868 



Oct. 11. 1906 



rfs and 



^experiences 



Ibh^H 



A Lingering Honey-Yield 



We are having, and have had, a lingering 

 honey-yield from fall weeds, that keeps the 

 bees at work very beautifully. The best col- 

 onies add a little to their stores, and the poor 

 ones get a living. C. W. Dayton. 



Chatsworth. Calif., Sept. 24. 



Still Hot— Late Swarming 



It is hot, and some flowers yet, but the bees 

 do not seem to find them " juicy." 



My previous record of late swarming was 

 Sept. 5, if I remember rightly. This year ad- 

 vances it to Sept. 7. E. E. Hasty. 



Toledo, Ohio, Sept. 26. 



Bees Did Splendidly 



Bees have done splendidly here this season. 

 The honey-flow from cotton, heartsease, and 

 smartweed, has been better than usual this 

 fall. Goldenrod will not bloom for a couple 

 of weeks yet. The bees work busily on it, 

 but do not store much surplus. 



J. W. K. Shaw &Co. 



Loreauville, La., Sept. 26. 



American Iteg Journal 



have no doubt they will do so as long as the 

 sweet clover yields. Why they seem indiffer- 

 ent to white clover this year I can not account 

 for, unless it is that the recent rain has 

 washed out all the nectar from their cups. 



But how the bees did revel over my pop- 

 pies ! That sort o' pollen must have a special 

 attraction for them. Can it be possible that 

 they are acquiring the "dope" habit, as some 

 people use opium? I give the little workers 

 credit for better judgment. 



Just now my ornamental gourds are in 

 blossom in the garden, and I notice the bees 

 cover themselves as with a mantle with its 

 bright yellow pollen. 



Why do not all bee-keeper6 raise some of 

 these interesting plants, so pretty, useful, and 

 so hardy 3 



In looking over my bees I am agreeably 

 surprised to note some very fat super-frames 

 of nicely capped honey, which, as late as 2 

 weeks ago, were discouragingly bare. Bees 

 are working hard, early and late, for both 

 pollen and nectar, and the outlook is certainly 

 quite pleasing. I sincerely trust all our fel- 

 low bee-keepers will experience a like refresh- 

 ing that will insure at least plenty of stores 

 in the brood-chamber instead of the prospect 

 of having to feed their colonies over winter, 

 as broadly intimated in many localities. 

 While my surplus will not be great, it will be 

 a long way better than nothing. 



Chicago, 111., Aug. 14. Dr. Peiro. 



One Year in 20 Without Section 

 Honey 



I have kept bees for 20 years, and in all 

 that time there was only one year without 

 section honey. I always keep about 20 colo- 

 nies bf Italians, and for section honey I get 

 20 cents a pound ; for extracted, 15 cents. 



The American Bee Journal comes every 

 Friday, and we love to read it; also to renew 

 it. E. B. Kauffman. 



Cornwall, Pa., Sept. 17. 



Bees Were Busy This Year 



From 7 colonies I took 223 pounds of honey ; 

 11 other hives contain honey which has not 

 yet been taken off. I took off the last honey 

 July 16. At that time there was over 100 

 pounds in the other hives that I did not take. 

 I will report later on the fill crop. The bees 

 have been busier this year than ever before. 

 I got 12)» cents per pound for all that I sold. 

 Sometimes for extracted honey I get 10 cents 

 for each 12 ounces. J. L. Patterson. 



Augusta, Ga., Oct. 1. 



Effective Hive-Ventilation 



As usual, I have been much interested and 

 instructed by reading Mr. Dadant's article, on 

 page 703, but a thought occurs to me regard- 

 ing his statement as to ventilation that, while 

 it may be old to him, may be new to many 

 other readers. This is the way I do it: 



I cut out a piece 1 by 3 inches in the end of 

 the supers; over this opening I tack a piece 

 of ordinary wire-screen, and over it I nail a 

 piece of lath or other thin board at one end, 

 the same size as the opening. The wire af- 

 fords ample ventilation, and when too cold I 

 simply move the cover over the wire, and the 

 super is practically tightly covered. Besides, 

 it enables one to see if the bees are active in 

 the super or not. This method does away 

 with the necessity of raising the brood-cham- 

 ber or supers for ventilation; it entirely pre- 

 cludes the possibility of robbing, and tends 

 to reduce swarming to a minimum. 



During the warmest days last summer, and 

 this year, so far, I have seen no undue masses 

 of bees clustering at the entrance, nor has a 

 swarm issued as yet. 



I am pleased to report continued progress 

 of the bees in storing honey in the supers, and 



A Successful Bee-Keeper 



Bees have done well this season. From 125 

 colonies, spring count, I secured 9000 pounds 

 of honey, and increased to 200 colonies, all in 

 good condition for winter. 



I am having good success in disposing of 

 my honey to the local trade, and am sure if 

 bee-keepers would use a little more effort 

 they would not need to ship honey to the 

 large cities, help glut the market, and hold 

 down prices. With the help of circulars and 

 a little advertising I And it easy to dispose of 

 my honey, and I see no reason why others 

 can not be equally successful. Printers' ink 

 does the business. 



The " Old Reliable" is just fine, and to it I 

 owe a large share of my success as a bee- 

 keeper. I suppose I could get along without 

 it, but I simply won't. We are too good 

 friends to part, and every number is carefully 

 put away and will be re-read during the long 

 winter evenings. E. H. Hanselman. 



Augusta, Wis., Sept. 13. 



Non-Swarming— Over-Production 

 of Honey 



The honey-flow is fine just at present, but 

 the honey-flows were very scant last spring 

 and summer. About Aug. 12 our fall flow 

 opened. The first honey the bees got was from 

 the Maderia vine, then cow-peas came next, 

 followed by the wild cucumber and Spanish- 

 needle, and the asters are just commencing to 

 bloom, so the flow is likely to last for 3 or 4 

 weeks yet. 



Talking about Mr. Davenport's non-swarm- 

 ing secret, I think I have given it in one of 

 my letters published recently, namely, replac- 

 ing the old queen with a young one of the 

 current year's rearing, together with plenty 

 of room; that is, I use mostly 10-frame hive6, 

 and if I find that I have a queen that becomes 

 crowded, I give her another super with full- 

 depth frames with combs drawn out; then at 

 the opening of the honey-flow I alternate; 

 that is, I take the top hive-body and put it at 

 the bottom, and the bottom one on top. This 

 brings the brood directly under the sections, 

 and the bees will go to work in them in a 

 hurry, in fact, they will enter sections three 

 times a6 quickly as they would in a one-story 

 hive, because in a one-story hive the center of 

 the brood-nest probably brings 2, at most, of 

 the frames filled with brood to the top-bars, 

 whereas, in alternating, you secure nearly all 

 frames filled to the top-bars with brood. The 

 queen has plenty of room to lay in the bottom 

 hive-body, and, not being cramped, of course 



the bees have no notion of swarming. Now 

 you may replace the old queen with a cell 

 nearly ready to hatch ; that is, with one that 

 would hatch in from 24 to 48 hours, or you 

 may give them a young laying queen. 1 pre- 

 fer the latter, as brood-rearing will not be 

 checked as it would in giving them a cell. In 

 following this method you need look for no 

 queen-cells, and any bee-keeper knows what 

 a relief it is not to have to open hives and 

 take out frame after frame to cut out queen- 

 cells, besides the constant fussing with the 

 bees, especially where one has 50 to 100 colo- 

 nies to look after. 



You must not wait till the bees get com- 

 pletely in the swarming notion, but attend to 

 re-queening in time. I would like to have all 

 who follow this method to report to the Bee 

 Journal next year. I will further say that a 

 neighbor has about 60 colon.es, and nearly 

 every one swarmed, while mine did not swarm 

 at all. 



Now as to over-production of honey, as Mr. 

 Davenport says, I think there never will be 

 such a thing, for the simple reason that about 

 only one man in 10,000 will make a success- 

 ful bee-keeper. Why, bless your life, I could 

 sell 20,000 pounds of honey in a week if I had 

 it. 1 also wish to say that Mr. Davenport's 

 ideas are not progressive in the least. If he 

 had a little world by himself, he could tell 

 his secret in full to the trees, instead of giv- 

 ing the forest part of it and keeping the best 

 part himself. Julius Happel. 



Vanderburg Co., Ind., Sept. IT. 



Poor Season for Bees 



This has been a poor season for bees around 

 here. My bees have not done very well. It 

 has been too wet for them. I will get about 

 a quarter of a crop. Edw. McCoy. 



Lima, N. Y., Sept. 10. 



A " Pairing " System of Manage- 

 ment for Honey 



The comb honey man of to-day must an- 

 swer for himself these 3 questions: How to 

 get clean sections, full sections, and lots of 

 sections. How to do this without swarming. 

 And, lastly, how to accomplish these desira- 

 bles at the least possible expense. 



As to the first, everybody knows that the 

 cleanest sections, both as to wood and honey, 

 are not found over old brood-combs, and that 

 to get full ones, and lots of them, the full 

 strength of the colony must be kept up to the 

 end of the season. But how to do ail this 

 without swarming is what everybody doesn't 

 know. Lastly, any plan or system, in order 

 that it may be profitable, must involve no 

 change, at least no great change, of our pres- 

 ent fixtures. The expense involved in the 

 Aspinwall and Ferris hives and methods cuts 

 the mass of bee-keepers out entirely. The 

 past summer I worked on a plan which comes 

 nearer satisfying every requirement than any 

 I have tried before, and I give it, though not 

 certain that it will always work well: 



Every old colony is paired as early as possi- 

 ble with a nucleus formed in a shallow ex- 

 tracting super. (I use sectional hives). As 

 soon as the young queen is mated, if the sea- 

 son is fully on, a full working force is added 

 to the nucleus, either by shaking into it tne 

 bees from the hive with which it is paired, or 

 by shifting the two. The nucleus will now 

 be a comb-building colony, and will be kept 

 at full strength by receiving bees from it at 

 intervals throughout the season. No more 

 supers will be used on the supporting colony, 

 and its sole business will be to reinforce the 

 comb-builders from time to time by having 

 every comb shaken before the other, except 

 that on which its queen is found. After each 

 shaking, enough of its fielders will return to 

 keep it in good working order, and at the 

 close of the season, it would be well prepared 

 for winter. Its old queen can then be re- 

 moved and the other colony with its young 

 queen placed under it. 



Such, in its main features, is the plan on 

 which I worked the past season with very 

 gratifying results. An excessive swarming 



