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THE AMERICAN BEE JOLHINAU. 



Oct. 22, 1903. 



(and not use any spaces of any kind), we will find it will 

 suit all localities better. In our locality, I do not think, of 

 all the plans sug-gested in this discussion, that any of them 

 would work. They will get gummed up. 



The convention then adjourned until 7:30 p.m. 

 (Continued next week. ) 



[ Our Bee-Heepin$ Sisters j 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



A Sisteply Suggestion to a BFother. 



I have been in the bee-business three years. I had 200 

 colonies last season, but lost some this spring. The honey 

 crop is small with us this season, but of good quality. 



I enjoy reading the Sisters' letters. 



I take all the care of the bees and honey, making ship- 

 ping-cases, etc. 



I can sympathize with the brother from Delta Co. , Colo. , 

 as I know what it is to do housework and care for bees at 

 the same time. If he will send his full address to the 

 American Bee Journal I will send him my address, and per- 

 haps we can arrange it for one to take care of the bees 

 while the other one looks after the bread, as I am a widow. 



Bent Co., Colo., Sept. 22. Mrs. C. Hknry. 



Good Season— Changing- Supers. 



This has been a very good hooey season, although the 

 weather was not the most favorable — too cool to secrete the 

 honey. Clovers blossomed well, but basswood blossoms 

 lasted about 10 days. 



I have sold $91.16 worth of honey from 24 colonies, be- 

 sides saving enough for ourselves and giving away quite a 

 little. 



I have kept bees many years, but I feel I know but lit- 

 tle about them yet, and would like to ask : If a super is 

 taken from one hive nearly full of honey and bees and 

 placed on another, what becomes of the bees ? Do they go 

 down and out, or do they help finish filling the sections with 

 honey ? . 



I found a copy of the American Bee Journal of 1888, 

 but it is quite inferior to the present paper of the same 

 name. I find it very interesting and profitable to bee-keep- 

 ers, especially the Sisters department, which I hope will 

 continue to grow. Mrs. R. A. Huntington. 



Genesee Co., N. Y., Sept. 30. 



It depends upon the age of the bees. Most of them will 

 stay where they are put, while field-bees that happen to be 

 in the super will return to their own hive when they fly out, 

 unless there has been several days of wet, cloudy weather 

 so they could not fly. In that case most of them will, no 

 doubt, begin to feel at home where they are. 



Sowing for Bees— An Elder Sister. 



When I read Mary E. Avera's letter (page 424), I thought 

 how much she was like me, only she is on a ranch farm and 

 I am on a little Jersey farm. I do all my work, having no 

 one to help me. She says she makes chicken-coops, so have 

 I, and chicken yards. Her husband says wheti she gets 

 hold of anything she don't know when to let go ; that is my 

 nature, too. 



One sister says she makes her Hill's device, to go over 

 the bees, out of barrel-hoops. I have made mine ever since 

 I kept bees. 



Thank you. Sister S. M. Payne, for telling how you 

 take your honey off. I did not know of that way, and I have 

 only one bee-escape. 



I can sympathize with you Sister Payne, for I have not 

 been able to get around without a cane for five weeks ; 

 have the same trouble. My bees do not seem to appreciate 

 my hobbling among them with a cane. They have not had 

 the attention they ought to have, and are not as good- 

 natured as they were when I was with them more and talked 

 with and to them. 



I have undertaken too much. I planted an acre of corn, 

 dropped and covered it myself, also quite a patch of sun- 

 flowers, and want to sow a patch of millet, too, and have 

 seeded the pear-orchard to crimson clover, so that next 

 summer the bees will have plenty. The first of March I 

 planted the piece I am going to seed down, then I kept 

 planting until the last of June, so they would have flowers 

 to work on for a long time, and the pigeons and chickens 

 will enjoy the seed this winter ; but I notice since the 

 spider-plant has commenced to bloom they do not seem to 

 pay so much attention to the sunflowers, but are very busy 

 on the spider-plant, especially in the forepart of the day. I 

 never could succeed in getting it to grow before, until I read 

 in the Bee Journal that it had to be sown in the fall. The 

 patch looks pretty — it is so full of bloom. 



The bees work on lima beans, too ; I have a patch of 

 them, and also of tomatoes for the canning factory, besides 

 the things I am raising for myself. So you see I have un- 

 dertaken a good deal for a woman alone, who will be 75 

 years old in December. 



I always thought the Bee Journal very good, but since 

 Mr. York has been so kind as to give the Sisters a corner 

 to ourselves, it has added a great deal more to its interest. 

 It seems natural, I suppose, for us to look at that part first ; 

 I am sure I always look there, and if our Editor had not 

 given us a corner the bee-brethren would not know what 

 we can do. I guess I am the only sister that has ever made 

 hives, and I have a good many on hand, which is well, as I 

 have lost the use of my right eye, and it is a great disad- 

 vantage in bee-work, as well as other work. Some other 

 time I will have to tell about how my bees have worked and 

 stored. Sarah J. Griffith. 



Cumberland Co., N. J., Aug. 10. 



Bees on tlie Farm. 



Our home is in a place that is comparatively new, hav- 

 ing been settled only a few years, and the farms that we 

 will consider have 20 or 30 acres, and many of them less, of 

 plowland, and the rest is hay and pasture and woodland — 

 just loom for a good garden and orchard, for potatoes and 

 corn, and a little grain ; just what stock is necessary, SO to 

 100 hens, and 2 to 40 colonies of bees. Of course, there are 

 some big farms here, but we will let some one else talk 

 about big farms. 



Here, in northern Minnesota, we put our bees out in the 

 spring, the last week in March or the first week in April, 

 and we look them over, help the weak ones, feed the hungry 

 before the rush of the spring work begins ; and then again 

 in two or three weeks, but they don't seem to need much 

 care till they begin to swarm, the last of May. By that 

 time the spring planting is well out of the way ; chickens 

 hatched, and almost able to take care of themselves. The 

 busiest time with bees is right in hoeing time, but we find 

 we can leaving hoeing a little while at any time. 



I should think there would be a conflict between bees 

 and strawberries, but we have had only a few strawberries 

 since we kept bees. We can manage the haying all right, 

 and the raspberries and currants, and the worst trouble 

 with the bees is over before the plums and apples are ripe. 



The earliest blossoms our bees find are such as willow, 

 tag-alder, soft-maple, and box-elder. There is an abun- 

 dance of these trees, and they give the bees a good start. 

 Soon after the tassel-flowers are gone, the plum blossoms 

 appear, and wild cherry, and apple, and dandelions. We 

 have the largest, finest dandelions in the world, and they 

 blossom by spells all summer. We don't get much nice 

 honey from the early blossoms, but we have had a little that 

 was very fine. I should think the honey from the apple- 

 blossoms would be very nice, and it may be when alone, 

 but plum and cherry honey seems to taste more of the bark 

 than of the blossoms. 



We would like to get through swarming in time for 

 white clover, but we doa't, for they keep on swarming 

 through June and July, and a few in August, and some- 

 times in September. 



We have tried artificial swarming of bees only a few 

 times, but have had very good success when we have tried 

 it, and it might save a good deal of work. 



One swarm came out August 6, 1900, and filled the new 

 hive and stored 23 pounds of surplus. Once in a while a 

 swarm comes out in September and builds up well, and 

 goes into winter quarters in good shape. 



White clover is very plentiful in our section, in the 

 roadsides, pastures, and unused corners, but I suppose our 

 very best honey-plant for rushing is the basswood. 



