January, 1909. 



23 



American Urn Journal 



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1^"^^ 



those sources. This year, however, tKc pro- 

 Kram was somewhat changed, the result being 

 greatly in our favor. . , , , , . 



After tlie white clover had yielded a lair 

 crop, the prospect was not very encouraging 

 for a week or two, hut as soon as tin- buck- 

 wheat began to bloom, honey again m.ide its 

 appearance, and continued to do so with more 

 or less liberality all through the rest of the 

 season, until the frost cut vegetation late 111 

 October. , , , , . i 



An unusual amount of buckwheat and 

 amber honey was the result. We also had, 

 as a consequence of the prosperous season, 

 i|uite a number of buckwheat swarms, which 

 hardlv ever happens in this locality. 



G. C. Grkinicr. 



La Salle, N. Y., Dec. 26. 



Bees Did Best Last Season. 



My bees did better last season than any 

 season yet. All honey (jatbercd was from 

 white clover, and sold for a good price. 1 

 have VI colonies of bees, and run them all for 

 comb "honey. There is no sale for extracted 

 honev here. It is a drug on the market. 



Emmett Raisbeck. 



Benton, Wis., Dec. 25. 



Bees Did Fairly Well. 



Bees did fairly well this season in this lo- 

 calitv. Mine averaged 50 pounds per colony, 

 all from white clover. I had 5 colonies, 

 spring count, and increased to 11. And now 

 they are wintering well in the cellar. I take 

 good care of my bees. 



I like the American Bee Journal and will 

 never be without it as long as I keep bees. 

 I think it is the best bee-paper in print. 

 Henry F. Fischer, Jr. 



Granton, Wis., Dec. 21. 



Quoting the Honey Market. 



I notice a letter in the November number 

 regarding the San Francisco comb honey 

 market being quoted too high in the bee-papers. 

 I don't know what the situation really is, but 

 I believe it is quoted too high. 



I was selling some comb honey in Elko 

 (this State) about the first of the month, and 

 spoke of the San Francisco price being 17 

 cents, and was surprised when a grocer showed 

 me a circular of prices from a commission firm 

 of Sacramento and Reno, giving a price of 

 13 cents for fancy comb honey to the trade. 

 Still, as Gleanings says in the December 1st 

 issue, this doesn't show the San Francisco 

 prices too high, but Sacramento is only 90 

 miles from San Francisco, and it doesn't 

 seem possible that such a difference in prices 

 could exist for any length of time. 



J. E- Patton. 



Halleck. Nev., Dec. 19- 



Getting On in the Bee-Business. 



I started in the bee-business last spring 

 with 2 colonies of bees in"8-frame hives of 

 the improved Langstroth style, and I bought 

 5 2-story 10-frame hives last spring. One 

 colony swarmed early in May, and absconded, 

 but the next swarm that came out I caught 

 and put into a lo-frame hive. This was the 

 last Sunday in May. I paid a neighbor $2.00 

 to put 2 swarms into 2 of the lo-frame hives. 

 Then on the last Sunday in June a swarm 

 came and settled in a hive I had in a tree. 

 I then transferred a colony from an old house 

 to a 10-frame hive. This made 5 colonies in 

 10-frame hives and 2 in 8-frame hives. 



The swarm I caught the last of June stored 

 55 pounds of comb honey. I got only 113 

 pounds all together, but I have 7 colonies 

 packed in winter quarters, in good condition. 

 I like to work with bees even if I do get 

 stung a few times. 



I bought a bee-book last spring, and took 

 the American Bee Journal all the year. 



Dale C. Cole. 



Marshalltown, Iowa, Dec. 29- 



A Big Honey- Yield— Other Matters. 



Whewl 1144 pounds of extracted honey 

 from one colony and its increase. Say, Mr. 

 Vangundy, I wish you would give us your 

 methods of management. If you sell it at 

 10 cents a pound you get $114.40 worth of 

 honey from one colony. But, don't let that 

 go too far, or you will have a bees'-nest (of 

 bee-keepers) in your hair. 



Mr. O. D. French makes all his supers into 

 observation chambers, page 374. Well, it may 



do for you, Mr. French, but I think we big 

 bugs will be contented with lifting up one 

 end of the super and looking up between the 

 sections. We want to remove the central 

 sections as soon as filled, and could not very 

 well do so without first tipping up one end 

 of the super and looking frum under. 



For Mr. J. U. Bogart, 1 would suggest that 

 he purchase a Swiss wax-extractor and cut 

 off the cone in the center near the bottom, 

 and solder a circular piece of tin over the 

 opening left. Then solder in a honey-gate 

 in place of the outlet spout, and there you 

 have a device (capping-melter) to take care 

 of the cappings. t l i- 



In conclusion, I wish to say that I believe 

 the best way to get the newspapers to stop 

 publishing falsehoods about bees, honey, and 

 temperance, is to help the editors to obtain 

 and furnish truthful reading matter for their 

 papers. I,et us remember the words of the 

 Apostle Paul, when he said, "Be not over- 

 come of evil, but overcome evil with good." 



Hampshire, 111. Chas. M. Hix. 



Almost Warm as Summer. 



It is almost as warm lure as summertime 

 with the bees flying about, and they would 

 be at work if there were anything to work 

 on. That is a bad sign for bees here. They 

 have done that way before and we look for 

 trouble in the spring. 



We all can do a little to help in the bee- 

 keeping world, but I am having a poor chance 

 now. My mother, who is 87, is down never 

 to get well. Then I will be left all alone. 

 She has told me she can not stay with me 

 any longer to help me and that makes me feel 

 very bad. R- B. Perry. 



Greenfield, Tenn., Dec. 30- 



A Bad Year for Bees. 



This has been a bad year for bees with us. 

 I havg lost 20 colonies out of 60, and I am 

 afraid we will have another bad year. It has 

 been dry and warm all winter. In fact, we 

 have not had any winter as yet. At this 

 writing the thermometer stands at 3 o'clock, 

 p. m., 63 degrees, in the coolest part of the 

 house, and we have had scarcely any rain for 

 3 months. S. B. SinglEtary. 



Cairo, Ga., Dec. 22. 



Miller Tent-Escape and Youn? Bees. 



Some one has been observing very care- 

 lesslv,or else my bees are different from others, 

 for all this last season I noticed that when, 

 being crowded, I took a super to the house 

 and cleaned it, by letting the bees fly away, 

 that there were a large number of young bees 

 which would not leave the supers, and when 

 forced off would hang around the door of 

 the kitchen all day and over night. Had 

 they not been young they undoubtedly %vould 

 have gone back to the parent hive. I can see 

 no reason why young, and very young bees, 

 should not go into the supers, and I know I 

 have seen them there. In a device like the 

 Miller tent-escape, if set up in the yard, the 

 young bees, in flying about, no doubt would 

 go to and into the nearest hive, but if taken 

 to the honey-house or kitchen they will hang 

 there. 



I am just getting a good start in the bee- 

 business, the past season being my third year, 

 when I started with 8 colonies, mostly Cau- 

 casians. I got 7 swarms from my 8 and 

 captured enough to make 31, and then 10 

 more which I had not hives for and left them 

 in boxes. I took off over 1,200 pounds of 

 honey, comb and extracted, and it was a 

 very poor season, I am told by my neighbors. 

 (Dr.) a. F. Bonney. 



Buck Grove. Iowa, Dec. 16. 



An Uncapping Outfit. 



I have just read J. R. Bogart's letter on 

 pages 373 and 374, and as help is asked for 

 in answering him, I will give a description 

 of my uncapping outfit, with the hope that it 

 may help Mr. B., and other small producers 

 of extracted honey. 



Take 2 galvanized-iron wash-tubs of such 

 size that one will just slip down in the other 

 about an inch. Cut out the bottom of the 

 upper or larger tub, leaving about an inch of 

 the bottom part attached to the sides, and to 

 this solder a piece of wire cloth, so as to 

 make a strainer of the upper tub. Run a 

 piece of board 1x2 inches through the handles 

 to form a rest for the comb when uncapping, 

 then push this tub down into the other so as 



10 make a snug fit, and you arc ready to go 

 to uncapping, and the honey will drain out 

 into the lower tub. If the lower tub begins 

 to get full of honey, set the upper tub con- 

 taining the cappings over the extractor a 

 moment while you empty the lower tub into 

 the extractor. 



Have a can made of galvanized iron of 

 such size that it will hold about 6 gallons. 

 Put in an ordinary molasses faucet near the 

 bottom of this, stretch a cheese-cloth over the 

 lop of it, and set it under the gate of the 

 extractor, and when full of honey, you can 

 fill a 5-galIon can or quart jars from the 

 faucet. Simple, isn't it? You can have this 

 uncapping can out in the yard as long as you 

 please. The bees will clean up the cappings 

 in the upper can, but can not get to the 

 lioney in the tub below. 



I can imagine some of our large producers 

 smiling at such primitive methods, but _ for 

 the man who wants something cheap, light, 

 and eflicient, I know of nothing better. After 

 one tub of cappings drain over night, they 

 may be put into a sack and laid away for 

 future rendering into wax, while the bee- 

 keeper begins a new day's work with an empty 

 uncapping can, thus handling a crop of a 

 good many thousand pounds. 



Alice, "Tex., Dec. 19. H. D. Mlbby. 



An Uncapping Vat. 



On page 373, Mr. J. R. Bogart, wants some 

 advice as to an uncapping vat, can, etc., for 

 a small apiary. Now I use 2 vats made out 

 of 2x12, about 30 or 32 inches square, made 

 to sit over each other tight, but not fastened 

 together. The top one has a perforated gal- 

 vanized-iron bottom, and the lower one has 

 a tight galvanized-iron bottom nailed on flat, 

 but double nailed, also a honey-gate; the 

 whole to sit on legs about 10 inches h'g"- 

 Put a cover on the top vat, also a band of 

 1x4 inch stuff around the middle to lap down 

 half-way (or 2 inches) onto the lower vat. 

 (Tut 2 grooves on opposite sides of the top 

 vat, and put in 2 sticks Hx^i inches, parallel, 

 and about 8 inches apart. You can uncap in 

 this, and let the cappings remain in the top 

 vat any length of time, if you don't have too 

 many. Only a few days are required to dram 

 them perfectly dry, when they can be re- 

 moved or melted. Cover all wood and gal- 

 vanized iron in each vat with a good coat of 

 paraffine wax. 



Leslie J. Schneider. 



Greely, Iowa, Dec. 21. 



Something on Queen-Rearing. 



I see that Mr. Grant Anderson wants to 

 have some one hang up his ignorance for us 

 queen-breeders to shoot at. So I will hang up 

 a few facts. . 



Can Mr. Anderson take a dozen white leg- 

 horn pullets and put a black rooster with them 

 and breed pure white leghorn chickens.' If 

 so, then he can take black drones and breed 

 pure Italian queens from his mongrel crow- 

 black Italians. Mr. Anderson, is it not so 

 that the egg that would bring forth a black 

 worker, if changed to a queen, that queen 

 will be black? an egg that will give a one- 

 band worker, the queen will have one band 

 also? You can not breed a 3-band queen from 

 such queens as yourself and Mr. Doolittle de- 

 scribe on page 259 and 266 (1907)- Just 

 the description of your queens is all the truths 

 you have in those letters. 



You read on page 862 (1906) and see what 

 the writer says. What is considered a pure 

 Italian? That writer does not say if I am 

 right or wrong. Yourself and Mr. Doolittle 

 came out with a big statement. It is plain 

 that either of you understand the laws of 

 pure breeding. Do you think you can take a 

 mongrel sire and a mongrel female and breed 

 pure stock? This is what you get from Italy. 



In the September, 1908, number, you say 

 that you have had complaints that your queens 

 do not give satisfaction. You tell those peo- 

 ple that complain, that the queen was killed, 

 and that the bees reared a young queen from 

 her eggs. 'You are wrong. It can not be so. 

 Mr B sends S3 to Mr. A for one of bis breed- 

 ing queens. The queen arrives. Mr. B opens 

 the hive and captures the old queen. As soon 

 as those bees find their queen missing they 

 start queen-cells. Mr. B has been instructed 

 to liberate the new queen in 48 hours. I will 

 admit that the new queen is received all right 

 and that her worker progeny will take its 

 first flight not sooner than 28 days. As you 

 claim the old queen was killed, she never 

 layed an egg in the brood-comb; therefore, 

 the workers could not rear a young queen. 



