122 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL.. 



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^fW Do not write anything- for publication 

 on the same sheet of paper with business 

 matters, unless it can be torn apart without 

 interfering with either part of the letter. 



The "Bee Journal" a Great Help. 



There is so much valuable information in 

 the Bee Journal that I cannot afFord to 

 destroy them, .but will bind them and keep 

 them as a book of reference. Really. I 

 dou't see how I could do without the Bee 

 Journal, or some other bee-paper that 

 would come up to its standard. Last year 

 I produced 1,500 pounds of comb honey, 

 while in former years I never got over 400 

 pounds. Of course the extra flow last year 

 accounts for much of my better success, 

 but I also attribute very much of it to the 

 ••Old Reliable." 



Myself and sou have now 55 colonies in 

 winter quarters, all apparently doing well 

 except one colony that I think is queenless. 

 Our success last year would have been 

 much greater had the dry weather not cut 

 the basswood flow short. 



A. H. Snowbekgek. 



Huntington, Ind., Jan. 5, 1894. 



Had Plenty of Good Flights. 



I had 5 colonies, spring count, and in- 

 creased to 11. They did very well the fore- 

 part of the season, but it was too dry to 

 grow buckweat, or any other honey-plant. 

 The bees went into winter quarters in good 

 condition, and are all right up to date. 

 They have had plenty of good flights so 

 far. but the worst is to come yet. In the 

 spring, if the weather stays warm, they 

 consume more than when it is cold. Beew 

 were rather scarce last spring. 



VV. F. RiNi'K. 



West Alexandria, O., Jan. 1, 1894. 



A Good Report — See Manag-ement. 



My 18 colonies of bees came through the 

 winter in good condition last spring. They 

 gave me a surplus of 2.000 pounds of white 

 and sweet clover honey. 1,400 pounds of ex- 

 tracted, and fiOO pounds of comb honey. 

 The former sold here at §1.00 a gallon, aiid 

 the latter at 13 cents a pound. I run 5 colo- 

 nies a different way for extracted honey, 

 and those o gave a surplus of 800 pounds. 

 It was done as follows: 



I watch until they prepare to swarm, and 

 the honey-fiow is close. I take out all 



frames from the brood-chamber, except the 

 one the queen is on, which I put in the cen- 

 ter, and fill the chamber with new frames 

 of full sheets of comb foundation. I then 

 take a full slieet of Root's perforated zinc, 

 with i4-inch bee-space between the frames 

 and zinc, and put it over the brood-cham- 

 ber. I then put a chamber on top of the 

 zinc, and put the frames with the bees and 

 bi'ood in this top chamber, and cover it up. 

 Now I have a laying queen and lots of 

 room for brood below, and as fast as the 

 brood hatches above, they fill it with 

 honey if the flow is here. It was here this 

 year, for they filled the top chamber, after 

 the first extracting, in four days — 6 frames 

 two-thirds capped. 



My increase is from 18 to 25 colonies, 

 which are in double-walled hives, and in as 

 good condition for winter as I ever had 

 them. Henky Bohlmann. 



Defiance, O., Jan. 1, 1894. 



Uses of Perforated Zinc. 



In reading the short item by Mrs. Jennie 

 Atchley, in regard to the different uses of 

 Dr. Tinker's perforated zinc. I thought I 

 would add a little of my experience to those 

 already given. 



1st. In hiving young swarms, I have 

 found it to be excellent to place over th e 

 entrance to keep them from leaving or re- 

 turning to the home hive. 



2nd. When four or six swarms issue at 

 the same time, and cluster together. I have 

 found it to be of the greatest value to me. 

 I look the bees over, find my queens, and 

 place them in separate hives, and put on 

 the zinc over the entrance; then I take a 

 large dipper and dip the bees from the 

 place where they alighted, putting them in 

 front of the difterent hives, when the bees 

 will separate, each swarm going into its 

 own hive. 



In using the zinc, some might misunder- 

 stand me. I only leave the zinc on the en- 

 trance from two to four days; if the queens 

 are young. I only leave it on two days, so 

 as to give them a flight. With old queens 

 I leave it on longer. 



Andrew M. Thompson. 



Canaseraga, N. Y. 



Something: from Central California. 



Being a Califoruian, and having not as 

 yet crossed the State line, it is with great 

 pleasure that 1 read the reports from other 

 ytates or localities throughout the United 

 iStates. I was pleased to see in the Bee 

 Jt)uuNAL a report from Kern county — a 

 county joining Tulare county on the south 

 — of my neighbor realizing nearly 300 

 pounds per colony. Now I have reasons to 

 believe that bees will produce a great (jeal 

 of honey per colony in Kern county, as I 

 own a small ranch containing ViS5 acres 

 down there, and am quite familiar with 

 the country. We have the largest alfalfa 

 fields in the world in Kei'u county, Calif. 

 We have a man in Kern county who owns 

 in one body almost 1,000,000 acres of laud. 



I have seen the time that all the counties 



