American ISae Journal 



August, 191 1. 



Very Little Surplus Honey 



Bees held their own all spring, and «e ex- 

 pected a good bass«ood honey-flow. W e 

 had no clover bloom at all. and basswood 

 was loaded with buds and bloom, andopened 

 nicely, though it was too dry and hot the 

 tirst week, then came a little rain, followed 

 by 3 days of cold wind, which pretty well 

 destroyed the blossoms. Of our 44 colonies, 

 22 each filled and capped their one super of 

 sections, the comb being of last season: the 

 others did not set theirs capped, though 

 some filled the comb in sections. 



July 27th and 28th we had a rain of 2 inches, 

 which may help the fall flowers, of which 

 there are plenty. Bees fly well now, though 

 they do not work in sections. 



Mary Theilmann. 



Theilman. Minn., July 30. 



Warm and Dry Weather 



The weather is warm and dry here, but 

 the grain looks pretty well yet. The bass- 

 wood is beginning to bloom now-a little 

 earlier than last year. It is all covered with 

 buds and bloom. Algot B. Bernston. 



Bagley. Minn.. July 4. 



Too Hot and Dry for Bees 



Bees have not done very much here this 

 season so far. It has been too hot and dry. 

 They are doing better now. as we have had 

 fine rains lately, and the third crop of alfalfa 

 is blooming freely. Dr. G. Bohrer. 



Lyons. Kans., July 28. 



Severe Drouth in Missouri 



Our bees have not done well this year on 

 account of the severe drouth. I think there 

 will not be any fall honey-flow, as everything 

 is so dry. There is no sign of Spanish-needle 

 showing. M. F. Oldfield. 



Buffalo, Mo., July 17. 



Fine White Clover Honey-Flow 



We had a fine white clover honey-flow the 

 last half of May. I secured 60 pounds each 

 from 14 colonies, and had 10 swarms— the 

 earliest swarms I have ever hai. the first 

 one issuing May 5th. the last one May 20th. 

 They had killed off all the drones by July 



How do some people keep bees without a 

 bee-book or bee-paper? They don't keep 

 them long in this vicinity, as they all die the 

 first hard winter. . 



If late swarms are not fed soon, they will 

 starve, and almost all the bees in this vicin- 

 ity are from swarms. 



If we have rain we will have some honey 

 from Spanish-needle. We count more on 

 Spanish-needle than on white clover. 



I have sold all my honey at 20 cents per 

 pound. I used extracting frames and cut 

 the honey out. lean sell it better in that 

 shape than I can if the honey is in 4HX44 



sections. 

 Fortuna, Mo.. July 52- 



L. M. Johnson. 



The Season in Maryland 



In April and May everything looked rather 

 discouraging to procure that hoped-for 

 thousand pounds of honey in my Mt. Nebo 

 Apiary this year. Nearly one-third of the 

 colonies had died that went into winter 

 quarters last fall. I thought I could hardly 

 afford to subscribe for the American Bee 

 Journal, but I fully realize that Dr. Miller's 

 writings, and his "Forty Years Among the 

 Bees" have, in a few years past, made me 

 more successful than any other bee-keeper 

 in this vicinity: and the American Bee Jour- 

 nal with its most wholesome editorial cotn- 

 ments and advice had afforded me untold 

 pleasure and help. So why should I save 

 pennies, and lose dollars ? 



It is hot here, and the bees are booming. 

 They keep me busy lookingaftertheir needs. 



Grantsville, Md., July 3. L. J. Beachy. 



Poorest Season in 25 Years 



This is about the poorest season for bees 

 in 25 years so far in Wisconsin, at least in 

 this section. There was no clover except a 

 little alsike. as it was all killed out last sea- 

 son, and it is about as dry again now. Bass- 

 wood looked very full, but the weather was 

 so hot and dry that it did not last very long, 

 but it yielded well while it lasted. I am 

 putting in some buckwheat to help the bees 

 out. I never saw alsike clover dry up or 

 turn brown before, but we had a tempera- 

 ture of Qo to 08 degrees a good part of the 

 time, and no rain, either. The outlook for 

 another season is far from bright, too. 



Berlin. Wis.. July 20. B. T. Davenport. 



Small Honey Crop— Dry Weather 



Our white clover honey crop will not aver- 

 age 10 pounds per colony. Dry weather was 

 the cause of it, A. Coppin. 



Wenona. III.. July 10. 



Hot and Poor Honey Season 



It is terribly hot here— 100 degrees in the 

 shade yesterday; q4 degrees at 10 a.m. We 

 have had a poor honey season so far. There 

 was little clover, and basswood, now open, 

 is dried up with the extreme heat. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Borodino, N. Y.. July 4. 



Bees Doing Nothing 



Bees here are doing nothing now. It is 4 

 weeks to-dav since we bad any rain, and 

 these 4 weeks have been the hottest ever 

 known here. Hay and oats are very light: 

 gardens are ruined: pastures are dried up; 

 but corn may be saved if rain comes very 

 soon. I have taken surplus honey from but 

 few colonies. The brood-chambers are tol- 

 erably well fixed now. but the outlook is that 

 much feeding will have to be done if the 

 bees are wintered. Edwin Bevins. 



Leon. Iowa. July 15. 



A Disappointed Bee-Keeper 



I moved my apiary into this region the fall 

 of igo7. as farmers had been raising alsike 

 clover here for seed, and I thought that it 

 would be a good place to locate, but I have 

 found out to my heart's content that this is 

 no place for a honey-producer to locate. 

 The alsike growing is all burnt out by 

 drouth, and no white clover grows here to 

 speak of. The people in this region seem 

 to have a great abomination for people that 

 come from distant parts to locate in the api- 

 ary business. . . 1, 



I wish to sound a note of warning to all 

 bee-keepers who are thinking of making a 

 move, to study the new location thoroughly 

 before moving, or you may fall into an abyss 

 where you will meet with great loss, beyond 

 recuperation. If vou are located in a fairly 

 good white clover region, with other plants, 

 besides good neighbors and market facili- 

 ties, there is the place to remain, if you are 

 in good health and happiness. 



There is no basswood even in this coun- 

 try. I shall remove toa difl'erent place from 

 this in the fall. God permitting. 



C. F. Brown. 



Eau Claire Co., Wis., July 7. 



country, have not done so. I should have 

 been unable to live from the returns of my 

 bees the last 5 seasons had it not been that 

 the majority of the colonies were superior 

 bees. 1 have some common stock, as almost 

 every year some farmers sell me some colo- 

 nies, as I always aim to buy everything in 

 niy territory that is for sale, and sometimes 

 a year or more passes before I get such 

 bees all requeened. so I always have some 

 for comparison. This season I have about 

 25 colonies of common stock, and they will 

 not average over one-half as much surplus 

 as my improved stock, side by side, and all 

 managed alike. 



Mr. Lathrop's Quotation from the Review 

 was misleading. I think. I do not under- 

 stand the authority he mentions, saying that 

 all depends upon a colony being just at the 

 right stage at the beginning of the flow; or 

 that there is «i> difference in the honey- 

 gathering abilities of different strains of 

 bees. I tnke it that a// s/riii»s should be just 

 right at the beginning of the flow: />tif may 

 not one strain store more koru-v from then 

 on. nevertheless ? / find that they do, and 

 so much more, sometimes, that I frequently 

 have a colony that is not up to the desired 

 point at the beginning of the flow that out- 

 strips some that were. 



We had a large amount of hot and dry 

 weather through June, and basswood was 

 cut short somewhat. E. S. Miles. 



Harrison Co.. Iowa. July i. 



Improved Bees Average Better 



I notice Mr. Lathrop. in the June Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, does not think much of the 

 idea of improved bees. Perhaps he never 

 experienced very much in that line, or may 

 be he has so good a locattion that any bee 

 can get a good crop. I do not believe so 

 much difference is noticable in real good 

 seasons, but it seems to me / find it so at 

 least, that there is a great difference in poor 

 seasons, and I think most bee-keepers find 

 the majority of seasons poor. ?or 5 or 6 

 years past I find my improved stock has 

 given me a good crop when the common 

 bees, such as are found throughout the 



Weather Cool — Buckwheat Prospect 



The weather here is very cool now— in 

 fact, more like October than July. The 

 season has been one of extremes all through, 

 and bids fair to continue so until fall. The' 

 prospects are not as good as usual for buck- 

 wheat on account of the drouth being broken 

 up so late. J. L. BvER. 



Mt. Joy. Ont., July 25. 



Hydrocyanic Acid for Killing Wax- Moths 



On page 180. Dr. Miller very properly rec- 

 ommends carbon disulfide for killing the 

 larvK of the wax-moth. As this liquid is 

 very volatile, and the vapor is very heavy, it 

 is a most eflicient agent for this purpose. 

 The liquid should be placed in a vessel 

 oboi'c the combs, which should be contained 

 in a vapor-tight vessel— box or cask. I doubt 

 if the vapor will kill the eggs of insects; 

 carbon disulfide certainly will not kill the 

 eggs of the clothes-moth, although it is death 

 to larvae and moth. 



The :'i7/'i"of sulphur does not seem to in- 

 jure larvae or moth, but sulphur dioxide 

 (sulphurous acid) is very deadly. This is 

 produced, under ordinary circumstances, 

 only when the sulphur or its vapor is burned. 



Great care must be exercised in using 

 bisulphid of carbon, for the vapor takes fire 

 at about 300 degrees Fahr.— a temperature 

 far below a red heat. In an article which 

 appeared recently in one of our popular 

 journals, it is said to be "explosive." This 

 is not true in the samesensethat gunpowder 

 or dynamite is explosive. The vapor must 

 be mixed with a proper proportion of air 

 and then ignited. When no fire is present 

 there is no danger. 



The vapor of hydrocyanic acid is probably 

 the most deadly of all. Minute directions 

 for its use are published by the Department 

 of Agriculture. It is not at all dangerous 

 when proper precautions are observed, and 

 I am inclined to believe that it is fatal to the 



Let us stick to the old chemical names 

 when not addressing professional scientists. 

 Everybody knows what carbonic acid is; 

 how many would recognize it as carbon 

 dioxide'" So with bisulphid of carbon; 

 this is the name on the labels on the bottles, 

 and it is familiar to all. and so of many 

 others. John Phin. 



Patterson, N. J^ 



Introducing Queens — Dry 'Weather 



Some time since I conceived the idea that 

 the only possible way in which bees can tell 

 their own queen from one introduced is by 

 smell. I do not know if this is a well estab- 

 lished fact, though it may be. and my only- 

 excuse for mentioning the idea is that 1 

 think it more than probable that by making 

 the queen and the hive to be introduced to. 

 all of some one powerful odor, as pepper- 

 mint, any queen may be introduced success- 

 fully and safely. ... 



A confirmation of this idea came to me in 

 today's mail. A friend who has kept bees 

 in a small way for many years ihe is 72). 



