^j&fERICA.]^ 



/'ii/»/i«/»( \l*e«r/i/v *■*( /IS A/jc/j'i;- /( *^i re. r 



SIJJO II Yfni — Samj:>la Copv i*ree. 



37tli Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., JULY 15, 1897. 



No. 28. 



Six Months Mily 40 Cents ! 



NOW FOR NEW SUBSCRIBERS. 



Get Your Bee-Keeping Friends and Neighbors 

 to Take the Old American Bee Journal. 



We would like to have each of our present readers send at 

 least one ne«; subscriber for the Bee Journal before Aug. 1, 

 1897. That surely will not be hard to do, when they will 

 need to pay only 40 cents for the rest of this year. That is 

 6 months, or only about 7 cents a month for the weekly 

 American Bee Journal. Any one with only a colony or two 

 of bees should jump at such an offer as that. 



Now, we don't ask you to work for us for nothing, but 

 will say that for each new iO-cent subscriber you send us, we 

 will mail you your choice of o)ie of the following; list : 



Wood Binder for the Bee Journal 20c. 



50 copies of leaflet on "Why Kat Honey?" 20c. 



30 " " on "How to Keep Honey " 20c. 



50 " " on " Alsike Clover" 20c. 



1 copy each " Preparfttion of Honey for the Market "(10c.) 



and Uoollttle's " Hive I Use " loc.) 15c. 



1 copy each Dadants' "Handling Bees" (8c.) and " Bee- 

 Pasturage a Necessity " (lOc.) 18p. 



Dr. Howard's book on "Foul Brood" 25c. 



Kohnke's" Foul Brocd" book 25c. 



Cheshire's " Foul Brood " book dOc.) and Dadante' " Hand- 

 ling- Bees" [8c ] 18c. 



Dr. Foote's Hand-Bookof Health 25c. 



Rural Life Book 25c. 



Our Poultry Doctor, by Fanny Felld 25c. 



Poultry for .Market and Profit, by Fanny Field 25c. 



Capons and Caponizlng 23c. 



Turkeys for Market and Profit 23c. 



Green's Four Books on Frult-Growing 25c. 



Kopp Ckjmmerclal Calculator No. 1 25c. 



Silo and Silage, by Pro t. Cook 25c. 



Blenen-Kultur [German] 40c. 



Kendall's Horse-Book [English or German] S3c. 



1 Pound White Clover Seed 23c. 



1 " Sweet " ■■ 25c. 



m ■• Aleike " ' 25c. 



1^4 " Alfalfa " ■ 25c. 



1^4 " Crimson " " 25c. 



The Horse— How to Break and Handle 20c. 



We make the above offers only to those who are now sub- 

 scribers ; in other words, no one sending in his own 40 cents 

 as a new subscriber can also claim a choice of the above list. 



G-EORGE W. YORK & CO. 

 118 Michigan St., - CHICAGO, ILL. 



Large Honey-Yields — Swarming, Etc. 



BY PROF. A. .1. COOK. 



The following has been forwarded to me by the editor, 

 for reply : 



Mr. Editor: — I am very much interested in Prof. Cook's 

 report of J. F. Mclntyre's immense crops, as given on page 

 291, and write to ask if I am correct in understanding that 

 Mr. Mclntyre keeps his 600 colonies in a single apiary. It 

 so, his yields from a single apiary are enormous — the average 

 being well toward (iO,000 pounds, and at least 180,000 

 pounds, or 90 tons in one of his best years. Has a single 

 apiary ever beaten that record '? 



Another question : Prof. Cook says when a swarm issues 



the brood is taken away " and thus the colony is in good 



condition to go into the surplus chamber as soon as the honey 

 season opens." Is it the common thing in California for bees 

 to swarm before the honey season opens'? T. Buskirk. 



In response to the questions by Mr. T. Buskirk, I will say 

 that Mr. Mclntyre does keep his 6<l0 colonies of bees in a sin- 

 gle apiary. I do not know that any apiarists in California 

 have done better than Mr. Mclntyre, tho a good many have 

 done as well. The fact that the flowers here yield bountifully 

 of honey, and are in blossom for so long a period, and usually 

 have no climatic condition to interfere with a copious nectar- 

 supply, in case the preceding winter was a wet one, often 

 makes the yield of honey enormous. The only discount on 

 California as a honey State is the fact that once in about three 

 years the season is a failure, owing to excessive drouth. 



Mr. Buskirk also asks if it is a common thing in Califor- 

 nia for bees to swarm before the honey season opens. I would 

 answer this, yes and no. The real honey season that is 

 counted on for a harvest does not usually open until the dawn 

 of the bloom of the white sage, and usually the bees are done 

 swarming at this period if managed rightly. The season, 

 however, commences much earlier. The eucalyptus trees are 

 in blossom all winter, and the lemon and orange are in bloom 

 in February. Thus we have a honey season the winter 

 through, yet the bees are breeding up at this time, and it is 

 not often that very much surplus honey is secured, tho several 

 apiarists during the past winter secured not a little honey 

 from the orange-bloom, and it was beautiful honey. I had 

 some of this honey during the past spring, and it had just a 

 reminder in flavor of the fragrance of the orange-blossom, 



