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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



about Oct. 1. I feed them by putting in 

 full combs of good sealed honey. 



I enjoy reading the experience of 

 others, and hope what little I have writ- 

 ten will do no harm. 



Ebastus Bowen. 



Columbus, Wis., Nov. 26. 



A Beginner's Report. 



I am a beginner in the bee-business. I 

 bought 9 colonies last spring, and have 

 12 now, in good condition for the win- 

 ter. I obtained 350 pounds of comb 

 honey. Eight of the hives are dove- 

 tailed, with Hoflfman frames, and they 

 are good. The other four colonies are 

 in box-hives, which I will transfer in the 

 spring. M. T. Fouts. 



Parksville, Tenn., Dec. 10. 



Honey Yield Below an Average. 



I prize the American Bee Journal very 

 highly. The yield of honey in this sec- 

 tion was below an average. I had 75 col- 

 onies, spring count, and got 1,000 one- 

 ponnd sections of honey, and 200 

 pounds of extracted, which is perhaps 

 about an average of what bees have 

 done here. J. C. Lee. 



Brooklyn, Pa., Dec. 2. 



An Experience with Bees. 



About four years ago I became inter- 

 ested in the honey-bee. I found a colo- 

 ny in a stub limb of a tree. I cut the 

 limb off and brought them home. I 

 thought I would fatten them up for win- 

 ter, and gave them four or five pounds 

 of liquid sweets in a pan on the ground 

 right in front of the entrance. In a 

 short time the air was filled with thou- 

 sands of bees. I thought I had a mon- 

 ster. Well, that night all I had left of 

 that colony was the stub limb. I have 

 never tried feeding bees in the air since. 



My next experience with bees was 

 this : I climbed a tree 45 feet from the 

 ground, and cut a black colony out, 

 after a hard struggle and many stings. 

 I got them into a hive and carried them 

 home on my back— a distance of four 

 miles. I gave them a set of combs full 

 of bee-moth, and they did not stay with 

 me very long. 



I then borrowed " Langstroth on the 

 Honey-Bee," and for the first time my 

 eyes were opened to the mystery and 

 beauties of a bee-hive ; since then I have 

 given bees my constant attention. I 

 had 16 colonies the past season, but on 



account of the drouth they stored but 

 little honey. I sold out the entire outfit, 

 and with one colony I am starting up 

 again with a different hive and system. 

 The hive I now use holds 10 frames 

 with a top-bar 19J^ inches long and 10 

 inches deep. Peed E. Page. 



Byron, 111., Dec. 8. 



A Little Fall-Bloom Honey. 



Bees did not do much this season. 

 They got a little honey from fall bloom. 

 J. H. Brown. 

 Prescott, Ariz., Dec. 7. 



No Honey and Not Discouraged. 



I did not get any honey this year from 

 70 colonies of bees. They have enough 

 for winter, by feeding some of them. 

 But I will still keep on trying to do bet- 

 ter. I think in a few years we will have 

 plenty of alfalfa here. The farmers are 

 trying it some in this neighborhood. 



James Jardine. 



Ashland, Nebr., Dec. 13. 



Planting Basswood Trees. 



I was at the World's Fair last year. 

 Some saw one thing at the Fair and 

 some another. I was breaking in new 

 shoes when I was there, so I did not see 

 all I might have seen. I have noticed 

 in the American Bee Journal some one 

 asking about where to get linden trees. 

 I got a price-list of a nurseryman that I 

 think will answer. Why not all bee- 

 keepers send for such price-list. The 

 one I got lists 4 to 8 inch linden at 

 $1.00 a hundred. Why not each bee- 

 keeper start a small nursery row in his 

 locality, and see to it that the shade- 

 trees that are planted are honey-plants 

 instead of rubbish ? We can send for 

 seedlings, give them a little care, and 

 give them away or sell them at a reason- 

 able price, and thus benefit the future 

 bee-keepers, or we may live to get some 

 of it ourselves. H. E. Kloth. 



Blanchester, Ohio, Dec. 11. 



Our Young Friend Again. 



Since my last letter I have seen only a 

 few letters in the American Bee Journal 

 from us bee boys and girls. But I will 

 write again, anyway, for I was glad to 

 hear from a few. 



We have our bees all in the cellar and 

 think they are doing quite well. We 

 have not fed them yet, nor do we expect 



