Feb. 22, 1906 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



165 



Reports cmb 

 (Experiences 



Results of the Past Season 



My bees did well the past year. Spring 

 count showed 52 colonies, from which I got 

 3400 pounds of honey, and increased to 74 col- 

 onies. James H. Baker. 



Palmyra, Mo. 



About Half a Crop in 1905 



I had about half a crop of honey last year, 

 the season being too wet and cold. I had 20 

 colonies in the spring, which increased to 36. 

 I took off 1100 pounds of surplus honey, of 

 which 380 pounds was comb honey. 



Three Rivers. Mich. W. Z. Ruggles. 



Dampening Sections for Folding- 

 Cutting Section Foundation 



I have noticed many times articles in the 

 bee-papers in regard to wetting the back of 

 each joint of sections before using them. I 

 would like to 6ay to all that have had to do 

 that way, put the crate of sections into the 

 cellar 12 to 24 hours before using, and your 

 trouble will vanish like magic. 



I will give my way of cutting foundation 

 for surplus sections: Take a piece of " s -inch 

 surfaced lumber 6 inches wide by 2 feet long. 

 Put on a strip of board 1', inches wide the 

 full length of one edge of the first piece men- 

 tioned, and also across one end. Then take a 

 square and measure off the length of pieces of 

 foundation, marking off for as many pieces 

 as the sheet of foundation will make. Then 

 saw out each mark to a depth of ', inch clear 

 across the board and through tne l' s -inch 

 strip, which strip should be put on with the 

 projection all on one side. This will serve as 

 a back to put the foundation against. Now 

 get an old steel case-knife and cut it off to 

 about 3 inches long. Then taper the cutting 

 edge of the blade, making a long taper, and 

 grind it down thin, but not sharp, and smooth 

 the whole surface of the blade with a fine 

 whetstone. With this knife and the above- 

 described board a good outfit is secured where- 

 by foundation can be cut perfectly square 

 and without damaging it in the least, if one 

 has a cup of cold water to dip the knife in 

 occasionally. Lay the foundation on the 

 board snug against the projection. On both 

 end and side hold the foundation with the 

 thumb and forefinger straddle of each saw- 

 kerf as the knife is drawn through the saw- 

 kerf. C. II. Harlan. 



Mora, Minn., Jan. 15. 



Dealing With Queen-Breeders 



I sometimes notice articles in the American 

 Bee Journal that I feel should be taken up and 

 given further discussion in order to prevent 

 non-progressive opinions being formed in the 

 minds tf the amateurs and others who are its 

 readers. Especially would I like to call atten- 

 tion to the item on page 97, entitled, " Deal- 

 ing with Some Queen-Breeders." While I 

 have had the same experience as Mr. Smith, 

 Btill I believe the queen-breeders, as a class, 

 are just as honest as the average business man 

 of to-day. and while one is apt to get the wor6t 

 of it at times when trying to get orders filled 

 early, or in small lots, yet our experience has 

 been very agreeable and satisfactory. VVe have 

 purchased from 25 to 150 queens every season 

 for the past 10 of 12 years, and I can assure 

 you that it paid well ; in fact, as well as any 

 investment we ever made in the bee-line. I 

 believe it is safe to say that we got back in in- 

 creased surplus three dollars for every one 

 expended in this way. 



Young queens stimulate an apiary and bring 

 results. The apiarist who devotes all his time 

 to the production of honey can seldom afford 

 the time to rear the queens he should have, to 

 obtain the best results; especially in this 

 Northern climate where it is practically im- 



possible to do anything in that line early in 

 the season. He can well afford to pay good 

 prices to Southern breeders. We have had 

 our best results with a breeder in Florida, also 

 very good satisfaction from some in Texas. 



In conclusion, I feel that the queen-breeder 

 is a necessary accessory to the honey-producer, 

 and should be looked upon with approval by 

 the beekeeping public. 



I wish to speak my appreciation of the Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal — a fair and independent pa- 

 per, and of great service to the professional 

 beekeeper. C. L. Brown. 



Hennepin Co., Minn. 



Improving American - Italian Bees 



It's an old story, this improvement of bees 

 for honey-gathering. Now let us get the evi- 

 dence and see what we have. 



J. A. Green, in (ileanings, says: "It does 

 not seem that anything very wonderful has 

 been done " Now, in some number of (ilean- 

 ings, E. F. Atwater seems to have about the 

 same opinion about our improved bees. 



In reference to Roots' $200 queen, if I mis- 

 take not, shecame direct from Sunny Italy. I 

 might ask what has been done here in America 

 in the way of improving this strain of bees as 

 to honey-gathering ? I will give a brief review 

 of my bee-keeping for the last 20 years: 



In the spring of 1886 I began bee-keeping 

 with Italian bees, and every season 6ince I 

 have bought Italian queens from Illinois east 

 to the Atlantic, and from New York to Texas. 

 I mean to say I have bought queens from the 

 territory above stated, and by careful count 

 have taken off 26,300 pounds of honey (not a 

 large amount, by the way), ':, of which was 

 comb honey and - '.. extracted. Now, in my 

 20 years of bee-keeping I had one queen that 

 I bought, imported from Italy, that I reared 

 queens from in June, 1904. They proved them- 

 selves the most valuable during the season of 

 1905 of any bees I ever owned. It was an easy 

 matter for those queens to keep three 12-frame 

 Langstroth hives full of bees, brood and honey, 

 and the6e bees gathered honey according to 

 the amount of bees they had. 



The season of 1905 here in northern Indiana 

 was poor. We had a great amount of rain, 

 and I got but 1600 pounds of honey from 54 

 colonies, which increased to 72. 



St. Joseph Co., Ind. C. A. Bunch. 



Do Bees Move Eggs? 



In the report of the Ontario Convention, 

 page 84, is found this question and answer: 



"Will bees move eggs?" 



"Mr. Alpaugh — 'Yes. I had queen-cells 

 built, eggs carried and put into them, and 

 queens reared.' Mr. Holtermann and Mr. 

 Pettit both endorsed this." 



An unqualified statement and an unquali- 

 fied endorsement by three able men 1 Hereto- 

 fore writers have expressed their opinions on 

 this subject with hesitation, no one high in 

 leadership committing himself on either side. 

 No ca6e has ever been reported in detail that 

 would satisfy the demands of entomology. 

 Editor Root, who was, one might almost say, 

 born in a bee-hive, and who thinks that bees 

 do move eggs, offers no better proof than that 

 he u has seen a worker carrying something 

 that looked like an egg." More likely a flake 

 of newly-secreted wax. Arguments drawn 

 from the innate jealousy of the queen [Lang- 

 stroth], or from the ant by analogy [Novice], 

 are plausible but not substantial. 



In view of the uncertainly in the teachings 

 on this subject, would it be too much to ask 

 Mr. Alpaugh. or one of his endorsers, to give 

 us the cold facts ? The object of this request 

 is not to impeach their truthfulness, but to 

 challenge, in all kindness, the accuracy of 

 their observations. E. W. Diefendorp. 



New Lebanon, Mo. 



Results of the Season of 1905 



My bees are the blacks. By May 20, 1905, I 

 took off one Sframe extracting super of honey 

 and one 24-pound super of comb honey per 

 colony. By June 20, I took off one 8 frame 

 extracting super and another 24-pound super 

 of comb honey. During the re6t of the season 

 they drew out one S-frame super of comb 

 foundation into full combs, and finished 



another 24 pound super of comb honey. These 

 bees are kept in a house-apiary. The others 

 I increased to s colonies and sold $5 worth of 

 honey per colony. I sell my honey at 12 

 cents per pound. Some bee-keepers claim that 

 1905 was not a good year for honey here. The 

 bees commenced swarming in this locality 

 about May 13, but I don't think they will 

 swarm this year until the la6t of May. 



My way of stopping robber-bees is to close 

 up the bive of the robbers at night, and in the 

 morning close up the hive-entrance of the one 

 that was being robbed to one bee-space. Then 

 I open the hive-entrance of the robbers and 

 kill all the bees that come out loaded; or else 

 I pick up the colony that Is doing the robbing 

 and take it off a mile or two. This is a sure 

 cure. 



I have four colonies of bees on the summer 

 stands that have wintered well so far. I have 

 sold some bees, but every time after having 

 sold a colony I caught a swarm coming out of 

 the woods. 



My bees work on red clover, pennyroyal, or 

 almost anything. I left a feeder in one hive 

 full of thick sugar syrup. The bees did not 

 seem to want to go in search of anything this 

 winter. They did not unseal any of their 

 honey, so far as I could see. I caught this 

 swarm in October. L. A. Miller. 



Rosebud, Mo., Jan. 30. 



Bees 



Didn't Do Well 

 tering 



Cellar- Win- 



The past year bees in this locality did not 

 do well. My 9 colonies taken out of cellar in 

 the spring (1 died) increased to 13 (by natural 

 swarming) , and gave about 140 sections of 

 honey. I had a swarm issue May 30 which I 

 hived on old combs and saw the queen enter 

 the hive, but 6 weeks later, noticing that there 

 was no work at that colony, I examined and 

 found that there was only a handful of bees 

 left, and no sign of brood, but mothsin plenty, 

 and combs nearly spoiled. June 15 I put a 

 super on this colony, when it seemed flourish- 

 ing finely. Does this happen often? 



First swarms usually appear after the mid- 

 dle of June here. 



My bees are in the house-cellar facing the 

 center, with no precautions as to light, there 

 being two windows at their back and one at 

 their 6ide but 15 feet away. The hives are 

 placed with their backs to the wall on the 

 south side, with a board partition between the 

 wall and the hives, and stacked 2 or 3 high, 

 as convenient. I leave the bottom-boards on 

 and supers off, entrances 6x'., , and 1 inch 

 auger-holes in the middle of the front just 

 above the portico, which makes a good alight- 

 ing-board in summer. They wintered well 

 under the same treatment last winter, while 

 two neighbors about l'i miles from here lost 

 very heavily; one, from 50 colonies put in 

 winter-cases, had 18 ; the other, of 30 or 33 on 

 the summer stands with corn-stalks as a cov- 

 ering, had very weak ones left. It seems 

 useless to try to winter bees without good pro- 

 tection in this climate. Since Dec. 1 there 

 have been 6 or 7 days that bees could fiy with 

 safety— only one diy at a time— so they might 

 stand it thi6 year on the summer stands. 



The American Bee Journal is the only pa- 

 per of four taken by the family that I read 

 entirely, every number being a treasure, and 

 very helpful to bee-keepers in general. I think- 

 that I can lay all the success that 1 have yet 

 enjoyed to the instructions found in the Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal. Howard H. Hoc se. 



Richfield Springs, N. Y., Jan. 15. 



Bee-Keeping in North Dakota 



Last spring I put out of the cellar 7 colo- 

 nies, and secured over 700 pounds of surplus 

 honey, and increased to 15 and 1 nucleus dur- 

 ing the season, all fairly supplied with honey 

 for the winter. I left them on the summer 

 stand until Dec. Land had to dig them out of 

 a snowbank from 4 to 6 feet deep. They were 

 all as lively and happy as if it were summer- 

 time. This winter is mild for North Dakota, 

 and the bees are keeping up that low hum in 

 the cellar at about 45 degrees above zero. 



I have the hives set in wooden trays 2 inches 

 deep, with a wire-screen on one end and a 

 little tin door on the corner, open enough to 



