184 



CJ.KANLNGS LN HEii (UlLTHKf;. 



Mar. 



our markets would not be so overstocked, and 

 prices forced down so low. W. \V. MoKf^E. 



Dyers ville, la , Feb. 13, 1887. 



We are exceedingly obliged to these two 

 friends foi' the good suggestions they liave 

 made in retailing honey. To be able' to sell 

 our honey crop is halt the secret of our cho-. 

 sen pursuit. We should be glad to hear 

 from others on this subject, whether their 

 success has been good or ill. We all want 

 to know how, and there is no better way to 

 get honey introduced into families. 



l^EPHKTS ENC0aK^6IN6. 



WHAT WAS DONE WITH A NUCLEUS. 



X WILL furnish :^ou a report from the nucleus 

 ^ bought of you last spring-. 1 increased natu- 

 Hi rally to 4 good strong- colonies, all tine bright 

 -*■ fellows, and took a quantity of honey. They 

 are now well provided for, and suug-ly packed 

 away for the winter, all doing- nicely. I have, be- 

 sides, 8 hybrid colonies in good condition. 

 Jan. 27, 1887. M. G. Baxter. 



a large yield. Did you do th^: work alone,- 

 or did you employ helpV 



PROM 37 TO 70, AND .TOOO LBS. OF HONEY. 



I commenced the season last spring- with 37 stands, 

 increased to 70, and took 4500 ll)s. of comb and 500 

 of extracted h(me.v, nearlj' all from white clover. 



Winthrop, la., Jan. 25, 1887. E. P. Brintnall. 



A GOOD FLY. 



Bees had a good Hy Jan. 20. Only one colony dead 

 out of 146. Two more were in bad condition. I 

 united them, which leaves me 144 stocks, most of 

 which are in first-class condition. A. N: Draper. 



Upper Alton, 111., Jan. 31, 1887. 



HEALTH IMPROVED BY KNGAGING IN BEE-KEEP- 

 ING ; HOLY-LANDS. 



I have been keeping bees for fifteen years, but 1 

 took no interest in bee culture until 1882. 1 have 

 been sickly for a number ot years. I was advised 

 to go into the business, which T did; and up to this 

 date I have been wonderfully improved in health. 

 My strain of bees is of pure Holy-Land stock. I 

 have sold a large number of them at my home and 

 abroad, and they give perfect satisfaction. They 

 are docile in every way to work with. We have 

 quite a number of bee-men in this part Of the 

 country. Geo. D. Raudenbush. 



Reading, Berks Co., Pa. 



NEW HONEY IN OHIO ON THE FIRST DAY OF MAY. 



I commenced the season of 1886 with 11 swarms of 

 bees; lost 12 swarms the previous winter. The sea- 

 son opened up very early. I saw bees working on 

 apple-blossoms on Easter Sunday, April 25, 1886. 

 I had something similar to the Hill device over the 

 hives. I did not unpack my bees until pretty well 

 along in May. I left the devices on the hives. I ex- 

 amined some of my bees May 1, and I found that 

 one swarm had three or four pounds of honey built 

 under one of the said devices, so we had new honey 

 made in 1886, for supper, on the first day of May. 

 Can any one beat that ? I should like to hear from 

 them if they can. J. S. Barb. 



Bristol. O., Feb. 15, 1887. 



FROM 9 TO 35, AND 1035 LBS. OF HONEY. 



I Started in last spring with 9 colonies; increased 

 to 32; got 1035 lbs. of comb honey. My bees are all 

 in good condition, with plenty of honey. They are 

 Italians. W. M. Sweaney. 



Sandy ville. O., Feb. 7, 1887. 



FROM 4 TO 9, AND 600 LBS. OF HONEY. 



[ began last spring with three full colonies and 

 one five-frame nucleus. I increased to nine colo- 

 nies, and took 600 lbs. of honey in pound sections. 

 The nine colonies went into winter quarters with 

 ten full frames each. All of my combs built last 

 year were built on full sheets of wired foundation. 



Greenfield, la., Feb. 7, 18S7. J. E. Brooks. 



FROM 88 to 109, AND 24,000 LBS. OF HONEY— AN 

 AVERAGE OF 272 LBS., SPRING COUNT. 



My crop of honey was the best the past season 

 that I ever made. 1 secured 24,000 lbs. from 88 col- 

 onies, spring count, and increased to 109. Between 

 18,000 and 19,000 lbs. of my crop was white honey, 

 the rest honey-dew, or " black-jack," as we call it 

 here. This honey was all e.xtracted. No feeding- 

 was- necessary for winter. My crop in 1885 was 3000 

 lbs., and I fed 1500 lbs. of it, spring- and fall. 



Parley, Iowa, Feb. 1, 1887. Jas. Scott. 



Friend S., you luive given us a rousing re- 

 port. Now we should like to know some- 

 thing about your locality, and also by what 

 plan or system you man;iged to secure such 



ABETTER SHOWING FOR THE ITALIANS; AN AVER- 

 AGE OF 50 LBS. PER COLONY FOR HYBRIDS, 

 AND 260 LBS. PER COLONY FOR 

 ITALIANS. 



It takes about the same amount of work to sell 

 the honey as it does to get it. My honey is nearly 

 j all sold at an average price of 6 cents for extracted, 

 and 11 cents for comb honey. In the fall of 1885 I 

 prepared for winter 124 colonies— 90 in cellar and 34 

 in chaff hives. I lost one colony in a chaff hive, 

 which was queenless in the fall, and sold 13. This 

 left me 110 in all ; of this number, 30 colonies were hy- 

 brids. These I moved to a place two miles from my 

 home yard, so they would not bother me in my 

 queen-rearing. They gathered about 1500 lbs. of 

 comb honey in one and two pound sections, and in- 

 creased to 56. I have sold them. Hybrids of the 

 first cross are good honey-gatherei-s, but too ener- 

 getic with their stings to suit me. I want no more 

 of them. The 80 colonies that I kept at home were 

 mostly nuclei, with young queens raised the fall be- 

 fore. It was surprising to see how soon the.v made 

 good strong colonies. About June first I united 20 

 of the weakest with othi rs that had poor queens, 

 and used several colonies to make nuclei for queen- 

 rearing, which left me about 5i) strong colonies 

 with No. 1 queens. I took from these colonies 11,000 

 lbs. of extracted honey and 1000 lbs. in combs, to feed 

 next spring, and increased to 120. They were not 

 black bees either. G. D. Black. 



Brandon, Iowa, Feb. 8, 1887. 



Many thanks, friend B. It seems from 

 the above that your Italians are not only 

 gentler than the hybrids, but tliey gathered 

 over jive times as much honey per colony. 

 Is it locality, manipulation, or the race of 

 bees that made this difference':* Perhaps 

 friend Black or E. France can tell us. 



