THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



it I expect to start small fruit and fish cul- 

 ture, and I will make it go "red-hot." 

 Drumming pays well enough, but I don't 

 like it, and I am going back to my old bee 

 and poultry business, sure. 



I read the Dec. Review all through last 

 evening, and am going to read it all over 

 again to-day, and if I find something I like 

 or dislike may mention it. You won't find 

 fault, will you, Hutch. V But first I must 

 tell you wife is baking a nice turkey and a 

 nice spare-rib for dinner, and the little young 

 Snyders are out by the barn playing shinny. 



J. A. Green thinks if we could learn the 

 causes of failure of a honey crop we might 

 be able to find a remedy. Mr. Green goes 

 back on buckwheat as a honey plant. I 

 think it one of the best. Up in Albany Co., 

 N. Y., where I kept bees, buckwheat is the 

 farmer's favorite crop, and they sowed hun- 

 dreds and hundreds of acres, and we bee 

 keepers got tons and tons of honey from it 

 every fall, no failure. Mr. Green says two- 

 thirds of his crop was from sweet clover. 

 Good for him. That's the stuff. I think 

 well of sweet clover, too, and have a sugar 

 barrel full of the seed that I intend to scatter 

 wherever I locate. 



R. 0. Aikin starts out by advising people 

 not to put all their eggs in one basket. 

 That's right — I mean to have several baskets 

 each on a separate shelf. Mr. A. has great 

 hopes in migratory bee-keeping. Well, it 

 does look perfectly reasonable, but where is 

 the man who has made it pay ? You will 

 remember E. T. Flanagan, of Bellville, 111., 

 sent me to Louisana one fall with 400 colon- 

 ies of his bees with the idea of having the 

 bees work there through the winter and up 

 to such a time when they could gather honey 

 at the North, then move them back, but it 

 was a complete failure: not so much on ac- 

 count of no honey to be gathered in Louis- 

 ana, (there was lots of it), but through mis- 

 management in moving South. Mr. Flana- 

 gan was very largely to blame himself ; 

 having left undone something that he should 

 have done. It will require more than an or- 

 dinarily cautious man to move bees long 

 distances successfully ; yet, I, well — I hoj)e 

 it can Vje done, but there are so many chances 

 to run in moving, I fear it will always be a 

 dangerous undertaking, yet the idea does 

 look reasonable. 



Mr. Aikin also says do some thinking. I 

 suppose he not only means in regard to bee 

 keeping but in regard to other matters, such 



as politics, religion, etc. That's right, be a 

 man and think for yourself. 



Oh ! here comes E. E. Hasty, the sugar- 

 syrup advocote. Well ! Well ! ! Meal con- 

 verted into milk and butter ; sugar into 

 honey. What's the matter of that ? I have 

 to disagree with Mr. Hasty on non-swarming. 

 I believe one swarm from each old stock and 

 the swarm set in place of the old hive and 

 old hive set one side, a la Heddon, is better 

 than no swarms. 



Here comes "Rambler," Well, who is 

 Rambler anyhow ? [-J. H. Martin, formerly 

 of Hartford, N. Y., now in Calif.— Ed.] 



C. C. Miller gives us good, sound advice ; 

 says we must have some other business along 

 with bee keeping or we may starve, but says 

 he is going to stick it out a little longer with 

 the bees. That's right, Mr. Miller, stick and 

 hang, but after Hasty tells everybody how to 

 make honey out of sugar where do you 

 imagine the price will go ? away doivn, 

 down, down. 



Kingston, N. Y., Dec. 25, 1891. 



Ventilation, Fastening of Frames and the 

 Loading of Bees in Shipment. — How 

 the Eaising of Sugar - Honey 

 May do Harm. 





N shipping bees, 

 whether by rail, 

 boat or wagon, the 

 one great point to 

 look out for is the 

 ventilation. In 

 cold weather, lit- 

 •^^^^ jnl>>_^ ^1^ °'" ^^ ventila- 



\^^^fS^^f^^HIJb^ tion is needed; and . 

 ■HjBflr^HHHl in the 

 I^^^H^k^^^^^HH when the bees 

 ^^^Jjjjflfjl^^im^^ have all they can 

 do to keep the 

 brood warm, too much ventilation may do 

 much injury. As most shipping of bees is 

 done in warm weather, there is but little like- 

 lihood of ventilation being overdone. It is 

 usually only by sad experience that the bee- 

 keeper learns how very important is an abun- 

 dant supply of fresh air in warm weather. 

 With very strong colonie-^ in hot weather, a 

 space where the bees can cluster away from 

 the brood is very desirable, though I have 

 hauled the strongest colonies through a hot 

 August sun without it, the whole top and 



