NOVEXTBER 1, 1015 



899 



put tlu! supers all on top you can put one 

 or two underneath, and the bees will work 

 down when tliey ^et full above. 



1 think there is much harm done by going 

 t'nongh the bees too much. Learn to work 

 fast with bees. Get the notion out of your 

 head that you have to work slow. Tf a man 

 lias 2000 colonies of bees he needs only 

 three men. Commence in time. It is much 

 better to give them too much room, or a 

 little too early, than not enough or too late. 

 Tl'.i? is not guesswork, as it has been done 

 by tlie writer, who located at Mineral, Ark., 

 in the year 1900. That year T had 180 colo- 

 nies of bees and 35 acres of small fruit. I 

 made $1250 on the bees, and with just a 

 few trips. They were in three yards. The 

 fv.ithost one was fifteen miles from home. 

 To show what can be done, I made $11.00 

 a day for the days I worked with the bees 

 from the time I started in the spring until 

 the honey was sold. 



1 peddled the honey from house to house 

 at 12y2 cfs. a pound. It was bulk comb 

 honey, as that was before they had begun 

 putting honey in buckets. I hauled it to 

 market in new wash-tubs. I used the 5% 

 frame, cut the honey out, and laid it in the 

 tubs. It was a good advertisement — nice 

 comb honey stacked clear above the top of 

 tie tub. ] did not miss many sales because 

 of Uie honey being in a tub. They were 

 nice bright tubs, and I had a clean cloth 



tied over the honey to keep the dust out. 

 When I got to town I always got a boy to 

 drive my wagon, and I worked both sides of 

 the street. 



I especially remember our trip to Jenny 

 Lind. Aik. This was a mining toAvn; and 

 as the miners had been paid the day before, 

 thoy all liad money, and I sold $300 worth 

 of honey that day. 



But 1 do not claim to have done all this 

 work myself, for 1 did not. I had a good 

 wife to help me. That year we made $2400 

 from our bees and fruit. But she died live 

 years ago. 



Bees have not made much of a crop in 

 this section. Mr. D. R. Taylor, the man 1 

 work for, got a fair crop. His bees — 550 

 colonies, spring count — made eleven tons of 

 white honey and about four tons of amber 

 from sumac. Mr. Taylor does not put the 

 siuiiac honey on the market, but keeps it 

 for spring feeding, for which it will be just 

 as valuable as the lioney he sold. He also 

 increased his colonies to 1200. He is build- 

 ing Lis bees up by dequeening in the fall 

 and replacing with young Italian queens 

 from two fine breedeis. They are the. nicest 

 bees to handle I ever saw. I have been 

 raising his queens for three months now, 

 and have opened the two breeder colonies 

 to graft cells from nearly every day, and 

 liave never been stung by these bees, and I 

 handle them without veil or gloves. 



Nordhoff, Cal. 



MICHIGAN'S FIFTIETH ANNUAL MEETING 



DY F. FRic .^rILLE^^. Secret ary-treasiirer 



On December 15 and 16 the Michigan 

 beekeepers will hold their fiftieth annual 

 mcetins: at Grand Rapids. This meeting 

 l)romipes to be one that will set a new rec- 

 ord in interest and attendance, and one that 

 Avill be remembered by those present as the 

 best ever held. 



One of the special features w-ill be a 

 banquet supper on the evening of Dec. 15. 

 This banquet is the gift of Messrs. G. C. 

 Lev.is, Watertown, Wis., and A. G. Wood- 

 nan, Grand Rapids, Mich. A banquet, at 

 w hich all the members get together, seems 

 to ;idd a finishing touch to any gathering; 

 and we feel sure the beekeepers will show 

 ^lessrs. Jjcwis and Woodman their appre- 

 ciation by turning out in record numbers. 



The program will be brimful of good 

 thinirs, and many of the notables of the 

 beekeeping woild will be there. A full 

 1 rocrram will be published next month. 



The headquarters of the association will 



be the Eagle Hotel. This liotel has been 

 our headquarters on many previous occa- 

 sions, and is well known to the beekeepers. 

 Rooms can be obtained from 75 cents up. 



Many beekeepers do not attend meetiiiii's 

 of this kind because they fail to realize 

 theii' full value. The program alone will 

 repay the trouble of attending, but this is 

 only a part. The beekeeper who wants to 

 Jearn more about his bees or about dispos- 

 ing of his crop of honey is usually able to 

 obtain this information in personal discus- 

 sions with the other beekeepers present. 

 Send ns your questions any time, and we 

 will endeavor to answer them in a satisfac- 

 tory manner at the meeting. 



Every beekeeper in Michigan is invited 

 to attend, and is expected to bring another 

 beekeei)er along ar:d join with us in making 

 the fiftieth annual meeting of the Michijjan 

 Beekeepers' Association " bigger'n ever." 



East Lansing, Mich. 



