October. 1909. 



American Hee Jonrnal] 



329 



years, having gone from Iowa where 

 he had kept bees for 17 years. During 

 the present season he worked 280 colo- 

 nies, from which he secured a crop of 

 about 30,000 pounds of extracted honey. 

 It was mostly gathered from a variety 

 of blossoms on the Florida Keys, 

 Yi^hich are small islands of coral forma- 

 tion. Mr. Poppleton moves his bees 

 on a gasoline launch to a certain dis- 

 trict to build them up for the honey 

 harvest, and takes them to the Keyes 

 to gather the surplus. He puts his 

 honey in barrels of about 400 pounds 

 each, and it is practically sold before it 

 is gathered. 



Mr. Poppleton is one of the best bee- 

 keepers in this country, although he is 

 not heard from very often through the 

 bee-papers. He lives a very retired, 

 quiet life, practically all of his time be- 

 ing spent with his bees or on his 

 launch. He is a veteran of the Civil 

 War, and for a number of years at- 

 tended the Annual Encampment of the 

 Grand Army of the Republic. This year, 

 however, he was on a trip Nortli to 

 visit a daughter in Iowa and another in 

 the State of Washington, at the same 

 time taking in the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific 

 Exposition. 



It is indeed a pleasure to meet the 

 old-time bee-keepers of which Mr. 

 Poppleton is such a good specimen. 

 He is 0(5 years old, and says that he has 

 worked harder this year than in any 

 other year of the 23 he has spent in 

 Florida. We met him first about 15 

 years ago, and once or twice since, 

 and it seems to us that he appears in 

 better health and more vigorous 

 strength than at any time before. 



Our Frout-Page Ulustrations 



The following descriptions of the 

 pictures of apiaries shown on the 

 front page this month will doubtless be 

 of interest : 



No. 1. — Apiary ol 0. K. Rice 



lam sendiriK you two pictures of my apiary 

 in the orchard. The biggest shows my house 

 also. It is built east and west and fronts 

 south, with the southwest corner toward 

 the bee-hives. The hives front southeast. 

 The picture was taken just before the leaves 

 came out on the trees. The yard has 36 

 colonies, and the winter-cases are on all tlie 

 hives except three. The man examining the 

 frames is myself. I had only about 8 swarms 

 this year. The spring was very late in com- 

 ing, and no warm weather all summer, so 

 again we will have to hope for next year. 



The small picture (No. i] was taken in the 

 first part of July with the winter-cases and 

 roofs removed, and from the east, or from 

 where the tall birch trees stand. I stand 

 more to the left in the picture with a frame 

 of queen-cages in my hands. In the right- 

 hand corner, that is the west end of the api- 

 ary, a lot of winter-cases are piled up close 

 to a spruce stump. I cut that tree in 1883. 

 The stump measures v'A feet in diameter. 10 

 feet from the ground. Along the south side 

 there is a line fence and some more birch 

 trees. Near there are more piles of winter- 

 cases. Birch is not native to this country. 

 I got them from the East and planted them 

 years ago. The winter-cases are made 6 

 inches deep. 24 inches by 20 inches inside; 

 that gives 2 inches for packing all around. 

 Each is separate, mitered and nailed to- 

 gether in the corners. It takes 1 for a single 

 story, and 5 for a 2-story. They have a slant 

 on one edge and rabbet on the other. The 

 roofs have a rim of the same and tit on top. 

 The ones used for the bottom have a slat 

 nailed across in the front 2H inches wide to 

 fit in the rabbet, and 2-inch space, and the 

 rabbet is cut out lit inches, the width of the 

 bottom-board. The bottom-boards I use are 



if>x24 inches, and the strips that make the 

 bee-space are clear to the end of the board. 

 The first case rests in front on the bottom- 

 board without blocking the entrance, and in 

 the rear rests on a a-inch bottom. One slat 

 laid on each side, and one across in the rear 

 stops the packing. I do not expect much 

 honey, if any. this season. O. K. Rice. 



Wahkiakum Co.. Wash. 



No. 2 A Preacher's Bee-Keeping and Apiary 



I have been keeping bees since the year 

 iQoo. A friend of mine gave me 2 colonies to 

 start with, lliey soon increased to 20 colo- 

 nies. I sold the entire apiary in the spring 

 of IQ05. I had been called to the ministry 

 and had been doing some local work up to 

 this time. In September I went to Confer- 

 ence and was appointed to the Weaver cir- 

 cuit, 12 miles south of Oil City. Pa. When I 

 left my home at Colyer. Pa., to go to my new- 

 field of labor, two of my friends gave me a 

 colony of bees each, which I took with me. 

 and bee-keeping has been a pleasure to me 

 along with my ministerial work. I have had 

 very good success, with .15 colonies, all in 10- 

 frame hives. I make my own hives, as seen 

 in the picture. The top is made in 2 parts, 

 which feature has several good advantages. 

 In the first place, the supers are in the in- 

 side and protected from the hot sun. The 

 first rim is 6 inches high, making it very con- 

 venient for winter packing. The top-cover 

 and oil-cloth are removed; from the brood- 

 chamber, and the Hill's Device placed over 

 the frames, then covered carefully with bur- 

 lap and a sack of dry leaves placed on top 

 of that. Then the telescope top, which is 

 also <) inches, is very easily put on. ' Then 

 the top-board and oil-cloth are stored away 

 till spring. I leave the hives on the summer 

 stand without any other shelter, and my bees 

 winter successfully. In fact. I never lost 

 one when packed in this way. Being packed 

 this way gives them the ventilation so much 

 needed for successful wintering. My bees 

 winter so well, and are in such a healthy 

 cc^ndition in tlie spring that I am convinced 

 that this is the secret of wintering bees suc- 

 cessfully. (Rev.) A. J. Horner. 



Mayburg. Pa.. Aug. 17. 



Nos. 3 and 6. — The Mount Nebo Apiary 



The honey product of the Mt. Nebo .\piary 

 vip to this time :.-\ug. i) has reached the 8i:k)- 

 pound mark— section honey. A recent boun- 

 tiful rain has refreshed the pastures and 

 meadows and caused the wind-driven forest 

 trees to clap their hands in glee. Bees are 

 still making fairly good time on white clover, 

 which continues to bitiom much longer than 

 last year. No doubt the blossoms are from 

 the last year seed. 



After locust bloom a dark honey came in 

 from some source I cannot account for. and 

 about half of the honey in the apiaries of 

 this section seems to be of a dark color. 



I gathered some pictures in beedom on a 

 photographic trip across those mountains 

 to a country town. On trips to different 

 apiaries since May. investigation proved that 

 even these mountain localities have some 

 marked facilities for honey-gathering. 



One picture I send [No. 3] shows the little 

 girl and myself looking for the queen, and 

 was snapped by my driver one afternoon in 

 May. This was in the heart of the very sum- 

 mit of Negro Mountain. The little girl's 

 father had gone to a new barn-raising of 

 logs. .She had difficulty to get the swarm 

 which is clustered on the small plum-tree, 

 to remain in the hive, when we happened 

 there. She showed us the colony that had 

 filled 5 supers of honey last year. She went 

 about the hives as if the bees were gentle as 

 kittens, as will be seen by her garb and the 

 lilac flowers on her hat, and said. " They are 

 not a bit hasty " I had found the queen and 

 had her in my hand. 



The other picture [No. 61 is the Boaz Trent 

 apiary, at Boynton. Pa. On July ist I found a 

 golden Italian colony at work on its sixth lo- 

 pound super, making a total of 180 iioutids 

 for the season up to that time. The glass 

 covers over his sections instead of cloth, the 

 gentleness of his bees, the split sections, the 

 arrangement of his hives under his apple- 

 trees struck me most favorably in his bee- 

 yard. The glass cover was not laid flat on 

 the sections, but had a little wooden block, 

 about a half-inch cube under each end of 

 the glass to afford a bee-way between the 

 top of the sections and the glass. 'I'here 

 were no travel-stains on top of the sections 

 nor wax, and th(' owner claimed that when 

 they had a passage over the toji of the sec- 

 tions there were but verv few pop-holes in the 

 honey. My prejudice had whispered to me 



that perhaps the split sections are only a 

 new fad on the market, and are not quite 

 as good as the manufacturers " blow them " 

 to be. But now I believe emphatically that 

 the split sections are the thing. I'd say send 

 a sample section to every bee-man with 

 other goods. Seeing is believing. The api- 

 ary spoken of above had 6 colonies in IQ08, 

 spring count, with a crop of over 700 pounds. 

 In IQOQ the spring count was 10 colonies; es- 

 timated crop over 1200 pounds. 

 Garrett Co.. Md. L. J. Beachy. 



No. 4. — Apiary of Mr. Mathews 



I am enclosing a pictiu'e of myself and 

 bees. The bees are from a queen I got last 

 year. Where is the old queen? The hive 

 next to me has the colony I introduced the 

 queen to. and the next one is the first swarm, 

 and so on. I did not see the queen in the 

 first swarm, but saw all the rest. The sec- 

 ond queen was a match for the old queen. 

 The other two were darker, and the worker- 

 bees in the old hive I think are a shade 

 darker than the rest. Last spring I had 2 

 good colonies of bees— the Italian and one 

 black colony. The blacks swarmed once 

 and the Italians cast 4 swarms, and the last 

 swarm of the Italians is stronger than the 

 black swarm. My bees are doing very well. 

 There is not much bloom this year, but we 

 hope for a better honey year next season. I 

 hope the honey-flow is better in other locali- 

 ties. J. T. Mathews. 



Saline. Mo., Aug. 3. 



No. 5. — Apiary of Mr. Tyler 



I am sending you a view of my bee-yard 

 taken from the southeast. It shows my 

 neighbor's cottage across the street. The 

 shop I have built since I was burned out on 

 July 6. I have 30 colonies. We had no white 

 clover honey. I will probably have 150 

 pounds of surplus from heartsease. 



San Jose, III., Aug. 23. Kkkd Tyler. 



No. 7 Apiary of John Seldelman 



This picture shows the apiary of John 

 Seidelman, of Oswego. III., and his little bee- 

 keeper helpers. It is indeed a neat apiary. 



No. 8. — Apiary of Mr. Lampher 



I am sending a picture of my apiary. I like 

 the American Bee Journal very much, but I 

 have kerit bees ever since I was a small boy. 

 so I have learned their traits so well that I 

 go by that mostly in taking care of them, but 

 I like to read of others' experiences with 

 them. I make my own hives. I use the 

 closed-end frames made the same size as 

 the Hoffman, I use mostly 8-frame size. 

 This has been a very poor season. I usually 

 get from 2 to 6 supers of honey from a col- 

 ony, but 4 is the most I have had this season, 

 and some haven't stored any surplus. We 

 have only clover here, and this season there 

 hasn't seemed to be much honey in it. We 

 have no basswood here now, as it has been 

 all cut for linid.)er. and we have no buck- 

 wheat in this whole county that I know of. 

 We have hardly any fruit-bloom here. The 

 two last seasons have been very dry so the 

 clover hasn't done as well. We generally 

 have an abundance of sweet and alsike 

 clover. We get a very nice quality of honey. 



.North Troy. Vt.. Aug. 2. A. O. Lampher. 



Connecticut Couveution 



The fall convention of the Connecti- 

 cut Bee-Keepers' Association will be 

 held Saturday, Oct. 16, 1909, in Room 

 50, State Capitol, Hartford, beginning 

 at 10:.'50 a.m. No bee-keeper can afford 

 to miss this meeting. A special invita- 

 tion is extended to lady apiarists. 



James A. Smith, Sec. 



Box 38, Hartford, Conn. 



N. Illinois and S. Wi.scon.sin Con- 

 vontioii 



The annual meeting of the Northern 

 Illinois and Southern Wisconsin Bee- 

 Keepers' Association will be held in 

 the Court House in Freeport, 111., on 

 Tuesday, Oct. 19, 1909. 



B. Kennedy, Sec 



Cherry Valley, III. 



