October, 1916. 



355 



American 'Ree Journal k 



the story on top that has the entrance and 

 brood in it. In about a montli there wiil be 

 layint' Queens and brood in the too story. 

 If the story with brood is next to the exclu- 

 der a lot of the queens lialched disappear, 

 but if there is a super between and the en- 

 trances on opposite side, all seems well, at 

 least that was the rule with us this season 



We had ii as tine swarms and queens this 

 way as one could wish, iiractically no fail- 

 ures where above conditions existed, and 

 the colonies were strong and had brood in 

 the second story. These second story colo- 

 nies were set off for increase. 



Wapakoneta, Ohio. Dr. O. H. Gibbs. 



Season Not Good 



The honey season here is over for clover. 

 It was too wet and cloudy for a good har- 

 vest. Clover commenced to bloom about 

 June 5 and ceased July 20. On account of 

 so much rainy weather the bees could not 

 gather the honey. Only about half of the 

 sections that were built out are finished. 

 Many sections are half and three-fourths 

 full only, and considerable honey unsealed. 

 We will, when fully ripe, extract all the un- 

 finished sections and return them to the 

 hives for the fall crop. H. H. Flick. 



Murrysville. Ha., July 26. 



Many Swrarms 



I have been bothered with swarmint this 

 season. Formerly I have had good success 

 with putting the brood up over an excluder, 

 but this season it was no use. as all but one 

 that I put up swarmed, and that one was 

 Queenless. Still. I cannot complain, as 1 got 

 600 pounds of white honey from 75 colonies, 

 spring count, and increased 150. 



Clarksburg. Ont.. Aug 11. E. T. Knoll. 



Short Clover Crop 



The clover harvest was good, but lasted 

 only 15 days My good colony on scales 

 averaged ijM pounds per day. 



We had no nectar from basswood. and no 

 rain worth while in seven weeks. Bees are 

 no/ making a living now No white clover in 

 sight. Edward Hassinger. Jr. 



Greenville. Wis . July 28. 



A Good Crop 



The honey crop has been fairly good 

 throughout this locality. Bees have aver- 

 aged about 60 to 80 pounds per colony. Spring 

 count 12. increased to 33. and they have pro- 

 duced boo pounds of fine fancy comb honey. 

 My best colony produced 128 4x5 sections in 

 six weeks of the white clover flow. 



Edwardsvile. July 26. L.Werner. 



Fine Clover Crop 



The early part of this season was fine, the 

 finest crop of white clover that I ever saw. 

 Then the dry weather came on and cut 

 the clover short right in the height of the 

 game. 



I have taken from 6s colonies, spring 

 count, about 4500 pounds of the very purest 

 white clover honey that I have ever seen, 

 and I have also increased to 120 colonies. 

 We have had no rains in this placesince the 

 first of July, but we are having a good rain 

 today, and we expect some fall honey. 



Milo, Iowa, Aug. 14. B. A. Manley. 



Two Valuable Old Books On Bees 



American beekeepers welcome the re- 

 printing of the original work of Langstroth. 

 It was the first practical work on the honey- 

 bee ever written, and well deserves a place 

 in the library of every one interested in this 

 subject, whether veteran or tyro. 



The wiiter, while in attendance at the 

 Root Field Day Meet at Jenkintown sev- 

 eral years ago. secured an original copy 

 of this immortal work at the famous old 

 book mart of Leary's Aside from being in 

 a fine state of preservation, it is also an au- 

 tograph copy from the author. On the sheet 

 inside the front cover appears the following 

 neatly written with ink: " From Rev. L L. 

 Langitroth to Susanna Turner. September 

 IS. 1853." 



Another valuable and Interesting volume 

 in the possession of the writer is a copy of 

 the third edition of Huber's work entitled. 

 "New Observations on the Natural History 

 of Bees." On white paper, cut the size of 

 the book pages and pasted inside the front 



cover by a former owner, has been copied 

 from the Memoirsof the Empress losfphine. 

 Vol. I. page 122. a brief account of Huber's 

 atlliction and romantic marriage. Imme- 

 diately following this, the writer relates an 

 instance quite out of the ordinary and not 

 generally known amung the beekeeping 

 fraternity. 



During the wars in which the great Napo- 

 lean hoped for a fulfillment of his dreams 

 for universal empire. Huber's wife placed 

 pins in a map in order to give him a clearer 

 conception of the movement of the troops. 



These old works are becoming rare, and 

 the present European conflict will no doubt 

 destroy numbers of those valuable early 

 records of investigation for the advance- 

 ment of bee tcience. Such works as Swam- 

 merdam. Huber. Reaumur. Bevan you'll not 

 pick up every day. Grant Stanley. 



Nisbet, Pa. 



Beekeeping in Arizona 



I have been a close reader of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal since a bov of ten; had 

 some sad experience wintering bees in Ohio, 

 but here in Arizona we leave the bees under 

 our brush sheds with the supers on all win- 



B. A. Hadsell. 



ter. the bees flying nearly every day: there- 

 fore, they use more honey than they do in a 

 northern climate. 



I run from 11 to i5 apiaries, or 1300 to noo 

 colonies without help except in swarming 

 and extracting. My bees are in reach of 1210 

 acres of alfalfa also mesquite. with an irri- 

 gating canal and Gila river for water I run 

 for extracted honey only, leave it on the 

 hives until the bees ripen and seal it, I use 

 the lo-frame Langstroth hive; usually have 

 two supers, all combs drawn from full 

 sheets of foundation; have one extracting 

 outfit screened in on a low wheeled wagon. 



I use the latest improved reversible ex- 

 tractors, run by a 2H horse power gasoline 

 engine. It also runs a large fan similar to 

 an electric fan the honey runing through a 

 a cheese-cloth strainer into a iso-gallon tank 

 on the outside the uncapping box has a 

 false bottom with water healed by gasoline 

 Half of the capping box has a screen and 

 bottom to catch the liquid honey The cap- 

 pings after draining are shoveled over into 

 another division where they melt and run 

 into a small tank, and the wax forms into a 

 cake. The honey being heated has lost its 

 flavor and is also dark, and is kept to winter 

 weak colonies 



I supply a large number of stores for the 

 retail trade, put up in 2. 3, 5 and 10 pound 

 friction-top pails with my label with direc- 

 tions for melting if kept until cool weather 

 and granulating in the fall I melt it all as I 

 putitupovera slow fire,settingsixcansin 

 a tank of water with irons under them to 

 allow the water to pass under, being careful 

 about over-heating, as it takes off the flavor 

 and makes the honey dark. 



I grade my honey and set the price according 

 to color and flavor; no dark or strong honey 

 is put up for table use. Heretofore all grades 

 of honey were dumped on our local market 

 at a very low price, even the sweet water or 

 nectar just as it comes from the flowers was 



extracted before evaporated or sealed and 

 sold for honey. I am writing frequent arti- 

 cles in our local papers, urging the beekeep- 

 ers to ripen their honey and grade it, and I 

 also urge the consumers to always sample 

 it before buying, as there is as much differ- 

 ence in honey as in butler. Two women 

 may have their cows in the same pasture; 

 the one makes a fancy grade and gets a 

 good price the other can hardly give it away. 

 So it is with beekeepers one-half mile apart, 

 one allows the bees to ripen it and gets a 

 fancy grade, the other extracts as fast as 

 gathered, gets nearly double the weight, but 

 not fit for table use. B. A. Hadsell. 



Buckeye, Ariz. 



The Crop in Quebec 



The year igiswas a disastrous year for me. 

 as white clover was completely missing It 

 is the most important hcney plantof Quebec. 

 I harvested only 7So pounds of honey, and 

 I liad to feed over 800 pounds of sugar syrup 

 for winter. 



Many apiarists of my region lost 40 to 50 

 percent of their colonies during the winter. 

 Mine were put in the cellar Nov 6. and were 

 taken out April 28. i«i6 — I74days in the cellar. 



■This year, white clover was everywhere, 

 in the meadows and the pastures. We had 

 15 rainy days in June and >; in July The 

 crop began on July i and ended July 25. but 

 in that short time my 112 colonies harvested 

 nearly po o pounds of honey and increased 

 to 160 strong colonies for winter The col- 

 ony on scales increased at several times 12 

 and 13 pounds per day. Its total increase in 

 honey weight was 1B7 pounds. Of this, the 

 storage in supers was no pounds Some of 

 our best colonies reached 200 pounds. How 

 is that for 25 days of harvest ? 



JaC'jUES Verret. 



Charlesbourg. Quebec Sept. 5. 



How to Prevent Robbing 



I am 16 years of age and beginning bee- 

 keeping, and have a few colonies of my own. 

 I have watched my bees continually, and as 

 some bees were inclined to rob their neigh- 

 bors I tried to devise some way to prevent 

 this. I have a bottom board which extends 

 about 3 or 3>4 inches in front of the hive en- 

 trance or a small porch) over which I placed 

 a small board i or i!'2 inches wide. As the 

 robber bees try to sneak into the hive they 

 have to alight and walk a short space; 

 otherwise they would fly right inside or 

 rush by the guards. This is not necessary 

 except on a weak colony. 



Hoping that this will perhaps benefit 

 others, as I think it has helped me. 



Carol Weber. 



San Antonio. Tex.. June 20. 



[The idea expressed in this letter from 

 one of our young lovers of the bee is cor- 

 rect. Anything which will compel the rob- 

 bers to walk a few steps as they pass by the 

 entrance guards will prevent robbing. A 

 short tunnel made of lath, covering the en- 

 trance will serve a similar purpose. But 

 the best thing in our opinion is a bunch of 

 loose, fine grass thrown over the entrance. 

 The guards station themselves in this and 

 no robber can get by except where the col- 

 ony is so utterly demoralized that they have 

 no guards. Then, if the colony is worth 

 saving, and if you can ascertain which is the 

 robbing colony, the only safe thing to do is 

 to " swap" them, place the one on the stand 

 of the other. But if the robbed colony is 

 queenless, it is best to break it up and give 

 its bees to a neighboring hive.— Editor.) 



The Iowa Beekeepers' Association 



will hold their fifth annual me ting at 

 Des Moines, Dec. 6 and 6. Everybody 

 who keeps bees or loves the bees, is in- 

 vited to come and will be welcome. 

 The meetings will be held in the Cham- 

 ber of Commerce in the Shops Build- 

 ing, corner of Eighth and Walnut Sts. 



Write for program and other infor- 

 mation which will be mailed as soon as 

 issued. 



Hamlin B. Miller, Sec.-Treas. 



Marshalltown, Iowa. 



