THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



259 



"What Shall the Harvest be?" 



In every department of agriculture — 

 a bouncing big one ! That is generally 

 so, certain localities present us the ex- 

 ception to the general rule. 



As to bees and honey the same gen- 

 eral rule applies. Our correspondents 

 in this issue of the Journal have ex- 

 pressed it thus: 



"We have had a good season." H. 



"Our bees are doing well." Wm. Dyer. 



"Bees are doing vfell here now." 



C. F. Greening. 



"Bees are doing first-rate here." 



John Crowfoot. 



"Bees are doing well this season." 



G. W. Zimmerman. 



"Honey never more abundant." 



James Heddon. 



"I have 1500 stocks of bees, doing well." 

 J. M. Hicks. 



"This year I have 1,200 lbs. from 31 colon- 

 ies." Chas. F. Muth. 



"I have taken 1,500 lbs. of honey from 60 

 colonies." H. A. Simonds. 



"Have taken 3 tons of honey, and expect 

 2 tons more." J. Oatman & Co. 



"Bees are knee-deep in honey— and white 

 clover at tliat." J. A. Waterhouse. 



"The best honey season for white clover 

 for several years." John Atkinson. 



"I have taken 3,000 lbs. of comb and ex- 

 tracted honey thus far." Fred Kiweger. 



"This has been one of the best seasons 

 ever known in this county." A. F. Moon. 



"I have doubled my bees, and have 100 

 lbs. new honey so far." 



J. L. Anderson. 



"This is one of the best seasons ever 

 known in Central Georgia." 



W. H. Green. 



"I have taken 6,000 lbs. of white clover 

 honey up to date, and expect 5,000 lbs. 

 more." Dk. E. C. L. Larch. 



" Our bees have done well, but our ^'reat 

 honey liarvest is yet to come from wild 

 flowers, etc." Wm. Dyer. 



"We have had cool weather and heavy 

 rains, but now there is an abundance of 

 white clover and basswood." 



J. H. Mautin. 



In California, honey is an entire fail- 

 ure this year, and light in some parts 

 of New York and the grasshopper 

 country. 



1^ C. O. Perrine has been visited by 

 another fire. This time he had nothing 

 burnt, but his whole establishment was 

 flooded with water by the Are engines. 

 He was fully insured. He has now re- 

 moved his ''Honey House" to Michigan 

 Ave. 



Our Slate Registers. 



The following letter concerning tlie Slate 

 Registers we have just had made, will be 

 read with interest: 



Friend Newman:— We receiVed the 

 Slate Registers in due time (express charges 

 only 35c. on the 100), and only one slate 

 broken. Have taken off all the cards and 

 put the slates on, and are highly pleased 

 with them. We would recommend their 

 use by all apiarists that wish to keep^order 

 and system in their apiaries. 



Our way of using the slates is as follows: 

 First, however, I would say that we, like 

 many others, practice cellar wintering, and 

 liave a stand and ■alighting-board to set 

 each hive on. Each alighting-board is 

 numbered and the entrance block is num- 

 bered to correspond. In taking our bees 

 out for a fly in winter, we see at once by the 

 number on the entrance-block which stand 

 to set the hive on. We number the slates 

 according to that on the hive, using the up- 

 per left-hand corner. And if we know 

 wliat particular queen mother the queen 

 was reared from we use the upper right- 

 hand corner, using the number on the hive 

 containing the queen mother. We also 

 take note of the color of the queen, workers 

 and drones, by numbers, using the lower 

 end of the slate. For instance, we examine 

 a colony whose queen is large and bright in 

 color; we number her 4, using the left- 

 hand lower corner, indicating that she is a 

 standard queen. No. 2 or 3 would indicate 

 a queen of inferior color or size. Should 

 her bees be dark, medium, or very light in 

 color we number them accordingly, using 

 the lower right-hand corner, if they be 

 dark, 2; medumi, 3; very light, 4. We use 

 the space between the queen and worker 

 numbers for the drones, and number them 

 according to quality; if they are large and 

 bright in color and uuiformly^marked, we 

 put them 4, etc. 



With slates we can note the date of a 

 colony swarming; date of hiving a swarm; 

 of putting on boxes; number of combs in 

 each hive; or should we divide our bees and 

 not have empty combs enough to fill them. 

 We always know the exact condition of 

 each colony in the apiary, without opening 

 them. We can ascertain if they have their 

 full number of combs, if the queen is light 

 or dark colored, etc. As each slate is num- 

 bered, we shall take them off in the fall and 

 lay them away until next spring. 



J. M. Brooks & Bro. 



Elizabethtown, Ind. 



My Plan for Registering. 



You mention keeping slates for securing 

 a record of each hive. Try my plan: 



Take a piece of tin the size required, and 

 bend two opposite edges X inch, so that 

 they will hold between tliem a card, piece 

 of paper, or slate. A couple of tinned tacks 

 driven almost home will be right to hang it 

 on and keep the record from the weather. 

 Put the number of the swarm on the back 

 of it with a stencil. By this method you 

 have a record in convenient shape for pre- 

 servation. W. H. Kirk. 



Waterbury, Conn., July 14, 1877. 



