164 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



November 



But at the writing of my other letter 

 the bees worked a lot on poplar but 

 it didn't last long, and after this the 

 bees gathered a large supply from 

 some unknown source, but alas we 

 found this white honey to be poison. 

 No one can tell just by looking wheth- 

 er it is poison or not, but by its taste, 

 as it is very bitter. It seems that 

 none can tell from what source the 

 bees make this. Could not some 

 reader of this paper throw some light 

 on this subject ? 



The bees stored some honey from 

 basswood, locust and persimmon. 

 Sourwood was the richest this year 

 than for many seasons past. Some 

 even say that the honey was sweeter 

 also. The bees worked a great deal 

 on astors and golden rod and other 

 fall flowers. The most honey ever 

 stored by one colony in a single season 

 in this part of the country, 

 was made this year by a colony of 

 blacks belonging to Mr. M. G. Shearer 

 which was 75 lbs. comb honey. So 

 we didn't have exactly a failure, al- 

 though poplar and poison honey had a 

 tendency to discourage us. 



Another remarkable thing was that 

 the bees in this secton didn't swarm as 

 usual. Several who have large num- 

 bers of bees secured no swarms, while 

 an apiarist with about 25 colonies had 

 too many both for the prosperity of 

 himself and bees. His bees must have 

 had the swarming fever as they would 

 swarm although they had plenty of 

 room. 



Well, as Jack Frost has been to see 

 us we begin to make plans for winter. 



I intend to try Mr. Chas. H. Thies's 

 plan as described in Oct. number of 

 the "Am. Bee Keener." It doesn't 



look as if we should need anything be- 

 sides a dove-tailed singled walled 

 hive. But experience will tell. 



So for fear of taking too much space 

 in your valuable paper, I will close. 



Globe, N. C. , Oct. 25, 1894. 





W. T. Falconer Manf'g Co. — 

 Dear Sirs: — I wish to give my exper- 

 ience with my bees this year. In the 

 fall I built a bee shed for them and 

 back of aud between the hives I 

 packed with straw. A door was 

 hinged to the front of the shed to 

 drop down over the front of the hives 

 leaviug only the entrance exposed. 

 In the spring the bees came out lively 

 on the first bright day. The winter 

 before they did not have the same care 

 and I lost quite a large number. So 

 it goes to prove that with good care 

 bees will do well. One man I have 

 talked with says he does not believe 

 in this ''fussing" with bees, that 

 "bee-keepers did not used to do so," 

 and "the bees done well enough." 

 Why should not bee-keeping be im- 

 proved upon as well as everything 

 else ? I have tried it and I know 

 that by making use of the different 

 implements now in use for handling 

 and taking care of bees the bee-keeper 

 is well repaid. I have nine swarms. 

 Three new ones. And although some 

 complain of this season not having 

 been good for honey, yet I have taken 

 off 334 lbs. of salable honey. 144 

 lbs. was clover honey which 1 sold for 



