Tmrn, mimmMicnf^ nmM joJjmnMiL. 



75 



CiooU llonoy Crop— 4iJ«»I«l«ii-Ko»l. 



The honey crop of this part of Iowa for 

 1889 was splendid. I commenced the sea- 

 son with 11 colonies, ami took 1,800 

 pounds, mostly coml) honey in one and two 

 pound sections. I increased njy apiary to 

 49 colonies, with plenty of surplus for win- 

 ter. I fear that bees that were put into 

 winter quarters early, will not winter well. 

 The weather has been too warm, until this 

 week, and they were very restless. The 

 temperature was as high as 56 degrees, 

 and the cellars could not be cooled except 

 at night. As all are giving their opinion 

 of golden-rod as a honey-jjlant, I will say 

 that I have watched it vei-y closely, to see 

 if bees worked on it, and I have always 

 found it full of ugly black bugs, but no 

 bees, and for this section of country, I 

 would pronounce it a troublesome weed, 

 which is spreading very fast. 



Tnos. O. HiNES. 



Anamosa, Iowa, Jan. 18, 1890. 



There are a few peach-blooms, and also 

 some plums, yet the latter are scarce. The 

 maples are about all in bloom, and the out- 

 look for spring jiollon looks gloomy, unless 

 the maples hloum again in the spring. 

 There is plenty of young brood to be found 

 in the hives, .■iiid there is no telling what 

 the result will be, if there should be any 

 severe winter weather. The honey crop 

 last year was not good, on account of June 

 and July rains. The fall honey crop was 

 ruined by drouth, and as a result many 

 have had to feed syrup to carry their bees 

 through. lux Reeves. 



Carmi, Ills., Jan. 11, 1890. 



] [This is indeed a peculiar winter season. 



I What the spring may unfold, no one can 

 yet foretell. If frosts come late in the 

 spring, great damage will result. We can 

 do naught but await the result with bated 

 breath — hoping for the best, even if fearing 

 the worst. — Eo.l 



Poor *iel«l of Honey. 



Bees did not do very well in this imme- 

 diate locality last season. I had 133 colo- 

 nies, spring count, and increased them to 

 150, by natural swarming. I doubled up 

 the new swarms, and secured most of my 

 surplus from them, which was about 1,500 

 pounds. A. L. Suikck. 



Glasford, Ills., Jan. 11, 1890. 



JBees Uoins %Vell Oiit-ot-I>oors. 



I started with 75 colonies last spring, and 

 harvested five tons of honey, 1,000 pounds 

 of it being comb honey. I increased my 

 apiary to 96 colonies. I sold the comb 

 honey at 15 cents per pound, and I am sell- 

 ing extracted at 10 cents. My bees are 

 doing nicely on the summer stands, and 

 have a flight almost every day. I do not 

 expect to pack them away unil it gets be- 

 low zero. F. A. Gibson. 



Racine, Wis., Jan. 18, 1890. 



Bees in First-Class Condition. 



It is warm enough for bees to safely fly 

 here this morning. The ground is still bare 

 and unfrozen, with not a bit of frost, and 

 bees are in first class condition ; they do not 

 want to fly at all. Judging the possibilities 

 of the future by the past, I do not think 

 that we can have any weather from now 

 out, which will kiU bees. I am lucky 

 enough to have four-flfths of my bees out 

 (only 70 colonies in the cellar), all packed 

 in dark-red boxes. James Heddon. 



Dowagiac, Mich., Jan. 10, 1890. 



blossoms lasted about 15 days, although 

 the weather did not permit the bees to 

 work very slc'adily on it. Of course the 

 bees were doing well, but the dry weather 

 soon came on, and ripened the clover, but 

 cut the buckwheat rather short, and made 

 lioney-gatliering from the fall flowers al- 

 most a total failure. My receipts for the 

 season wore 3,500 pounds of honey in one- 

 l)oun<l sections, and an increase from 30 to 

 5 1 colonies, with jilenty of honey to last 

 them through the winter and another cold 



I notice that some apiarists cannot see 

 any practical use in a loose bottom-board. 

 If Ihey will nail their boards to a cleat on 

 each side 1x1', inches, and also a cleat at 

 the back, they will find, by turning this 

 bottom-board over in the fall, the hive will 

 be raised up from the bottom-board, for the 

 purpose that has been so much discussed of 

 late, and then, as the bees are taken out of 

 the cellar in the spring, by turning the 

 bottom-board again, the bees have a clean 

 and dry floor, and the corners of the hive 

 will not be filled with dead, moldy bees. 

 Then if the bee-keeper wants to do so, he 

 can easily fasten the bottoms on, by using 

 four hook-nails, such as are used to fasten 

 the covers on butter-tubs or tobacco-pails. 



C. H. WOOLDRIDGE. 



Brownville, Iowa, Jan. 12, 1890. 



Bees are a 4koo<1 Investment. 



When I first began to read the Bee Jour- 

 nal, some five or six years ago, my stock 

 of bees was 5 colonies in box hives; that 

 year I bought 25 chaff hives, and have 

 since increased the 5 colonies, by natural 

 swarming, to 45. I have taken for the half 

 shares, 39 colonies of one of my neighbors, 

 making in all 74 colonies in chaff hives to 

 care for. My bees are paying a better per 

 cent, for the amount invested, than any 

 other thing that I have on 43 acres of as 

 good land as there is in the State of New 

 York. I am not working for increase, but 

 for nice comb honey in 1 and 1}^ pound 

 sections. I sold my last year's crop in the 

 home market, at 13,'.2' to 15 cents per 

 pound, and I am now out of honey. 



Etna, N. Y. G. W. S. Gibson. 



Full Sections, Kinff-Bees, etc. 



In answer to Query 679, on page 21, I 

 would advise the querist to have his bees 

 store honey in large frames. He can then 

 cut the combs into squares, the size of sec- 

 tions, with a cutter, the same way that a 

 cook cuts dough for biscuits. Slip the 

 squares into the sections, and place them 

 on a hive, where the bees can get at them 

 to make them fast. 



We have mostly " king-bees " in this part 

 of the country. I will have some of my 

 neighbor ajnarists send the editor one, as 

 mine all died last summer, when I sub- 

 scribed for the American Bee Journal ! 



We are having a remarkable winter here, 

 or rather no winter at all. To-day the 

 mercury stands at 73 degrees in the shade, 

 the bees are busy working on the bloom of 

 peach, plum and other trees andshrubbery, 

 and carrying in large quantities of pollen 

 and some honey. The young bees are fly- 

 ing out daily, and what the end will be I 

 cannot tell. Wilson Rogers. 



Love, W. Va., Jan. 12, 1890. 



[The blossoms enclosed are forward 

 enough for May. " King-bees," and ignor- 

 ance generally, disappear when intelligence 

 and progressive truth are manifested. — Ed.] 



Cold IVeatlier-Alsike Clover. 



I have 14 colonies of bees all in Root 

 chaff hives; they are wintering well. We 

 had no winter until Jan. 1, and on Jan. 12 

 we had a blizzard— not a very bad one, 

 though. The mercury has been as low as 

 20 degrees below zero two or three times, 

 and the weather continues cold, and 

 threatens more snow. I sowed a half 

 bushel of Alsike clover last year, and ex- 

 pect to sow one bushel the coming spring; 

 some of my neighbors expect to sow some, 

 also. I have the only patch there is around 

 here, many never having seen it growing 

 before. S- &■ Palmer. 



Tobias, Nebr., Jan. 18, 1890. 



Yonns: Brones Flying. 



Down in this part of the bee-world, rain 

 prevented the bees from storing over half 

 a crop— 50 pounds to the colony. I have 

 130 Italian colonies. Comb honey sells at 

 12;.< and 15 cents per pound, and extracted 

 at 10 cents. To-day the temperature is 80 

 degrees in the shade. Bees are storing nec- 

 tar and pollen from various flora. My 

 beautiful roses bloom continually. The 

 young drones are out to- day —the first this 

 year ' A. M. Hotle. 



Whistler, Ala., Jan. 7, 1890. 



Blooming Flowers in January. 



I send samples of flowers picked this day 

 with my own hands, that are growing here 

 at the present time — peach-blooms from my 

 own tree, Japonicas, bridal-wreath, and 

 silver willows from the yards of my neigh- 

 bors, and maple from our street sides. 

 The maple trees are, in many instances, in 

 full bloom, and my bees came in yesterday 

 and to-day heavily laden with pollen. We 

 have had no winter here, to amount to any- 

 thing ; the ground has not been frozen a 

 quarter of an inch deep this winter. I am 

 writing in a drug-store, without fire to-day. 

 Japonicas are in full bloom all over this 

 town ; sweet violets are in full bloom also. 



Lioose Bottom-Boards, etc. 



I began the season of 1889 with 26 colo- 

 nies, 9 of which were in poor condition. 

 May was so cold I do not think that the 

 bees had over 30 hours in the whole month, 

 that they could fly and gather honey. It 

 seemed too bad to see the woods so white 

 with wild fruit-blossoms, and no bees at 

 work. But finally the weather became 

 warmer, the white clover came on, and I 

 think that I may safely say there %vas 500 

 acres within easy reach of my bees. In 

 July the basswood bloomed ; I live on a 

 stream with a great amount of basswood 

 timber, which bloomed profusely, and the 



Arranging Hives in tlie Cellar. 



My bees did fairly well the past summer. 

 I had 30 colonies, good and indifferent, to 

 start with in the spring, and they stored 

 an average of 65 pounds of honey per 

 colony, mostly in the comb. I put 40 colo- 

 nies in the cellar in pretty good condition. 

 I place the hives one foot from the floor, 

 and tier them as high as the room will per- 

 mit; take off the cover and put on a quQt, 

 and place across the back of the hive a 

 piece of lath as long as the hive is wide, 

 outside measure, putting this cross-piece on 

 top of the. quilt. I put the ne.xt hive on 

 this, and so on to the top, leaving the cover 

 on the last one. I leave the entrance open 

 the full size, and elevate the rear of the 

 hive; this gives plenty of ventilation, and 

 my bees have not been bothered with bee- 

 dian-hea since adopting this plan. 



H. J. SCOLES. 



KnoxviUe, Iowa, Jan. 11, 1890. 



