DEVOTED TO DEEH ATSD HONEY, AND HOME INTERESTS. 



Vol. VIII. 



SEPTEMBER 1, 1880. 



No. 9. 



A. I. ROOT, 



Publisher and Proprietor, \ 



Medina, O. 



Published Monthly. 



Established in 1873 



fTKRMS: $1.00 Per Annum, in 

 I Advance; 2 Copies for $1.90; 3 

 I for $2.75; 5 for $4.00; 10 or 



nu»r, 75c each. Single Number, 10c. 

 | Additions to clubs may be made at 

 • I club rates. 



NOTES FIIOH THE 1SANNF.K APIARY. 



No. 10. 



ABOUT MYSELF, MY BEES, BUCKWHEAT, B VBIES, ETC. 



¥0U want me to "tell you about that flow of 

 basswood honey, what I am doing-, and how 

 many bees I have." Well, friend Novice, I 

 presume I should talk more about myself, if it were 

 not for my excessive modesty; but, seeing that you 

 have asked me to say something about myself, I 

 will "pitch right in." 



I began the season with 15 colonies, and I still have 

 the same number; but by taking frames of brood 

 from these 15 colonies, I have formed 80, good, 

 strong, two-frame nuclei, which are yielding me a 

 crop of about queens per day. Basswood began 

 blossoming about ten days earlier than usual, fur- 

 nished honey quite plentifully for four or five days, 

 when,— "click," and there was a change in the pro- 

 gramme; the basswood season was over, and bees 

 were poking their noses here and there, and trying' 

 to rob. Visions of grape-sugar feeding began to 

 dance unpleasantly before my eyes, when, one 

 morning, I said, "Whew ! what is it that smells so? 

 it can't be possible, can It?" Open came a hive. 

 "Yes; it certainly is buckwheat honey; but where 

 do the bees get it? My buckwheat has hardly com- 

 menced to blossom, as yet ; just see what 'squads' 

 of bees ai'e going across the road ! They rise and 

 go above the woods. Oh ! I remember now ; 3?4 

 miles away are 50 acres of buckwheat. It was sown 

 early, to be plowed under as a fertilizer, and that is 

 where the buckwheat honey is coming from." The 

 yield of honey from this source has not been large, 

 but it has been steady (just right for queen rearing), 

 and the combs filled up slowly. Now, Aug. 11th, my 

 buckwheat field is as white as a snow drift, and the 

 bees, not having so far to fly, are doing a little bet- 

 ter. 1 shall not have more than 500 lbs. of white 

 honey this season, from my 15 colonies ; while, last 

 season, from colonies, I had 1000 lbs. ; but I have 

 sold 166 queens, and hope to sell as many more. 



I do not think any one of your readers has en- 

 joyed himself any more this season than I have with 

 my bees ; this summer has seemed like one long, 

 bright, happy holiday. 



In the Dec. No. of last year, I told you of our little 



brown eyed twins, Nora and Cora ; well, tha two 

 little "mischiefs" and their papa went back in the 

 field, the other day, to pick some blackberries, and I 

 tell you it would have done you good to have seen 

 them tickle and laugh when they saw where the ber- 

 ries really came from. Everything passed off pleas- 

 antly, and the berries disappeared at the rate of 

 about 60 per minute, until a cat bird began to 

 "squawk" in the bushes near by, when both Utile 

 "chicks" pointed towards the house, began to cry, 

 and say "Baby, baby." They thought it was the 

 "new baby" crying, and they never allow her to cry 

 a single minute, without "something being done." 

 So home we went, where we found a new number of 

 Gleanings. In looking it through, we found a new 

 picture, and, of course, the "little folks" must see 

 it, and one of them, friend Novice, said, "A man, a 

 man," and put one of her little, berry-stained fin- 

 gers right square on your forehead. If you should 

 ever see that number of Gleanings, you would 

 know where it had been. 



ITALIANIZING IN THE FALL. 



When is the best time to Italianize, is a question 

 that I am often called upon to answer, and, as so 

 much depends upon circumstances, it is difficult to 

 give a definite answer ; but, taking everything into 

 consideration, I should prefer the fall. Now, queens 

 are plenty and cheap ; you can get any quantity of 

 them, get them just when you want them, and for 

 about one-half what they would have cost last 

 spring. The queens that breeders now have on 

 hand were reared during the warm, honey weather, 

 and are the best of queens. The hottest weather is 

 past ; the cold nights are not yet here ; it is just the 

 right kind of weather in which to ship queens, and 

 have them arrive in splendid condition, and hence 

 you will be more likely to succeed in introducing 

 them. You have more time now to attend to the 

 business; there is no "spring work" to hurry you, 

 no "bees swarming," and no honey to extract or 

 "take oif." In making a change of queens, a colony 

 is usually left queenless a day or two, sometimes a 

 week ; this docs not matter so much in the fall, as 

 the queen does not lay more than one-half as much 

 as she docs in the spring. There is one objection, 

 however, to Italianizing in the fall ; that is, when 

 honey is not coming in, it is more difficult to intro- 

 duce queens ; but, by feeding the coloay two or 

 three days, while introducing the queen, this ob- 



