210 



June, 1915. 



American ^ee Journal 



A CLOSER VIEW-MONASTERY APIARY. OLDENBERG. IND, 



the fruit was cracked by moisture. The 

 conseciuences were that tlie honey fer- 

 mented in the winter Quarters, and the bees 

 dwindled away. I did not set one pound of 

 surplus honey last year, while three years 

 ago I had i^.ooo pounds. C. W. Lang. 



La Crosse, Wis., May lo. 



Colorado Prospects 



We are having lots of rain and cloLuly 

 weather. Bees are not building up well, and 

 a good many are weak. We liope for better 

 weather soon. WEsLEy Koster. 



Boulder. Colo.. April 15. 



Prospects Not Good 



We are having the coldest spell here that 

 I have experienced for years. Nearly the 

 whole soring has been cold and cloudy. The 

 ground is very wet, and the season is fast 

 advancing, and we need warm weather to 

 accomplish results. I am feeding many col- 

 onies. This is unusual following a wet win- 

 ter. We cannot tell what the crop will be. 

 M. H. Mendleson. 



Ventura. Calif.. April io. 



Wintered Well on Aster Honey 



I had 51 colonies last fall that I wintered, 

 and they had nothine but aster honey. It 

 was the second timesince I have been keep- 

 ing bees that aster had any honey, and that 

 is since 1008. I was afraid my loss would be 

 heavy, but I lost only one colony, and it was 

 light in bees in the fall, and the first cold 

 spell we had they died. I had five colonies 

 that were aueenless in the spring, but this 

 was not any fault of the stores, and there 

 were plenty of bees. 



The spring has not been very favorable, 

 the weather was too cold through March 

 and part of April, and it is very dry. There 

 was no rain from March 22 until May 7, 



There won't be any white clover here this 

 year, as what little there was last year was 

 killed by the dry weather last fall. We did 

 not get any white clover last year. 



Percy. 111., May 10. James T. Johnson. 



Making Separators 



I enclose a photograph of an aparatus for 

 perforating separators. It is a rough looking 

 machine, but does fine work. The perfora- 

 tions are three-sixteenths of an inch wide, 

 and i'2 inches long There is an iron plate 

 below with three slots through which the 

 steel blades punch out the strips as shown 

 in photograph. The blades have chisel-like 

 ends, oneendstartingfirst andgoingthrough 

 with a shearing motion. It does not split 

 the separators, and they will last longer 

 than one cares to use them. I have several 

 hundred that have been in use over six 

 years, and have been scraped repeatedly, 

 aud will have to be thrown away still intact, 

 as they are getting too much propolized to 

 use further. 



Bees work the sides and corners of supers 

 with such separators better than they do 

 with solid ones, making more uniform 

 weight. To use the machine I sit astride 

 with the left foot in the loop of the iron 

 lever, and right foot in the wire loop which 

 works the fender and removes theseparator 

 from the blades without breaking. It will 

 perforate over 200 per hour. 



The steel for blades cost .50 cents. It was 

 sawed in three pieces with a hack saw and 

 dressed to si/e with a file It took Quite a 

 little tinkering to get it adjusted just right, 

 but I am well satisfied with the time siicnt. 

 as that is all it cost except w cents. 



Bees have wintered unusually well. White 

 clover was siilendid last fall, but the ground 

 has been covered with ice during tlie past 

 three weeks, which may kill it out some if it 

 holds much longer. D. G Little. 



Hartley, Iowa, March 11. 



EAT HOKEY 



D G. LITTLE S HOME-MADE MACHINE FOR CUTTING SEPARATORS. 



