18 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Januaiy 



now been closed up for 14 days, and 

 the way they came out was funny to 

 watch. Some acted very stiff and 

 were unable to fly at first. Two of 

 the colonies proved almost dead and 

 one was queenless; but with the help 

 of a little feeding they all built up 

 into strong colonies in a short time, 

 and the queenless one reared a 

 queen. After being opened, some 

 brought in pollen in less than 10 min- 

 utes There was an irrigation ditch 

 with clear, cool mountain water a few 

 feet from the bees. They were now 

 in a veritable bed of flowers, but we 

 fed them several times during the 

 first month, as they started rearing 

 brood heavily, and there was very 

 little nectar. It rained most of the 

 time, and every day. 



(To be continued). 



Hunting an Apiary Location 



By J. F. Diemer 



SEPTEMBER 8th my wife and I 

 left Liberty, Mo., in our Henry 

 Ford for a trip through north- 

 west Missouri, to visit beekeepers, 

 see the country, look up some loca- 

 tions, and feast our eyes on the wild 

 flowers that grow in profusion along 

 the highway. 



The first town, the first beekeeper, 

 and the first good location, we found 

 at Smithville. Very few bees and 

 plenty of wild flowers and pasture 

 land, with an abundance of native 

 forest trees for early pollen; also 

 considerable bottom land for fall 

 flowers. The only beekeeper, with a 

 dozen colonies, and his poor system, 

 doesn't furnish enough honey for 

 three families. 



From this place we followed the 

 Jefferson highway north and east, 

 and along the road there seemed to 

 be no end to Spanish needle, heart- 

 ease and other wild flowers. Bees 

 would do well anywhere along this 

 trail. There is no telling the num- 

 ber of tons of the delicious sweets 

 that waste for the want of beekeep- 

 ers and bees to gather it. 



This season was an extra good one 

 for fall flowers. White clover does 

 well when they have it, which is only 

 aliout two years in five. 



This part of Missouri is nearly all 

 upland and excellent soil for a hun- 

 dred miles; but don't compare with 

 the splendid locations along the 

 Grand River bottoms. 



Buckwheat flour is the principal in- 

 gredient of the pancakes my wife 

 makes for breakfast, that look so 

 tempting and comfortable under a 

 thin coat of 7S-cent butter, and a thick 

 coat of Spanish needle or yellow 

 flower honey. 



This yellow flower, as it is called 

 in Daviess and other counties, is a 

 wonder when it Comes to producing 

 not only a high grade of honey, but 

 the main fall honey in this part of 

 the State. There is one very serious 

 fault with it, and that is that it does 

 grow in Clay County, where my bees 

 are. But, as M. G. Dadant well says, 

 if the flowers won't come to my bees, 

 I can load them on a truck and take 

 them to the flowers. Some folks up 

 here call it the little sunflower. The 

 leaves are a little like the sunflower, 

 but the bloom is more like the Span- 

 ish needle. It has four points or 

 stickers on one end of the seed, and 

 the Spanish needle has only two. 

 (Bidens bipinnata L., probably. — Ed- 

 itor.) 



Buck-brush, one of our best honey 

 plants, blooming about July 20, is 

 especially welcome when the white 

 clover fails, as it did this season. 



Irving E. Long, at Marcelline, told 

 me that his scale colony gained 270 

 pounds between Judy 29 and Septem- 

 ber 20. Mr. Long is a farmer, but 

 does not neglect his bees, and usually 

 gets a crop if anyone does. 



We stopped two days at J. F. Bar- 

 ton's, Coffey, Mo., while resting and 

 eating old country ham, fried chicken, 

 etc. I helped extract one day and we 

 introduced 13 queens. We put in one 

 day visiting farmers that had all the 

 way from one to 25 colonies, all of 

 them run for section honey, which 

 sold for 35 cents per pound. Mr. 

 Barton runs for e.xtracted honey, and 

 sold it readily for 30 cents. He can 

 sell more honey in a short time than 

 any beginner I ever knew. He doesn't 

 peddle it, either; people just come in 

 and get it. The reason was plain 



The unile that won't come off. Mr. and Mrs. Conaway entertain Mr. and Mrs. Uiciiicr. 



enough — everybody in that whole 

 country is Barton's friend. 



From here we headed toward Bige- 

 low. Mo. The distance, as a crow 

 would fly, is about 100 miles, but be- 

 cause our Henry Ford couldn't fly, we 

 had to go 150 miles, and because we 

 went cross lots instead of following 

 a well-marked trail, of course we got 

 lost ; and believe me, we had some 

 hills to climb, half pitch and a mile 

 long. 



Once in a while we would run into 

 a bee patch on a farm, just a few 

 colonies with a thirty-pound rock on 

 top of each. It is a good plan, for 

 there would not be much weight 

 without the rock. One little lone su- 

 per for each hive; the sections looked 

 like they had been used for nine years 

 without starters. 



Some of these beekeepers will have 

 to unlearn a whole lot of things they 

 know, before they can begin to learn 

 the things they don't know, and I 

 would like to meet the man that 

 could get them to attend a beekeep- 

 ers' meeting, clean up foulbrood, or 

 modernize their outfit. 



G. A. Conaway lives in Bigelow, 

 and he is the principal honey pro- 

 ducer in this part of Missouri; every- 

 thing up to date, including a four- 

 frame extractor run by electric mo- 

 tor. The electricity is furnished 

 from Mound City and is used for 

 electric lights in the homes at Bige- 

 low. But it seemed to me that Mr. 

 Conway used the most of them, as 

 he had lights all over the place where 

 he could think a light was needed. 

 He has an outyard at the big lake five 

 miles from home. This lake is cres- 

 cent-shaped, full of fish, and a road- 

 way runs clear around the lake a 

 distance of ten miles. We got so in- 

 terested in the lake that we almost 

 forgot to look at the beeyard. But 

 some of his hives were as tall as a 

 man, and full of honey. 



Mr. Conway has 55 colonies at the 

 home place, tends to both yards him- 

 self and does most of the extracting 

 after dark. He is agent for the Bur- 

 lington Railroad at Bigelow, writes a 

 full page each week for the county 

 paper at Mound City, looks after 

 other people's bees that don't know 

 how, keeps a complete record ot eacn 

 colony, keeps two typewriters, one at 

 the office and one at his residence, 

 has a large correspondence, seldom 

 fails to get a big crop of Conaway 

 honey, and sells it all to the consumer 

 direct. He has plenty of time to take 

 in all the good shows and other social 

 affairs, including fish fries at the big 

 lake. While we were there I couldn't 

 decide which he liked best — to work 

 with his bees, or eat the good things 

 Mrs. Conaway prepared for him. He 

 certainly is a good feeder, and a good 

 worker, and has more time to play 

 than most folks. 



We ate breakfast at S o'clock. Mrs. 

 Conaway gave us a lunch that nearly 

 filled a half bushel basket, and we 

 started for Liberty. Arrived home 

 the same day, feeling that our six 

 days off were a good investment. 



Missouri. 



