THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



523 



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A Good Investment. 



I commenced the season by buying 

 2.5 colonies of bees in CottaKe hives, 

 ti anst'ened them to LinsstroUi 

 frames, and got on an avei-ase of 5}^ 

 combs to the hive, after tliey were 

 transferred. Up to lliis time, I luive 

 talveii l,-^j(i(i pounds of extracted honey, 

 and have sold very nearly the whole 

 crop at 1") cents per pound. I hired a 

 market gardener, who was good at 

 peddling, at Sii per day, to sell honey 

 for me, and 1 found tliati( was a good 

 investment. B. F. Baldwin. 



Marion, Ind., Aug. 3, 1S84. 



Bees Not Working. 



Bees in and around this city have 

 done but little for 2 weeks; but 4 

 miles below tlie city, on the Island, 

 thev are storing honey rapidly. Mr. 

 T. R. Sawver and myself are now 

 located on 'the Iowa City road, one 

 mile from the Court House. He has 

 too colonies, and I have 25. Our pros- 

 pects, until 2 weeks ago, were as good 

 as they had been up to that time 2 

 years "before, when, in tlie fall, he re- 

 ceived from 4o colonies, spring count, 

 7,300 poimds of mostly comb lioney in 

 1-ponnd and 1 J^-pound sections. 



W. T. Kirk. 



Muscatine, Iowa, Aug. 1, 18S4. 



Poorest Season Since 1869. 



With us, this is the poorest season 

 for honey since 1S69. We had cold, 

 windy, cloudy weather wlien there 

 was blossoms, and good weather when 

 our honey-producing flowers were 

 gone. G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, N. Y., July 31, 1884. 



Main Honey Season Past. 



The main .liouey season has past 

 and I have no bonanza to bonst of. 

 Onr failures are Iwund to advance the 

 price of honey. We must admit that 

 the freaks of nature are in advance of 

 the skill of man. In the first part of 

 the season, apple bloom was profuse. 

 Clover liloonied May 20, and lasted 

 till .Inly 10 : but there was very little 

 nectar ' gathered from that source. 

 The so-called honey dew, or neftar 

 from the leaves of trees, was abundant 

 from the last of May till .lune 30; and 

 niv 54 colonies from all those sources 

 filled all the hives with nice capped 

 honey and bees. On .July 7, 1 took off 

 600 ll)s. of comb honey and extracted 

 about 6.5 lbs., and I saw signs wliich 

 led me to leave the honey and bees 

 alone for a short time and see the 

 result ; and I now can say that the .54 

 colonies were once richer this season 

 than they are to-day. To-day I find 

 the lieart"s-ease nearly all blasted in 

 the bud. It is a settled fact that the 

 bees are now consuming more honey 

 in rearing brood than they gather 

 each day. My queens are breeding in 

 haste and consuming their laid-up 



store. My buckwheat is in bloom 

 and tlie bees sip every bloom clean in 

 less tlian two hours each day. I can 

 see no source vet fri>m which I am 

 likely to gel aiiv fall honey. My 52 

 old colonies swarmed 92 times, and 

 every one retiu'iied to the parent colo- 

 ny, because the wings of the queens 

 were clipped ; consequently, I never 

 lost a queen and have no swarmedto- 

 death colonies. I did not have to feed 

 any last spring, and my liives are full 

 of "bees and lioney ; but I do not want 

 to rob tliem so they will suffer, for 

 the mere purpose of obtaining a large 

 profit at the expense of the blessed 

 bees' lives. 1 could, today, take 50 

 lbs. from each hive, but 1 prefer to 

 keep my bees and honey in the same 

 little house until I see that all danger 

 is past ; and then deal honestly with 

 the little lionev-gatherers, for they 

 are honest in their dealings. They 

 live, labor, store and die, that people 

 may live and be happy. The Italian 

 bees arethe best bees to gather honey 

 early and late. R. M. Osboun. 



Kane, 111., July 24,1884. 



Swarm Separators. 



In reply to .Mr. Kinsel's questions 

 on page 411, in regard to swarm sep- 

 arators, I would say : The division- 

 boards do extend to the bottom- 

 boards, and the cover rests on the 

 division- boards so that the, bees can- 

 not enter from one division to the 

 other. On the top the frames are % 

 of an inch lower than the division- 

 boards. In sejiarating, the bees pass 

 through the entrance in the bottom 

 of the division-boards, or through Ii^- 

 inch augur-holes bored 4 inches from 

 the tops of the division-boards. I 

 gave a descripticffi of the swarm sep- 

 arator as published on page 171 of 

 the Bee Journal for 1881, Although 

 the honey interest looked rather 

 gloomy, early in the spring, we are 

 now liaving a second bloom with an 

 abundant yield of nectar. The report 

 from Napa comity promises a good 

 yield. As I am not quite ready for 

 extracting, I have to tier up my hives 

 3 or 4 stories. I use the Simplicity- 

 Langstroth hive, and will commence 

 extracting next week, I have been 

 in the bee-business in California dur- 

 ing the past (i years, and for bloom, 

 this season exceeds all former ones. 

 The hills are a perfect flower-garden. 

 Bees are w-orking on the sage, which 

 is something unusual for this time of 

 the year. Jno. L, Secor. 



Monterey, Cal,, July 23, 1884. 



A Good Honey Flow. 



The clover harvest was a poor one 

 here, but we had a good flow of honey 

 for about a week from June 12 to the 

 20. My bees then had the swarming 

 fever till July 1. I had 45 swarms 

 from 50 colonies. As my frames were 

 all one size, I had no trouble to keep 

 the increase down to 45, by taking 

 out tlie brood-frames and returning 

 the swarm. I returned some 18 

 swarms in that way. Those frames 

 of brood I would give to the other new 

 colonies, which would be a great help 

 to them, and would keep all strong. 

 On July 8, basswood bloomed, and up 



to this time I did not have 200 pounds 

 of comb honey finished. The bees 

 now began to work ivs I never saw 

 them work before. They weie so 

 heavily loaded that they drojjped by 

 the thousands all over the apiaiy, and 

 I never before saw sections filled up 

 so fast, I am using the two-pound 

 section, I was able to give theni 

 room as fast as they needed it, and in 

 two weeks time some of my colonies 

 had 42 two-pound sections nearly all 

 sealed over, 1 had one strong cnhmy 

 which I overlooked in tiering up. and 

 to my surprise they had tlie whole 

 brood-chamber filled with honey clear 

 down to the ground, a distance of 8 

 inches. I then smoked the bees out 

 and extracted the lioney. The combs 

 were built as straight as a board, and 

 all was worker comb, so I fit them 

 into frames. I have 5 strong nuclei, 

 which I am now building up to full 

 colonies, to make my number an even 

 80. I have now 3,000 pounds of cnp- 

 ped comb honey, and about 1,000 

 pounds of uncapped I expect to get 

 most of the latter capped yet, as the 

 pasture fields are again white with 

 clover. Bee-keepers here are forcing 

 the honey on the market at 10 and 12 

 cents per pound, but I am still hold- 

 ing my crop back for 15 cents per 

 pound, and so far I have sold but 200 

 pounds at that price, 



H, T, Hartman, 

 Freeport, 111,, July 28, 1884. 



Not More than Half a Crop. 



I have not yet seen any reports of 

 the honey crop from this ))art of 

 Kentucky. The spring was wet and 

 cold until the middle of June, We 

 have not more than half a crop of 

 lioney this season, I had 52 colonies, 

 and increased them to 75, mnstlv by 

 division, I have taken about 3,000 

 pounds of honey, the most of it being 

 extracted. My bees are in good con- 

 dition, Wsi, G, GOSNEY. 



De Mossville, Ky., Aug. 3, 1884. 



Good Honey Season. 



I commenced with 9 colonies of 

 bees, in the spring, and at this time 

 I have 26, all in the Golden bee hive. 

 The honey season has been good here. 

 I have soi'd all my honey at 16-.^ cents 

 per pound, in my home maiket. I 

 have the Syrian bees, which are gentle 

 and easy to liandle, and I manage 

 them without any smoke, 



Jesse Lovelace. 



London, Ky,, Aug, 5, 1884. 



Discouraged but Determined. 



I liave been wailing patiently to 

 make a good report, and here is what 

 I have to say : I started with 148 col- 

 onies on May 1. 1884. and now have 

 300 colonies. They are mostly strong 

 and ready for the fall crop, if there 

 should happen to be one. Up to this 

 time I have taken only about 200 

 pounds of honey— nnfavora ble weather 

 being the cause of the failure of the 

 while clover. Basswood was an en- 

 tire failure. I, alone, have done all 

 but one day's work in my apiary this 

 season. I am looking foi' a good fall 

 crop, as goldenrod looks well. Just 



