80 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



than the other. Too many people are 

 inclined to jump at conclusions, and 

 take this and that for granted, when 

 they have no positive proof. I have 

 had hundreds of colonies starving 

 when the roadside and fields were 

 white with clover, and in three days 

 they would be getting honey faster 

 than we could give them room to store 

 it. 



CONDITIONS NECESSARY FOR A 

 HONEY-FLOW. 



I think our honey harvests depend 

 almost wholly upon certain conditions 

 of the atmosphere. Give me a hot, 

 damp summer, when we have frequent 

 thunder and lightning, with most of 

 the showers going around us, and the 

 flowers will fairly rain honejs but 

 with cold, cloudy, windy weather, 

 bees will get no honey, even if hives 

 axe Jive miles apart. 



WEATHER CONDITIONS, NOT SIZE OF 

 APIARY, DECIDE THE CROP. 



During last August, while our buck- 

 wheat was in bloom, we had verj' 

 cold, wet, disagreeable weather, eleven 

 days at one time, and the bees got 

 little or nothing, but, as soon as it be- 



gan to warm up again they got honey 

 very fast — I think it is the same all 

 over. 



My oldest son spent three winters in 

 Cuba with Osborn, prior to the out- 

 break of the Spanish-American war. 

 Osborn had, at that time, perhaps the 

 largest apiary in the world. "When 

 the weather was all right his bees 

 gathered honey faster than it could be 

 extracted with a 24-frame extractor 

 run by steam, then, as soon as the 

 wind would get into the north, and it 

 became cold and cloudy, there was no 

 honey in the flowers, and the bees 

 were ready to rob anything they could 

 get at. Osborn was a man of wide 

 experience, and had studied the sub- 

 ject all the way from a small apiary 

 to one of nearly one thousand colonies, 

 and, like myself, was very doubtful 

 about overstocking a fairly good lo- 

 cation in a good season; and we all 

 know that, with poor seasons, our sur- 

 plus honey amounts to little or noth- 

 ing. With due respect for all those 

 who difl^er from me upon this impor- 

 tant subject, I bring this article to a 

 close. 



Delanson, N. Y., Feb. 15, 1904. 



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Eight Extra Pages this month. In 

 giving these I also give thanks to the 

 advertisers who made them necessar3\ 



>oni^*F*»»»»^ 



Mr. T. F. Bingham, of Farwell, 

 Michigan, writes me that his bees in a 

 cellar (built like a cistern) are winter- 

 ing perfectly. 



This Issue of the Review will go to 

 hundreds of bee-keepers who are not 

 subscribers. To such I would say 

 that it will probably be to our mutual 

 advantage if they will read pages 94, 

 95 and 96. 



The Northern Michigan Bee- 

 Keepers' Association will hold its 

 annual convention March 30th and 

 31st at Montague Hall, 127 Front St., 

 Traverse City, Michigan. A. I. Root 

 and the editor of the Review expect to 

 be present. 



«^*^«^^« •mWtf 



Officers elected at the last Mich- 

 igan State Bee-Keepers' convention 

 are as follows: President, W. Z. 

 Hutchinson, Flint; Vice-President, 

 Elmore Hunt, Bell Branch; Secretary, 

 E. B. Tyrrell, Davison; Treasurer, 

 A. D. D. Wood, Lansing. 



