AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



429 



nies to date. This I must look upon as 

 very poor. The first extracting included 

 honey that was stored during winter. 



I trust to hear from you again, and 

 hope you are having a successful season. 

 W. S. Pender. 



W. Maitland, New So. Wales, Feb. 15. 



Feeding Up Bees for the Flow, Etc. 



Mes. Atchley : — 1. Please tell me 

 when, or at what time, to feed bees up 

 for a honey-flow. 



2. What do bees gather honey from 

 mostly in this locality ? 



H. L. Hakgrave. 



Nelta, Tex., March 13. 



1. Friend H., if your bees are weak in 

 numbers, and you wish to feed to stimu- 

 late brood-rearing to get a hive full of 

 bees, you had better begin about 45 

 days before your honey harvest begins, 

 and feed enough to keep brood-rearing 

 progressing until the harvest opens, 

 which will take say a pint of syrup 

 twice a week to each colony, if they are 

 gathering no honey, and less, according 

 to the amount they are getting outside. 

 But if you wish to stimulate your bees 

 to activity just at the beginning of a 

 flow, and they are already strong, one 

 good feed will likely start them out to 

 the fields in great numbers, and where 

 honey-flows are short, this sometimes 

 means a large gain, starting the bees 

 out the first day your harvest begins. 



2. I do not know exactly what the 

 bees do gather your surplus from. But 

 as your county (Hopkins) is mostly a 

 timbered county, I suppose red bud, 

 ratan, and yellow blooms horsemint are 

 your principal honey-plants. But you 

 can easily inform yourself on these 

 points by close observation, and you 

 ought to study your honey resources as 

 well as your bees, to enable you to run 

 your bees more profitably. 



Jennie Atchley. 



Sundry Questions About Texas. 



Mrs. Atchley : — I would like to ask 

 a few questions which I wish you would 

 answer in the Bee Journal : 



1. Is there any school lands in your 

 part of Texas — that is, some place that 

 has the same soil and climate that you 

 have at Beeville, and also as near the 

 Gulf as it is there, and in as good a place 

 for the bee-business ? 



2. Is there any work there for a car- 

 penter ? If so, at what wages ? 



3. What is building lumber worth 

 there ? 



4. What is the price of good horses, 

 that will weigh 1,200 pounds each ? 



5. What is the average price of a 

 colony of bees in a dovetailed hive, or 

 any frame hive? 



6. If I should come there next Novem- 

 ber, could I find work enough to pay ex- 

 penses while there, and look around 

 some ? I am a good carpenter, as well 

 as a bee-keeper. A. E. M. 



1. Friend M., I do not know of any 

 school lands in this part of the State, 

 but I suppose there are, as I think there 

 is more or less school land in all tbe 

 southwestern counties. 



2. Yes, there is carpenter work going 

 on here all the time. I believe $2.50 

 per day is the average price. 



3. Eighteen to $20 per 1,000 feet. 



4. Seventy-five to $100, owing to age 

 and qualities. 



5. Four to $5.00, owing to the kind 

 of bees, and their condition. 



6. I could not tell, as that would be 

 "dealing in futures," and that I am op- 

 posed to. But more than likely you 

 could get all the work you could do. 



Jennie Atchley. 



Best Top-Bar anl Spacing. 



Query 917.— 1. When running- for coma 

 honey, what is the best width and thickaess 

 for top-bar, and the best space from center to 

 center ? 



2. When running for extracted ?— Ohio. 



We follow Langstroth for both. — Mrs. 

 L. Harrison. 



We give our bees Ij^ inches for each 

 comb. — E. France. 



1. lMx%, and 1% from center to 

 center. 2. Same. — C. C. Miller. 



1. Top-bar 1 l-16x% ; center to cen- 

 ter 1%. 2, Ditto. — J. H. Larrabee. 



1. I like X wide and % thick, and use 

 a honey-board. 2. The same as for 

 comb. — A. B. Mason. 



