504 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



not large enough for the bees to enter 

 freely. 



The hive I use has no bottom-board, 

 being set on a platform in the yard, and 

 has a bee-space of i^s-inch at the top, 

 sides and bottom of the frames. In an 

 experience of ten years I have never lost 

 a colony or even a square inch of brood 

 from moth-worms. 



Some years ago I bought a number of 

 colonies in tight-bottom Langstroth 

 hives. On overhauling them I found the 

 bottom of the frames stuck to the bot- 

 tom-board with propolis, the same being 

 honey-combed and alive with worms, and 

 the bottom of the hive an inch deep with 

 dead bees and mould (in May). I think 

 even Italians would not have been able 

 to hold their own in such hives. 



This has been a rather peculiar season 

 with us. There was plenty of clover, 

 but little honey from it. Our crop came 

 from basswood, on which we had only 

 one week, but in that one week secured 

 over 3,000 pounds of surplus in the 

 comb. Spring count, we had 87 colonies, 

 and increased to 113. The bees are in 

 good condition to winter, with an aver- 

 age of 40 pounds of honey to winter on. 

 T. B. Blair. 



Neenah, Wis., Sept. 27. 



Will Not Have to Feed. 



We have had a bad honey season here. 

 I got only 400 pounds of comb honey, 

 and the most of it was from sourwood 

 bloom. I had 35 colonies, spring count, 

 and some of them were so weak as to be 

 of no good in the honey harvest. I have 

 increased to 53 colonies of Italian and 

 hybrid bees. Bees are booming on a 

 new fall honey-plant that has come into 

 this country in the last few years. It is 

 in full bloom now. We will not have to 

 feed any for winter stores. 



Jacob Framk. 



Sutton, W. Va., Sept. 29. 



A Laying Worker "Kink." 



I like that idea about writing up the 

 "kinks." No doubt wo greenhorns 

 that are young in the bee-business, 

 would sometimes give an experience that 

 would be of some benefit to the young- 

 sters, while the old hands would prob- 

 ably think it a waste of paper and time, 

 to tell what they had known for a quar- 

 ter of a century. The thought of that, 

 I suppose, makes a good many of us 

 loth to appear in print and be laughed 

 at by the professionals. 



Now I had my first experience with 



laying workers the past summer, and I 

 am going to tell how I got rid of them, 

 at the risk of being laughed at by all of 

 you. 



You will observe before I got the best 

 of it, that it was a costly job, but I 

 gained my point, and that was what I 

 was working for, regardless of cost. 



Well, it was a queenless colony (of 

 course we all know that). The first 

 queen introduced was killed, the second 

 shared the same fate, then I commenced 

 to think something was wrong. I called 

 in an old bee-keeper, who showed me at 

 once what the trouble was, and advised 

 uniting with another colony. It would 

 have been much cheaper, but I wanted 

 to experiment. 



I sent for another queen, and in the 

 meantime gave the colony two frames of 

 hatching brood. In three days the 

 queen arrived; I then changed places 

 with another colony and introduced the 

 queen the usual way, and now what was 

 formerly a black colony, is a beautiful 

 Italian. As it was at the end of the 

 honey-flow, jumping with another col- 

 ony did no material harm. 



After looking over this, I think it 

 would fill a " kink " in the waste-basket 

 admirably. F. T. Brooke. 



Brookewood, Va. 



"Washington Flax" Again. 



"Is it a good honey-plant?" will be 

 asked. The following answer must 

 suiiBce : 



Heretofore I have found my bees in 

 the city cease storing honey about July 

 10th to 15th. In other places in the 

 county, where flax is plentiful, they con- 

 tinue until September 15th, and this 

 season many colonies having access to 

 the flax have put up in supers 100 

 pounds of surplus comb honey. 



About July 20th, this season, I re- 

 moved my whole apiary three miles out 

 among the flax flowers. One colony 

 with an Italian queen from Massachu- 

 setts, I had reduced by taking frames 

 to rear queens for other colonies. I put 

 it on the scales the first day (about April 

 20th) and it weighed ;'>4>^ pounds ; a 

 week after, it weighed 3b ; a week later, 

 40 ; exactly a week later it weighsd 42 

 pounds — sutiicient to winter, as the 

 hives weigh 18 pounds. All my other 

 colonies did equally well or better. After 

 I saw this, which was a test, I made up 

 my mind that the "flax "is a superior 

 honey-plant. 



The Department at Washington has 

 ordered seeds, and the plant itself, and 



