Tol. XI. 



DEC. 1, 1883. 



No. 12. 



TERMS: 81. 00 Per Annum, IN ADVANCE;"! TTin+^l^ln nl, ^rl •.'-./» 1 Q'7 9 f Clubs to different postoffices, not less 

 2Coplesfor8l.90;3for$2.75;5for$4.00, -ZLot'tt't/t't'OAZ'tJCt' 0/0 ±Ot O. I than 90 ets. eaoh. Sent postpaid, in the 



lOor more, 75 cts. each. Single Number, I „ „„„ ^ „^„. „„„.,,„„ „„ I U. S. and Canadas. To all other vouu- 



5 cts. Additions to clubs may be made \ published semi-monthly by \ ^^^^^ „( the Universal Postal Union. 18c 



atclubrates. Above are all to be sent . t \>c\i\'T^ Tl/rT7TMXTA f\'lTfi\ per yet r extra. To all countries not of 

 to ONE POSTOFFICB. ■ J A. 1. xtUU 1 , iVi-tiUlIN A, UmU. LtheU. p. U., 12c per year extra. 



NOTES FROITE THE BANNER APIARY. 



No. 49. 



MY RKPORT. 



CjjOMMENCED the season with 74 colonies. Some 

 i; of them were weak; the majority were in a 

 /air condition; a few were strong; 35 colonies 

 were devoted to the production of comb honey, the 

 remainder to queen-rearing and extracted honey. 

 The weather was too cold the whole season; too wet 

 during the fore part, and too dry during the buck- 

 wheat honey-harvest. The weather was too cold. 

 the whole season, to rear queens to advantage. In 

 fact, it was the poorest season I ever knew. Just as 

 soon fls the weather began to warm up so that the 

 flowers began to secrete honey, then a cold rain 

 would set in and last two or three days, then it 

 would stop, and when it commenced to " warm up," 

 then it would rain again. This plan of operations 

 was continued until the white ho-^ey-harvest was 

 over, when we bad 700 lbs. of finished sections, ard 

 ]200 Jbs. of unfinished sections. We fed back 1001 

 pounds of extracted honey, which increased the 

 number of our finished sections to 2600 lbs. in all. 

 The 35 colonies increased by natural and ariiflcial 

 swarming to 67. The profit on the colonies run for 

 comb honey, if we have no wintering losses, are 

 S13.43 per colony. 



From 39 colonies. 392 queens were sold, and ]969fi)s. 

 of extracted honey, while instead of an increase of 

 colonies there was actually a dM,r&ase to 28 colonies. 

 The profits on these colonies, provided we meet with 

 no losses, are $10.57 per colony. 



THE "OTHER SIDE" OF BEE CULTURE. 



And now, friends, honestly. If it were not for what 

 I earn by my pen, I should see a pretty close 

 time the coming winter. I am not like the president 

 of our Northern Michigan Association, who "not 

 meeting with the best success," he did not care to 

 have his report "in print." I honor him, however, 

 for "owning up;" there are thousands just like 

 him, except the " owning up " p trt. If our business 

 can not stand upon a fair representation, then let it 

 go down. 1 do not believe in this everlasting parade 

 of the beauties and profits of bee-keeping, without 

 something being said upon the other side, when 

 Goodness knows there is enough to be said upon 

 that side; but the trouble is, the most of us are like 

 the president just referred to, minus his candor. 

 Ohl I know that we occasionally get a letter in the 

 Blasted Hopes department, but there always seems 

 to be something on the face of most of these letters 

 that tells us the writers will yet succeed; and then 

 when they do succeed, and send in their booming re- 

 ports, the finger of triumph is pointed to his discon- 

 solate letter in the Blasted Hopes two years ago; 

 but of the thousands of apicultural wrecks that go 

 down and make no sign, we know nothing. Those 

 who have invested their hard dollars in bee-keeping, 

 and failed, and, becoming discouraged, have sold 

 out for a song, or split up their hives for kindling- 

 wood, or used them for feed-boxes, or let the hens 

 or mice build their nests in them; those who have 

 thus miserably failed do not write to the bee-papers 

 and depict, in glowing colors, their misfortunes; 

 while their neighbors never trouble themselves 

 about the matter, except to grin and say, " I told you 



