1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



153 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Eeport from Bethlehem, Iowa. 



Mr. Editor :— I see that neighbor Gallup, and 

 others, have had an extraordinary yield of honey. 

 It does seem strange that a few miles' distance 

 should make so vast a ditference in the amount of 

 surplus. Last year Gallup got scarcely any sur- 

 plus, whilst I, not over eighty miles south, got 

 in one instance 166 lbs. and one swarm ; and 

 several of my colonies went over 100 lbs., be- 

 sides doubling my stock. 



This year opened with equally bright pros- 

 pects. I came through with twenty-six very 

 strong colonies, out of twenty-nine — one colony 

 having lost its queen, and two iceakly ones 

 played out. The weather was fine in March, 

 and the bees carried in quite a lot of ground 

 oats. April Avas cold, killing all fruit blossoms. 

 Plums, crab-apples, &c., came into bloom, but it 

 dropped off in a short time. Bees worked very 

 little, scarcely getting their daily rations. I 

 kept on equalizing, and gave what honey I had 

 in frames, left over from last season. I fed 

 about three dollars' worth of sugar. Linden 

 trees did not give over an average crop, or about 

 ten pounds to the hive. We got three rains 

 from April to the middle of August. On the 

 16th of August the bees commenced working 

 between showers. I was then very busy har- 

 vesting, and did not give them proper attention, 

 concluding they would use up a considerable 

 part of the honey they were gathering, in feed- 

 ing their brood. In the first week in September, 

 I examined them, and found every cell full, with 

 but little brood. I put the honey machine to 

 work, getting out about forty gallons of nice 

 honey. The bees seemed to work all the better 

 for this operation. It certainly looked rather 

 late in the season to be taking honey from the 

 body of the hive ; but visions of depopulated 

 hives stared me in the face. The only chance I 

 could see, was to empty a portion of the cells, so 

 that the queens could replenish, and multiply 

 j^oung bees. And, Mr. Editor, they have done it 

 to perfection — plenty of bees, and honey enough 

 to winter on. 



I built up and stimulated thi-ee stands in 

 American hives, with small frames on top. 

 Their yield was ninety pounds comb honey. I 

 did not take any liquid honey from them. 



The produce of my apiary this season is forty 

 gallons of machine honey, one hundred and 

 twenty pounds of box and small frame honey, 

 and a dozen strong hives full, say fifty pounds. 

 Total 610 lbs. and three swarms divided— the re- 

 sult of keeping stocks strong and ready for the 

 harvest when it comes. 



F. Crathokne. 



Bethlehem, Iowa, Dec, 1870. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Eeport from Jeddo, Michigan. 



Mr. Editor : — The past summer, in this lo- 

 cality, has not been a veiy good one for apicul- 

 ture. My bees commenced carrying in pollen on 

 the 15th of April, and the honey season opened 

 with abundance in all varieties of blossoms', so 

 that by the first week in June, almost every va- 

 cant cell was filled. I put in my surplus frame s 

 and boxes, which they tilled very rapidl3\ 



About the last of .Tune we were visited by 

 frequent heavy showers, which seemed to wash 

 all the honey out of the ])lant.s, so that strong 

 colonies, after the first of July, did not gather 

 much more than they consumed. 



A great many colonies of bees were lost du- 

 ring last winter. Novices in the business lost, 

 in many cases, all they had ; while the more 

 skilful lost from fifty to sixty per cent. The 

 summer previous was one of the wettest we have 

 had here for niany years, and the honey stored 

 seemed to be very thin and of poor quality, fer- 

 mentiiig in the combs in very many cases. Nearly 

 all the bees that were lost, died of dysentery, 

 no doubt induced by the fermented honey. 



I commenced last spring with four stocks, 

 which gave me three hundred and fifty (.350) 

 pounds of honey, and six swarms. Having no 

 mel-extractor, I improvised one, which works 

 like a charm. By a few im]irovements which I 

 intend to put upon it next season, I think it will 

 excel any that I have seen, in simplicity, dura- 

 bility, and ease of working. It cost me only 

 seven dollars. 



Mr. George Smith, who lives three miles north 

 of my i^lace, has an apiary of about one hun- 

 dred (100) colonies, principally Italians. He ex- 

 tracted from seven hives, with the honey-slinger, 

 twelve hundred (1200) jiounds of honey. This, 

 Mr. Editor, you may think looks a little like 

 boasting, and although it is undoubtedly quite a 

 large yield, I think it is a true and correct state- 

 ment, as Mr. Smith is a very reliable man. 



We find the '^ American Bee JournaV an in- 

 dispensable aid and guide in all matters jjertain- 

 ing to apiculture ; and during the nine months I 

 have taken it, I have been benefited many times 

 the i:)rice of it. I only wish that it came twice 

 as often as it does. 



George Todd. 



Jeddo, Mich., Dec. 10, 1870. 



A man may use the common swarming hives 

 a whole life-time, and yet remain ignorant of 

 the very first principles in the physiology of the 

 bee, unless he gains his information from other 

 sources. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



The Honey Season in Hancock Co., "West Virginia. 



Mr. Editor : — I have delayed writing to you 

 for some time, on account of a visit west to Iowa 

 and Illinois. I took the typhoid fever out tliere, 

 came home sick, and have not got out of the 

 house yet. I left on the 5th of September, and 

 was gone five weeks. 



Being absent part of the season, I cannot give 

 you an accurate account of my whole apiary, but 

 I will give you a statement of one hive, wintered 

 in a foot square of comb, transferred to a new 



