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THE AMERICAN BEE JOLKIXAL. 



Aug-. 6, 1903. 



( 



Our Bee-Heeoing Sisters 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 





Don't be "Caug-ht Napping" on Supplies. 



I trust that none of the bee-keeping- sisters have been 

 caught napping without sufficient supplies. I have really 

 felt sorry for the number of bee-keepers who have come to 

 us this summer for sections and foundation, and we could 

 not help them out. 



An Experience with Bees. 



I have been too busy to write. I have been cleaning 

 out my hives and getting supers ready for use. 



I commenced keeping bees four years ago. I bought 1 

 colony and hive, 2 supers, and sections enough to fill both 

 supers twice, and got 48 sections capped and 10 partly filled. 

 I cut out the queen-cells and did not let them swarm. In 

 the fall I bought three colonies ; one was weak and I had to 

 feed it. 



I put the four colonies in two small hives, and spread a 

 piece of old carpet on each hive. They could go out and in 

 when they chose. 



When I went to take them out, in the spring, I found 

 the weak colony dead, and one of the others almost dead. 

 The weak one had frozen and the other had been too warm, 

 as their hive was wet and mouldy. 



I bought three colonies the next year, and I have let 

 them increase two swarms in the three or four years, so I 

 have 16 colonies now. 



We have had a cold, wet spring, freezing fruit-blossoms, 

 so I have had to feed the bees, but the alfalfa and sweet 

 clover will soon be in bloom. I am keeping my bees strong 

 by feeding, so they will be ready to work when there is a 

 honey-flow. 



I do most of the work with the bees, as my husband has 

 enough to do on the farm. When I need help my husband 

 or some of the children help me. I have six children, a boy 

 19, one 11, and one 8, one girl 17, one IS, and one 4. 



We keep horses, cattle, hogs, turkeys and chickens, so 

 there is always plenty of work for all. I have 70 chickens, 

 and 30 young turkeys. 



There has been a hail-storm that damaged the crops 

 from 25 to 35 percent for about 10 or 15 miles square. 



I subscribed for the Bee Journal when I bought my first 

 colony. I could not get along without it. 



I got 800 pounds of comb honey last year from 9 colo- 

 nies, spring count. Mrs. Bbn FbrGUSON. 



Ford Co., Ivans., June 1. 



A Sister's Work in Colorado. 



I think I might be called a bee-keeping sister, although 

 on rather a small scale, as I have only 28 colonies of bees. 



Eight years ago, on coming to this valley — Grand Val- 

 ley, in western Colorado — my husband bought two colo- 

 nies of bees and gave them to me to do as I might. 



The first two or three years they increased very fast, 

 but for the last three years they have nearly forgotten to 

 swarm, and as I was very anxious to have more bees, last 

 year (about the middle of May) I divided my colonies, mak- 

 ing 37 out of 21, trusting to the bees to rear more queens, 

 but only eight succeeded in rearing good queens. 



My dividing them weakened them so much that they 

 did not get built up so as to store any honey from the first 

 cutting of alfalfa (and that was the strongest flow of honey 

 for the season), but from about the middle of July until Sept. 

 20 they stored 59 cases of very nice honey. 



I was very much discouraged about my bees building 

 us so slowly after dividing them. I thought perhaps I had 

 ruined the most of them. I made up my mind to inform 

 myself a little better on bee-keeping so I asked one of my 

 neighbors (an old beekeeper), which bee-paper he thought 

 would be the best for me to take. He recommended the 

 American Bee Journal, which I subscribed for in October. 

 I also got Cook's " Manual of the Apiary." I am very well 



pleased with the paper every week. When I get it, the first 

 thing I do is to turn to the " Sisters" department. 



I do all the work with my bees, put together the hives, 

 supers and shipping-cases. I often wish that I had a hun- 

 dred colonies : I think I could care for them all. I enjoy 

 working with them so much. 



This has been a cold, backward spring. 



Perhaps later on I will tell you how I dress to protect 

 myself while working with the bees. Alma Travis. 



Mesa Co., Colo., May 27. 



So your bees have almost forgotten how to swarm. My ! 

 I almost feel like envying you. Our bees have surely not 

 forgotten, for they seem to think of nothing else, judging 

 from the way they persist in trying to swarm. Shaken 

 swarms, natural swarms — every thing swarms. All treat- 

 ment and rules fail to prevent swarming this year. But 

 with it all we are getting lots of honey, so we must take 

 the bitter with the sweet, and we are surely thankful for 

 the sweet. 



Don't forget to tell us about that bee-dress later on. 





Nasty's Afterthoughts 





The " Old Reliable " seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By E. E. Hasty, Sta. B Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



MOIST HEAT IN OUKEN-REARING. 



The matter of moist heat to rear queens in is one cer- 

 tainly worth grubbing over. Very likely queens reared in 

 a dry atmosphere would fall short, as Arthur C. Miller inti- 

 mates. But the humidity of the hive, although not entirely 

 out of our control, is a little that way. Lots of bees, all 

 carrying nectar, and lots of comb with nectar in the open 

 cells, is the price of humidity. The humidity of a necleus 

 will be pretty sure to vary with the outside weather, it seems 

 to me. Queen-breeder might step in, but I don't believe he 

 actually will. Page 381. 



BEES MIXING VARIOUS NECTARS. 



Sometimes — in hot, dry weather and very poor flow, 

 basswood honey is almost too strong for even a lover of the 

 basswood flavor to approve. As it is quite a blow to us to 

 have to set catnip honey as unfit for any use, we kind 

 o'want to hide in some similar refuge. Was not the yield 

 poor at Mr. Crane's ; and might not the honey be endurable 

 another time ? Slim outlook. Both the wet weather and 

 the amount brought in seem to point right the other 

 way. We'll play that those bees found something else 

 much worse than catnip, and mixed the kinds. Anything 

 that yields honey when the usual sources fail, and bees for- 

 age desperately everywhere, i's liable to more or less of that 

 kind of misjudgment. Page 382. 



SAW ONLY PICTURE-SNAKES. 



Of course that's not what the Editor saw the morning 

 after the Fourth — those snakes on the title of No. 25. I can 

 see bees in 'most everything, but fail to see 'em just at that 

 spot. Not kicking, however. A bee-paper that is mostly 

 something else is rather disgusting, but an occasional 

 digression entirely ofi' the field, I rather like. 



GETTING PEOPLE TO USE HONEY. 



Likely Mr. Whitney, as per page 287, and sound in the 

 main. Mixing of syrups should be done at home, evidently. 

 Interest in bees is not hard to stir up among people who 

 have previously known nothing of them ; and when stirred 

 up it is a very lively interest, second cousin to bee-fever. 

 At that point the local editor will publish things cheerfully 

 — and sales will boom. But don't try to load down the latter 

 fellow with matter manifestly of the free-advertising sort. 

 If you hand him matter let it be instructive— just what the 

 people, editor included, are wanting to hear. And, say ! if 

 you have worked this plan profitably, get a wedge in your 

 own heart, and put in a small paid advertisement in the 

 paper. Do this as a matter of right feelings all 'round, even 

 if the ad can do no more than has already been done. 



But common people won't buy a IZcent sweet for their 

 every-day pancake use. Either give that up or offer them 

 extracted honey at 7 cents. 



Shall Association money be used to advertise honey in 



