12 



TH® fiUidEMieMIf W'MM J©'PMI«KlLr. 





so tbat practically the honey season was 

 over for the year.' Our " fall " (American) 

 honey never amounts to much here, except 

 in the heather ;districts. At this date very 

 severe frosts have set in, which is rather 

 early for us, but our bees are all out-of- 

 doors, and some are in half-inch hives ; but 

 if all have plenty of good stores, they will 

 undoubtedly come out all right in the 

 spring. Starvation kills many more bees 

 than cold, and last winter " thiuued the 

 ranks of our bees sadly, thousands of colo- 

 nies succumbing; but the past season has 

 pretty well made up the deficiency by ex- 

 cessive increase. The AMEKic.iS Bee Jouk- 

 N^vi just fits a weekly vacuum here. 



Heset Neve. 

 Warbletou, Sussex, England,Dec.5,1889. 



(Uood Kjocalion tor Uee-Keepiiig'. 



I commenced last spring with one colony 

 of bees, and they increased to 5 liy natural 

 swarming. I obtained 130 pounds of honey 

 in one-pound sections, and they yet have 

 plenty to winter on. There was not much 

 attention paid to bee-keeping here, until 

 the last year. We have a good locality, I 

 think, and I hope that we shall succeed 

 well. There is an abundance of bloom all 

 through the season; white clover, sweet 

 clover and buckwheat are plentiful here. 

 F. R. Reitek. 



Phillips' Station, Nebr., Dec. 16, 1889. 



^Vet and Cold $4eaNOii. 



The past season here was wet and cold, 

 but there was moi"e honey in the flowers 

 than last year; and on days when the bees 

 could work, they improved them to the ut- 

 most. My report is as follows: I com- 

 menced the season with 40 colonies, of 

 which 3 were queeuless; increased to 58, 

 and took 1,400 pounds of comb honey, and 

 100 pounds of extracted from unfinished 

 sections. All have a good supply of honey 

 for winter. J. D. Gooduich. 



East Hardwick, Vt., Dec. 12, 1889. 



No Fall i^iirpliifi Honey. 



I am a poor old soldier, broken down in 

 health, and a bad cripple besides, and get 

 only a small pension. I think that the 

 American Bee Joi-kxal Is the best pub- 

 lished. My 32 colonies of bees are packed 

 in chaff on the summer stands, with plenty 

 of honey for winter. Bees got no surplus 

 here the past fall, but there was a gcod 

 yield from clover and other early flowers, 

 with "bug-juice " mixed in from the begin- 

 ning to the end; the result is a poor quality 

 of honey, not fit for market, though I sell 

 some of it for Avhat it is, at a low price. 

 This is the first poor honey I have ever got 

 here. John I. Mautix. 



Falls City, Nebr., Dec. 14, 1889. 



alfalfa is useless; I never saw a bee on it. 

 Spider-plant is as useful for flowers as for 

 honev, and a little more so. .It is in bloom 

 from the last of Jul}' until frost, and it is 

 quite ijretty. There is no honey gathered 

 from it, except early in the morning and 

 late at night. Now and then two or three 

 drops like large dew-drops on a head, can 

 be seen, and on a great many days there 

 are none to be found. The tallest Chap- 

 man honey-plant grew 5 feet, or over, in 

 height, and the ball on the stalk is quite 

 handsome. It lasted about three weeks. 

 Athens, N. Y. Telah C. Whiting. 



<jilad to Help tlie Union. 



I bad 2 colonies in the spring, and now 

 have 5. I am glad to contribute to the 

 support of the Union, and send my dues 

 with this letter. I think that every man 

 having one colony or more, ought to be- 

 come identified with the Bee-Keepers' 

 Union, so as to have our industry and pur- 

 suit recognized and protected as well as 

 any other pursuit, for it is an honorable 

 one. Isaac B. Lain'g. 



Olathe, Kaus. 



Spi<1ei- Plant. Altalfa, etc. 



I started with 7 colonies last spring, in- 

 creased them to 14, and then doubled up 

 until I reduced them to 10 colonies, which 

 is as many as I want to keep. Bees had a 

 hard time the forepart of the season — one 

 colony came pretty nearly succumbing, 

 which it would have done, had I not come 

 to their rescue with a little syrup. They 

 supplied themselves the rest of the season, 

 and gave me some honey for my buckwheat 

 cakes. 



In regard to the Chapman honey-plant, 

 alfalfa clover and spider-plant, I would say 

 tbat I had about 100 plants from the seed 

 tbat I got from Washington, two years ago 

 this winter. The bees just buzzed on it 

 from morning until night. I think that 



» > ♦ » • 



Honey in the Home 9Iai-ket. 



I have been in the bee-business for sev- 

 eral years, and have usually found it profit- 

 able. My report for 1889 is as follows: I 

 increased my apiary from 40 colonies, 

 spring count, to 75 colonies, by natural 

 swarming; produced 3,000 pounds of comb 

 honey, and 200 pounds of extracted honey, 

 nearly all of which is unsold. 1 sell comb 

 honey in the home market at 16 cents per 

 pound. I have always sold my honey in 

 the home market at remunerative prices, 

 never having shipped a pound to the mar- 

 ket center. J. W. Willey. 



Lawrence, Kans., Dec. 5, 1889. 



Old Colony— Good Honey-Flow. 



In my article describing an "old colony," 

 on page 745 of the Bee Journal for 1889, 

 commencing with, " We had a very poor 

 season here," the balance of the article 

 should have been credited to me, instead of 

 Mr. Rosenberger. I would like to hear from 

 the readers of the American Bee Journal 

 if any of them know of an older colony of 

 bees. 



Bees go into winter quarters with plenty 

 of honey this winter. We had the best flow 

 of honey during the fall, that we have had 

 for years. We hope for good results in 

 wintering, and a good honey season in 

 1890, as the last four seasons have been 

 rather bad for bees. J. S. Barb. 



Oakfleld, O., Dee. 16, 1889. 



Ciolden-Kod a*: a Honey Plant. 



The past season was a poor one for honey 

 in this locality. Everything looked favor- 

 able in the forepart of the season for a large 

 yield, as there was a large amount of white 

 clover bloom ; but just as the bees were get- 

 ting to work nicely in the sections, it began 

 to rain, and it not only rained, but it 

 poured, until about the middle of August, 

 so that not only all storing of surplus 

 ceased, but some colonies were nearly des- 

 titute of honey in the brood-chamber at 

 that time ; when there was a change for the 

 better, and we were favored with about 

 three weeks of warm, dry weather, golden- 

 rod was just coming into bloom, and the 

 bees filled everything full from that source, 

 so that they are in line coudition for win- 

 tering. I think that if Mr. Secor could 

 have seen the bees at work, we would have 

 had no doubts about golden-rod being a 

 good honey-plant in this section, at least — 

 though some seasons it does yield very 

 little. The honey is thick, and of a bright- 

 straw color ; the flavor is rather pungent, 

 though liked by some. E. C. Boyd. 



Wilmington, Vt., Dec. 12, 1889. 



$5.00 Eneyclopedia.— The work is 

 almost as large as Webster's Dictionary, 4 

 inches thick, weighs over 5 pounds, and 

 occupies over 300 cubic inches of space. It 

 is handsomely bound in English cloth, 

 double spring back, gilt side and back 

 stamp, marble edges, beveled boards, and 

 contains over 100 illustrations. It is pub- 



Golden-Rod and Warm tVeatlier. 



I shall order more Almauacs later; just 

 now I have no honey, and consequently I 

 have no need to give to my customers un- 

 til the spring crop is gathered. Golden-rod 

 here is a good crop for bees in certain sea- 

 sons, and at others bees gathered but very 

 little from it; this year bees have gathered 

 some surplus, while more than half of my 

 bees just gathered enough to supply them 

 until spring. 



' We are now having a very warm winter, 

 the mercury being 70 degrees above zero 

 in my store now. I feel uneasy about the 

 warm weather, for if it continues so for a 

 little length of time, our orange trees will 

 soon blossom ; then should a frost come, we 

 can say " Good-bye oranges," for next 

 year. John Hager, Ju. 



Arabi, La., Dec. 10, 1889. 





lished at $5.00 per volume, which is vei-y 

 low in comparison with standard eun-ent 

 prices on other works. 



It treats of every characteristic, both the 

 good and the bad, of the various types of 

 man and woman, and proposes to tell most 

 people more about their fellow-men than 

 they ever dreamed it possible to find out. 



We will club it with this Journal for 

 S2.10, postpaid. 



Or we will present it as a Premium for 5 

 new subscribers to either Journal, with 

 $5.00 to pay for the subscriptions. 



This is an opportunity of a lifetime — a 

 rare chance to get a very valuable book 

 free. The postage alone costs 30 cents. 



