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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



honey-flow in the southern as the north- 

 ern part of the county. 



On April 27 I visited North Audubon 

 and Carroll counties, and also Jos. 

 Hardie, of Dedham, who had 18 colonies 

 with a loss of one, and a good flow of 

 honey. I then went to see Mr. Rees 

 Phillips ; I found him doing well, and 

 improving his stock by purchasing Ital- 

 ian queens. I left Mr. P. in the morn- 

 ing and visited different apiaries of not 

 much note until I came to Mr. C. A. 

 Emmons, of Manning. He has an api- 

 ary of 20 colonies, and uses the Hub- 

 bard hive, put up by a manufacturer at 

 Manning. Being cut by hand, it is very 

 hard to use. After showing him the 

 difference between the eight-frame dove- 

 tailed section-holders and T tins, he 

 sent for ten No. 2 hives, and likely the 

 readers of .the Bee Journal will hear 

 from him next fall, when he will tell 

 that he can manipulate the eight-frame 

 hive without killing the bees. In and 

 around Manning there was a fair flow of 

 honey in 1891. 



On May 5 I arrived at Wiota ; here I 

 found Levering Bros., who were busy 

 preparing goods for shipment. They 

 said that Nebraska had a better flow of 

 honey, on the average, than Iowa. 



I then went to Neola, and visited L. B. 

 Johnson, who has a few colonies. The 

 bees are in a fair condition for building 

 up for summer work. I learned from 

 different bee-men that the honey-flow 

 was fair in 1891, and that the loss did 

 not exceed 5 per cent, in wintering. 



I took the train for Persia, 52 miles 

 from Council Bluffs, and finding the 

 bees not very plentiful, I went to see Mr. 



F. F. Kellogg, of Portsmouth, who has 

 an apiary of 10 colonies. His loss was 

 10 per cent., and he states that there 

 was not much of a honey-flow in his 

 neighborhood. 



I then went to Panama, and met Mr. 



G. Walters, of the banking firm of 

 Albertus & Walters. Mr. Walters has 

 an apiary of 12 colonies, which wintered 

 without any loss. Mrs. Walters is the 

 apiarist. Around Panama they had an 

 average honey-flow of 10 pounds per 

 colony. The loss in winter and spring 

 dwindling will not exceed 5 per cent. 



I then went to Earling, in Shelby 

 county. Here I find the bee-keepers 

 using the Simplicity eight-frame hives. 

 I tried to explain as best I could to them 

 the difference between the slide top and 

 movable bottom. 



Reaching the town of Defiance, I met 

 some bee-keepers who had just started 

 in the business. The flow of honey was 

 light in 1891, and^there will be a loss of 



nearly 10 per cent, among the bees. 

 The people of Defiance have been visited 

 by a patent-right man in the shape of a 

 " moth proof bee-hive," which I call a 

 " moth-proof nuisance." After giving 

 my opinion on the patent-right nuisance, 

 I wont to Manilla, and found that the 

 honey-flow about averaged with the 

 towns between Neola and Manning. 



In all my travels this spring, in and 

 around Carroll county, there was a good 

 honey-flow, considerably better than the 

 adjoining counties. 



I left Manning, and on my way I 

 found the roads in a very bad condition. 

 In the month of April there were five 

 days that the bees flew with comfort, and 

 this month two days out of seven. Sun- 

 hine is almost a stranger in these parts, 

 but plenty of bad roads. 



Coon Rapids, Iowa, May 13, 1892. 



WlBtering Bees on Honey-Dew. 



C. F. COLLINS. 



I wish to say something in regard to 

 the much-talked-of honey-dew. I am 

 aware that I am not taking the popular 

 side of this question, but it seems to me 

 that the so-called honey-dew is fre- 

 quently condemned, and disparagingly 

 spoken of as winter stores for bees, 

 without positive proof of its ill effects. 



Prior to last winter I packed my bees 

 for winter on the summer stands, but 

 last fall it was impossible for me to get 

 it done, so they stood without their 

 usual protection, in Langstroth hives. 



Last year we got no white clover 

 honey in this section of the country, but 

 the bei3s filled their hives, supers, and 

 all with honey-dew. Then in the fall 

 gathered a little fall bloom, as I judged 

 scarcely half enough to last them 

 through the winter. 



As we thought we would not have 

 much use for the honey-dew, we only 

 took off about half of the supers, leav- 

 ing the rest on through the winter, so 

 as to give the bees an opportunity to 

 utilize all of it that they would for 

 brood-rearing in the spring, so you see 

 the bees did not receive the care they 

 should have had, and yet they came 

 through the winter without any loss, 

 stronger in bees, and seemingly in bet- 

 ter condition for the work, than ever 

 before. 



Now, I am not going so far as to say 

 that the honey-dew has done all this, 

 but merely wish to show that it is possi- 

 ble for bees to winter well on honey-dew. 



