1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPRE. 



241 





Editor Am. Bee Keeper. — Dear 

 Sir : Bees barely made a living dur- 

 ing the fore part of the season as 

 frost destroyed fruit bloom, and 

 white clover was a failure by previous 

 years of drought. In this locality 

 there is very little honey gathered 

 from basswood ,aiid this year was no 

 exception to the rule. During July 

 we were visited with very much rain, 

 regular downpours which thoroughly 

 saturated the >ground, followed by 

 frequent showers. Vegetation sprang 

 up as if by magic, and old residents 

 say that they never saw a greener 

 August. Bees commenced swarming 

 the 1st of August, and are gather- 

 ing some from sweet clover, 

 which is quite plentiful. Goldenrod 

 is blooming now, but yields but little 

 nectar in this locality. The fall flow 

 of honey seldom fails from Heart- 

 sease, Spanish needle, Thoroughwort 

 and the large family of Asters grow- 

 ing in the river bottoms. 



Yours truly, Mrs. L. Harrison. 



Peoria, 111. Aug., 18, 1895. 



The W. T. Falconer Man'p'g. 

 Co. — Gentlemen : 1 received your 

 catalogue in the spring, but as I had 

 started in a small way did not send 

 you an order but liought of dealers in 

 New York City. I find the goods 

 bought from them to be of very in- 

 ferior quality ; the hives were knotty, 

 sappy and shaky. As 1 keep bees 

 for pleasure as well as profit my de- 

 sire is for nice clean hives and white 

 smooth sections. I am told that you 

 furnish material of the best quality, 

 and as the distance is not great, freight 

 will be reasonablt\ I am using a 



Langstroth 8 frame hive, but think 

 the 10 frame better. I bought one 

 colony of Italians which I divided, 

 taking out one frame of honey and 

 two of brood with the queen and 

 placed them on a new stand. After 

 five days I cut out all the queen cells 

 (20) in the old hive and gave them a 

 new tested queen. Both these have 

 done fairly well. The old stock has 

 now about sixty pounds of surplus 

 stored, and the new stock has nearly 

 filled one super of 28 boxes, and has 

 considerable under the super. 



I bought two box hives of black 

 bees from a neighbor and transferred 

 them into Langstroth hives, dividing 

 them by taking one frame of brood 

 and one of honey from the strongest, 

 and one frame of brood from the 

 weaker colony, put them into an L 

 hive and gave them five frames full 

 of foundation. I gave the old stock 

 full frames of foundation in place of 

 the frames taken out. 1 gave the 

 new blacks an Italian queen. This 

 colon}^ is storing some surplus. The 

 two old colonies of blacks I wished 

 to Italianize, and a friend, who knew 

 more about bee keeping than 1 did, 

 helped me catch the black queens and 

 introduced the Italians at once , which 

 I did not think correct. Weil, one 

 queen was killed ; the colony swarm- 

 ed and I have lost one month already, 

 and the balance of the season will 

 produce no honey, so " in a multitude 

 of counsel " there was little wisdom. 

 The other accepted the queen all 

 right in storing surplus. 



About October 1 will want some 

 10 frame hives. As 1 shall run all 

 my hives with outside winter cases I 

 shall need no covers except when 

 hiving chance swarms. These will 

 go into 8 frame hives which 1 have. 

 Respectfully yours, 



B. F. Onderdonk. 

 Mountain View, N. J., July 30, '95. 



