American l^ee Journal 



December, igio. 



W=^^^^^^ 



had splendid success. I used this and ullier 

 circumstances of like character to show the 

 importance of the bee-industry. 



We have over 40.000 bee-keepers in Mis- 

 souri, according to the Labor Dureau. and 

 the industry amounts to considerably more 

 than a million dollars per year; that, with 

 the help that bees are to fruit-Browing, 

 makes tlie keeping of bees ciaite important. 



We beekeepers of Missouri had our State 

 convention at Sedalia during the State Kair 

 week. We had a good and harmonious meet- 

 ing. I was re-elected president. Mr. Stewart, 

 of Hopkins, vice-president, and M. E. Trible. 

 of Marshall, secretary and treasurer. Our 

 foul brood inspector. M. E. Darby, was in 

 charge of the apiarian exhibit at the Fair. 

 and it surely was a nice one, and much the 

 best we have ever had. He showed a map 

 of Missouri built out by the bees, which at- 

 tracted much attention and comment. He 

 also had a large exhibit of honey, some of 

 which was as nice as any I have ever seen 

 anywhere. This e.xhibit was a great adver- 

 tisement for the bee-industry, and Mr. Darby 

 merits great praise for his skill in making 

 such a good show. He is doing much excel- 

 lent work in Missouri for the industry, as 

 lie is attending the fairs and congresses of 

 the Immigration Board at different places in 

 Missouri, and making addresses and doing 

 things for the bee-business. He is consid- 

 ering a show at St. Louis at the coming Land 

 Congress in December. I think. 



\Ve think, in Missouri, that the oee-busi- 

 ness is looking up. and will take its proper 

 place among the other industries of the 

 State. We are working to that end in our 

 Association, and we have a goodly number 

 of bee-keepers on our roll as members: yet 

 there are hundreds that are not members, 

 and who do nothing toward helping in this 

 matter, and we need them. Our inspection 

 work is doing all possible under the condi- 

 tions it has to encounter, yet this could be 

 much extended if we had more help in mem- 

 bership and forces, as we could secure a 

 better appropriation and help to carry on 

 the work; so many are indifferent about 

 making any effort at all to help, only them- 

 selves. I W. ROUSK. 



Mexico. Mo. ^_^^_^^^_ 



Bees Packed and Honey Sold 



Winter weather commenced Nov. 5. with 

 6 inches of snow and cold weather up to 

 now— Nov. iq; and still coming. My bees are 

 all packed but about 100 colonies. Honey is 

 all sold at a good price, and orders for 10.000 

 pounds returned— for buckwheat extracted, 

 which is growing in favor with many. 



W. L. COGGSHALI,. 



Groton. N. Y.. Nov. iq. 



Splendid Fall Honey-Flow 



1 have had a splendid tall honey-flow; .1700 

 pounds of hue honey from 30 colonies is the 

 record of the past season in spite of the 

 fearful drouth we have had. Goldenrod. 

 heartsease and asters were abundant; in 

 fact, the whole woods was like one large 

 flower-garden. During the cold and back- 

 ward spell we had in May. and while other 

 bee-keepers let their colonies starve, my 

 bees were fed and again given the best of 

 care. During the drouth keeping them up 

 to their best is. I think, one reason why they 

 have done so well. G. A. Barbisch. 



La Crescent. Minn.. Oct. 28. 



Anti-Spraying Law Needed 



In the spring of ivo>j. and last spring (iQio), 

 we had the heaviest loss in bees through the 

 Shenandoah Valley that has ever been 

 known in Virginia. The principal cause 

 seems to come from spraying fruit-trees 

 when in full bloom, with arsenic of lead. 

 The bees that died seemed to have plenty of 

 old honey in the hive and were starting to 

 rear brood, but when they commenced to 

 work on the fruit-bloom, you could go to the 

 Lives in the morning and raise them from 

 the bottom and lind handfuls of dead bees, 

 until the whole colony was dead. 



The northern and western parts of Vir- 

 ginia have become a great fruit-growing 

 country, and the fruitgrowers have been 

 spraying their trees when in full bloom with 

 arsenic, to protect from the codling-moth; 

 and when our bees sip the nectar from the 

 bloom they get the poison which is death to 

 them. They do not realize the beneht our 

 bees are in pollinating their fruit that they 

 may receive a good crop, and it would be 

 plenty of time for them to wait until the 

 petals fall to spray for the codling-moth. 



We bee-keepers of Virginia have no asso- 

 ciation that I know of, and what we want to 



do is to get together and organize an associa- 

 tion so that we may formulate a bill to put 

 before our Legislature, to prohibit the 

 spraying of fruit-trees until the petals fall. 

 so that our bees may be protected and have 

 the benefit of the first nectar that .Nature 

 has provided for them. We also want to get 

 the fruit-growers together and explain to 

 them the benefit our bees are in producing 

 a crop of fruit, and show them the heavy 

 loss they are bringing upon us bee-keepers 

 because of their ignorance. 



Now. bee-keepers, we are in need of some 

 protection, and I trust that every bee-keeper 

 of Virginia who reads this will take some 

 interest in this matter, so that we may get 

 together and have some protection for our 

 little busy bees before the spring of loti. We 

 also would be glad to have bee-keepers from 

 other States give us some assistance. 



T. A. Ckabili-. 



St. David's Church, Va., Oct. 20. 



Honey All Sold — Bees in Fine Shape — 

 Honey-Tea 



It is impossible to get a carload of honey 

 in this (Unita) county, as there was a Cali- 

 fornia man here this fall and bought every 

 pound of honey he could get. I do not think 

 there are soo pounds to be had here at any 

 price. I have sold every pound I had to 

 spare. 



Bees are in fine shape for winter. We had 

 a good crop of fine honey, but lost half of it 

 on account of cans. I got mine Sept. 5. loio. 



Geo. Thome has tried making tea out of 

 honey for bad colds, and has learned that it 

 is fine. Please trv it and see what it will do 

 for a cold in your climate. Make it and 

 drink it as hot as you can. just before going 

 to bed; or not drink it so hot. two or three 

 times a day. G. W. Vangundy. 



Jensen. Utah. Nov. 10. 



A Good Report from Kansas 



I have been reading the American Bee 

 Journal off and on for the past 12 years, but 

 don't remember reading a word from a 

 Washington Co.. Kan., bee man or woman, 

 so I will tell my experience in this part of 

 Kansas. 



I bought a farm 6 years ago for J5000. but 

 had only Sioo to pay down on it. and now I 

 have it all paid for. have built a big barn, a 

 30x52 foot basement under it. and also a 

 new house. I have never had more than 12 

 to 15 colonies of bees, and they have always 

 paid my taxes, fenced my farm hog-tight, and 

 cross-fenced it hog-tight, and we always 

 have enough honey to eat. I got 1800 pounds 

 of comb honey the past summer, and had 

 only 12 colonies. I had some colonies that 

 gathered 200 pounds. The bee-pasture is 

 very good here. We have what is called 

 smartweed— or oxheart as some call it— and 

 alfalfa, by the hundreds ot acres. Italian 

 bees are the best kind according to my ex- 

 perience. They get more honey from the 

 alfalfa. We have also a wild cucumber vine 

 that is a great honey-plant. I sold my honey 

 for 12^ cents per section this year. I use 

 4'4 by 4!'4. and 7 to the foot, and full sheets 

 of foundation in sections and brood-frames. 



I suppose there are a great many readers 

 who wonder what we raise in this part of 

 the Globe. I raise corn, oats, kaffir corn, 

 sweet-corn. cane, buckwheat, hard wheat, 

 cattle, horses, hogs, poultry, potatoes, and 

 all kinds of garden truck. 



We were married in IQ03. and have one 

 little girl 5 vears old. She helps me with 

 the bees quite a bit. and $10,000 would not 

 buy our home today. The bees never let us 

 get hard up. D. W. Rupp. 



Washington Co.. Kan., Nov. 24. 



Black Bees for Maine 



This is a potato county instead of a bee 

 county. We have grown in this county, this 

 season. 20.000.000 bushels of potatoes. We 

 grow more potatoes than any other county 

 in the United States. Still, we keeii a few- 

 bees up here near the North Pole, and the 

 duality of honey produced I don't think is 

 excelled anywhere in this country, and cer- 

 tainly it is not equaled in the eastern part. 



My bees are in very good condition to go 

 into the cellar this year. We all winter our 

 bees indoors here, as the winters are long 

 and cold. Bees go into winter quarters 

 about Nov. isth to 2.';th. and are taken out 

 about .^pril i.'ith |to May 1st. It is often they 

 do not get a real good flight during the month 

 of November. 



A bee-keeper starting this season with 74 

 coloniesof black beesand 2 Italians, secured 



L'^tonsof comb lioiiey and one ton of ex- 

 tracted. This, in a land where the surplus 

 flow is only about 4 weeks long, and often 

 with days of rainy weather, is not so bad a 

 showing for the despised blacks, for which 

 you have nothing but contempt, is it ? 



At our recent meeting of bee-keepers the 

 question was asked. "Which have you found 

 the best bee. the black or the Italian '■'" 

 Every one who had tried them said the black, 

 or our native bee is best. " Let the Italians 

 alone." Are we all crazy up here, or does 

 locality make a difference, after all? The 

 man who tells the story of the luberman's 

 wife being a negress may create a laugh, but 

 that is not reason or logic. Facts are what 

 give weight to an argument, I do not know 

 of a single instance in this county where 

 Italians have been tried but that they have 

 been discarded for the native bee. Better 

 be fair in this matter and see if the other 

 fellow might not be right in some cases, 

 even in the minority. 



Is it possible that our native bee is not the 

 genuine black held in contempt by Italian 

 queen-breeders and Italian bee-keepers? 

 'rhey are not jet black, but nearer brown, 

 showing distincth' the gray rings. I had a 

 queen from Texas this fall, a Bauat. and 1 

 suppose her escorts were of her own family, 

 but I could not tell them from our native 

 bee except being a trifle smaller, which. I 

 think, was due to their long confinement 

 with only candy for food. O. B, Griffin. 



Caribou. Maine. Oct. 27. 



No Black Bees for Him 



I am really surprised to "hear" through 

 the American Bee Journal the words of 

 praise for the black bee by prominent men. 

 Allow me. therefore, to express my experi- 

 ence with the blacks. 



In 1870 my father got a colony of bees 

 which wer J " little blacks," We had them 

 for4 years, and during that time their quality 

 remained the same. For ? reasons I found 

 them objectionable; they were slow breed- 

 ers, poor honey-gatherers, and quick sting- 

 ers. I know once, when a sw-arm issued, 

 that man and beast had to seek refuge in a 

 bee-tight shelter. These traits seem to be 

 characteristic of the blacks, if they are all 

 like the specimen which I observed so long. 

 I agree that they are not worth the powder 

 to blow them up. but they are worth their 

 flight-hole closed up with a rag dipped in 

 melted sulphur, and then a match, after be- 

 ing ignited, held thereon. 



In 188) my father bought another colony of 

 bees which must have been either mismated 

 Italians or Carniolans. About one-third 

 showed yellow bands like i-banded Italians, 

 and the rest were leather colored. They 

 were very gentle, quick breeders, fast 

 honey-gatherers, and excessive swarmers. 

 They were also quick in building combs, 

 and they capped their honey snow-white, 

 even when that honey was of a dark color. 

 The year after they appeared nearly all be- 

 came brown or leather-colored bees. They 

 are far superior to the blacks described, but 

 they are sometimes called "black" bees. 

 This. I suppose, explains the secret. The 

 black bee. which is sometimes so highly 

 praised, is not at all the genuine " little 

 black bee" of Germany, but a strain of bees 

 resembling the black bees somewhat in out- 

 ward appearance. 



Bro. Alphonse Veith. 



St. Meinrad. Ind. 



"The Practical Bee-Gxiicle" 



Six years ago the first edition of the 

 Irish Bee-Guide was published. A sec- 

 ond edition has now appeared, and the 

 title has been clianged to "The Practi- 

 cal Bee-Guide." Certainly the charac- 

 ter of the work warrants the change of 

 name. It has something more than 230 

 pages, measuring 7xl;'4 inches each, 

 written by Rev. J. G. Digges, M. A., the 

 genial editor of that sprightly niontlily, 

 the Irish Bee Journal. The style is 

 clear, and of such character as to make 

 the book pleasant reading, in spite of 

 the fact that it is so compactly written 

 that it would be hard to get more facts 

 into the same number of pages. 



We can order it for you, bound in art 

 linen, for $1.10; or with a year's sub- 

 scription to the American Bee Journal 

 —both for ?l.iX). 



