owners, but— bees, bee-food, blossoms, 

 honey— they cannot produce. 



For this reason there must be a suit- 

 able climate, numerous swarms must 

 be forthcoming, and when these are at 

 hand at the time when the honey-crop 

 is ripe, then giant colonies must be 

 formed so as to improve to the utmost 

 the opportunity which the flowery sea- 

 son offers. This is the only way. 



This summer they disdained, for a 

 period of four weeks, all honey inside 

 the garden; they would not have 

 touched it. had it been there in piles. 

 This is a sure sign that the season will 

 be favorable. In that time the ther- 

 mometer of hope rises from day to day, 

 because such four weeks bring in thou- 

 sands of pounds of honey. 



[f any one inquires of the colonists : 

 ■■ How are your bees this year?" they 

 will usually answer: " Oh, they are of 

 no account ; they do not prosper any 

 more." "What is the use of saying any 

 more to them? Why did my daughter, 

 who lives six miles from here, obtain 

 527 swarms from 103 cultured hives, and 

 do such a profitable business in honey 

 and wax? It is because she had been 

 brought up in my school. 



[ The above is interesting, because it 

 shows what can be done in the South 

 American Continent. The ' -giant hive" 

 is well named— being as large as 12 

 Langstroth hives— but the yield of honey 

 mentioned (1,000 lbs.) is by no means 

 proportionate to its size. That amount 

 from 12 Langstroth hives is but 80 lbs. 

 for each ; and as the bees were so nu- 

 merous, the quantity should have been 

 three or four times as much, to have 

 been denominated "an enormous yield." 

 Mr. Hannemann is evidently not well 

 informed concerning the apiarists of 

 North America, or he would not inti- 

 mate that we are given only to inven- 

 tions, instead of honey producing. Mr. 

 Doolittle, in 1877, reported having ob- 

 tained 566 lbs. of extracted honey from 

 a colony only one-twelfth as large as the 

 " giant hive" of Mr. Hannemann, which 

 he reports as yielding 1,000 lbs. ! In 

 the same year, Mr. Doolittle obtained 

 nearly 900 lbs. of comb honey from 3 

 hives, aggregating less than one-fourth 

 the size of the " giant hive." Mr. Han- 

 nemann should inform himself concern- 

 ing our honey crops, before he attempts 

 any further comparisons ! He will find 



our apiarists as progressive in bee-keep- 

 ing as they are in the sciences. — Ed.] 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Location and Over-Stocking. 



O. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A friend in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., 

 sends me the above as a text for my ar- 

 ticle in the April American Bee Jour- 

 nal. Now, as a rule, I prefer to preach 

 from a text selected by myself, yet I 

 shall try to please my friends when they 

 request articles on certain subjects, to 

 the best of my ability. So, if I do not 

 please as well when the text is given, 

 have charity. 



If I was at liberty to choose a location 

 where I desired, and could find such an 

 one. it would be in a place where the 

 land sloped gently to the southeast, with 

 pasturage as follows : Some willow, to 

 stimulate early brood-rearing, with 

 sugar-maple to follow ; then apple blos- 

 soms, as an assurance of plenty of honey 

 from apple to white clover, which should 

 be abundant. Next, I should want 

 plenty of basswood. and that on a hill- 

 side or mountain, so as to prolong its 

 bloom ; and lastly, where buckwheat 

 was raised. Of course, if asters and 

 golden rod could be plenty in the fall, 

 it would be still better. 



But most of us have other ties beside 

 the bees that fix our location, and so we 

 have to put up with such an one as we 

 have, and the man is to be honored that 

 can be contented and bring about good 

 results with only, limited bee pasture at 

 his'own home, where duty calls him to 

 remain-. If I could have but one of the 

 above named sources for honey, I would 

 select basswood first. clover secondhand 

 lastly buckwheat. From all sources of 

 information I can gather, basswood is 

 the greatest honey producer in the Uni- 

 ted States for the length of time it is in 

 bloom. The lay of the land is not of so 

 much importance as is the forage, for 

 tight fences, or belts of evergreens, can 

 be placed around the bee-yard to protect 

 it from high winds. 



I would have the hives face the south 

 or east if possible, as the bees start 

 earlier in the morning than where they 

 face the north and west ; also, our pre- 

 vailing winds are from the north and 

 west. 



Next, we come to over-stocking, and 

 here I fear I shall be considered out of 

 the way; yet I think I can give facts to 

 prove my position. If I had a location 

 such as the one above described, I should 

 not fear over-stocking it with 600 colo- 

 nies, but think that 200 would be as 



