1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



945 



ty for honey. Were your hives properly shaded, 

 Mr. H. ? and In what condition was your brood- 

 charaber during- the time those bees did nothing? 

 Was it not full of honey? I sec your letter is dated 

 June 17. What did those colon-es do thin summer? 

 I should be glad to know. J. F. Dunn. 



Rldgeway, Welland Co., Ont., Can. 



^EP0^3Fg ENC0aR^6I]VI6. 



AN A B C scholar's HEPORT OF THE CLASS OF 



1887; A RETURN OF 3F.5.75 per hive. 



SN Feb. 1st, 1887, I bought out an old apiary of 

 eight stands, with extra hives, etc., and 

 moved them 100 yds. Mar. 1st I raised three 

 Italian queens, and divided three old colo- 

 nies for the new queens. This started rob- 

 bing, and I lost two stands entirely, and several 

 others were weakened before I got them under 

 control. April let I moved them 13.5 miles by 

 freight. There were no swarms, on account of 

 drought and bad management. 



Bees are now in winter quarters, and cover ten 

 L. frames and lie out nights. Such rousing swarms 

 I never saw, and they have from 30 to 40 pounds of 

 winter stores per hive. My ledger shows the fol- 

 lowing account: 



Dr. To total cost Sf79.4.5 



Cr. By 400 lbs. ext. honey sold @ SV^, $34.00 



" extra hives, fdn., etc., |!18.10 



Add invoice of stock on hand, $67.70 



Loss and gain to balance $45.3.5 



«119.80 $119.80 

 Will an average of 50 pounds of honey per hive 

 do for this dry year, for a beginner? Will a profit 

 of $5.75 per hive justify my becoming an apiarist? 

 Converse, Tex., Nov. 10, 1887. E. P. Ticknor. 



We should think so. 



I started last spring with 3 swarms. I secured 

 100 pounds of honey, and sold it at 12i4 cents per 

 lb. I have now 8 swarms in good order for winter. 

 It was very dry here this summer. 



Marine City, Mich^ G. J. Vollmar. 



In the fall of 1886 I bought 15 colonies of bees, 

 and in the spring I had but 11. I increased these 

 to 33, by natural swarming, and not one left for the 

 woods. Nine gave me very nearly 300 lbs. of comb 

 honey. H. Earhart. 



Counter, Ind. 



I have my bees in nice trim for winter. They 

 averaged 35 lbs. of comb honey per colony this sea- 

 son; last season, 100 lbs. lam selling my honey at 

 35 cents per pound, in one-pound sections. 



New Berry, Pa. P. R. Cvphert. 



one hundred and twenty barrels of ex- 

 tracted, AND 7000 LBS. OF COMB HONEY. 



I have no reason to complain of the season here. 

 I had 130 barrels of honey, 340 lbs. each, and 7000 lbs. 

 of section honey. I have over 400 colonies now. 



W. L. COGGSHKLL. 



West Groton, N. Y., Nov. 14, 1887. 



]^EP0R3itg DlgC0ai^^GfIN6. 



T HAD 30 colonies in good order this spring, from 

 j^ which I expected to get a good lot of honey; 

 ^r but instead of this I did not get one pound of 

 "*■ surplus, and only two natural swarms. I had 

 to feed about all summer. Up to Sept. 30, when 

 goldenrod came in bloom, 1 think tiiere was not a 

 single cell of sealed honey in my yard. 

 Somerset, Mass., Oct. 4, 1887. N. S. Davis. 



I sold my comb honey for 23 cents in Milwaukee, 

 of which I had 3300 lbs. I also had 8 bbls. of extract- 

 ed. I feel as if I had been paid for my trouble this 

 year. L. H. Baldwin. 



Hingham, Wis., Nov. 4, 1887. 



The honey crop in this and adjoining vicinities has 

 been a complete failure this year; in fact, it is 

 about the worst ever known in these parts. How- 

 ever, there has been an abundant crop of goldenrod 

 this fall. M. B. MooHE. 



Morgan, Ky. 



The season has been poor. The drought, that so 

 affected the yield of honey, also cut farm crops 

 short; but I have not heard a bee-keeper speak dis- 

 couragingly. We intend to make it up next year. 



Rldgeway, N. Y. Grant Scofield. 



This has been the poorest season for bees that I 

 have ever seen. Some have lost all of their new 

 swarms. 1 haven't lost any, and won't, on account 

 of their not having any thing to eat. 



Paris, 111. J. P. Adams. 



Bees did rather poorly the past season in this 

 part. We got 400 lbs. of extracted honey from 30 

 hives; quality fine, and increase a little. There 

 was a fine flow late in the fall from asters and gold- 

 enrod. All are in very good trim for winter. The 

 summer was too dry for a good honey-flow. Corn 

 and potatoes were but little more than half a crop. 

 Wheat, oats, and all early crops were good. 



Disco, Tenn., Nov. 7, 1887. S. L. Greer. 



LAST YEAR'S WINTER LOSSES. 



The present has been a very poor year for bees. 

 A great many died during last winter. I suppose it 

 was owing to short supplies the fall previous. I in- 

 close you a list of some of the losses that have come 

 to my notice: 



George Wetzel, fall count, 12; spring count, 6. 



Jacob Liddick, " " 5; " " 3. 



LeviSeiders, " " 34; " " 3. 



S. Hockley, " " 30; " " 7. 



S. McKinzie, " " 3; " " 1. 



H. Snyder, " " 4; " " 3. 



M. Tuland, " " 8; " " 4. 



David Boyd, " " 13; " " 7. 



John Young, " " 10; " " 5. 



S. Rutter, " " 6; " " 3. 



This spring, during fruit blossom we had a bright 

 spell, followed by another continued wet spell dur- 

 ing the blossoming of raspberries and small fruit. I 

 had 8, fall count, and brought all through in good 

 shape. A. L. Lane. 



Duncannon, Pa. 



A LATE FLOW FRO.M ASTER. 



This has been a poor honey season. The fore 

 part of the season was very wet, and the latter part 

 very dry. I began to think my little pets would die 

 if I did not feed them; but I was saved that trouble. 

 We have a new fall weed that is spreading all over 

 the country here, and it begins to bloom about the 

 1st of October, and lasts three or four weeks, and 

 the bees just roar on it as they do on a buckwheat 

 field. Some of my late swarms filled their combs 



