DEVOTED TO BEEW AIS U> HONEY, AJVI> HOME INTERESTS. 



Vol. VIII. 



JANUARY 1, 1880. 



No. 1. 



A. I. ROOT, 



Publisher and Proprietor. 

 Medina, O. 



•} 



Published monthly. 

 Established in 1873 



(TERITIS: « 1.00 Per Annum in Acl- 

 1 vance; 3 Copies for $ 2. 50; 5 for 83.75; 



. ( lOm more. 60c. each- Single Number, lOc. 



NOTES FROMTHE BANNER APIARY. 

 NO. 2. 



MY REPORT FOR '79. 



5TB AST month, I gave you the results of my bee- 

 Jfjyji keeping for '78, and I presume, if I should 

 wait until next June before telling- you what 

 my profits were for '79, I should give some figures 

 that the cold weather could not shrink; but I did so 

 well last season that, "boy like," I can't wait any 

 longer without telling of it. 



I came through the winter with ten colonies; some 

 of them were good, fair swarms, and some of them 

 "just squeezed through." The spring was cold and 

 backward, but I kept the bees well tucked up with 

 chaff cushions, gave them only as many combs as 

 they could cover, helped the weak colonies by occa- 

 sionally giving them frames of brood, and, if any 

 needed feeding, they were fed in the good old fash- 

 ioned way of giving them full frames of sealed hon- 

 ey. When warm weather finally came, and brought 

 with it the opening blossoms of the soft maple, wil- 

 low, elm, hard maple, etc., how soon the bees began 

 to "pick up," and the combs, brood, and bees had 

 that bright, thrifty look that is seen only when hon- 

 ey is coming in. 



The yield from fruit blossoms was very light, and 

 just as I was beginning to wonder how the bees were 

 to be kept busy until clover should blossom, the 

 dandelions stepped in and gave them a regular 

 "boost." 



Right here, please allow me to say a few words 

 about bees and dandelions. Before I commenced 

 keeping bees, dandelions were very scarce; I remem- 

 ber it well, because whenever Mrs. H. used to send 

 me out to pick dandelions for greens, I had to 

 "scrimmage" all around, and perhaps get sent back 

 three or four times, before I could find enough for 

 a "mess;" but since I have been keeping bees, dan- 

 delions have increased in numbers each year, and 

 last spiing our door-yard, the road-side, and the ad- 

 joining fields, reminded me of the " starry heavens." 

 The beauty of it was, that almost every bright, yel- 

 low "star" was "inhabited" by "Italians." 



Enough honey was gathered from dandelions to 

 keep brood rearing going on briskly, and to have 

 some stored in the brood combs besides. 



I • ad about 125 empty c< mbs, fr< m which I had 

 extract < d the honey ihe previous autumn, and then 

 had them cleaned up by hanging them in Simpl city 

 hives, and setting them over full swarms of bees. I 

 examined the bees, every day or two, and whenever 



I found a hive that was a little crowded, I put a 

 frame of nice, dry, worker comb in the centre of the 

 brood nest. Oh ! isn't it just fun to build up swarms, 

 when they once get started ! 



June 1st, I had ten, good, fair colonies. I now sold 

 one swarm, purchased an imported queen (my old 

 imported queen having died the previous autumn), 

 and commenced preparations for queen rearing. 



In the fore part of June, the bees began storing 

 honey from Alsike clover, and upper stories filled 

 with empty comb were given to nearly every swarm. 

 The bees worked faithfully upon the Alsike, and I 

 extracted about 300 lb. before the basswood harvest 

 commenced. (I will tell you more about my Alsike 

 clover, in a future article.) The yield from basswood 

 was so good, that I extracted 700 lb. in two weeks, 

 and then the honey harvest was over for '79, as 

 buckwheat and fall bloom were almost total failures. 



To keep brood rearing going on during August, 

 September, and October, I fed nearly a barrel of 

 grape sugar. I will give the particulars in another 

 article. 



From the 9 swarms that I had left the 1st of June, 

 I raised and sold 193 queens, had 1,000 lb. of extracted 

 honey, and increased the number of my colonies to 

 14. I have sold six swarms, so that at present I 

 have only eight. I have kept an exact account with 

 my bees, and, after paying all expenses, there is a 

 profit of just $200.00, if — if Itlon't lose any bees this 

 winter. W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Rogersville, Genesee Co., Mich., Dec. 13, 1879. 



Those who have written long articles to 

 show that it does not pay to raise queens at 

 the "ruinous prices 11 tor which they have 

 been offered would do well to ponder on the 

 above very practical report from one who is 

 but little more than an ABC scholar. One 

 more point; does it not pay better to keep a 

 few colonies of bees well cared for, rather 

 than to make such haste to get up into the 

 hundreds, and have them poorly cared for? 

 Friend II. enjoys his work with his bees 

 every month in the year, and it is because 

 he is "faithful in the few things 1? God has 

 given him to care for. 



QUEEN'S VOICES AND TALKING QUEENS. 



•yp FORGOT, when I sent for those queens, to re- 

 \ quest you to send one of Henderson's loud 

 talking queens; however, I accomplished, to 

 some extent, my wish. In introducing them, we 

 tried dilfereut ways with success. With one, I took 



