90 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



was uncommonly warm for this time 

 of the year ; 83 degrees in the shade. 

 Peach trees furnished the most bloom 

 I ever saw, which was followed closely 

 by the wild cherries and pears. Now 

 the apple trees and late cherries are 

 in full bloom, and the weather has 

 changed to-day and is cloudy with a 

 cold wind from the north. In the 

 forest the sugar tree, beech and judas 

 trees are in bloom. The bees worked 

 on the sugar tree as eagerly as they do 

 on the basswood in July. Some of 

 my hives are full of bees and brood. 

 I found queen cells ready to receive 

 the egg. Unless it tarn- colder early 

 swarming is assured. 1 put on some 

 Supers last week and the bees built 

 some very pretty comb in some of 

 them and stored a little honey. I 

 have practiced Doolittle's plan of 

 changing brood frames, as described 

 in the March number of the Bee- 

 Keeper. The season bids fail- to be 

 a very prosperous one for bee keepers 

 in this section. Yours, &< ., 



D. B. Story. 

 Kingsbury, 0., Moy, 1891. 



The W.T. Falconer Man'f'g Co., 



Grntlemen: A sample copy of the 

 Am. Bee-Keeper fell into my hands 

 yesterday and I looked it over and 

 like its style. 1 have concluded to 

 subscribe. I was in the bee business 

 some thirteen years ago ; hail some 

 success and some fa lures, but I .-old 

 out and have never been as well satis- 

 fied or enjoyed as good health since. 

 If I can again acquire sufficient health 

 t<> permit me to do so I think I will 

 try it again. I have kept a few bees 

 ever since, but have not given them 

 the attention they needed . I see 

 s vera! things in your pap hal 



suits my experience so well that I can- 

 not refrain from speaking of them. 



In the year 1869, when I had been 

 in the business about four years, I 

 begun in the spring with 19 good 

 strong stocks, about four of them Ital- 

 ian and all in American Hives. That 

 was a good season in this part of the 

 country and I increased them to 60 

 good strong hives in the next spring, 

 and I sold 3700 lbs. of nice comb honey, 

 which aqeraged me 28c a pound, 

 bringing me $1036.00, and of course 

 I had done other work and all the 

 work of the apiary, making it the most 

 prosperous year of my life, but that 

 was the cause of the breaking up of 

 three other men in the neighborhood 

 though many went into the business 

 largely. One of them after asking my 

 advice and getting it thought I wanted 

 to monopolize the business when lad- 

 vised him not to buy to exceed four 

 swarms. He bought 55 in common 

 box hives and then hired a man to 

 manage them and bought a patent 

 right for the state for a hive and sent 

 to Chicago and had manufactured 500 

 hives. He had those bees in the box 

 hives transferred into new hives and 

 did the transferring in a time of the 

 worst drouth of honey I have ever 

 seen. He was living less than } of a 

 ini'e from my Apiary and I went up 

 there while they were at it and begged 

 him to stop, assuring him that he was 

 spoiling my bees, for as soon as they 

 would complete a hive he would set 

 it out and my bees would rob them of 

 every drop of honey they had and 

 consequently he lost about all his bees. 

 He had a few stands that he protected 

 ami he run the business five years and 

 all the bees and empty 

 he had ind realized I think $30, 



