THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



163 



letter, because their extractor has not 

 come, and thej' need it so bad. Now I know 

 some, a good many, will do it and then 

 blame the maker because he is so slow. 

 A little secret I'd like to tell: and that is, 

 that every mauufacturor of extractors pre- 

 fers from choice, to make his machines to fit 

 the frames intended to be used, if possi- 

 ble; they give better satisfaction to the 

 operator, and it is more pleasant to all 

 parties to have things fit, consequently, 

 they prefer to fill the orders as they come, 

 and don't keep the extractors in stock 

 completely finished; so sometimes, it takes 

 a little lime to fill the order. So please 

 don't wait until you need it, but order one 

 before the time of need, and keep cool 

 with the season ; you must not hurry, or 

 get excited among bees, or about them — 

 but have your plans, as well as hives, 

 matured. Before swarming time, bees do 

 nothing invariably, so get ready before 

 hand for what is to come, and may we all 

 be happy and successful with our pets 

 this centennial year! 



Frank W. Chapman. 



For the American Bee Journal. 

 My Report for Two Years. 



Now that the season has fairly opened 

 and my bees are safel3Uhrough the winter, 

 and bid fair to pass safely through the 

 the spring (especially as I am feeding 

 them about 5 lbs. of honey per day with a 

 view of making them strong for the first 

 flow of honey) I feel at liberty to make 

 known what progress I have made. 



About the 1st of June, 1874, I began 

 with two swarms of Italian bees at a 

 cost of $43. At the close of the season 

 they had increased to seven swarms, all 

 of which safely wintered ijQ the cellar. I 

 passed them through the spring of 1875 

 without feeding which might have been 

 done this spring. I estimate the yield of 

 surplus honey from the seven stands for 

 the year 1874 at 175 lbs., so a statement 

 for that year would be about as follows : 



Dr. 



To 2 swarms Italian bees $43.00 



" 1 honey extractor 12.00 



" 1 smoker 1.50 



" 1 veil 75 



" 1 honey knife 50 



" 7 boxes or hives 10.00 



Total .$67.75 



Cr. 



By 175 lbs. honey @ 25c per lb. . .$ 43.75 



" 7 swarms @ $15 per hive 105.00 



Total $148.75 



Subtracting the outlay from the income 

 shows a balance of $81 in favor of the 

 apiary for 1874. 



During the year 1875 the number of 

 swarms increased to 22 and the yield of 



honey was 550 lbs., while the only ex- 

 pense was 30 dollars for new hives. It 

 will thus be seen that I received $137.50 

 worth of honey and found a capital on 

 hand in the way of bees and implements 

 of the cash value of $344.75. It is due 

 the business to say that I had to neglect it 

 almost entirely from the first of August 

 during the balance of the season, owing 

 to my hired help leaving me with all the 

 farm work to attend to. In consequence 

 of this neglect, four swarms became queen- 

 less and died in the winter, a result I could 

 have prevented by giving them a queen 

 in season. When I discovered it, it was 

 too late as a worker bee had already be- 

 gun laying eggs; after which the bees 

 own the fertile worker as their queen, 

 (whose eggs will only hatch drones) and 

 will not accept a pure queen, nor raise 

 one from larvae given them, which they 

 would have done had they been in posses- 

 sion of it when the queen was lost. 

 Clay Co., Iowa. W. W. Moore. 



For the American Bee Jdurnal. 



My Bees. 



The summer of 1875 was an unusual 

 one, in northern Illinois, at least, cold 

 and backward during the early part, so 

 that, up to July 10, the bees had gathered 

 only enough honey for their own needs ; 

 then a yield of honey that just set them 

 crazy with the swarming fever. From 

 July 10 to August 10, I was kept in the 

 city, and had confidently counted on the 

 bees being satisfied not to swarm during 

 that time. 



Although I had left them weak, they 

 must have built up with great rapidity, 

 for letters kept coming telling me that 

 the bees had swarmed, and Mrs. L. was 

 kept quite busy superintending the hiving, 

 Jetf doing the work. Unfortunately, Mrs. 

 L. is one of that class who are badly 

 poisoned by a bee-sting; so she dare not 

 handle bees. I regret this exceedingly, 

 as I should very much like to have my 

 wife practically interested in everything 

 that pertains to bee-culture. 



Heretofore I had always done all the 

 work with the bees myself but had to 

 give it up now, for here was a full month 

 of work, requiring constant watching; 

 many swarms coming out several times 

 and going back, because the queen's 

 wings were clipped. 



On my visit Aug. 10, I looked over the 

 bees, giving frames of brood to the weak 

 swarms and uniting a few, extracting 

 about 150 pounds of honey. 



Sept. 2, I went out again and found that 

 the bees had been making good use of the 

 time, some of the hives being so full of 

 honey, that the queen had room to lay 

 eggs only in the lower edges of the combs. 



