American Vae Journal i 



August, 1908. 



sections, and a support for each end of each 

 T-tin. This support may be a square of 

 sheet-iron fastened with 2 nails, as most of 

 my supers are, but the latest is to have a 

 bent staple for a support. The Ttins are 

 loose, merely resting on their supports. Some 

 nail the T-tins to the super, but it doesn't 

 seem to me this is so convenient when you 

 come to take sections out of the super, for I 

 can turn my supers iipside down and dump 

 out the whole thing — T-tins and all. 



8. It is a very rare thing for bees to desert 

 a partly filled super and work on an empty 

 one under it. Indeed, I'm not sure that ever 

 such a thing happened with me in all my 

 experience, although I have known cases in 

 which the bees continued to work in the 

 super above without making any beginning 

 on the empty super under it. I can only 

 make a guess as to why the bees acted .so in 

 your case, and my guess would be this: When 

 you gave the second super under the first, 

 the bees were storing well, and promptly be- 

 gan work on the under super. Then the 

 bees swarmed, or else there was a let-up in 

 the harvest, and there was no more than the 

 bees could do in one super, and being at 

 work on both supers they continued on the 

 one nearest the brood-nest. 



9. A pound of thin super foundation will 

 fill about 100 4<4 sections full. If an inch 

 starter be put in each section, it would fill 

 400. At that rate 250 sections would lake 

 10 ounces. 



Bees Doing Well. 



I have 112 colonies of bees, and they are 

 doing very well now. They were quite back- 

 ward on account of having so much rain. 



Ottosen, Iowa, July 12. .1. \V. Sadler. 



Just Beginning to Store. 



Bees have not done much as yet. They 

 have just commenced to store in sui>ers. It 

 has been too wet. T. W. Brewer. 



Sutherland, Iowa, July 4. 



Still the Good Work Goes On. 



I bad 12 colonies last spring, and 18 now. 

 I have taken 18 full supers, 4 each from 2, 

 and the good work moves on. 



Garwin, Iowa, July 13. T. S. IIurlev. 



Better Flow Than Expected. 



We have had a better honey-flow here than 

 wc expected. There was a good flow from the 

 second bloom of catclaw, which is very un- 

 usual. Prospects are good for a flow from 

 fall flowers. Honey is moving slowly. 



Gr.\nt Anderson. 



Sabinal, Tex., July 19. 



Good Honey Crop Expected. 



Bees are doing fine considering the weather. 

 Rain and cold hold them back. Swarming is 

 the order now, and the weather is fine. The 

 fields are white with white clover, so we look 

 for a good honey harvest if we get suitable 

 weather. S. F. Hamer. 



Vermont, 111., June 14. 



Prospects for Good Crop. 



The honey season is here and the pros- 

 pects are for a good crop. I have 17 colonies 

 and the swarming season is over. They 

 swarmed early this year. I am having suc- 

 cess with decoy hives. 



Aldcn, Iowa, July 8. Kreo Peterson. 



A Room Bee-Escape. 



I have kept bcis for 18 years on the ex- 

 perimenting plan. I have made one thing that 

 I am proud of and that's a bee-escape. I can 

 put all the supers from 27 swarms in my bee- 

 room at 10 o'clock in the morning, and by 

 3 or 4 in the afternoon they are clear of bees, 

 except those that may have some brood sec- 

 tions. It heats anything I have ever tried 

 in bee-escapes. If I thought there would be 

 a demand for such an escape, I would try 



to have some made by machine, as to make 

 them by hand is too exiiensive. I think they 

 could be made so that I could sell them for 

 $3.00 or $4.00. I,. A. Oertee. 



Fulton Co., N. y., July .1. 



"Mary" Was a Bee-Keeper. 



Mary had a swarm of bees, 

 And they, to save their lives. 



Must go wherever Marv went — 

 'Cause Marv had the "hives." 



—Selected. 



Good Season for Bees. 



Bees arc doing well in this part of New 

 Brunswick this year. I have kept bees over 

 40 years and this season .seems to be as good 

 a year as I have had for a long time. I 

 have 60 good colonies and they are about 

 through swarming now. Geo. F. Beach. 



Meadows, N. B., July 7. 



Bees 

 very fi 

 about 



Fine Honey Crop. 



.-- ..„rking freely „.,« ..^ .m,,. „ 

 honey crop. 1 have 56 colonies and 

 J pounds of honey already, and very 

 .,.,c *hite clover. We have rain now, and 

 expect a good fall crop, too, it the weather is 

 good. Basswood is coming in a few days, 

 which yields well in this locality. 



LaMotte, iowa, July 3. Nick Jextgen. 



Very Good Season. 



Wc are having a very good sea.son, favor- 

 able for^ white clover and basswood, and the 

 outlook is fair for a generous crop of lioney. 



The past spring my bees dwindled to 16 

 colonies. I increased artificially (transferred 

 3 frames of brood and clinging bees to each 

 new hive) 14 new colonies, making 30 in 

 all. Last week I had supers on 25 of them 

 and this week I extracted 400 pounds of fine 

 white honey. (Miss) F. E. Wheeler 



Chazy. N. v., July 15. 



Honey Too Thick to Extract. 



Our last season's honey harvest was a 

 failure owing to the honey being so thick that 

 we could not extract it with a Root ex- 

 tractor. We tried fast speed and slow, but 

 no use. It only partly came out. I never had 

 anything like it before. I left it in the hives 

 for It was very dark and not fit for comb 

 honey. The whole district was the same, 

 borne bee-keepers got a little, hut very dark 

 ''on^y- KzRA Smith. 



• .isbornc. New Zealand. May ,!o. 



Dry Weather — Poor Crop — Increased 

 Interest in Bees. 



The pro.spect for a large honey crop was 

 the best we have had for years in the first 

 part of the season, but as the season ad- 

 vanced the show of a honey crop grew less. 

 On June 29 while clover was out of bloom, 

 on account of dry weather, and I got only 700 

 pounds of honey, when I was expecting 3,000 

 at least. 



This season was different from any that I 

 can remember. When clover first began to 

 bloom it turned cold, and continued for 10 

 days, and the bees were in a .starving condi- 

 tion when it was over, and trying to rob. 

 I have had very little swarming this year. 



It seems that a larger number of people 

 arc becoming interested in bees. 



W. A. SwEARINCIN. 



Ivpworlh, Ky., July 13. 



White Mulberry as Bee- Forage. 



I have waited until now to report again 

 on the white mulberry as a forage for bees, 

 and Its value as a means to insure a reason- 

 able honey crop every year, whether in a dry 

 suinnier. cold w^eather, or excessive rains. 

 I have been feeding my colony every day the 

 last few weeks, since the berries began to ma- 

 ture (June 17), and I believe it would open 

 the eyes and penetrate the understanding of 

 some bee-keepers if they could sec them lit- 

 erally swarm over the crushed berries I put 

 upon the alighting-board for their delecta- 

 tion, leaving only the liny seeds in evidence. 



I have been urging bee-keepers to avail 

 themselves of this really grand tree, so hardy, 

 so attractive, and otherwise useful, but the 

 greater majority of keepers have been of poor 

 vision and exceedingly deaf. They have 

 seeeined t'o suspect that I had a great, big 

 broad-ax to grind, and so have given my 



suggestion little recognition. If I were not 

 somewhat versed in the intricacies of human 

 nature I should feel astounded at such apa- 

 thy. But not any more. I only regret that 

 1 may "pass on" without leaving so impor- 

 tant a fact of more practical benefit to my fel- 

 low bee-keepers than now appears. 



But some persistent observer will arise who 

 will also see it his duty to acclaim the vir- 

 tues of the white mulberry, which it rightly 

 merits. In this sense history will a-'ain re- 

 peat itself. 



This year I have been able to settle a ques- 

 tion I could not do when previously writing 

 on this subject — whether the while mulberry 

 came true to seed or not. I am glad now to 

 say that it does. How do I know? Because 

 trees from seeds planted 5 years ago have 

 tins year borne identical fruit. This is an 

 important fact, indeed, to such as desire to 

 start a .small nursery, to secure stock for 

 more extensive planting. 



But the essential point in their cultivation 

 IS to keep all branches trimmed off the 

 trunk until the tree has reached a height of 

 at least 6 or 7 feet, then let it branch out. 

 This is the secret of unfailing success. If 

 you don't do this you wiij have a stunted, 

 straggling, unsightly tree, retarded in fruit- 

 age, and of very small and inferior variety. 

 It IS very safe to assert that you can depend 

 upon some berries the fifth year after plant- 

 ing — earlier in warmer sections — after that 

 more and more. Dr. Pf.iro. 



Chicago, III., July 15. 



Fairly Good Season — Moth Remedy. 



This has been a fairly good season for bees 

 and honey. 



There was a little remedy prescribed in the 

 .\raerican Bee Journal something over one year 

 ago that beats anything I ever tried for kill- 

 ing moth worms and eggs. As I saved lots 

 of empty combs from the ravages of moths 

 by the use of the arug, I thought I would 

 ask for a second insertion in the columns of 

 your valuable paper. It is called "Chlorate 

 Disulphide." It is a fluid and comes in pound- 

 cans, and can be had at any drugstore at 

 from 25 to 35 cents per can. Directions for 

 use are as follows: 



For one set of brood-combs where bees 

 have died. 2 tablespoonfuls of the fluid in a 

 little butter-chip slipped in at the entrance, 

 or set on top of the frames. Put an oil- 

 cloth over the lop of the frames and close 

 the entrance of the hive with damp earth. 



All honey, whether sections or brood-combs, 

 should be exposed to the fumes, especially if 

 wished for any long future use. 



Karl T. Lohmann. 



Cameron. Mo., July 19. 



[-Mr. I.olunann probably 

 carh.iii."- F.niTOR.] 



ulphide 



Introducing Queens, Etc. 



.\ftcr leading of the many ways of intro- 

 ducing queens. I have a plan that I have 

 used successfully in two cases. The plan I 

 speak of I have never seen in print, and it 

 may not work everv time. It is as fol- 

 lows: 



Hive No. I, blacks, I do not want. No. 

 2 and No. 3 are fine stock, but not overly 

 strong. I want to get rid of No. i. It is 

 very strong, so 1 go to No. 2, find the queen, 

 set the frame she is on aside, and take a 

 small box 4x6x4 inches, with a wire cloth 

 top. I get about a half-pint of bees in it 

 from No. i. put queen No. 2 in it, llicn set 

 it aside while I look for queen No. i. As I 

 t;tke out a frame I shake in front of the 

 hive with queen-guard on until I find the 

 c|ueen No. i. I kill her, smoke the bees 

 in the box, then dump them with the bees in 

 front of the hive, smoke a little, and the 

 trick is done. The queen was not killed. 

 I looked at her the next day and the bees and 

 iiueen more contented, it seemed. Then 1 

 look No. 2. which had some crooked combs 

 as well as No. 3. I put the crooked combs 

 in top and all straight ones from both hives 

 below, smoked both hives a little, and there 

 was but very little fighting. 



The other was a little different, as the 

 bees came from a tree that was cut. and the 

 bees left. I took a box and went for them 

 late Sunday evening, but could not get them 

 in, so went back Monday morning, and wlien 

 I got home and transferred them I found 

 they did not have any queen, so I gave them 

 a frame of brood. Then I decided to give 

 them a queen also. So I went to the hive, 

 got a queen, put her on the front of the hive, 

 smoked the bees out of the hive, and shook 

 the frame in front, and kept them out with 

 the queen a while, and she was accepted all 



