AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



269 



Our School in Bee-Keeping. 



CONDUCTED BY 



Greenville. Texas. 



Worst Weather for a Long Time. 



We are to-day having the worst 

 weather for a long time, at this season 

 of the year. The mercury is down to 

 28° above zero, and ice is hanging on 

 the fruit-trees and the houses. Well, I 

 guess we can't always have pleasant 

 sunshine. The bees are as still as mid- 

 night, but I think they will soon have 

 good weather again. 



Jennie Atchley. 



Greenville, Tex., Feb. 15, 1893. 



Bee-Eeeping in Mississippi. 



We had a very poor season in this 

 locality last year, on account of a cold, 

 wet spring. Our spring honey-flow 

 usually begins about May 1st, and con- 

 tinues about six weeks ; but last season, 

 during the most of the time, it was cold, 

 rainy weather, and previous to that it 

 was also cold and wet. 



Our fall flow gave the bees plenty to 

 winter on. My surplus, last season, 

 averaged about 16 pounds per colony. I 

 use Root's dovetailed hives, and am well 

 pleased with them. 



I enjoy the reading of the Ameecan 

 Bee Journal, very much, and especially 

 "In Sunny Southland " department, be- 

 cause there are so few in this part of 

 our country that take any interest in 

 apiculture. I would be glad to see more 

 correspondence from this State. I some- 

 times think that the bee-keepers of Mis- 

 sissippi should have a convention, and 

 try to let our brethren of other States 

 know what we are doing, or rather see 

 what we can do here with bees. I am 

 satisfied that we have a very good honey 

 country, but its resources have never 

 been developed. Our people devote most 

 of their time and attention to cotton. 



B. F. Lewis. 



Lewisburgh, Miss., Jan. 23, 1893. 



THIRD LESSON — PREPARING FOR THE 

 HONEY-FLOW. 



Now, as we have got both our hives 

 equipped with two crates of sections, 

 we will watch closely, and as soon as 

 the top crates are finished and nicely 

 capped clear to the wood of the section 

 all around, take off the top onte, and if 

 the honey-flow continues, we will raise 

 the remaining crate and place an empty 

 one under as before ; and this may be 

 continued as long as the honey-flow 

 lasts. Or here in the South, where one 

 flow comes and is gone, then another 

 comes on before the season closes, we 

 may operate as before. 



Two crates are en»ugh to have, on any 

 hive, in my opinion, at one time, if the 

 hives are large enough, and we attend 

 to our business as we should. 



At the close of the season, and yet be- 

 fore cold weather begins, if we have 

 been successful and secured a fair honey 

 crop, we may sell a portion of the honey, 

 and buy two pure Italian queens from 

 some reliable breeder, and have our bees 

 Italianized ready for winter, and to 

 start next spring with none but the best 

 bees, and we have made our bees self- 

 supporting, as well as some honey left 

 to use, and possibly enough money to 

 their credit to purchase next year's 

 supplies. Snugly fix the little pets for 

 winter, and be sure they have at least 

 20 pounds of honey and a moderate 

 colony of bees ; and now I leave you to 

 run your bees for comb honey alone, 

 next year. 



PRODUCING EXTRACTED HONEY. 



Now let us produce extracted honey 

 one year. As we now know how to 

 divide our bees, we will work the same 

 as before until the beginning of the 

 honey harvest, then we will place on 

 full-sized upper stories, that is, the same 

 size as the brood-chamber. 



Lift two frames from below, and place 

 two filled with foundation in their 

 stead. Place the two frames of brood 

 and bees in the upper story, and in the 

 center, only spread them enough to 

 allow one frame of foundation between 

 them. Fill with frames of foundation 

 and when the bees get the first upper 

 story cleverly filled, if the strength of 

 the colony and the season or flow will 

 justify it, raise up and place an empty 

 one between as in producing comb 

 honey, filled with frames of foundation 

 as before, leaving two filled with honey 

 as in the first one. 



