AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



633 



super, and use the slats merely for a 

 protection from bee-glue and travel- 

 stain. 



If anybody knows of a better way of 

 keeping the sections clean while in the 

 hive, please let us hear it through the 

 "American Bee Journal." The slats I 

 use are only 3^ inch thick. When I 

 bought them they v/ere % inch, but I 

 had them ripped on a bandsaw and now 

 like them. August Babtz. 



Chippewa Falls, Wis. 



Bees Did Fairly Well. 



I have been keeping bees three years. 

 I found a bee-tree in March, 1891, and 

 got a bee-man to put them into a Lang- 

 stroth hive for uie in June. I have in- 

 creased and bought to the number of 22 

 colonies, which are in good condition for 

 winter, all packed nicely. I manufac- 

 ture all my own hives and frames. My 

 bees are all Italians except one colony, 

 which are Carniolans. My bees averaged 

 15 pounds per colony this season. The 

 drouth cut the honey crop short here in 

 Kentucky. 



I couldn't keep bees without the 

 "American Bee Journal." I think it is 

 the best bee-paper printed. 



S. T. Applegate. 



ToUesboro, Ky., Nov. 5. 



Some Apiarian Suggestions. 



The weather the past three or four 

 days has been fine, and to-day is one of 

 the most beautiful ones known at this 

 season of the year in this vicinity in 

 many years. There has been but one 

 frost of any account yet, and that did 

 not reach the hills. Pastures are more 

 like June than the last of October. A 

 few flowers are left yet, and it is a rare 

 treat to see the bees gathering hoaey 

 and pollen from mallows in the yard. 



Not being in the business just now, I 

 cannot say how bees will go into winter 

 quarters. Probably they are not strong 

 in bees. One great trouble here, the 

 last ten years or morp, has been too dry 

 nearly every fall. This stops brood- 

 rearing and causes weak colonies unless 

 they are strengthened by doubling. 

 Probably others will take exceptions to 

 late breeding, etc., but as I never lost a 

 colony in several years, I do not care 

 how I get the bees, only that the colony 

 is strong, 



I cannot give full particulars of the 

 yield this year, but it is below the aver- 

 age. 



I wish to say right here that if you 



are in the business of bee-keeping, and 

 have any aptness or liking for it, stick to 

 it. Of course, there are times that are 

 vexatious, etc., but one will never be 

 satisfied without bees after getting thor- 

 oughly interested in them. Among some 

 other things I did not fancy when I kept 

 bees, jealous, bee-bungling neighbors 

 that did not get much more honey from 

 theirs than they would from yellow jack- 

 ets, laid almost everything to my bees. 

 If a person was stung a mile from my 

 apiary, it was one of my bees. Of 

 course ! and it is mighty lucky I did not 

 have any during the past two or three 

 years of financial and business gloom, or 

 they would have been "hauled over the 

 coals" for it! Well, I got rid of them, 

 at a cheap price, and got cheated out of 

 a part of them at that. I have never 

 succeeded so well since— some way or 

 other I could never fill in the time to get 

 the same profits that I reaped from the 

 bee-business, and I could not get my 

 thoughts in shape for the press as usual. 



It is very strange that more women do 

 not study the business. They learn 

 more readily, as a general thing, than 

 men, and they stand higher in the esti- 

 mation of the people than they would 

 with most other trades. 



J. H. Andke. 



Lockwood, N. Y., Oct. 29. 



In Good Condition for Winter. 



We have not had a bit uf honey for 

 the last two years. Both last year and 

 this I have fed for winter, and both sea- 

 sons I lost in the summer by starvation, 

 and would have lost every colony if I 

 had not fed in the summer. Drouth and 

 frost have ruined everything here this 

 year, and it is a serious question how we 

 are going to get through the winter. 

 The bees are in very good condition now. 



Adams, Nebr., Nov. 3. Geo. Gale. 



Not Discouraged. 



The past year was a partial failure in 

 this locality for good honey. My 18 col- 

 onies produced about 800 pounds— 200 

 pounds of it was good, but the balance 

 was too dark to soil. They will have to 

 consume it themselves, as I have given 

 each colony between 30 and 40 pounds 

 on which to winter, and as each is very 

 strong with young bees, 1 have no fears 

 of the results. Fortunately, the white 

 clover is promising for next year, and 

 we are not discouraged. 



RoBT. B. Woodwabd, M. D. 



Somerset, O., Nov. 3. 



