydrant, and the other end raise so as not to 

 have too much fall. Then I cover the whole 

 surface of the trough with gravel % inch deep. 

 You can then turn on a small stream adjusted 

 so that little or no water will go to waste, 

 and you have a place where all your bees can 

 drink and not get drowned nor chilled. No 

 need to bother about the old watering-place, the 

 bees will find the place fixed for them, at least 

 they do here. G. F. Mbrriam. 



San Marcos, Calif., Dec. 6. 



[While this plan is not entirely new, it 

 will be new to some. — Editor.] 



Season a Failure in Nevada. 



In the fall of 1906 i had 122 colonies, but 

 the loss during the month of June, 1907, reduced 

 the apiary to 56 colonies, and with the few 

 swarms 59 colonies went into winter quarters 

 in splendid condition. Then I bought an apiary 

 and but 63 colonies of them went into winter 

 quarters. I fear they are a little scant on 

 stores. The condition of the whole is fair. 



Mr. Dooliltle says it is much more pleasant 

 to tell of successes than of our failures, and 

 I very heartily agree with him. However, 

 we had a failure last year in Nevada (which 

 is my home), and I hope we have learned 



Will Work for Honey Next Year. 



I started in bee-culture in 1905, having some 

 good instructions. I had one colony in an old- 

 fashioned hive, and seeing some of the mov- 

 able, frame hives, I made a few and trans- 

 ferred 3 colonies in one hive, and lost them 

 all. I bought more and kept on till in the 

 fall of 1906 I bought one colony of leather- 

 colored Italians, and worked for swarms, I 

 got 5 good swarms and have them all now in 

 good shape. I have in all 17 colonies in 8- 

 frame hives. I am going after honey this 

 year. I secured from my first swarm last year, 

 72 pounds of section honey. I don't want so 

 many swarms next season. 



I would like to know what is the very best 

 bee for honey. Is there any kind that will 

 beat the leather-colored Italian at building up 

 or storing honey? W. J. H. Free. 



Cedartown, Ga., Jan. 18. 



Bees Doing Well. 



I wintered 21 colonies in 1906-07 and lost 

 none. February was very warm. Fruit bloomed 

 a month too early. The wind blew so that 

 bees could not work. They had only 2 days 

 of fruit-bloom, then the freeze. Alfalfa was 

 cut by frost so the first crop was late and 

 poor. I had a good many frames of honey 

 which I gave to the bees, and then fed in 

 supers in perforated feeders until June 10, 

 when the honey-flow commenced, and it was a 

 great flow. I harvested 65 cases of honey, 

 besides saving a good deal to feed back next 

 spring if I have to feed again. I had only 

 4 swarms. The bees are doing nicely this win- 

 ter. 'There has not been a day so far that 

 they have not been out at noon. We winter 

 them on the summer stands in this country. 

 E. C. Wright. 



Montrose, Colo., Jan. 22. 



Bee-Keeping in Kansas. 



I send some photographs, the one being a 

 partial view of my apiary of 100 colonies in 

 winter. It was taken Dec. 19. 1907. There was 

 a warm snow of about 5 inches, and ever 

 since then we have had open, warm weather. 





_*.' 

 ;.^- 



m&M 



Winter View of the Apiary of J. J. Measer. 



something that will be helpful should we ever 

 have such another season. One thing I learned 

 — I shall always try to have a supply of sealed 

 combs of honey. 



I have been among a number of bee-men m 

 the State, and have not met one good report. 

 ■The spring opened up beautifully, with every 

 appearance of a bumper crop until the month 

 of June, when it turned to bad, stormy weath- 

 er, ' with snow and freezing temperature, cut- 

 ting off all resources and confining the bees 

 strong with brood and young bees, and no 

 stores; though many colonics seemed to go un- 

 der from no other cause than bad weather. 

 The past season was indeed poor, but bee- 

 keepers are a cheerful lot, and I hope we will 

 all have bright, cheerful reports the coming 



J. E. fATTON. 



Lafayette. Calif.. Ja 



The bees are apparently in fine condition. The 

 past season was a very poor one for honey. 



There was too much late freezing and cold 

 weather, although the after part of the season 

 was very good and a fine flow of excellent 

 honey was produced, mostly from sweet clover 

 and alfalfa, which sold at a fair price — 16!4 

 cents for comb and 10 cents a pound for ex- 

 tracted. 



The other photograph is a partial view of 

 the honev exhibit at the Kansas State Fair, 

 held at Hutchinson. Kans-, Sept. 16 to 21. 

 1907. It was one of the finest and largest 

 exhibits ever shown in Kansas, being admired 

 by every one who saw it, and a great deal 

 o'f interest was taken in the matter of bee- 

 culture. This is onlv the beginning of the 

 bee-industry in Kansas. It has a great fu- 



