44 



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Season's Experience and Results 



I commenced the season with 53 colonies 

 in good condition, but the cold, wet weather 

 kept the bees from work until the white 

 clover commenced to blossom. The colo- 

 nies kept very strong in bees, but light in 

 honey. After the honey-flow commenced, 

 they 'filled up very quickly, and commenced 

 swarming. I tried all the plans that I had 

 heard or read of, to keep down the increase, 

 but in spite of my plans and work, they in- 

 creased to 93 strong colonies and 17 nuclei 

 with queens. The nuclei I have put into 

 the cellar, and the 93 colonies are on the 

 summer stands. I will leave them there 

 until the weather is colder. I wintered my 

 bees in the cellar last winter, without the 

 loss of a colony. This year I secured 4,160 

 pounds of comb honey, and 2,700 pounds 

 of extracted. I have about 1,200 pounds 

 of comb, and -100 pounds of extracted 

 honey, on hand. What I have sold, netted 

 me 13 cents per pound for comb, and 8 

 cents for extracted. William Hill. 



Prophetstown, Ills. 



or loss of colonies? I tried clipping the 

 queen's wing. This works all right tor that 

 colony, but if one allows an increase of one 

 swarm per colony, then what is to be done 

 with the young queen whose wing dare not 

 be clipped before she lays; and that one will 

 not get much chance to be clipped after she 

 lays, as she will pick up her followers and 

 hie herself over the hills, in about eight 

 days after the first colony swarmed? 



I propose to take my bees out into a lin- 

 den grove, for a " camping out " vacation, 

 just at the time that the trees are in bloom ; 

 but what am I to do with run-away bees, 

 among those monsters of the forest? Will 

 some one kindly offer some helpful sugges- 

 tions, before the "swarming time" comes 

 on '; Kit Clover. 



Dubuque, Iowa. 



Honey in Oood Memand. 



Bees did well in this section the past sea- 

 son. Mine averaged 107 pounds per col- 

 ony, spring count, almost all being ex- 

 tracted honey. Fruit was scarce, and 

 honey has been in good demand all along. 

 Golden-rod was very abundant here, but 

 the weather was very dry, and the bees got 

 no honey from it, though in some years they 

 do gather from it. John Dewar. 



Tiverton, Out., Dec. 30, 1889. 



Bees Flying on Ciiristmas. 



This has been a very poor season for bees 

 in this vicinity. I commenced with 130 

 colonies, spring count, increased them to 

 175, and my honey crop consists of 1,100 

 pounds of extracted, and 3,000 pounds of 

 comb honey in one-ijound sections. It was 

 altogether too wet a season, and it still con- 

 tinues to rain. Christmas day was ob- 

 served by the bees— they had a great frolic 

 in the open air, the weather being fine and 

 warm, not a particle of snow in sight—a 

 thing not very often experienced in this 

 part of New York State. C. D. Battet. 

 Peterboro, N. Y., Jan. 1, 1890. 



Bees in Splen«Ii«1 Condition. 



We wintered 58 colonies without loss 

 last winter, and the average amount of 

 honey taken was 100 pounds per colony, 

 all extracted except 1,000 pounds in one- 

 pound sections, and 500 pounds in frames 

 for feeding in the spring. We put 87 colo- 

 nies into the cellar on Nov. 34, in splendid 

 condition. The temperature varies but 

 little from 50 degrees. We sold 15 barrels 

 of honey to a cracker factory, at 5 cents 

 per pound for dark and 6 cents for light 

 honey. We get 8 cents at retail. We have 

 600 pounds of comb honey in one-pound 

 sections, and can get only 10 cents a pound 

 for it. We are holding it for a higher price. 

 Our market is full of 7 and 8 cent honey, 

 and grocers are selling at 10 cents a pound. 

 S. J. Church & Son. 

 Cedar Rapids, Iowa. 



Centritiigal Comto-Fillev Feeder. 



I will describe a centrifugal comb-filler of 

 my own invention. With it I can put 

 honey into the combs as fast as any one can 

 take it out with an extractor. I can leave 

 the brood-chamber empty any amount that 

 is necessary, or every cell. This feeder 

 has several advantages over other ways of 

 feeding. I can feed quickly with it; it 

 does not stimulate breeding so much as 

 other ways of feeding, and I am not bur- 

 dened with a multitude of feeders to store 

 away. By putting combs in at night, the 

 bees get them cleaned up by morning, so 

 that it will not excite robbing. It also re- 

 lieves the bees from a great amount of 

 labor. Well ripened honey, or syrup, can 

 be used. All that the bees have to do, is to 

 cap it over. It is al)OUt the size of the 

 frame that holds the combs for extracting, 

 therefore it can be put into the extractor, 

 so as to give it the rotary motion, which 

 produces the required centi-ifugal force. 

 The machine is so simple in construction 

 that any one can operate it. I have used it 

 for six years, and know its merits, I did 

 not get it patented, not being in the supply 

 business, and I have no pecuniary interest 

 in it, save for my own use. 



G. W. Leonard. 



A Soft and lEainy IVinter. 



The season here has been very good. I 

 commenced in the spring with 1 1 colonies, 

 two of which were very weak. I increased 

 them to 30 colonies, and sold 3 swarms 

 just as they issued. I took off 750 pounds 

 of comb honey, and 100 pounds of ex- 

 tracted. I have sold almost all of it at 10, 

 12'.; and 15 cents per pound. We have 

 had'a very soft winter so far. I put my 

 bees into the cellar on Nov. 32, and I have 

 had some trouble to keep them quiet. The 

 temperature has ranged from 30 to 60 de- 

 grees out-doors, and from 45 to 55 degrees 

 in the cellar. I had chaff cushions on the 

 hives, the same as used out-doors hereto- 

 fore, but I took them off, and now they 

 have just one thickness of burlap on them ; 

 they are more quiet, but I shall put on the 

 cushions again on Feb. 1. We have had 

 plenty of rain the past fall, and this winter, 

 and it is still raining this morning. 



A. Sherington. 

 Dutton, Mich., Jan. 1, 1890. 



Some Swarniinfj Wifliculties. 



I bought one colony of bees in June,18S8, 

 and as there was no honey-flow, and the 

 bees did not swarm, on the first week of 

 August I divided the colony and introduced 

 a new queen; on Nov. 38, I put the hives in 

 the cellar, with a vague guess that the bees 

 had honey enough to carry them through. 

 My guess" might have been a long way from 

 right, but it happened not to be; with the 

 loss of about a dozen bees to a hive, I put 

 them out early in March. On May 25, 

 1889, they clustered on shrubs, on fences, 

 on tops of trees, and— well, I do not remem- 

 ber now where they did not cluster. I 

 could manage them on the low places, but, 

 after an exceedingly lively summer, I must 

 admit that I cannot climb a tall oak and 

 bring down the bees. 



I now have 5 colonies, having sold one, 

 and lost two— by the sheerest carelessness. 

 I sigh as I think of those wild climbs after 

 clusters, as I put the problem ; " If 2 colo- 

 nies can put their keeper through such 

 paces, what will be the result of owning 5 

 colonies?" How can this swarming busi- 

 ness be managed, without climbing trees. 



Fair Season tor Bees. 



The past season was fair, but the spring 

 was backward. We had late frosts that 

 put the bees back in breeding. I com- 

 menced the season with 25 colonies, in- 

 creased them to 40, and doubled back to 33 

 in the fall. I obtained between 800 and 

 900 pounds of honey, which was very thick 

 and rich, about half of it being extracted. 

 A couple of colonies that I gave plenty of 

 room to work on combs, did not swarm, 

 but stored nearly 100 pounds of extracted 

 honey, each, besides leaving plenty for 

 winter. I think that by giving them plenty 

 of room, and but little drone-comb, they 

 will not be inclined to swarm much. I had 

 more trouble this year in getting supplies, 

 than I ever had before. This winter has 

 been too warm for the bees in the cellar. I 

 put mine in on Nov. 5. They are quiet 

 now. I opened a window and let in the 

 cold air, but before I opened it the tempera- 

 ture in the cellar was about 50 degrees all 

 the time, and the bees kept coming out of 

 the hives. Wm. Cleakt. 



Algona, Iowa, Dec. 31, 1889. 



Oood Report for tl»e Season. 



I have 17 colonies, having commenced 

 with 6 colonies in the spring of 1889. Of 

 one colony I kept a special record ; it came 

 out on June 6, and I put it into an empty 

 hive, with 15 frames, 12x13 inches, also a 

 second story just as large as the hive, i 

 took out 71 pounds of as nice comb honey 

 as I ever wish to eat, in the latter part ot 

 A\igust; in October I took 13 pounds more, 

 making in all 83 pounds, besides the hive is 

 full I have considerable faith m a plenty 

 of stores, for what is left I can extract next 

 spring, arter apple bloom. How is that for 

 a swarm that never saw foundation—al- 

 though I think they might have done better 

 if they could have had it? My bees are in 

 the cellar-the only trouble I now experi- 

 ence is I have to watch them, for they get too 

 warm sometimes, as the weather has been 

 so mild tor the last two weeks. 



Bees did splendidly here this year. It 

 just seemed as if white clover would never 

 'cease blooming-in tact one could find blos- 

 soms from May until September; and then, 

 the oceans of golden-rod, marsh asters, 

 horse-mint, catnip and many other plants ! 

 I have noticed one flower that the bees do 

 not work on; it is the dog-fennel. We had 

 quite a patch near our house, and I never 

 saw any bees working on it, although! 

 looked several times. 



Mks. Emily M. Casbon. 

 Valparaiso, Ind., Dec. 14, 1889. 



Sweet Clover-Mild ^Veatlier. 



I send a sprig of a plant that I gathered a 

 few days ago; bees were working on it. it 

 is a shrub that grows from 10 to 1~ teet 

 high, and is called "bee-weed" here. It 

 blooms almost continuously in the summer, 

 if rains are frequent, and yields largely of 

 very fine, white honey. We are having re- 

 markably mild weather here, /yen for 

 Texas. I was over in the valley of the Col- 

 orado river a few days ago, and saw bees 

 working on a kind of sage. All colonies 

 are in splendid condition, and we hope tor 

 a favorable season during the year Ibyu. 

 Seventy-five pounds per colony was the 

 average the past year. Our bees are nearly 

 all blacks, and I find them fully equal to 

 the yellow races here. H. S. Gbavenor. 

 Cypress Mills, Tex., Dec. 31, 1889. 

 [The plant is sweet clover, and is an ex- 

 cellent honey-producer.— Ed.] 



