162 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



March 12, 1903. 



PUBLISHED -WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE fi. YORK S COMPANY 



144 & 146 E. Erie St ., Chicago, III. 



Entered at the Post-Office at Chicago as Second- 

 Class Mail-Matter. 



EDITOR, 

 OE!OK,Ca-E3 "VV. TTOK-IC. 



DEPT. EDITORS, 



Dr.C.C. Miller, E.E.Hasty, Em.ma M.Wilson 



IMPORTANT NOTICES. 



The Subscription Price of this Journal 

 is Sl.OO a year, in the United States, Can- 

 ada, and Mexico; all other countries in the 

 Postal Union, !J0 cents a year extra for post- 

 age. Sample copy frtc. 



The Wrapper-Label Date of this paper 

 indicates the end of the month to which 

 your subscription is paid. For instance, 

 "dec03" on your label shows that it is 

 paid to the end of December, 1903. 



Subscription Receipts.— We do not send 

 a receipt for money sent us to pay subscrip- 

 tion, but change the date on your wrapper- 

 label, which shows you that the money has 

 been received and credited. 



Advertising Rates will be given upon ap- 

 plication. 



i Weekly Budget. I 



Rev. James M. Smith, of Santa Barbara 

 Co., Calif., writing us Feb. 28, said: 



"My home was burned lately— total loss. 

 The family were all away camping. My file 

 of American Bee Journals and every book 

 were burned." 



We regret exceedingly to learn of Mr. 

 Smith's heavy loss. Of course, many things 

 undoubtedly held sacred as well as of pecu- 

 niary value are lost. Only those who have 

 passed through such a " clean sweep " know 

 anything about it. We hope but few will be 

 called on to experience it. 



Apiary of AVm. \V. Green. 



The picture shows my hobby at the height 

 of its prosperity last summer— not high 

 enough to be alarming— with " Yours truly " 

 standing beside his crack colony. 



My two little assistants, aged 8 and 9, show 

 rather indistinctly near the edges of the 

 picture. 



I started keeping bees three seasons ago, 

 purely for pleasure and recreation, and, I 

 must say, that 1 have attained what I sought. 

 Madam says she would like some honey, if 

 you please, but I get all my pay before the 

 crop comes off. Rather think my pay was 

 rhe larger last year. 



I have 36 colonies in a rather narrow city 

 back-yard- whose limit will be about 36 — and 

 run for extracted honey, using Jumbo 10- 

 frame hives (Draper barns)— and could not 

 be induced to change for smaller. My field is 

 very poor, one-half being Lake Michigan, and 

 the other half so sandy that its product is 

 small. The poor field brings me one blessing, 



however— no foul brood within reach of my 

 bees. 



Being in the game for pleasure, I have ex- 

 perimented a good deal, mostly with the dif- 

 ferent races of bees. Last year I had pure 

 Italians, blacks, and Cyprian queens Carnio- 

 lan mated. So far the latter have come out 

 the best, with Italians second. My data is as 

 yet, however, too limited to be conclusive. 

 One could not ask for a better bee than the 

 Cyprio-Carniolan, first cross. The queens are 

 very prolific, the bees tremendous workers, 

 large, gentle, and uniformly marked, being 

 distinguishable from three-banded leather- 

 colored Italians. In the next generation the 

 uniformity disappears, pure black bees ap- 

 pearing regardless of the mating of the young 

 queen. 



My only original feature is that I number 

 the queens and not the hives. Each hive has 

 a brass card-holder tacked on it with a num 

 bered water-proof card therein, and when the 

 queen changes her abode the card goes with 

 her. 



I clip all my queens, principally for the pur- 

 pose of " branding " them. I am not troubled 

 with much swarming, using such large hives, 

 although some of my best queens— Cyprio- 

 Carniolans — have needed more than one hive- 

 body for a brood-chamber. 



It is perhaps needless to add that the 

 American Bee Journal has added greatly to 

 the pleasure I have obtained from bee-keep- 

 ing. Wm. W. Green. 

 Cook Co., 111. 



tering, and what is very interesting is this: 

 The colonies seem to get through with a 

 small amount of stores, and we generally hear 

 the first honey of the season is sold from this 

 apiary in his district. 



Mr. Gallee does not send off for queens, his 

 apiary being from the original stock, except- 

 ing a stray swarm or two which may have 

 come into his yard, so his queens are reared 

 under the supersedure or else the swarming 

 impulse. 



His apiary is on the Missouri River, and he 

 thinks it he had forage all around his bees 

 would do still better. 



Has any one an apiary started with one 

 swarm of black bees, and not helped with 

 queens from other apiaries to equal, or be 

 better, than Mr. Peter Gallee's apiary ' 



Ray Co., Mo. John S. Semmens. 



Apiary of C. W. Virgin. 



Although my apiary is not very large, there 

 is a whole lot of room for it to grow. 



It was started from a swarm of bees found 

 in the woods Oct. 26, lUOl— theold empty hive 

 which is on the right. They were taken 

 home, kept in the cellar all winter, swarmed 

 out twice, and the remaining swarm was then 

 put into a hive. 



From the first colony on the left I got 20 

 pounds of surplus; from the next enough 

 stores to winter on ; the third, and last col- 

 ony, I have had to feed. 



I have several more colonies that I found 

 in the woods last fall, all in the cellar and 

 doing nicely. 



I got some of them home too late in the fall 

 to feed; I don't know whether they have 

 enough to winter on or not. I can see a few 

 of the bees, and a little of the comb through 

 a hole, but can not get in to them without 

 splitting the stumps, and I don't want to do 

 that until in the spring. C. W. Virgin. 



Stearns Co., Minn. 



' Apiary of Peter Gallee. 



One afternoon, in 1896, when Peter Gallee, 

 with a friend, returned from a stroll to his 

 home his wife met him and said she was glad 

 he had come, for she had caught a swarm of 

 bees, and she wished him to put them in a box 

 or something right away, else they might go 

 ofE. Peter said, " That is best; let them go 

 off," tor he would not have anything to do with 

 them. His friend said he could hive them, so 

 they were put into a box — a colony of nice 



' yellow bees. They swarmed, and the swarm 

 , was boxed. Now, Mr, Gallee got interested 

 in the bees, and thought if he were going to 

 keep bees and do any good with them they 

 should be kept in something more convenient 

 to handle, so he got some Langstroth hives 

 and commenced to handle bees in a practical 

 way. and produced section honey. The bees 

 kept increasing so that other hives were 

 needed, and he now uses lock-cornered hives 

 with 8 Hoffman frames. Last year he had 35 

 colonies, spring count, and produced 2200 

 poimds of comb honey besides the increase. 

 He has now about 6.t colonies. 



He winters on the summer stands by group- 

 ing the hives in twos, leaving the fronts open, 

 but the sides, ends and tops are covered with 

 straw, hay or grass, as is most handy at time 

 of packing, the whole kept in place with four 

 lath frames fastened with stakes and ties, with 

 shade-boards on top to carry off the water. 

 He sees that each colony has enough stores 

 until spring, when he looks to their condition, 

 and helps with a little feed, it needed. By 



I this method very few colonies are lost in win- 



The Apiary of G. H. Wells. 



My son took the picture of the " Diamond 

 Apiary " and me. Only 19 colonies appear, 

 while we have 21, and on the most of them 

 the diamonds show, being put on with Vermil- 

 lion paint, and each hive is numbered with 

 blacli paint inside of the diamond. 



We began td study the bee-business two 

 years ago, starling with one good colony badly 

 hived, and one very poor one in a square box, 

 so that both had to be transferred into good 

 hives, which I did with the help of an old 

 man that had handled bees for some years, 

 but had not studied the business, so, of 

 course, I have made some big mistakes; but I 

 have tried to learn what I could by reading 

 the bee-papers and books. One of the big 

 mistakes I made was to take a very fine queen 

 out of her hive (the colony had been hived 

 June 2, and had given me .5" pounds of nice 

 comb honey), and put in a young queen that 

 I got from Texas, and she died, or was not to 

 be found the next May, So I learned that 

 when 1 have a good queen, and she is doing 

 well, to let her alone, whether she has one 

 band or three, although I have nine nice 3- 

 banded queens. 



Last year the bees in this vicinity did no 

 good except in increase. I bought several 

 young colonies, and at the close of the swarm- 

 ing-time we had 26, but we had to double 

 them up because they did not build comb 

 enough to hold syrup to winter on, so by put- 

 ting two colonies together will be able to pull 

 through, I fed them about 200 pounds of 

 sugar, and then put them in the back cham- 

 ber and darkened the window, but left it so I 

 can give them plenty of air, and they seem to 

 be doing nicely so far. 



I think I would better raise them up from 

 the bottom-board by putting a % strip under 

 the hive on three sides, and then put queen- 

 guards in front to make sure the mice will 

 not get in. Better be safe. G, H, Wells. 

 Cass Co., Iowa. 



Queen-Clipping: Device Free! 



The MiiNETTE Queen-Clipping 

 Device is a fine thing for use in 

 catching and clipping Queens' 

 wings. It is used by many bee- 

 keepers. Full printed directions 

 sent with each one. We mail it for 

 25 cents; or will send it FREE as 

 a premium for sending us One 

 Ne\v subscrilter to the Bee Journal 

 >»for a year at ?1.00; or for $1.10 we 



-^ will mail the Bee Journal one year 



and the Clipping Device. Address, 



QEORQE W. YORK & CO., 

 144 & 146 E. Erie St,, - CHICAGO, ILL. 



Tiie Emerson Binder 



This Emerson stiff-board Binder with cloth 

 back for the American Bee Journal we mail for 

 bnt 60 cents; or we will send It with the Bee 

 Journal for one year— both for only $1.40. It is 

 a fine thing to preserve the copies of the Jour- 

 nal as fast as they are received. If you have 

 this " Emerson " no further binding is neces- 



'"^' QEORQE W. YORK & CO., 



144 & 146 Erie Street, CHICAGO, Ihh. 



