470 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



my bees gathered no surplus honey. 

 Now, during the past four or five weeks 

 of good weather, they gathered a great 

 deal of honey, and I am extracting 4 

 gallons of honey from each top of my 

 double hives, well capped from the top 

 to the bottom of the frames. 



I shipped a barrel of honey this morn- 

 ing, and expect to have another one 

 ready in a few days. I did not extract 

 from the single hives, as their bees have 

 been hived only since last month, and 3 

 of them this month. 



lam succeeding very, well in rearing 

 pure Italian queens, and I have only 3 

 more colonies of hybrids, which is very 

 good. 



I have three brothers who commenced 

 last year, and have, between them, 26 

 colonies in Langstroth hives, some 

 black, and some Italian bees, making all 

 together 60 colonies among the four 

 of us. 



I keep my apiary clean. My hives 

 are all painted, and rest on scantlings in 

 one straight row, under fruit-trees three 

 feet apart. They are near my store, 

 and they seem to be more gentle than 

 bees away a certain distance from the 

 house. 



My bees are not troubled now with 

 moths, the yard being clear of grass, 

 and I raise a good many chickens, 

 which, I believe, help to destroy the 

 moth-millers. 



I am rather a novice at the bee-busi- 

 ness, but as you see, I am doing well, I 

 think. I ought to have, in a year from 

 this date, 80 or 90 colonies all in double 

 hives, if no bad luck occurs. I leave 

 them on the summer stands all winter. 

 Carencro, La., Sept. 12, 1892. 



Some Valuable Honey-Plants 

 of Kansas. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY PBOF. C. L. STRICKLAND. 



I wonder how many readers of the 

 good American Bee Journal know 

 that "malsemoney" (Lycium-Sulgarl) is a 

 wonderful honey - producing plant, or 

 vine, and may be trained to assume a 

 beautiful form as a hedge or garden 

 fence. But the way to prepare it as fol- 

 lows : 



Take pieces of the roots, and after 

 plowing and harrowing the ground, 

 make rows 4 feet apart, and as land in 

 some places is cheap, put in an out-of- 

 the-way corner, and tend as you would 

 corn. Train it in rows 3 feet wide, by 



3 or 4 tall. Keep clean, and I verily be- 

 lieve that an acre will produce more 

 honey than 80 acres of any other honey- 

 plant known to us. 



The bloom is of a purple color and is 

 also continuous, and the drops are of 

 large size, but whether it would flourish 

 in all the States or not I could not tell. 



Ground once used or occupied by this 

 plant can never be used for anything 

 else, as the smallest root will start a 

 vine at once when disturbed. 



This plant is solely for honey and 

 fancy hedges. It begins to bloom and 

 produce honey here about May first, and 

 continues in constant bloom until killed 

 by frost in October. The main vine is 

 strong, and will stand 40° below zero. 

 Cold or wet, hot or dry, appears to make 

 no impression upon it. 



ALFALFA FOR HAY AND HONEY. 



Next comes the great alfalfa. This 

 plant, upon land, properly prepared, 

 will produce a fine crop of hay the sec- 

 ond year, and also will give a good run 

 of nectar. It commences to bloom 

 about June 1st, and continues at a high 

 rate for 2 or 3 weeks, giving a honey of 

 a delicious quality and as clear as " Sil 

 ver Drip." This plant is the king on ac- 

 count of its meritorious qualities, and 

 honey as a free gift. 



Bees are strong here. We have had 

 part of our fall honey-flow from weeds. 

 One more good rain would give us an- 

 other boom, if not too late. 



Last spring was "rough" on the little 

 bee. I fed up to June 7th, when alfalfa 

 came to my relief. And thus we pass 

 on, in paths of apiculture, "up hill and 

 down." 



Peabody, Kans., Sept. 18, 1892. 



The Baron Berlepsch, in sev- 

 eral different experiments made to find 

 out how many eggs are daily deposited 

 by the queen-bee, discovered that she 

 laid 1,604 eggs in 24 hours, as the re- 

 sult of the first. In the second, she de- 

 posited, on an average, 1,913 daily for 

 the space of 20 days. In the third one, 

 an average of 2,400 daily was found 

 for the same length of time. In the 

 fourth she deposited 3,021 in 24 hours. 

 She was seen by him to deposit six in 

 one minute. 



Later experiments with two and three 

 story hives go to prove that the queen 

 actually lays as many as 5,000 eggs 

 during every 24 hours for a period of a 

 week or so. — Selected. 



