42 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



or under, or "forninst" entrances; and 

 your yellow Italians will be found 

 three or four doors "beyant" with your 

 pet Carniolans. They will "drift" — 

 and that is bad, many times, for 

 queens. 



If you have files of the American Bee 

 Journal, of about 10 years ago, j^ou 

 can see one kink — that we liked very 



much. Where the upper tier of hives 

 sat, the building- was wider', projected 

 the width of the shelf. 



Loucks will bump his head when he 

 works the lower hives — mine worked 

 just slick. I endorse every word on 

 the good points he brings out. 



DuLUTH, Minn., Dec. 19, 1904. 



^arp.© 



BY GEO. A. HUMMER. 



SS conditions in the South are so 

 much different from those in the 

 North and East, I am afraid my experi- 

 ence in keeping bees in large numbers 

 will not be of much benefit to a large 

 majority of your readers. On my 

 place I have 400 acres of sweet clover 

 from which I pasture 150 head of stock, 

 get some hay, and keep 450 stands of 

 bees in the home-yard. 



Cottonwood, plum and red bud come 

 first; then in April or May, we usually 

 have some honey dew. In June and 

 July comes our main flow, from sweet 

 clover, which usually lasts six weeks. 

 Then comes cotton, followed by Span- 

 ish needle and goldenrod. We find, 

 that sweet clover sown on our sod 

 makes the best kind of grazing, as well 

 as hay, besides being our best honey 

 plant. I also lease 400 acres adjoin- 

 ing my place, and keep 250 stands 

 there in one yard. 



In this locality some one must be in 

 the yard from April 1st to Sept. I5th; 

 and, unless I can get the best of help, 

 I would rather give the owner of the 

 land an interest in the apiary. 



Unless I lived near a planing mill I 

 would buy mj^ hives of the manufac- 

 turer, as I have yet to find a carpenter 

 that will make a hive accurately. I 



have bought bees in home-made hives. 

 Some had no bee-space, some had 

 several, and after one year's use they 

 went to the kindling pile. 



I would have a tent and a set of tools 

 at each yard. Our working season is 

 so long that we get all the increase we 

 want by natural swarming. About 

 one-third of the colonies will swarm 

 before Sept. 1st, but there are very 

 few swarms in the honey flow. 



I started ten years ago to produce ex- 

 tracted honey, but I finally decided 

 that I could secure nearly as much 

 comb as extracted. Why is this ? My 

 idea is that the bees can secrete wax 

 very rapidly in our warm climate, and, 

 the season being so long, they secrete 

 about enough wax for building the 

 comb for comb honey. 



I use plain sections and fences, and 

 put on supers as needed until they are 

 three-high. This gives plenty of room 

 and discourages swarming. During 

 sweet clover bloom, I can use supers 

 three-high with no danger of travel- 

 stain. All bees are wintered on the 

 summer stands without loss. 



Take plenty of time in finding the 

 best location possible. I consider this 

 the most important of all. Then be 

 sure to have everything ready long be- 



