410 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 10, 1906 



Reports anb 

 (Experiences 



Last Season Not a Good One. 



I wintered 5 colonies of bees out- 

 doors and 32 in the cellar. The out- 

 door bees did better than those in the 

 cellar. The past mild winter made the 

 cellar too damp. I lost 2 colonies in 

 the cellar on account of being queen- 

 less, so I had to double them up. I 

 have 3d colonics left in good condition. 



The year 1905 was not a good one 

 for honey here, although I had 2,000 

 pounds of honey from 20 colonies, 

 spring count. I would have had more, 

 but ran 6 colonies for comb honey, 

 which gave me only 87 pounds of 

 capped sections. The fields out here 

 ■were covered with white clover last 

 summer, and there will be a great deal 

 of it the coming summer, as it looks 

 well now. 



I have no trouble to sell ray honey 

 at 24 cents a quart and 13 cents a 

 pint. That is the way I put it on the 

 market each year, with a nice label. 

 Herman Hearkens. 



Green Bay, Wis., April 9. 



A>ry Early Swarm — Good Prosneets. 



Did you ever see a swarm of bees in 

 April? I saw one last Friday i April 

 13), when a large swarm passed over 

 my head near where I was at work 

 in the apiary. Tiny were, no doubt, 

 wild bees, from some tree in the near- 

 by forest, and were on the lookout for 

 a suitable hollow tree as a home. This 

 is something unusual, and my theory 

 of it is that we have had such a mild 

 winter the bees have reared brood and 

 young bees every month. Therefore, 

 when the first honey and pollen came 



in from the soft maple, they swav. 1 



My own bees are very strong for the 

 time of year. The young bees arc oul 

 playing every day, and I think we are 

 going to have an old-fashioned honey 

 crop, like we had in the 'SOs. I notice 

 there is an abundance of young clover, 

 and if we have a wet spring it will 

 surely yield a big crop of honey. 



„, . S. G. Kilgore. 



London, Ohio, April 17. 



Apienltnre in California. 



I think it is generally conceded that 

 California is the largest honey-pro- 

 ducing State in the Union. I am not 

 far wrong in saying that 9-10 of this 

 honey is extracted. Possibly the short 

 season we have had of late i's the cause 

 of so little comb honey produced. In 

 this locality one should use nothing 

 less than a 10-frame Langstroth hive. 

 The entrance in summer should be 1 

 inch deep clear across the end of the 

 hive. For ventilation I prefer this plan. 

 On hot clays raise the lid or cover a lit- 

 tle by placing a thin strip of wood 

 about 's-ineh t hick between the cover 

 and the hive, taking it out at night, 

 as the nights are rather cool in nearly 

 all parts of California. This plan I 

 think, gives better results in this lo- 

 cality than having ventilators at- 

 tached permanently to (lie hives. 



Last year was a very good one for 

 honey, anil the outlook at the present 

 time for a good season is better than 

 it has been Cor years. Rains have been 

 very plentiful all spring, and at the 

 present time wild Hewers of all de- 

 scriptions cover the hills, and it will 

 be only a few days until black sage 

 will be blooming. 



Last year i he early honey-flow was 

 stopped at its height by strong, hot 

 winds co, .king the flowers, and drying 

 the nectar. These winds were largely 

 caused by oil-wells a few miles north 

 of here catching Are. 



M. D. Whitehe, 



Los Olives. Calif., April 19. 



Temperature of a Bee-Cluster. 



That article of Mr. Doolittle which 

 appeared in the American Bee Jour- 

 nal two or three weeks ago was i,,\ 

 interesting, and shows a great deal of 



painstaking to arrive at the truth. It 

 is certainly an eye-opener to little fel- 

 lows like me to know that bees will 

 hold the temperature in the cluster to 

 63 and 64 degrees when the mercury 

 falls to 32 degrees below zero outside. 



One of his observations, however, 

 seemed to puzzle him, and he seemed 

 to be at a loss for an explanation as 

 to why the bees at the bottom of the 

 cluster seemed to be livelier and 

 warmer than those at the top. Tell 

 Mr. Doolittle not to be puzzled at that. 

 I have frequently observed that phe- 

 nomenon. The explanation is easy, and 

 is as follows: 



It is a well-known fact that air, 

 when warmed, ascends. Consequently 

 the strata immediately over the clus- 

 ter is constantly leaving the bees to 

 the higher parts of the hive, and a 

 good deal of it percolating through to 

 the outside, while the strata immedi- 

 ately under the cluster in its effort to 

 ascend is arrested by the bees them- 

 selves and is constantly hugging them 

 with the warmth they have generated. 

 This explains why top packing is the 

 all-important feature of winter pro- 

 tection. W. T. Cary. 



Wakenda, Mo., April 10. 



Colonies AVeak — Feeding. 



The last of March I put the bees out 

 of the cave on the summer stands. I 

 found 7 dead colonies out of 25 put 

 away the latter part of last November, 

 and found some colonies rather light. 



1 put those by themselves, and in Jan- 

 uary, 1906, I put frames of honey over 

 the brood-nest, which brought them 

 through all right, but I have to feed 

 now, and will have to do so until fruit- 

 bloom comes. Those left are doing 

 very "well, and there is brood in all 

 colonies. 



Since putting them out the weather 

 has been pretty favorable for bees to 

 have flights. They are now bringing 

 in pollen. Last season bees had only 

 3 weeks to gather honey in — the last 



2 weeks in July and the first week in 

 August — from the white clover and 

 basswood. Bees did well those three 

 weeks. We had no fall bloom. 



I took the supers off the first of Sep- 

 tember, overhauled the brood-cham- 

 bers, and fed those that needed feed- 

 ing enough to carry them through 

 until spring, but up to the time I 

 "caved" them the weather was so nice 

 and warm that they were out almost 

 • very day. As there was no honey to 

 get, they consumed the honey out of 

 the brood-nest, which cut them short 



of winter stores, and this was also the 

 report of bee-men around here last 

 fall. Walter Irvine, Sr. 



Clayworks, Iowa, April 11. 



Wintered Fairly Well. 



My bees were taken out of the cel- 

 lar and placed on the summer stands 

 April 7. On taking an inventory I find 

 them as follows: SO strong colonies, 

 40 medium, 10 weak, and 3 dead. I 

 consider they came through the winter 

 in quite good condition. 



Bees are now more energetic than 

 they usually are in the spring. This 

 is noticed by the way they tumble out 

 and into their hives — just as if they 

 were in a race to see which one could 

 carry in the most pollen and honey. 

 This, with their loud hum, is an indi- 

 cation that they came through the win- 

 ter in a healthy condition. 



I am now making preparations for 

 nut-apiaries. I will make 300 10-frame 

 hives this fall, and self-spacing frames 

 for all of them; I will run the out- 

 apiaries entirely for extracted honey. 



If we have a good year my plans 

 will hold good, and I will be prepared 

 to build a large bee-cellar another 

 year, with a "cage" over it! Then I 

 will open the door, for a "bird" to fly 

 in. Frank Stoflet. 



Auburndale, Wis., April 16. 



Not a Good Bee-Country. 



I have - been keeping bees for the 

 last 50 years and have always taken 

 a deep interest in them and have usu- 

 ally had fair success, although not al- 

 ways. I have taken the American Bee 

 Journal a good many years, how long 

 I do not know, but ever since I knew 

 there was such a journal printed, and 

 to its teachings I owe the greater part 

 of my success. 



This is not a good bee-country, but 

 it is getting better every year. I came 

 here in 1S6S. and at that time the peo- 

 ple thought bees could not live here, 

 but I was bound to try, and for the 

 first 10 years they gave me no sur- 

 plus, except one year, and then only 

 very little. However, they do quite 

 well some years, as I think the largest 

 yield I ever had was 72 sections full — 

 I called it 72 pounds. 



I have Italian bees, and try to keep 

 them pure and strong, but I never have 

 yet seen more than 5 frames full of 

 brood at one time in any one hive. I 

 use the 8-frame hive. I wonder if I 

 always have poor queens. I have 



An Italian Queen Free 



In May or June, 1906, 



To Regular Paid=in=Advance Subscribers Only. 



We wish to make a liberal offer to those of our regular readers whose 

 subscriptions are paid in advance. It is this : We will send you FREE by 

 mail, in May or June, 1906, an Untested Italian Queen for sending' us $1.00 

 and the name and address of a NEW subscriber to the American Bee Jour- 

 nal for a year. Or, to yourself, a Queen and Bee Journal a year — both 

 for $1.50. 



We are booking Queen orders for May and June delivery. Will 

 you have one or more ? These offers ought to bring in many orders. Oui 

 Queens are reared by the best queen-breeders, and give satisfaction. 



GEORGE W.YORK & CO. 334 Dearborn St., Chicago, 111. 



