January, 1915. 



American Hee Journal 



13 



t is foulbrood 1 can't find any trace of 

 it. The bees are just naturally lazy ex- 

 cept when they want to sting. Another 

 peculiar thing is they didn't swarm a 

 single time last spring ; something I 

 had never known them to neglect. 

 They were still in the box-hives. 



"If you can give me any information 

 or tell me what to do for the above it 

 will certainly be appreciated. Also tell 

 rne what you think of the Ocklocknee 

 river for bees, from the Georgia and 

 Florida line down for a space of 30 or 

 40 miles." J. T. DeLonh. 



Hinson, Fla. 



I don't think you have any serious 

 disease in your apiary, but a bad case 

 of dwindling, partly from natural 

 cause and partly from transferring. If 

 the honey flow is postponed for some 

 reason the bees dwindle. As soon as 

 you find they are running short of 

 stores you should feed. Keep plenty 

 of stores in the hives and all colonies 

 headed with good queens. 



[The last recommendation is impor- 

 tant. Those colonies may be queen- 

 less. — Editor.] 



No Honey 



"I have made a complete failure with 

 honey production. I ordered some 10- 

 frarae hives for chunk honey. I put 

 them up plain without any comb start- 

 ers. They work all right in the bot- 

 tom story, but will not work at all in 

 the super. It takes them two seasons 

 or more to fill the bottom story with 

 honey, so you see I have not gotten 

 any honey." H. L. Eason. 



keysville, Ga. 



Your case is similar to many others, 

 not because there has been no honey to 

 gather, but because the hives were not 

 properly supplied. I am sure if you 

 had used plenty of foundation both in 

 the supers and bodies you would have 

 had better success. If instructions are 



not properly carried out with the mod- 

 ern hives, better not buy them, as it is 

 tying up money. Then, too, your 10- 

 frame hives are too large for this sec- 

 tion. You could have gotten better 

 results with a smaller or 8-frame hive, 

 but as you have started with the In- 

 frame hives you had better continue 

 with them. 



When the first honey-flow comes 

 ne.xt spring transfer the bees you have 

 into modern hives or straighten the 

 combs in the frames which they have 

 already built, which may be crosswise, 

 then put full sheets of foundation into 

 the sections or frames in the supers, 

 and the bees will go up, build comb 

 and store honey. Comb foundation is 

 a great inducement to get them to 

 build comb and get it built where you 

 want it. 



Wants to Locate Back in Home State 



"I am a city raised man contemplat- 

 ing going into the country, also think- 

 ing favorably of bees. I would like 

 the benefit of your experience in choice 

 of literature for a beginner, best kind 

 of hives to use, and probable cost of a 

 small beginning. 



"At present I contemplate seeking a 

 location in Cherokee Co., Ga. What 

 have you to say regarding that part of 

 the State? 



'■ My ideas now arefor fruit and bees; 

 what they will be when I get on the 

 ground is hard to tell. I feel pretty 

 sure of returning to Georgia this fall 

 or next spring at the latest. I am try- 

 ing to '' line up" the costs of various 

 things theoretically." 



Edwin Hambly. 



Los Angeles, Calif. 



The mountain section of our coun- 

 try is good for both bees and fruit, the 

 two would go very well together. 

 Cherokee Co., Ga., would be a very 

 good section to locate in for this pur- 

 pose, but counties farther north would 



be better, say Habersham, Rabun or 

 Franklin counties. 



Any of the bee literature advertised 

 in the bee-papers would be a great help 

 to you, and the more you read on the 

 subject the better. The 8-frame hive 

 would be more suitable with the regu- 

 lar shallow extracting supers for chunk 

 honey. Fifty or seventy-five dollars 

 well invested in this branch would be 

 a good start. 



CHAS. I'. M. STONES APIARY AND HONEY HOUSE AT LAMANDA PAKK. CALIF 



A Successful Venture 



"Mr. Wilder: — I took your advice 

 and went South last winter and bought 

 a carload of bees near Savannah, Ga., 

 fixed them up and they gathered 

 enough honey to pay expenses, and I 

 carried them back North, starting 

 May 12. My average was 30 pounds, 

 spring flow, and 40 pounds during sum- 

 mer, so I came out ahead. I am com- 

 ing back again this winter and carry 

 out the same thing, but I want to go to 

 Brunswick or Waycross, Ga., to gather 

 up the carloiid of bees in any kind of 

 hives and fix them up as I did the car- 

 load last season. I bought 'box- 

 gums ' for $1.00 each last season. 



"I was much surprised at the south- 

 ern hospitality and enjoyed the Dixie 

 climate immensely. Any information 

 will be greatly appreciated." 



New York. A. Irish. 



Buying bees in one part of the coun- 

 try, or moving them from one part of 

 the country into another can be made 

 a success if it is done economically 

 from and to such points at each end 

 of the line as will assure good rates. 



I don't think you will find any trou- 

 ble in getting all the bees you want at 

 reasonable prices in either of the sec- 

 tions you mention. I believe you are 

 on the right line in such an undertak- 

 ing, and the beekeepers would be glad 

 to hear from you again giving more 

 particulars. 



^ • »■ 



Discouraged 



" I am a young beekeeper (but not so 

 young a man) and want a little infor- 

 mation. I have 8 or 10 colonies and 

 took only about 200 pounds, several of 

 them being weak and not producing 

 any surplus at all. I use the 8-frame 

 hive and shallow extracting supers, but 

 not having an extractor I cut the combs 

 out in nice strips, putting them in large 

 mouth glass jars without crushing, 

 then filling with extracted honey. I 

 have no trouble in selling this at 10 

 cents a pound, but the trouble with me 

 is that I cannot produce much honey. 

 I think I will get an extractor next 

 year. Should I wire the shallow ex- 

 tracting frames ? Don't you think I 

 ought to use the 10-frame hive ? Not 

 more than half of my colonies yield 

 surplus; what is the cause of this? 



" After the honey-flow was over about 

 June 1, I tried to make six artificial 

 swarms and made a mess of it. I pro- 

 ceeded thus : I took three frames of 

 brood and placed them in empty hives 

 with a comb of honey beside these 

 three brood combs ; some had queen- 

 cells and some had none. But I soon 

 found queen-cells on those that had 

 none at first. As there was no honey 

 coming in I had to feed them by put- 



