58 



Tmm MBi^KieMif mmn j^wmmmLe. 



soon i-eturns with cover and top-board 

 in one hand, and the body of the hive 

 on the same arm, and tlie botton-board 

 in the other. Any woman with ordi- 

 nary strength can do this with ease. 

 For $5.00, a girl can be had for these 

 two weeks in hajing. and my wife lilces 

 no better fun than to cage queens, and 

 place the hives close by the old one, 

 throwing a canvas of some kind over 

 the old hives. The rest is left for me, 

 when I come from the field. 



During the two weeks of making 

 haj', many of the section-cases will be 

 read}' to take off. I can well afford to 

 take a half day to put the bee-escape 

 boards under the section-cases, and put 

 other empty cases underneath. In two 

 or three days I carry my bee-deserted 

 cases to the honej"-house ; here will be 

 a half day more lost (?). Thus the 

 white clover honey-harvest, with hay- 

 ing, will be almost at a close, and I 

 will have plenty of time to attend to 

 the other cases left on. The bees will 

 not bother much in oat harvest, as 

 a general rule. 



The grain is stacked without inter- 

 ference ; this, perhaps, will be about 

 the middle of August. One week after 

 this date, heart' s-ease begins to bloom 

 here, and, as a rule, yields surplus ; it 

 often exceeds that of clover. At this 

 time of year, the farmer will find 

 plenty of time to attend to the honey 

 crop, and prepare the bees for winter's 

 quiet. 



We will say that 50 pounds of comb 

 honey will be about the average per 

 colony, over the United States ; thus 50 

 colonies would annually produce 2,500 

 pounds, which at 12 cents per pound, 

 would amount to i^OO. Twenty-six 

 hogs, weighing 350 pounds each, will 

 bring, at present prices, $296.75. I 

 want to say right here, that no one 

 thing upon the farm, pays me so well, 

 in dollars and cents, as do the bees ; 

 and with no other great industry, does 

 apiculture combine better. 



Welton, Iowa. 



A Special Cliib Rate. 



A Magazine of the choice literary charac- 

 ter which the Illustrated Home Journal 

 sustains, will add many pleasures to any 

 '■family circle." Its beautiful illustrations 

 and interesting reading-matter will make it 

 heartily welcomed at every " fireside " in 

 the land. 



We desire that eveiy one of our readers 

 should secure its regular visits during the 

 year 1890, and in order to induce them to 

 do so, we win make this tempting offer; 



We will Club the American Bee Journal 

 and the Illustrated Home Journal, and 

 mail both periodicals during the whole j'ear 

 1890 for $1.50. if the order is received at 

 this office before January 31, 1890. 



CONVENTION DIRECTORY. 



1890. Time and place of meeting. 



Jan. '.iI-24.— Minnesota State, at Excelsior. Minn. 

 Wm. tJrie, See.. Minneapolis, Minn. 



Jan. 22.— Vermont State, at Burlington, Vt. 



J. H. Larrabee, Sec, Larrabee's Point, Vt. 



Jan. 28.— Cortland Union, at Cortland. N. Y. 



M. H. Fairbanks, Sec., Homer, N. Y. 



Feb. 5.— Wisconsin State, at Madison. Wis. 



Dr. J. W. Vance, Sec, Madison, Wis. 



Feb. 5-7.— New York State, at Rocbester. N. Y. 



G. H. Knickerboclser, Sec, Pine Plains, N. Y. 



Feb. 19-20.— Ohio State, at Cleveland, O. 



Miss Dema Bennett, Sec, Bedford, O. 



Feb. 19-20.— N. B. Ohio. N. W. Pa., and Western New 

 York, at Cleveland, Ohio. 



Geo. Spitler, Sec, Mosiertown, Pa. 



May 3.— Susquehanna Co.. at Hopbottom, Pa. 



H. M. Seeley, Sec, Harford, Pa. 



May 19.— Northern Illinois, at Rockford, Ills. 



D. A. I^iUer, Sec, Cherry Valley, Ills. 



iS" In order to have this table complete, 

 Secretaries are requested to forward full 

 particulars of the time and the place of 

 each future meeting. — The Editor. 



sli&M^MM>M 



Ciatliering Pollen and Honey. 



Pollen and honey are coming in. I have 

 41 colonies of bees, which are on the sum- 

 mer stands, and to-day they are working 

 very strong, and carrying in lots of pollen 

 and some honey, which they are gathering 

 from the soft maple. They have worked 

 some every day for the last ten days, ex- 

 cept on two or three days. Prospects are 

 splendid for a crop of white clover next 

 spring. J. H. Compton. 



Cowling, nis., Jan. 10, 1890. 



A Crood Yield of Honey. 



I commenced the season of 1889 with 30 

 colonies, increased them to 75, and took 

 5,850 pounds of comb honey in one-pound 

 sections. I have united and sold mj* bees 

 down to 60 colonies, 50 of which are packed 

 in chaff hives, but packed overhead. They 

 are wintering finely so far on the summer 

 stands. I have out on commission, and 

 sold, all but 700 pounds of my honej'. It 

 seems to be selling slowly. The clover 

 seems to be in good condition so far. It is 

 cooler this morning, and it looks as if the 

 nice weather we have been having, is dis- 

 appearing fast. John Blodget. 



Empire, Mo., Jan. 6, 1890. 



Selt-IIivins' Ai-rans:enient, etc. 



On ]iage 27 is an article from Henry 

 Alley, concerning the self-hiving of bees, 

 by means of what he calls a novel de- 

 vice — attaching two hives, an empty one, 

 and one with a coloiij' in it, side by side, 

 so that when a swarm issues, the queen 

 finding that she cannot pass directly out to 

 join tlje bees, runs along the device, and 

 passes into the new abode, and is there 

 joined by the bees. Mr. AUey says that the 

 inventor of the apparatus thinks his dis- 

 covery worth the moderate sum of $1,000. 

 I have not as yet looked up the article in 

 the Bee Journal, that he refers to ; but I 

 have had hanging in my bee-shed be- 

 tween four and five years, this grand dis- 

 covei*y of a self-hiver, made without having 

 heard of, or seen, anything of the liind. 

 Several of my bee keeping friends belong- 



ing to the Philadelphia Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation, saw it on tlie hives, and it was re- 

 ferred to at one of their meetings; whether 

 somebodj' got the idea from that, I do not 

 know, but I do know that I never have 

 seen or heard of anything of the kind until 

 I saw Mr. Alley's article? 



I made a self-hiver out of ^^"Inch lumber, 

 making a box 20 inches long, and 3 inches 

 deep on the ends and one side, and the 

 other side 4 inches deep, that it might serve 

 for an alighting-board. In the bottom I 

 made two openings, one for the entrance of 

 each hive; on the front, I nailed a piece of 

 perforated zinc 20 inches long and 4 inches 

 wide. I only tried it once, and not having 

 secured it in its place, the queen found a 

 little side-door arrangement by which she 

 joined her subjects; but of course the de- 

 vice must answer the purpose, if properly 

 secured. The cost of the device is compara- 

 tivelj' nothing. The honey cfop was a fail- 

 ure the past year. I extracted a few frames 

 with my home-made extractor very nicely. 



Philadelphia, Pa. L. Stout. 



IPolIen froii Dandelions, etc. 



Western comb honey is retailing at 12).2 

 cents per pound in one-pound sections here. 

 Bees were gathering pollen from dande- 

 lions on Dec. 28, 1889; and on Jan. 13, 

 1890, bees were bringing in pollen from 

 dandelions and swamp-cabbage, like in 

 early spring. The temperature was over 

 80 degrees in my apiary. 



H. P. Paucett. 



Dilworthtown, Pa., Jan. 14, 1890. 



Bees ftreedinji; Rapidly. 



Last month was more like April than 

 December. Vegetation was in bloom in 

 southern exposures, and green strawber- 

 ries are on the vines. Bees have been 

 bringing in pollen up to this time, as in the 

 fall, and storing some honey from maples 

 and other sources. At one time there was 

 an abundance of honey-dew in some loca- 

 tions. Bees are breeding rapidly, and are 

 in good condition. C. Weeks. 



Clifton, Tenn., Jan. 7, 1890. 



ITIaking Bee-Esicapes, etc. 



I have read Dr. Tinker's way of making 

 the Dibbern bee-escape. My way is so 

 simple, and I am fearful that it will not 

 work. I take a board as long and wide as 

 the hive; this board is made with a half 

 bee-space on both sides, as my hives and 

 supers have half bee-spaces. On this board 

 I nail three strips, 3 16 of an inch thick, 

 and 10 inch long, nailed so as to be V- 

 shaped. On the strips I tack wire-cloth cut 

 to fit. I leave a space at each corner, so 

 that one bee can pass at a time. 



The weather here is all that can be de- 

 sired for wintering bees out-of-doors. There 

 is no sleighiug as yet, but plenty of rain 

 and mud. E. M. Slocum. 



Easton, N. Y., Jan. 4, 1890. 



n^liite Aster and (liolden-Rod. 



I have been very deeply interested in the 

 Bee Journal for the last five or six months, 

 and c particularly in the discussion of the 

 merits of the so-called national flower (the 

 golden-rod). Now let me say in all candor 

 and honesty — I do not believe that there 

 was ever one ounce of honey gathered from 

 golden^od. Why? In the first place, we 

 never see golden-rod growing without wild 

 aster growing in its immediate neighbor- 

 hood ; second, the wild aster of Southern 

 Illinois has a yellow center, which secretes 

 honey, or nectar, and our bees gather that, 



