2l8 



July, 190S. 



American Vee Journal 



clustered on good honey, or have 

 brood-nest. ft has not been an 

 thing for bees to die from starvation with 

 plenty of honey in the hive, so far from the 

 Drood-nest that in their chilled condition they 

 could not reach it; but, put them on it; or un- 

 der it, and I'd not pay a penny to insure suc- 

 cessful wintering. Wm. M. Whitney. 

 Evanston, 111., July 4- 



Rolling in the Honey. 



Bees are rolling in the honey. We hope to 

 have a better yield this season than last. 

 Gnadenhutten, Ohio, June 24. J. HccK. 



Never a Better Honey Flow. 



We never had any better honey-flow than at 

 the present time when the sun shines. We 

 have had lots of wet weather the past spring. 

 White clover is everywhere and there is also 

 a heavy basswood bloom to come in about 10 

 days. I have 50 colonies with natural swarm- 

 ing, so I have my hands full some days. 



Fairfield, Iowa, June 20. L. W. Elmore. 



Bees Doing Best for Years. 



Bees in this locality are doing the best I 

 have known for several years. There is an 

 abundance of white clover, and the bees are in 

 the midst of the swarmine season. I have 13 

 colonies in my home apiary and 4 out of town. 

 I sold 4 colonies recently for $iz.oo. Of the 

 17 I have only 4 new swarms as I am keeping 

 the bees from swarming as much as possible. 

 Some colonies are in the second supers and 

 we have taken some honey off. We are hoping 

 for a bountiful vear for honey in Iowa. 



(Rev.) J. W. Stine. 



Durham, Iowa, June 25. 



Light Honey-Flow. 



In this section of country everything indi- 

 cates not a very good yield of honey this sea- 

 son. Our spring was too wet, and our white 

 clover grew too rank. I never saw long- 

 stemmed white clover produce much honey, and 

 the cold nights and dry weather we are having, 

 make the honey-flow very light. I have just 

 taken off my first super of comb honey, and 

 our flow is generally over here from July ist 

 to the 15th. I don't think my apiary will aver- 

 age over one super to the colony. 



Harrison, Ohio, Ju 



T. G. Lreighton. 



Labrador Tea. 



D. E. Dobbs, of Indus, Minn., sent us a 

 specimen of a plant which grows in swamps 

 in great profusion in his locality. He desired 

 us to name the plant.. We referred it to Prof. 

 Walton, who replies as follows: 



[The plant in question is called Labrador 

 Tea, Tcdum latifoHum, and occurs only in the 

 northern part of the United States from 

 Massachusetts to Minnesota. The bush is easily 

 recognized by the dense rusty wooliness of the 

 lower side of the leaves. The Labrador Tea is 

 well shown in colors in the last edition of Mrs. 

 Dana's "How to Know the Wild Flowers," 

 plate 25, published by Scribners. — C. L. Wal- 

 ton.] 



Butterfly Weed. 



What is the name of this flower? My bees 

 are at work on it constantly, all the time it is 

 in bloom. It is blooming now. I noticed a 

 little on my place last year, and there is quite 

 a quantity of it scattered around now. How- 

 ever, it is not plentiful. Bees seem to be very 

 fond of it. This red flower is of short bloom- 

 ing. It grows in a flat cluster. 



Greenfield, Tenn., June 8. R. B. Perry. 



[The plant is the butterfly-weed, so called 

 from its brilliantly colored blossoms: also called 

 pleurisy-root, from the belief that the thick 

 roots were a si>ccific for the pleurisy. Its 

 scientific name is Asclcpias tuberosa, the first 

 word being that of a Greek poet, and the second 

 referring to the thick roots. 



Prof. Cook in the "Bee-Keepers' Guide," page 

 423, Revised Edition, speaks very highly of 

 the pleurisy-root as a bce-plant. — C. L. Wal- 

 ton.] 



Bee-Keeping for Boys — Carelessness. 



I began bee-keeping s years ago, at the age 

 of 12, and am still in the business. I started 

 with 2 colonics which my father gave me when 

 he quit keeping bees. The first summer they 

 increased to 7, the 7th one being found on the 



ground under an old apple-tree in the pasture. 

 The morning I found them, I set a box-hive 

 over them, and after they had gone up into the 

 hive a mule turned it over, and the result was a 

 warm time for "Jack." but I succeeded in sav- 

 ing the swarm, which gave me 25 pounds of 

 honey a few days ago. 



Four poor seasons had almost put me out of 

 the business, but this spring when white clover 

 began to bloom I was again encouraged, and 

 am now having fine success, some colonies bay- 

 ing 25 or more pounds of comb honey. This 

 is a booming season in this locality. 



What do you think of a man who has 30 

 colonies and allows them to swarm naturally, 

 and let 24 or 25 swarms go to the timbers? 

 Do you think he should be called careless? I 

 think he should. I have a neighbor bee-keeper 

 ■ who did this very trick this good white clover 

 season. He does not get as much honey from 

 30 colonies as I do from my :i. 



Slater, Mo., June 28. R. C. Hickm.^n. 



Bee-Keeping in Backward Condition. 



The clover season is nearly over, and not 

 over 10 pounds of extracted honey taken per 

 colony, on the average. Too much rain is the 

 cause of no honey. Over Laclede county not 

 over one-half the bees are alive that began the 

 winter of 1907-08. They all died from starva- 

 tion. Bee-keeping is in a very backward condi- 

 tion in this locality. Only a small percent 

 of the bees are on movable frames. The ma- 

 jority are kept by careless farmer bee-keepers. 



The season of 1907 was a "ood one for 

 clover, but no late flow. Breeding ceased and 

 hence the colonies began the winter with mostly 

 old bees. These soo-. died off, leaving the colo- 

 nies very weak in bees. After this, when we 

 have no fall flow. I shall feed for stimulative 

 purposes until I have the hives full of brood. 

 These hives full of young bees, plenty of well- 

 sealed honev, and a good, young queen, insure 

 a crop of honey the following season, if the 

 flowers really do secrete nectar. 



Oakland, Mo., June 17. R. D. Wilson. 



Backward Spring — Italian and Black 

 Bees Mixing. 



This been a verv backward spring for bees 

 in tins locality. My bees wintered well, as I 

 lost none, but I have had a hard time to keep 

 them from starving since spring set in, as 

 there have been but 3 or 4 days that they could 

 work since fruit began blooming, so they got 

 no good whatever of the fruit or dandelions. 

 Thev are now — May 17 — storing a little more 

 honev than they are using. 



I have 26 colonies. Some look to be full 

 Italian. I bought them from different per- 

 sons, and do not know that they are full 

 Italian, only by their looks. I am a beginner 

 and have had verv little experience. I have 

 "A B C of Bee Culture," and with the help 

 of the American Bee Journal I hope to suc- 

 ceed. 



The first of last July I bought a colony 

 of black bees that were so bad to sting that 

 the man said he could do nothing with them. 

 He said he had never been able to get the 

 surplus honey. I moved them home (about 

 a mile), got $3.60 worth of honey, and 

 never got a sting. I set the hive within 6 

 feet of an Italian colony, and now about one- 

 sixth of the workers in the colony that were 

 all black bees last Julv. are just like the Italian 

 bees in the near-bv colonv. What is the cause? 

 I did not notice it until late this spring, and 

 concluded that the theory, that a queen once 

 mated was always so, was probably incorrect, 

 and that the blacK queen had mated with the 

 Italian drones. I would not have been sur- 

 prised to have seen black bees among the yel- 

 low ones, on account of their not being lo- 

 cated and would probably get into the wrong 

 hive. J. A. DethErow. 



Springfield, Mo., May 18. 



Early Swarming — Weather Condi- 

 tions. 



The honcv-flow is in full blast. The white 

 clover flow began early in May and is still on. 

 The mustard flow is under headway now, but 

 not much of it. 



Swarming was a month early. It began in 

 my yard May B, and is still going on in full 

 force, and will probably go on a week or two, 

 as I allow the bees to swarm naturally. 



During the latter part of May and the first 

 of Tune the weather was so cool and damp 

 that the bees could do nothing, but the weather 

 has changed now. We are having hot. bright, 

 sunnv days. The whole force of field-bees are 

 very busy today. R. C. Hickman. 



Slater, Mo., June 20. 



Poor Weather — Bees Doing Fairly 

 Well. 



We are now in the midst of a rainy season, 

 and very poor weather for the bees. Yet bees 

 have djone fairly well. They are swarming 

 some, stored some surplus honey from fruit- 

 bloom, and have done fairly well on rasp- 

 berry and blackberry. The alsike clover is 

 now in bloom, and the bees couid do we.U on it 

 if the weather were favorable tor them. About 

 one-third of the bees that went into winter 

 quarters came out dead, and still more that 

 wintered on the summer stands. There was 

 no surpliis honey in this section last year, and 

 many bees went into the winter short on stores. 

 Our main honey crop is white and alsike clover, 

 but sometimes we get a good flow from lin- 

 den or basswood. If we miss this we don't 

 count on much noney. I have never seen any 

 honey from buckwheat. I have seen some 

 gathered from heartsease, and called buckwheat. 

 I am now in my 44th year as a bee-keeper, 

 and have had many ups and downs — more 

 downs than ups. O. P. Miller. 



Menlo, Iowa, June i. 



Bees Find Home Before Swarming. 



I have kept bees for several seasons, but 

 never knew positively until this season that bees 

 have their new home located before leaving the 

 hive, when swarniing. 



Recently when looking over the hives in the 

 morning, I discovered a few bees working 

 around a hive I had in readiness for a swarm 

 I was expecting to issue. At first 1 thought they 

 were robbers, as the hive was filled with comb 

 and contained some honey, but I did not think 

 it worth while to remove tne hive. On going 

 around again about noon, however, I concluded 

 I would, as the bees were greatly increased in 

 number. About an hour later I was surprised 

 to see a swarm hovering over the hives, and 

 at once concluded they were looking for the 

 hive. I therefore replaced the removed hive, 

 when the bees commenced to settle immediately 

 and enter the hive, where they have since re- 

 mained. This is the second time this has oc- 

 curred this season in nearly the same manner. 

 Geo. S. Ives, Jr. 



Granton, Wis., June 21. 



Rain in Torrents — White Clover. 



We are having it very, very, VEEV wet. We 

 have scarcely seen the sun for two weeks, and 

 cyclones have done great damage on all sides 

 of us. but no damage to us (our family) save 

 a few trees blown down on broken. A num- 

 ber of buildings were wrecked in town. The 

 rain has come down in torrents, and we have 

 hoped for days to see the sun. However, this 

 immediate community will suffer no great loss 

 on account of the wet if it \vill stop now. 

 The bees have revelled in a wealth of dandelion 

 bloom, and many hives have o^e super filled 

 and capped with dandelion honey; others are 

 working in the second super. 



Swarming was in full blast during the hot 

 spell previous to the rainy period among the 

 small bee-keepers that let the bees swarm at 

 their "own sweet will." I haven't had a swarm 

 yet, but expect to be busy when the sun comes 



The 

 white clover that has sh 

 this time next week there 

 of it, and we hope to s( 

 mercury rise, and of cou 

 the sun rise, we will hav< 

 rise. 



Hull. Iowa, June 3. 



straggl „ 



own up yet, but by 



will be a perfect sea 



ee the sun rise, the 



order to see 



* before sun- 



W. Hall. 



The American Institute 

 of Phrenology 



Incorporated 18GG, by special act of the 

 New York Legislature, will open its 

 next session the first Wednesday in Sep- 

 tember. The subjects embraced: Phren- 

 ology, Physiognomy, Ethnology, Psy- 

 chology, Physiology, Anatomy, Hygiene 

 and Anthropology. For terms and par- 

 ticulars apply to M. n. Piercy, Sec, care 

 Fowler &■ Wells Co., 24 East 22d St., 

 New York , N. Y. 



ITALIAN BEES AND QUEENS, l^r^l^^. 



Sfanilar.l (looils. A>.k for Olreulars. 



ALISO APIARY. El Toro, Orange Co., Calil. 



