April, 1909. 



American liee Journal 



wish to record my testimony, as 1 have had a 

 little experience and some observation. The 

 winter of 1907 and 190S, I had a colony in a 

 10-frame hive in a warm room. The tempera- 

 ' ture was 55 degrees to 75 or 80. True, they 

 built up early very much stronger than those 

 outside, going into winter quarters the same 

 strength and under the same conditions, in 

 November. But I utilized their strength to 

 make increase, taking from them every few 

 weeks 2 frames, to start a nucleus, thus keep- 

 ing them down to the proper strength for the 

 honey-flow. 



As it was bees I wanted last year instead 

 of honey. I produced from this one colonv 

 wintered in a warm room, 6 colonies that built 

 up strong in 10-frame hives, and have all come 

 through the winter in good shape, and secured 

 222 pounds section honey. I feel sure that 

 now under the same circumstances I could 

 have 3 and perhaps 4 honey-producing colonies 

 ready for the honey-flow. I know that if I 

 had the warm room large enough, I would 

 have all of my bees in it, and I would take 

 care of the early strength in having more 

 colonies ready for the honey-flow. If we 

 don't keep bees for what, and for all, we can 

 get out of them, then why do we keep them? 

 A. J. Jones. 



Urbana, Ohio, Mar. 24. 



Report of Season of 1908. 



I started last spring with one colony of black 

 bees, and increased to 4 colonies which are at 

 work nicely, but the weather is too dry and 

 cold. The spring forage is somewnat short, 

 but I hope it will be nice anyway. I intro- 

 duced 2 Italian queens last fall, which I had 

 success with in introducing, and those 2 Ital- 

 ian colonics are the strongest at present. I 

 am going to Italianize all my blacks. 



As stated above, I increased from one to 4. 

 That is, I got one colony from the woods from 

 a tree, which is the fourth colony, and last 

 week I transferred a colony from a tree and it 

 is a fair colony. So I have 5 colonies to 

 start with this spring. I have all my queens 

 cHpoed. I wish to increase to about 8 or 10 

 colonies before fall. Jos. Tezek. 



Nelsonville, Tex., March 30. 



Advantage of g-Frame Hive. 



When I commenced to Keep bees I used the 

 8-frame dovetailed hive with Hoffman self- 

 spacing frames, and supers with section hold- 

 ers and separators. By experimenting a little 

 I came to the conclusion that the hives were 

 a little too small, and I had lots of trouble 

 *o get my bees to work up in the supers. So I 

 enlarged the width of the hives to hold 9 

 frames, and I changed the supers to T-supers. 

 I run the T-tin lengthwise of the supers, and 

 use starters in the sections. 



The advantage I have -with the 9-frame hive 

 is, that it gives me one more frame for brood- 

 rearing, which means a large colony, and one 

 more for winter stores. It also adds 3 more 

 sections in the supers, as I run for comb honey 

 altogether. My bees have been doing extreme- 

 ly well as to the season. T. A. Crabill. 



St. Davids Church, Va., Mar. 15. 



Hunting Bee Trees — Reminiscences. 



This is a good place to live, such fine clear 

 water, cold as ice in the summer. My father 

 moved here as one of the first settlers that 

 came to this country- He was in the War of 

 1812 — fought the British. When he came to 

 this country the game was so plentiful that 

 you couldn't raise hogs nor sneep, on ac- 

 count of the bears, panthers, and wolves. 

 He lived on bear meat, venison, and noney 

 and corn-pone ground in a hand-mill. He 

 made his living by selling bear and deer 

 skins and digging (ginseng. There is gin- 

 seng in these mountains yet, but few bear and 

 deer. 



My father was a great man to hunt bee- 

 trees. I have known him to follow them 2 

 miles by the sun, and find them. He had 

 honey all the time. He would catch the bees 

 when he cut the bee-trees, and bring them in. 

 Then he would hunt a hollow tree and saw 

 off 3 feet and burn it out. then scrape the 

 coals off the inside, bore holes through the 

 gum, and put sticks through crosswise. He 

 would hew out a slab of a I015 and put on top 

 of the gum. I have known him to nave 40 or 

 50 of these gums at a time. Some years 

 ne wouldn't "rob" more than half of these 

 gums. He didn't need it. He couldn't sell 

 the honey. He always got all the honey 

 out of the woods he needed. No one thought 

 of a patent bee-hive then. 



I would go with him hunting bee-trees when 



just a little hoy, and would get so hungry 

 I would eat the bark of the little birch twigs 

 and mountain tea. I would have been a better 

 bee-hunter if I hadn't been spoilt when young. 

 I found 4 bee-trees last summer here. Some 

 of them were very rich. There are very few 

 frame bee-hives here. 



This is a good place for bees, as there is 

 plenty of bloom for them to store honey 

 from. I am going into the bee-business on a 

 small scale. I have bought five 8-frame dove- 

 tailed hives, everything complete. I have 3 

 colonies in box-hives, and am going to let 

 them swarm, then I will transfer them to 

 frame hives. . ,, , ■ 



I am nearly 70 years old. All the learning 

 I ever got was in a log schoolhouse with a 

 dirt floor, one whole end for a fireplace, a 

 log cut out for a window and greasy paper 

 pasted on the crack for a window-pane. I 

 got very little education. I was reared m a 

 place called "Puzzle Hole," in between two 

 big mountains. When you got in there, it 

 puzzlea you to get out. There were no roads, 

 but a tow-path. They had to mark the trees 

 or blaze them to get out. „ , _ 



T. J. CoACER. 



Lanes Bottom, W. Va. 



Salt Lake Prospects Brightening. 



The worst half of the smelters here in Salt 

 Lake Valley have been closed down, and we 

 are trying to build our industry up again with 

 a fair show of success. The sun shines bright- 

 er again, and all nature is in bloom as of yore, 

 and instead of the destructive poison blasts, 

 we now have the gentle rains free from the 

 poisonous effects which the smoke produced; 

 and it seems more like old times with its frag- 

 rant honey-flowers and the little busy bee- 

 millions strong— gathering honey all day long. 

 The bees I thought, last year, did better for 

 me than at any time before; and while we can 

 not tell what may happen, the outlook at 

 present in the Salt Lake Valley for a good 

 honey-flow this season is encouraging, as there 

 will be irrigation waters in abundance. 



E. S. LovESV. 



Salt Lake City, Utah, March 25. 



Massachusetts Convention. 



The regular monthly meeting of the Mass- 

 achusetts Society of Bee-Keepers was held 

 Saturday afternoon in the Ford Building, Bos- 

 ton. Mr. Allen Latham, of Connecticut, spoke 

 on "Swarm Control." He said he believed in 

 giving the bees plenty of room, even putting 

 on an extra brood-chamber, besides supers, 

 sometimes placing a super between the brood- 

 chambers, and another super over them; also 

 giving ample entrance space. If the bees are 

 cramped in their quarters they cluster on the 

 outside of the hive, and then you may look for 

 a swarm. 



At the close of Mr. Latham's address the 

 members asked questions, which he answered 

 in accordance with the above. 



1 .le annual meeting of the Society will be 

 held on the first Saturday evening in April, 

 when the election of officers will be held. 



The proposed law relating to bee-diseases in 

 tliis State, which was submitted to the Legis- 

 lature, has been laid over for a year. 



The summer field-day will be held this year 

 on the first Saturday in August, at the apiary 

 of Mr. H. W. Britton, in Stoughton. 



Joseph B. Levens. 



Maiden, Mass., March 8. 



Baby Queen-Mating Boxes. 



Of late I have noted some cditicism of small 

 nuclei (Baby Mating Boxes if you please) 

 from certain quarters to the effect that these 

 small mating nuclei are being given up by 

 many as too much trouble to look after, and 

 that strong 8 and 5 frame colonies are pre- 

 ferred. 



The criticism of this economical small mat- 

 ing-box plan of queen-fertilization, you have 

 perhaps noted, comes mainly from large honey- 

 producers — from men who own from 300 to 

 500 colonies of bees. For such large produc- 

 ers the strong nuclei may be more satisfactory 

 but look at the number of bees and the 

 quantity of extra bee-material required I It is 

 simply out of the question with the one own- 

 ing perhaps but 20 colonies. 



The large producer will think nothing of 

 breaking 25 colonies into full-framed nuclei, 

 both for increase and queen-rearing — but what 

 is the little fellow with a queen-trade to do? 

 Can he afford to sacrifice even 10 -jf his full 

 colonies in this fashion? No, he .aust econo- 

 mize; he must not use so many bees in his 

 mating nuclei or he will not have strong col- 



onies enough left to supply him with queen- 

 cells, drones and extra bees for his queen- 

 rearing operations. 



Those who have most sweepingly condemned 

 small mating nuclei overlook the fact that there 

 are thousands of bee-keepers who do not own 

 25 full colonies each in all, yet have a desire 

 to rear a few queens for their own use and 

 have a few to sell. To such, it must be ad- 

 mitted, the small Baby Nuclei plan is a boon — 

 it is economical, efficient, satisfactory and 

 possible to the small producer. 



Small mating nuclei are not so mucn bother, 

 after all, when expense is considered. All 

 that is required is regular feeding of thin 

 sugar syrup once a week or so, when honey is 

 not coming in — that is all. 



The Twin Mating Boxes are provided with 

 convenient feeders, and the task of giving 

 each box a cupful of syrup once a week is not 

 a great one — is it, now? Swarthmore. 



Bees in Good Condition. 



Yesterday was the first day since my arrival 

 home (March 20) warm enough to open the 

 hives of ray bees. I opened about 30 of them, 

 and found them in good condition. They had 

 consumed but a small amount of stores, and 

 there was small loss in bees, but they have 

 been more forward in brood in many years 

 than they are this year. This is to be account- 

 ed for by the coldness of this month. I have 

 not lost a single colony of the 61 packed up, 

 and all outdoors. John P. Coburn. 



Woburn, Mass., March 25. 



Bees Wintering Well. 



Taken as a whole, Mr. Doolittle's report in 

 the March number of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal applies to our locality in almost every par- 

 ticular. The main difference seems to be_ all 

 in our favor. While he reports no good flight 

 during winter, we had quite a number of good 

 ones. One in particular was something un- 

 common. I do not remember the exact date, 

 but it was about midwinter. We had a regu- 

 lar spring day. The thermometer registered 

 above 60 degrees all day, and the weather was 

 lovely. The air was full of bees all day long, 

 and their buzzing reminded us of June or July. 



All my bees are on the summer stands, 

 snugly packed in chaflt; the majority of them 

 have sealed covers under 6 inches of chaff, 

 and the remaining portion are packed with 

 blankets, and chaff mats next to them. So 

 far I can not see very much difference in 

 wintering between the two methods. All seem 

 to be doing well; every hive is clean and dry, 

 and bees seem to be in a healthy condition, 

 but as Mr. Doolittle says, the most trying 

 months are yet to come. Don't count the 

 chickens too early. G. C. Greiner. 



La Salle, N. Y., March 26. 



Bee-Keeping in Alabama. 



I have been among the bees for 2 years, 

 and although yet a novice I find them more 

 and more interesting every year. 



Two years ago there came by our home a 

 large swarm of bees which clustered on a near- 

 by tree; we caught them and put them into 

 a barrel, with a cross-stick in the center. The 

 next day we made a hive with frames some- 

 what like the dove tailed hive, and transferred 

 the bees from the barrel into the home-made 

 hive. Although this was a large swarm they 

 absconded within a few days. 



I did not give up, but began to read about 

 bees and found the more I read the more in- 

 terested I became. In my search for reading 

 matter, I came across a catalog of hives, etc., 

 and ordered a beginner's outfit, which con- 

 sisted of 5 hives and supplies for the same. 



At first I thought there would be trouble 

 in obtaining swarms, but I soon eliminated 

 this, by offering 25 cents to any one who 

 would inform us as to the whereabouts of a 

 swarm, and in a short time I had the desired 

 number. . ■ , „ 



A hive was always kept ready, with full 

 sheets of foundation in frames, also a box was 

 kept in readiness which contained smoker, veil, 

 gloves and smoker-fuel. When we were in- 

 formed as to where there was a swarm, the 

 hive and box were placed in the buggy, the 

 horse was hastily hitched up, and off we went 

 for the "honey-gatherers." When the bees 

 had been put into the hive and the top placed 

 on, the hive was then lifted into the buggy, and 

 soon another colony was in our bee-yard. 



At the first of the season (1907) we cut a 

 bee-tree and transferred the bees into a dove- 

 tailed hive. They were very wcaK at first, 

 many of thm having been killed when the tree 

 was cut. and extra care was given them a? 



