isys. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAIU 



19 



honey, yet I found none — not a section, and also sought for it 

 at commission-houses. Grocers would say, "We do not handle 

 (t ; it's very cheap ; retails for 10 cents per pound, either in 

 comb or liquid." One grocer said that he had liquid honey 

 that he sold for 55 cent^ per gallon. I askt if it was Cuban 

 honey ? He replied that he did not know where it came from. 



The market for honey has never been developt; it would 

 be folly to ship it here until a demand has been created. A 

 dealer in bananas told the writer that a vessel brouRht a cargo 

 of plantains to this port, but there was no sale for them, and 

 they had to be taken to another city. 



Those who undertake to develop a honey market should 

 expect to receive very small pay tor their labor. Our country 

 is a great country, and let a demand for honey be created, 

 and quick as a lightning flash the news is spread, and a supply 

 comes. Mobile Co., Ala., Dec. 25. 



Various Notes and Comments. 



BY J. M. TOUNG. 



In continuipg my notes to the American Bee Journal, for 

 the present winter I will say that what I may write or ad- 

 vance will be as heretofore, directed to beginners and those 

 like myself, thirsting after knowledge in apiculture. While I 

 have been in this line of business more or less since 1870, I 

 find that there is something to be learned almost every day. 

 The bee-business is a trade to be learned and made up of 

 many small matters, and to make a success of it financially, 

 the apiarist must be informed. The carpenter, the machinist, 

 the blacksmith, all learn something in everyday life, so will 

 the apiarist. 



Gardening and Bee-Kebping. — For the last four or Sve 

 years I have been running a small garden in connection with 

 my bee-business, and from a financial point of view I find that 

 they work together if carried on with the proper objects in 

 view. For instance, take a season like the present one — a 

 poor one for bees here, and a good one for gardening. Usually, 

 when it is a good year for '• garden sass," it is a good year for 

 honey, but that dear old teacher, Experience, says that there 

 are exceptions in all pursuits of life. Nevertheless, when it 

 is true, when the cabbage and cucumbers and such truck need 

 cultivating, the bees are wanting to swarm, or perhaps need 

 a super of sections. Such will be the case, but if the bee- 

 keeper is a rustler, gets up early in the morning, and works 

 after he gets up, it will be surprising to see how much may be 

 done before the night comes on. 



Old Mother Earth has put on again (Dec. 31) her white 

 winter robe by having three or four inches of snow spread 

 over her beautiful surface. There have been all sorts of 

 weather thus far this winter, the mercury having gone down 

 to zero a time or two. 



Brood-Fbame Spacing-Staples. — I have been using 

 and trying the past season the new short end staple improve- 

 ment on brood-frames, and to make a long story short I will 

 say that I don't like them. I condemned them in the start, 

 from the fact that they are always getting out of place, or 

 " bucking," to use a cowboy term, when the hives are being 

 moved around. 



Bees All Right. — Are your bees all in good condition 

 for winter, with plenty of stores to carry them through until 

 apple-bloom? Nearly all of mine are in chaff-hives with 

 plenty of upward ventilation, and honey to last them through, 

 with a seasonable winter. I have a few in single-walled hives 

 that may get their "ears" frosted. 



Nebraska Apiarian Exhibit. — Supt. Stilson, of the api- 

 ary department of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition at Omaha, 

 has secured a large amount of honey from over the State that 

 will be a fair sample of what Nebraska can do in the apicul- 

 tural line. Mr. Stilson is a hustler, and nothing will be left 

 undone to make a successful exhibit. 



Bees Under Snowdrifts. — About 8 in. of snow fell Dec. 3, 

 making good sleighing for two days, then a warm wave swept 

 over us, and took it off, or nearly so. I had a few one-story 

 dovetailed hives that were covered up with the drifting snow, 

 but it did not hurt the bees any. Of course, when it began to 

 thaw I took a scoop-shovel and just went for those snow- 

 drifts. No, sir, bees covered up in a snowdrift will be all right 

 If it keeps cold, I don't care if there is six feet of snow on 



them, if the bees have plenty of good honey and a good, tight 

 hive, with a good cover that doesn't leak. But look out for 

 that thaw that usually comes sooner or later. Don't under- 

 stand that I recommend this way of wintering, for there is 

 not a bee-keeper living in all this western country, or in any 

 country where snow falls, but will have some of his hives 

 covered up with snowdrifts sometime during the winter 

 months. 



Apiarian Exhibits at Fairs. — That report of the Buf- 

 falo convention is very Interesting reading, but that part re- 

 lating to exhibits at fairs I am afraid is too late to be put into 

 force this fall, and before another fair time rolls around, the 

 most of us will have forgotten all about it. 



Alfalfa in Nebraska. — I regret to say bees don't work 

 on alfalfa very much in- this neck of the woods, from 

 some cause not clear to me. There was a patch near my api- 

 ary last summer on which I made some close observations 

 during the blooming period. Farther west it is is said to be a 

 good honey-plant, and considerable surplus is obtained. 



The No-Bee-Way Section. — That new honey-section 

 that has lately come into use is precisely the same section that 

 I used many years ago, the only difference being that they 

 were then made to hold two pounds, and were dovetailed all 

 around. I used to put 12 of those two-pound sections in a 

 frame or rack made of common lath that rested right on too 

 of the frames. I found that one of these racks was filled as 

 quick, or quicker, than the 12-pound super that is used to- 

 day. The only reason I can assign for this was that when the 

 bees are once up in the super, and started in the sections, 

 they will run down a two-pound box just as soon as a one- 

 pound section, from the fact that there are more bees to do 

 the work, and the heat is retained better. 



My Report for 1897 is not an encouraging one, by any 

 means. In fact, I don't care to allow it to appear in print, 

 only to give the reader a gentle hint as to what the average 

 per colony would be. It would be putting it rather mildly to 

 say that if the number of pounds was computed, it would not 

 reach over 10 pounds per colony, spring count, including both 

 comb and extracted honey. The prospects for the early honey 

 harvest were flattering in every particular. The white clover 

 began to bloom early and continued all the season, or as long 

 as it lasted, even up to the first of July. When the basswood 

 began to bloom, the bees were up in the supers, filling and 

 storing as fast as they could, but two or three days of hot 

 winds came and stopt proceedings, as if a thunderbolt had 

 struck them. The supers were left about two-thirds finisht, 

 or hardly so much, from that time on they (the bees) did com- 

 paratively nothing, only partly finishing a few sections, but 

 leaving a greater part of the sections unflnisht. The bass- 

 wood bloom only lasted a day or two, giving the bees only a 

 taste, as it were. But from reports west of here, where alfalfa 

 abounds plentifully, I am happy to say a moderate yield was 

 obtained. The reason that no surplus was obtained from 

 white clover was, the bees were reduced in numbers by spring 

 dwindling, so that there was not a sufficient force of workers 

 to obtain the honey that was going to waste in the fields. 



Advice to Beginners. — Now Is a good time for beginners 

 to post up and read everything that they have received during 

 the summer, and then you will be prepared to make arrange- 

 ments for the next season. I find in looking over copies re- 

 ceived during the summer, of the American Bee Journal and 

 Gleanings (I take 'em both) that there are many good articles 

 that escaped my notice during the busy season, that improve 

 my knowledge of beedom wonderfully. If a bee-keeper doesn't 

 take a bee-paper of some kind he is not a bee-keeper that is 

 up with the times. Constantly there are new devices coming 

 up, or improvements made in the ones already in use, that 

 the bee-keeper must adopt sooner or later in making apicul- 

 ture a success. Cass Co., Nebr. 



Strength of Colonies in Spring— Wintering. 



BY C. E. MEAD. 



I have received the following question for reply, from 

 Editor York : 



" Mr. Editor : — On page 7()7, an estimate is made that 

 in a box or tight-frame hive, if I understand correctly, a col- 

 ony will be five times as strong April 10 as March 21, and 25 

 times as strong May 11. Now on March 21 a good colony 



