•T'H® m^mMMicmM wmm jo/URumi^. 



107 



eral years ago. A German here kept bees 

 in the old country before he came over, five 

 years ago, and he says that they used the 

 same device there beture he left. If I have 

 time I shall try Mr. Dibble's plan described 

 on page 73, the coming summer. It is 

 much simpler than Mr. Alley's, and I think 

 that it is much better. Will Mr. Dibble 

 please answer this ipiestiou : How would 

 it do to use a strip of queen-excluding 

 honey-board on the front of the hive, in 

 place of the honey-board under the frames? 



When is the best time to Carniolianize 

 my bees, by introducing a queen* How 

 would it do to destroy all queen-cells in the 

 parent hive, immediately after swarming, 

 and then send for a queen and introduce 

 her* G. D. Tolman. 



Shawano, Wis., Feb. 3, 1890. 



[We do not publish a German edition of 

 the Bee Journal. To do as you suggest 

 will be all right about introducing a Car- 

 niolan queen. — Ed.] 



A Very Raiuy Season. 



We have had more rain here this season 

 than people can remember of, that have 

 been here for 12 or 15 years. I expect a 

 good honey harvest this year. 



C. SCHLIESMATER. 



Pasadena, Calif., Jan. 3.5, 1890. 



Poor Season tor Bee-Keeping. 



The honey crop was almost a failure last 

 season — it was the poorest season in this 

 locality for honey and increase that I re- 

 member of for 25 years. I have 100 colo- 

 nies, all in good condition. I put them into 

 winter quarters on Nov. 38, 1889. 



M. Snyder. 



Berne, N. Y., Jan. 30, 1890. 



Japanese Buclovlieat, etc. 



The beeshad a general jollification to-day, 

 flying as briskly as in spring — a gentleman 

 driving to my house was in fear of having 

 his horse stung ; I think that his fears were 

 unfounded, however, as the bees seemed 

 too much absorbed in their pleasures, to 

 show any displeasure at the approach of 

 any one. The lack of snow is destroying 

 great quantities of clover. I would recom- 

 mend the sowing of Japanese buckwheat, 

 which proves a great yielder of both grain 

 and honey the last season. 



S. J. YOUNGMAN. 



Lakeview, Mich., Jan. 21, 1890. 



will get too cold, if this cold weather lasts 

 much longer. 



I have one half acre of Alsiko clover, 

 which IiIoomiimI last summer for the first 

 time, and I never saw bees work on any 

 blossoms as they did on that. I shall sow- 

 more of it in the spring. I think that if all 

 bee-keepers would sow some houey-pro- 

 ducing plants, such as Alsike, white clover 

 and buckwheat, and would plant plenty of 

 basswood, soft maple and l)Ox-elder trees, 

 they would not have to report so many 

 failures of the honey crop. If bees pay at 

 all, I say, give them plenty of pasturage, 

 and they will give still greater returns to 

 the apiarist. 1 have about a dozen bass- 

 wood trees in a grove near the house, 

 which I planted ten or twelve years ago; 

 they have produced blossoms for three 

 years, and I never saw any basswood 

 trees in their native woods that bore such 

 a profusion of blossoms ; besides, I planted 

 at the same time 100 or more soft maples 

 and box-elders, which give the bees some- 

 thing to work on ; I also have thousands of 

 white willows planted, which furnish the 

 bees with pollen and honey very early in 

 the spring. It pays to raise honey-pro- 

 ducing plants and trees. D. B. Cassadt. 



Litchfield, Minn., Jan. 21, 1890. 



Some Experience— lloney-Xrees. 



Last spring I bought 2 colonies of bees, 

 and one cast 3 good swarms in May, and 

 the other did not swarm at all, but I got 

 165 pounds of surplus honey from it, be- 

 sides storing plenty to winter on. The 

 colony that swarmed, stored about -15 

 pounds, and the 2 new colonies stored 

 enough, with what the mother colony 

 stored, to make 365 pounds of surplus 

 honey in all. One of the new colonies cast 

 2 swarms, which stored plenty for the 

 winter. I sold enough honey to pay for 

 the 2 old colonies, and had all the honey 

 we could eat all summer and fall. I have 

 nothing on the farm that has paid me bet- 

 ter for the capital invested, than did those 

 2 colonies of bees, and now I have 6 colo- 

 nies in winter quarters, and the tempera- 

 ture in the bee-cellar has been between 36 

 and 42 degrees above zero ; the past two or 

 three days, at from 36 to 38 degrees below 

 outside, and at the same time it was 36 to 

 38 degrees inside. I am afraid my cellar 



IVinteriiijs: I^icely— Alsike Clover 



Bees in this locality are wintering nicely, 

 so far. They had plenty of natural stores, 

 but gave us "but little .surplus. I have 36 

 colonies packed in clover chaff, and on the 

 summer stands. Which is best for seed, 

 the first, or the second, crop of Alsike 

 clover J Wm. G. Cokt. 



Cason, Ind., Jan. 37, 1890. 



[Alsike clover ripens in the latitude of 

 Chicago, in the latter part of July, but 

 need not be cut until August, if the 

 weather should be unfavorable. The crop 

 of seed is always obtained from this cut- 

 ting, in which respect it is unlike the com- 

 mon red. It is not advisable to cut this 

 clover more than once each season, but it 

 may be pastured moderately during the 

 fall. When cut for seed, it may be threshed 

 from the field with a common clover ma- 

 chine ; but, if more convenient, it may be 

 stacked and threshed during the fall or 

 winter. — Ed.] 



^Vinler Stores— I>is;estedl Mectar. 



My bees have had a jolly time to-day, so 

 I took off the covers and gave them an air- 

 ing, and I think that it did them good. We 

 have had so much rain that the chaff was a 

 little damp, but the sun dried it out nicely 

 during the daj". I examined 3 colonies, and 

 found they were rearing brood very fast — 

 too much so, I think. I am of the opinion 

 that bee-keepers will have to do a good deal 

 of feeding this spring. My bees have con- 

 sumed nearly half of their winter stores, 

 already. Talk about wintering a colony on 

 30 pounds of honey ! My bees have used 

 that amount up to this date ; but of course 

 we have had an unusually warm winter, 

 which accounts for it. There seems to be 

 more bees in the hives now, than there 

 were last fall. I would like to hear some- 

 thing more about "digested nectar;" it 

 seems to me that somebody ought to know 

 whether honey is digested nectar or not. 

 My simple opinion is, that there is nothing 

 digested about it. If it is digested, it seems 

 to me that the water that there is in nectar 

 would be absorbed so that the bees could 

 cap it as fast as gathered. 



Orville Jones. 



Stockbridge, Mich., Feb. 3, 1890. 



Strainin;; Extractetl Honey. 



In the "prize essay," on page 53, by Dr. 

 G. P. Hachenberg, he speaks of straining 

 honey. I got sick of stiaining honey 

 through a cloth the first year I extracted 

 honey. When I extract honey, I jiut it into 

 alcohol barrels as fast as it comes from the 

 extractor; when one barrel is full, I let it 

 stand a day or two, and every imimrity in 

 the honey will come to the toj), when I 

 skim off all that I can get. When I sell it, 

 I melt it in a boiler, and skim it again, and 

 there will not be a "speck of anything in it. 

 The way I strain the cappings and skim- 

 ings is as follows : 



I make a box about 14 inches square, and 

 about that high, and nail slats on the bot- 

 tom, with a very little space between. I 

 make a platform of boards high enough 

 from the floor, to put tin pans under the 

 lower side to catch the honey, making the 

 back higher than the front. I lay the boards 

 double, and break joints, put the box on 

 with the front side raised a little from the 

 boards, to let the honey out; fill it up with 

 cappings, and when I have any skimmings, 

 I put that on top, and the honey will drain 

 out clean. I put the honey that drains 

 out, into the barrel that I am filling from 

 the extractor, and it will all be skimmed 

 together. In that way my honey is as clear 

 and nice as can be, and it is a great deal 

 better way than straining through cloth. 



Averill,"Mich. Charles Inman. 



Winterinsr Well— Binders. 



Up to this date I have never kno%vn bees 

 to winter so well — indeed, they have had 

 but little '• wintering" to do. It has been 

 incessantly warm, and the bees have been 

 almost constantly on the wing, bringing in 

 pollen, and the last few days they have 

 stored some honey. They are building 

 comb and breeding i-apidly ; a peep into the 

 brood-chamber presents the appearance of 

 the height of the breeding season. Thou- 

 sands of brood in all stages, from the egg 

 up to the hatching bee, and in one of my 

 strongest and most thrifty colonies, I no- 

 ticed (to-day) a queen-cell started— I sup- 

 pose, under the impulse of swarming. 



I received the binder you sent me a few 

 days ago, and in a few minutes after its 

 reception, with the assistance of my " bet- 

 ter half," I had 52 copies of the American 

 Bee Journal (for the year 1889), in a 

 solid, well-bound book, which I esteem as 

 one of my most valuable bee-books. 



The bee-keepers of this (Mecklenburg) 

 county, contemplate at an early day, the 

 organization of a bee-keepers' association. 

 E. W. Ltles. 



Charlotte, N. C, Jan. 28, 1890. 



[Bee-keepers should always bind their 

 numbers of the American Bee Journal. 

 It is handy to always have them in order, 

 and it saves them from being lost, to file 

 every one as soon as it comes to hand. The 

 pleasure of reading and referring to articles 

 is worth more than the Binder costs.— Ed.] 



Bees WinterinK Fairly. 



My bees appear to be wintering fairly, 

 though they have not had a flight for some 

 time. I feared they would have a hard 

 time this winter, when, last September, I 

 saw their hives containing considerable 

 fall honey and honey-dew, which could not 

 be extracted on account of its consistency; 

 but at present I am encouraged. I must 

 say that I agree with all contained in Dr. 

 Tinker's article on page 73, about "Double- 

 Walled vs. Single-Walled Hives;" though 

 the Doctor puts some points rather strongly. 

 J. H. Larrabee. 



Larrabee's Point, Vt., Feb. 4, 1890. 



