13, lS»ito 



American Dec Journal 



combs and honey have been taken ("naked 

 colonies.'' thej* call them), and these bees are 

 then fed up for winter. If it can be done 

 there, it seems it might be done here. It will 

 make quite a difference whether you have 

 combs for the bees or whether they have to 

 build their own combs. I know of but two 

 Ibings you can use for feeding— honey and 

 sugar. Either will do; it's a question of rela- 

 tive cost. A syrup of 5 pounds of sugar and 

 2 of water will take the place of about 7 

 pounds of honey, so the question as to which 

 10 use will he settled by the answer to the 

 question : Which costs less, a pounds of sugar 

 or 7 pounds of honey? If there is any sort of 

 danger of foul brood in the honey, then it 

 would be better to take the sugar, even at 

 greater cost. 



1 don't know whether you can profi 

 save -uch bees. You must figure on it. Fig- 

 ure how much it will cost for the bees and 

 the feed, divide that among the number of 

 colonies likely to remain after the bees have 

 been wintered and springed, and then see 

 whether that's less or more than the price for 

 which you can buy colonies in the spring. 



2 Three years ago my assistant, Miss Wil- 

 son, scraped 2016 sections in a day, doing all 

 the work of taking out of supers, etc. I don't 

 know whether she ever did more in a day. I 

 don't know what an average day's work for 

 an average hand would be— perhaps 1000. I 

 am talking now about sections cleaned in the 

 best style. Of course, more could be done if 

 they were not so well cleaned. More could 

 be done, too, where glue is less troublesome. 

 I have little doubt there are those in Colorado 

 who would do more than 40 cases of 24 sec- 

 tions each, or 960 sections in a day ; for there 

 are some very bright people in Colorado, and 

 some nicely cleaned sections come from there. 



Swarming- 



Cleaning 

 tions 



Out Bait-Sec- 



J. C. Armstrong wants my diagnosis of that 

 case of swarming, page "39, the queen being 

 found dead when the swarm issued and re- 

 turned, and the swarm issuing with another 

 queen the text day. It may have been a case 

 of supersedure, as he suggests; or it may 

 have been a case of regular swarming in which 

 the bees attempted to swarm on the sealing of 

 the first cell, but failed on account of the 

 queen being clipped. Then when the queen 

 continued to thwart their desires, they wor- 

 ried her to death, or possibly allowed the lirst 

 emerging virgin to dispose of her. 



He doesn't know how I keep from candying 

 the unfinished sections I keep over for baits. 

 Bless your heart, Mr. Armstrong, I don't keep 

 them from candying; there's nothing in them 

 to candy. Just as soon as convenient after 

 they're taken off, I get the bees to clean them 

 out". C. C. M. 

 ^»-» m 



Oilcloth Under Hive-Cover-No Sign 

 of Robbing— Honey-Dew 



1 I have read so much about oilcloth under 

 the cover, but it seems to me it will sag 60 

 there will be no bee-space above the f. ames. 

 How is it used* I use S-frame dovetailed 

 hives w;',h Hoffman 6elf-spacing frames, and 

 Excelsior cover. 



2 Is it always a sure sign of robbing when 

 the bees that come out crawl up the side of 

 the hive before flying' 



:: How can I tell honey-dew in the combs >. 



Iowa. 



Answers. — 1. An oil-cloth under the cover 

 will sag. and generally nothing is done to pre- 

 vent its sagging, although when desired a 

 strip of wood may be used to keep it above 

 the top-bars at the middle. Oilcloth covers 

 are, I think, not nearly so much used as for- 

 merly. I have not used them for many years, 

 preferring a flat cover directly over the top- 

 bars, which leaves a ' 4 -inch space between 

 top-bars and cover. 



2. Not at all. I'm not sure that a robber- 

 bee is any more likely to do that than an 

 honest bee. Where an entrance is considera- 



bly choked with grass, I've seen all the bee6 

 of the colony crawl up the front of the hive 

 before taking flight. 



3. I don't know ; you must learn to tell it 

 just as you must learn to tell honey from dif- 

 ferent plants. 



experiences 



Pretty Good Season 



I keep a few bees for pleasure, and am hav- 

 ing plenty of good honey. I had 7 colonies, 

 spring count. "I got 1 new swarm, and will 

 get 300 pounds of fine honey to extract. The 

 season is pretty good. It was almost too cool 

 during the while clover season. 



Kansas City, Mo., July 26. Geo. Heist. 



Honey-Flow Just Opening 



Our honey-How is just opening, which is a 

 great relief to most of us bee-keeper6, as we 

 now can stop feeding. My colonies came to 

 the flow in fine shape, so I look for a nice 

 surplus, if nothing 6ets in to hinder the bees 

 from gathering 



We have had two fine rains since my last 

 letter, and from all appearances will have 

 some more before long. Julius Happel. 



Evansville, Ind.. July 26. 



Not More than Half a Crop 



I have 20 colonies of Italian bees and 1 

 colony of hybrids. They are working on 

 heartsease and Spanish-needle. The honey- 

 crop so far is not more than half of an aver- 

 age one. Dr. J. T. Blank. 



Elk City, Kans., Aug. 30. 



Good Honey Crop in Missouri 



My 30 colonies of bees have done extra-well 

 this season. Some have already over 100 

 pounds of white clover honey. They are now 

 commencing ou early fall flowers. I think 

 Missouri will have a tremendous crop. The 

 local market here is flooded with honey selling 

 at 12 1 ... cents per pound. I will report at the 

 end of" the season. A. E. Patton. 



Bower Mill, Mo., July 30. 



Crop Less Than in 10 Years 



My honey crop is less this year than it has 

 been in 10 years before. I will have about ' 4 

 of a crop. It has been too wet. It has rained 

 here nearly every day since June 1. Bee- 

 keeping looks very gloomy in this locality. 

 The lumberman's ax has felled nearly all tu- 

 lip and basswood. which were our main sources 

 of honey. G. W. Wilcox. 



Cades Cove, Tenn., July 23. 



Swarms That Got Away 



A swarm of bees went to the woods yester- 

 day, after slaying 2 whole days and parts of 

 2 others. Swarms have been comparatively 

 few this year — but Ihe percent of them that 

 got away has been (I think) the largest lever 

 knew. E. E. Hasty. 



Toledo, Ohio, July 31. 



A Little Experience 



I bought 3 colonies last fall, and in the 

 spring one was queenless. I set them on a 

 platform about 12 feet long, one on each end. 

 and one in the center, facing southeast. Then 

 I overhauled the queenless colony, when the 

 bees formed in a line on the platform and 

 marched to the western colony, which bad 

 only a few bees, but a nice queen, and took 



possession. This line was from 5 to 10 inches 

 wide, 4 feet long, and so close together that 

 you could not 6ee the boards under them. I 

 now have 4 colonies of bees — 3 good ones and 

 1 with 2 6uper6 and a hive on it, which is 

 solid full of bees. This I plan to divide and 

 give a new queen. I have had an untested 

 queen that has filled 8 frames with brood in 

 about 10 days, and have not had a single 

 swarm. Isn't this doing well for green hands ' 

 W. H. Bowden. 

 i. "Men Ridge, Maine, July 2:. 



Fine Honey-Flow in Mexico 



We are having a fine honey-llow and it has 

 been good for the last month. Bees are swarm- 

 ing in line shape. They did not do much 

 swarming in the spring on account of drouth. 



Aldama, Mex.,'Aug. 28 Wsi. Winkler. 



Poor Honey Crop in Colorado 



The honey-flow is just coming to a close 

 here. I have been in Colorado since the first 

 part of June, and find the bees and honey- 

 How much different from the white clover 

 region of Iowa. The flow has been much 

 slower than at home— mostly from alfalfa; 

 and my employer is well satisfied with his 

 crop, although it is usually reported poor. 

 The bees here are not nearly so cross as at 

 home, nor so bad about robbing. 



Rifle, Colo., Aug. 27. John Stotts. 



Bee-Paralysis and Good Honey-Flow 



On page 721, Mr. H. A. Smith says: "There 

 is one thing which makes me doubtful about 

 the trouble being paralysis. All the litera- 

 ture I can find on the subject says that it will 

 disappear with the good honey-flow, but in 

 my case the thing increased with the honey- 

 flow." 



Will Mr. Smith cite volume and page where 

 it is said that paralysis disappears with a good 

 honey-flow? Is he not possibly confusing it 

 with foul brood? E. V. Pagan. 



Poor Year for Honey 



This has been a poor year for honey in this 

 locality. My bees were short on stores last 

 spring, owing to the open winter, and some 

 of them have been doing nothing but getting 

 in shape for another winter, or for a possible 

 fall flow which we may get. 



The early season was too dry for white clo- 

 ver, which is our main stand-by here. My 

 normal colonies will not average more than 

 Mo pounds of comb honey, so far. 



Essex, Iowa. July 24. Ltman North. 



More Bee-Talk, More Honey Sold 



I see Mr. Davenport is out again looking 

 forward. If the United States could produce 

 10 times as much honey as it does.it would 

 sell 10 times better, and it would then he 

 known, and be a staple article. 



I am telling everybody how to handle bees, 

 that will listen to it. Last fall I spoke in 

 Portland on bee-keeping. This spring I was 

 again called to give a lecture on bees— how to 

 handle them to produce the most honey — and 

 the more I talk, the better market I get for 

 what I have to sell. Look what a lot of syrup 

 there is sold. There is plenty of room for 10 

 times the honey now produced. A few years 

 ago the little honey that was produced here 

 was sold at 6 cents a pound. Now I am get- 

 ting &% cents a pound, and sometimes more, 

 and sit right at home waiting till they call for 

 it, and I sell a ton quicker now than 100 

 pounds at 6 cents years ago. Some say they 

 get twice as much honey after hearing my 

 way of handling bees. The more I talk bees 

 and honey, the more I can sell. 



I have no use for any non-swarming de- 

 vice. Nine swarms in 3 years is the recor<l 

 with me for 30 colonies — not more than to 

 keep us jolly, and hardly that. (). K. RICE. 



Grays River, Wash.. July 30. 



