November, igii. 



American Hee Journal 



value to you, even if you should conclude to 

 buy all your queens. 



Then next season you will be able to make 

 pretty good work at rearing queens, even if 

 you do make some mistakes. Your success 

 will likely be greater if someone in your 

 employ is an experienced queen-rearer. But 

 whatever your success, or want of success, 

 you may still not know whether it would be 

 better to buy or to rear your queens, and 

 with so many colonies it may be an impor- 

 tant question to settle, even if it takes more 

 than one year to settle it. So you will do 

 well to buy part of your queens, and then 

 you can judge for yourself better than any 

 one can tell you. 



You are likely to find that there will be 

 more loss in introducing queens received by 



mail than in Jntroducing those reared in 

 your own apiary. C)ifficulties unforeseen 

 may arise by either plan, about which you 

 will be able to judge best by actual experi- 

 ence. Probably the large majority think it 

 best to rear their own queens, but that does 

 not say that you may not be among the few 

 who will do belter to buy. 



It may not be out of place to say here that 

 while some think it best to requeen every 

 two years, or even every year, there are 

 others who think they do better to leave the 

 matter of requeening mostly in the hands of 

 the bees, killing a queen only when she is 

 found to be doing po:)r work, whatever her 

 age. for there may be such a thing as a queen 

 doing better work in her third year than 

 some other queen in her first year. 



Only a Third of a Crop 



I have only one-third of a honey crop this 

 year, as dry weather cut off the clover sup- 

 ply. Bees are now working on the asters. 

 (Rev..' H. H. Flick. 



Murraysville. Pa., Sept. 20. 



Hives Heavy With Honey 



The brood-chambers are all heavy with 

 honey at this time. I have taken some sur- 

 plus honey from nearly every colony. Bees 

 are working on dandelions and asters. 



Leon. Iowa. Sept. 20. Edwin Bevins. 



Bees Did Fairly Well 



Bees did fairly well this season. Mine 

 averaged 50 pounds of comb honey per col- 

 ony, which I sell for 20 cents a pound. 



I am a beginner in bee-keeping, and derive 

 much pleasure and profit from the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal. Elmer Eddington. 



Witt. 111.. Oct. 7. 



Big Difference in Seasons 



Last year I had 20 colonies that stored 2000 

 pounds of honey and increased to 40 colo- 

 nies, all inside of todays. This year it took 

 40 colonies all summer to store 400 pounds of 

 honey, without any increase. 



St. Joseph. Mo.. Out. 2. S. A. Matson. 



Bees Heavy in Winter Stores 



The bees here have gone into winter quar- 

 ters in fine condition after giving a fair crop 

 of honey. I don't remember when they were 

 any heavier in stores. 



The Dewey foundation fastener is the 

 most convenient one I have ever used. It is 

 mu//uw ill f'arvo without a figure of speech. 



Wiley. Colo., Oct. g. John S. Semmens. 



Good Report for 1911 



This season I secured over a ton of comb 

 honey from 48 colonies, spring count, and 

 increased, by dividing, to 75 colonies. I was 

 away from home from June to October, dur- 

 ing which time several swarms came out 

 and absconded, there being no one on hand 

 to take care of them. 



Isaac F. Tillinghast. 



Factoryville. Pa.. Oct. 13. 



Light Honey Crop in Maine 



As nearly as I can learn, the honey crop 

 all over Maine, with the exception of Aroos- 

 took county, is light. We have a good, fair 

 crop in this county, which is in good de- 

 mand. My own crop was two tons of comb 

 honey, which I am selling for $17 a hundred, 

 f. o. b.. my station. This is our year in Aroos- 

 took. As no doubt is known, the potato crop 

 is generally a veryshort one. but this county 

 has been blessed with nearly a full crop. 

 Farmers are harvesting from 75 to 125 barrels 

 {^y^ bushels eachj per acre, which sell at the 

 loading station for $1.35 to $2.25 a barrel. 

 Two men here have 250 acres each in pota- 

 toes—not large for the West, of course. The 



county will harvest 20.000.000 bushels of pota 

 toes this year, as nearly as we can estimate 



We have retalnedour old Prohibitory Law 

 in the State Constitution by a small majority. 

 We had hoped for a larger one. 



I started to tell a little about the bees, and 

 have gotten off on potatoes and prohibition. 

 Well, it's hard to keep from talking about 

 what our hearts are full of. We have talked 

 prohibition and reciprocity this summer to 

 the exclusion of nearly every other subiect 

 in this locality. 



The spring and early summer was the 

 most favorable for the bees I ever saw. 

 Forest-bloom, fruit-bloom, dandelion and 

 clover, following each other, with favorable 

 weather; with theclover-bloom came severe 

 dry weather, which changed what seemed 

 destined to be a record-breaker to just a 

 normal yield of surplus honey. 



There has been almost no bloom of any 

 sort since clover. Brood-rearing has been 

 light, and the colonies will go into winter 

 quarters with old bees. This will mean 

 spring-dwindling in 1012, unless the spring is 

 very favorable. O. B. Griffin. 



Caribou. Maine. Sept. 25. 



How to Make Good Fly-Paper 



In these chilly days, when the flies flock to 

 the screen door ready to pop in. how many 

 of the readers of the American Bee Journal 

 care to know that millions of them may be 

 caught as follows; 



Into half a pint of raw linseed oil kept hot 

 in a water-bath, dissolve pulverized rosin 

 until the compound is thick as syrup. Into 

 tin pie-plates (which need not cost more 

 than 2 cents each'' put just enough of this 

 mess to cover the bottom when the dish is 

 heated, set it where the flies most congre- 

 gate, and watch them stick When the dish 

 is filled with flies, pour boiling water into it. 

 which will wash it out. when it is ready to 

 be used again. A. F". Bonney. 



Buck Grove. Iowa. 



Bee-Keeping in Hawaii 



The bee-keepers of these islands have had 

 a very fair season, taking on an average 

 about $4. 50 worth of honey per colony for the 

 year's returns (gross), and as our colonies 

 number about 20.000. it leaves a nice income 

 to be divided among those interested. 



I have under my personal supervision 4250 

 colonies of bees. 



The American Bee Journal contains much 

 that is both interesting and useful. 



E. C Smith. 



Pearl City. Hawaiian Islands. Oct. 3. 



Dry Weather— Watching Swarms Locate 



Our bees have done fairly well this year, 

 although we have had much dry weather. 

 They did not swarm to the extent they gen- 

 erally do in the spring, but did well in gath- 

 ering honey from crimson clover. Having 

 moved my bees early last spring, about .^ 

 miles. I lost a good many in their new loca- 

 tion by weather changes, before they had 

 gotten accustomed to their new fields. 



I was not careful to remove hives made 

 vacant by those that had died, and on going 

 to the apiary one morning in May. I noticed 

 some very dark bees that seemed very busy 



about one of the vacant hives, and as all of 

 my stock was goldens. I at once found out 

 that a wild swarm was preparing to come in. 

 Later in the day I was about the place, the 

 day being warm and still, when I heard the 

 noise of a swarm of bees. I soon saw them 

 coming across the field. I ran to the apiary 

 and did not have long to wait, for they came 

 over the dwelling, which is quite high, and 

 began to lower, and were soon alighting on 

 the front of the hive they had selected, and 

 in an hour were busy at work on the clover. 



I thus had a fine chance to witness this 

 important action in a new swarm selecting 

 and taking charge of a new hive. All of this 

 was done in a small enclosure where there 

 were other flourishing, buzzing colonies, 

 and no mistake made by the new comers. 



Again, another swarm came while I was 

 not there, and also did their own hiving. I 

 put several carefully cleaned hives out by 

 the porch of the house, and in them put a 

 dry comb and some foundation starters con 

 venienttoget at when my swarms issued, 

 and I was again about the house one morn- 

 ing in June when I was surprised to see an- 

 other swarm of black bees come from the 

 same direction as the first, and enter one of 

 my empties right by the door. All three of 

 these are doing well, and one of the queens, 

 being a virgin, mated with those beautiful 

 drones of mine, and her bees are now over 

 half very pretty 2 and ^ banded. 



I have had trouble with the drones to keep 

 them down. I shall Italianize in the spring. 



i did my best to find the trees from which 

 these swarms came, so as to get them and 

 save future trouble, but I can not find them. 

 They probably came from afar. 



L. L. Brockwell. 



Prince George Co.. Va, 



Best Honey Season m Six Years 



I have had the best season for honey in my 

 6 years of bee-keeping. My best colony pro- 

 duced 06 pounds — 56 pounds of comb honey 

 and 40 pounds of extracted. This is a splen- 

 did yield when one considers the extreme 

 dearth of honey-flora in this vicinity. 



I am with you for life, and do not want to 

 miss a single ijumber of the American Bee 

 Journal. WALTER E. Atkinson. 



Glendon. Md., Oct. 0. 



Something for Beginners 



I have kept bees on a small scale for about 

 10 years, or since I was about 12 years old. 

 but I never had any success; in fact. I al- 

 ways had complete failures until about 4 

 years ago when I subscribed for the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal. Through its columns I 

 found the secret that I had been longing for 

 — til at of wintering bees in the cellar. Where 

 I live is close to a creek, called "Coon 

 Creek." It is extremely wet here, espe- 

 cially during the winter and spring months. 

 My bees would die from the dampness in 

 the hives during a cold spell in mid-winter. 

 Of course. I think I could now remedy that 

 since I have studied the business a little 

 more, and consequently know little more 

 than I did a few years ago. But I am getting 

 off from my subject. 



In the spring of ioo3 I had the good fortune 

 of having 2 colonies of bees in the kind of 

 hive that every beginner is so familiar with 

 —the old box-hive. Thinking I would try the 

 new kind of hive, or the frame hive, I ac- 

 cordingly went to a near-by city one after- 

 noon, and purchased from an old bee-keeper 

 two factory-made hives. One was an 8 and 

 the other a 10 frame hive. I cleaned them 

 up, for they were in bad shape, and got them 

 in readiness for swarming. 



June 1, a medium-sized swarm was cast. I 

 put it in the 8-frame hive, and about a week 

 later the other box-hive colony cast a large 

 swarm also, and it was accordingly put into 

 the lo-frame hive. To my surprise and joy. I 

 got 00 sections of nice comb honey from the 

 H-frame colony, which contained the me- 

 dium-sized swarm; and 60 sections from the 

 loframe colony containing the large swarm. 

 That settled it— no more box-hives for me; 

 and as the smaller swarm in the 8-frame 

 hive gave the most proceeds, and for other 

 reasons. I decided to adopt the 8-frame hive. 



But now a new trouble confronted me. 

 that of buying the hives, supers, etc. I 

 found from a factory catalog that modern 

 hives, iji2 story, cost upwards of. if not more 

 than. $2.00 each. This. I concluded, was 

 almost too steep for me. so. of course, the old 

 store-box lumber came into play. Now. I 

 want to say right here, that I have some 

 hives that i made out of the old. knotty and 

 split-up lumber, as some call it, that comes 

 from store-boxes, that I think answer the 



