JANUARY 1, 1916 



8S 



and the space on each side filled with pack- 

 ing; and they came through the winter in 

 fine order and built up to full colonies by 

 the time our earliest flow began. But in 

 the fall of 1914 my colonies were all very 

 strong, and I gave them no protection at 

 all. The following spring they came out 

 weak, and were a long time in building up. 

 I lost more than enough honey to pay for 

 cases and packing. It was a mild winter at 

 that. 



The bee business has not made the prog- 

 ress in this section that it should. There 

 are many bees scattered around on the 

 farms, and they are kept in old log and box 

 hives with but very little profit. It is hard 

 to convince the farmers that, with the prop- 

 er equipment and management, they can 

 make money with their little apiaries. I am 

 proud to say we have a few successful api- 

 arists, and have prospects of having more. 



There are many beginners. I am inclined 

 to believe some of them will make a success. 

 I hope so. 



Those that are studying the business, and 

 reading the bee journals, I think are making 

 good headway; but there are some who 

 think all they have to know is how to hive 

 a swarm and take the honey from them 

 when it is made. The consequences are 

 they don't have much trouble in taking the 

 honey. 



There is no reason why Virginia should 

 not be one of the leading states in the 

 Union for the production of honey, as we 

 have about a three months' honey season, 

 and there is a large number of the best 

 honey-yielding plants such as tupelo, locust, 

 poplar, persimmon, sourwood, blackberry, 

 and different kinds of clovers, and many 

 other small plants which help a good deal. 



Stockton, Va. 



HEARTSEASE TURNS FAILURE INTO SUCCESS 



BY W. S. WILLIAMS 



Last fall I put up in winter quarters 83 

 colonies of bees which were unusually 

 heavy from the fall bloom of aster and 

 smartweed. When I went over them in 

 April there were twenty-nine dead with 

 from two to four combs of honey. The 

 entire inside of the hives was plastered with 

 stain. They still kept dying till reduced to 

 twenty-six. All seemed weak until late. 

 There were no swarms until the middle of 

 June, and only about five until in July. 

 They then got veiy strong, but did not go 

 into the supers to any account until buck- 

 wheat bloom. 



They then just rushed things and started 

 swarming in earnest. Eighteen of the twen- 

 ty-six that sur\dved swarmed twice, and the 

 second swarms were seemingly as large as 

 the prime swarms. Never in all of my bee 

 experience have I seen colonies build up 



and overflow so quickly. They kept up the 

 swarming until Sept. 2. They all filled up 

 their brood-combs, and some which swarm- 

 ed the last of August gave me one and two 

 supers of the finest light honey I ever had. 



It was all from smartweed or heartsease 

 and aster. It was a wonderful crop. The 

 cornfields and potato-ground were a mass 

 of the heartsease. Some of the wheat-stub- 

 ble fields produced a late crop of it on ac- 

 count of the wet season. I had a little over 

 a ton of honey from the twenty-six, spring 

 count, and increased up to sixty-five colo- 

 nies. All are going into winter unusually 

 heavy and strong. 



This locality is getting to produce more 

 honey from the fall bloom than from the 

 summer season. Each fall seems to get 

 better, and the honey is water-white and 

 of a very pleasant flavor. 



Julian, Pa. 



A WINTER CASE OR HOUSE 



BY L. M. AUTHAK 



We winter our bees in long rows. We 

 build a long house, six feet high, four and 

 one-half feet wide, as long as is necessary 

 to accommodate our colonies. The house 

 has doors at each end. 



We cover the top with cheap roofing- 

 paper, and tlie sides with oiled paper. 

 Holes are left in the sides corresponding to 



the entrances of the hive . It is possible to 

 make the house a double-decker if neces- 

 sary. These sheds can be taken apart in 

 16-ft. sections, and moved whenever desired. 

 I tlirow old carpet or any packing mate- 

 rial I hap]")en to have over the bees inside, 

 and they are nice and dry. Combs in colo- 

 nies kept this way hardly ever sweat. Mois- 



