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February, 191' 



American ISee Journal] 



METHOD USED BY J. 1'. LUCAS AT THE FAIR TO SHOW THAT BEES CANNOT PUNCTURE SOUND FRUIT 



half missing-, soil appears tome that hard 

 spring weather has a bad effect on Queens 

 when they are layinc to almost their full 

 capacity. It matters not so much how bad 

 or cold it is when they are not laying. They 

 will not be injured as if full of eggs at the 

 time. I have had queens to do good work 

 the fourth year. I usually let the bees do 

 their own superseding unless the Queen is 

 bad or her bees undesirable in some re- 

 spect. I never replace a queen just because 

 she has attained a certain age. 



I believe that a queen wintered in a very 

 small colony and left to run short of stores 

 will very often be injured and almost worth- 

 less thereafter; while if she had been in a 

 strong colony with plenty of honey she 

 would have been good. R. A Shults. 



Cosby. Tenn. 



Honey Crop a Failure 



The honey crop in these parts this past 

 year was a failure, many not getting nectar 

 enough to winter through. 



From ten colonies. springcount. I gotabout 

 too pounds: but think that two will not win- 

 ter through, as I ha\e no lime to feed them. 

 The others bid fair to come along all right. 

 I winter outdoors in an open shed, with 

 double walled hives. I increased four 

 swarms by natural swarming the past sea 

 son. W. D. Stambauoh. 



Richelieu, Nebr. 



Exhibited at Katisas Fair 



I am sending some pictures; they are part 

 of my display at the Kansas Fair. I have 24 

 different kinds of honey, wliich make a nice 

 display. It is quite interesting to many to 

 know honey is gathered from so many differ- 

 ent sources I tried to show the people that 

 bees did not destroy fruit. I made a hive 

 as nearly as I could of glass and put a full 

 colony of bees inio it. and in-tlie supers 1 

 put in peaches and grapes, as you can see. 

 I ketit them thus through the fair a week, 

 nearly two weeks in a show window, and 

 the fruit was not molested. 



Next year I shall snow the people how 

 honey is e.xtracted by operating the extrac- 

 tor on the Fair grounds, which will be some- 

 thing new to many, as I was asked more 

 than a thousand times how I got the honey 

 out of the comb. 



Yes. we had a grand good Fair, and every- 

 thing went off fine, and it looks now as if it 

 might be better next year. I got eight ist 

 premiums, eight 2d, and two 3d. I shall try 

 and do a little better nexttime. 



Bees did not do very well here this sea- 

 son. I take a little extra pains with mine by 

 feeding in the early spring, so as to be ready 

 when a flow comes, and right around me 

 there are six or seven acres of raspberries 

 which gave me some very nice light amber 

 honey. I^ast spring I sowed quite a bit of 

 catnip and hoarhound seed, also a lot of 

 sweet clover seed, so I am doing all 1 can to 

 give them plenty of pasture. J. P. Lucas. 



Topeka. Kan.. Oct. 15. 



Good Prospects for Texas 



This is the longest wet spell that south 

 Texas has any record of. We have not seen 

 the sun for three weeks The ground is 

 thoroughly soaked, and the honev plants 

 are thicker tiian usual and well advanced. 

 A freeze does not hurt them. We have had 

 no frost yet. and have fine tomatoes, beans 

 and other vegetables in open garden. 



Our prospects for an early honey flow 

 could not be better at this time of year. 



Grant Anderson. 



San Benito. Tex.. Dec. 2,1. 



A Washington Report 



1 started in the spring with ^^ colonies, 

 had one swarm, lost one colony, so I have .?2 

 colonies prepared for winter, and win- 

 tering on the summer stands. It seldom gets 

 colder than 2n degrees above zero, and the 

 bees have a flight nearly every week. After 

 having given all the colonies ^o iiounds of 

 sealed combs. I have sold 1000 pounds and 

 have about n'« pounds for sale. Crop will 



perhaps average 75 pounds per colony. I 

 have some 10 or 12 supers not extracted yet. 

 I run for extracted honey altogether, and 

 sell it at 10 cents a pound to customers. I 

 never sell any to stores. I put it up in 

 the H gallon Mason jars, put a nice label on. 

 and they go like hot cakes at 60 cents a jar. 

 This jar holds 5 pounds, and costs me here 

 $g 50 a gross. Some of my customers senti 

 the jars back to be filled again. This year I 

 got some pure fireweed honey, about 300 

 pounds. O. K. Rice. 



Wahkiakum Co . Wash. 



Comb Taken Out for Wintering 



Bees are wintering finely here so far on 

 the summer stands. They have been flying 

 nearly every day until the last ten days. F'or 

 wintering light colonies. I remove one frame 

 from the hive and spread the frames, leav- 

 ing one frame to fill the space of two. mak- 

 ing sure to have plenty of honey on each 

 side. This gives the bees a chance to form 

 a more compact cluster, and I never have 

 any trouble to winter them in good shape. 

 and they commence to breed earlier than if 

 they had all the combs. 



I have ne\'cr seen this metliod spoken of 

 in the Bee .Journal, and it may be of use to 

 some that have never tried it. I replace the 

 extra frame before time to build comb 



Delta. Colo.. Dec. 20. Geo. F. Lester. 



Following Instinct of the Bees 



I have i.so colonies of bees, and have had 

 bees for over 50 years, and I am convinced 

 the nearer the beekeeper conforms to tlie 

 instinct or nature of the bees the nearer he 

 will be to perfection. The feedingof bees 

 should be as near to pure honey as is possi- 

 ble. I usually have enough honey that is 

 not salable to feed in spring to produce 

 early lireeding; for this is the one impor- 

 tant time for strong swarms. 



My bet-s produced iS cases of marketable 

 honey the past season, notwithstanding the 

 months of May and lune were cold and wet. 



Marshficld. Wis.. Jan. 9. Jay C. Davis. 



