THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



11 



Starters in Section and Brood- 

 Frames. — Siimuel Cushuaan, Paw- 

 tucket, 3 H. I., writes : 



Dr Tinker, in his reply to Query, 

 No. 34-5, says ttiat he gives swarms 

 brood-frames with starters only, and 

 also sections with starters. AVill he 

 tell us whv he does not use full sheets 

 or full combs in the sections, instead 

 of starters V 



[Because it does not pay me to do 

 so. I sell all of my honey here at 

 home, and must produce a fancy arti- 

 cle or lose prestige and custom. I 

 have had many sections tilled on full 

 sheets of the best thin foundation ob- 

 tainable, and I have not been able in 

 a single instance to produce an article 

 that would not excite suspicion that 

 it was partly an artiticial product. 

 The presence of the foundation would 

 be detected by the yellow cast in the 

 centre of the comb, and often by the 

 foundation sticking to the teeth in 

 eating. The wax of natural comb 

 never sticks to the teeth in eating. I 

 use and recommend full sheets of 

 brood-foundation in building up colo- 

 nies in the spring, and at other times, 

 but I use only starters 2 inches wide 

 for swarms. I prefer starters 1 inch 

 ■wide for sections.— G. L. Tinker.] 



Season Shortened by Drouth.— 



Wm. Gemmill, Shannon, ~o Ills., on 

 Dec. 23, 1886, says: 



I commenced the season of 1886 

 with -IS colonies of bees, increased 

 them to 76 by natural swarming, and 

 had about 2,500 pounds of comb honey 

 in two-pound sections, and oOO pounds 

 of extracted honey. I have 74 colo- 

 nies now in the cellar in good condi- 

 tion. The past was a fair season, but 

 cut short by drouth. 



Large Surplus Crop.— Frank Mc- 

 Nay, Mauston,© Wis., on Dec. 25, 

 18S6, says : 



My four apiaries are in excellent 

 condition for winter, after storing a 

 surplus of 25,000 pounds of honey. 



Cellar-Ventilation, etc.— Wm. Hill, 

 Prophetstown,x)Ills., onDec. 21, 1886, 

 writes : 



I had 25 colonies in the spring 

 which 1 increased to 45, by natural 

 swarming. I put my bees in the cel- 

 lar on Dec. 3. We had one cold night 

 before I put them in, and they be- 

 came somewhat frosty, but they have 

 dried out nicely, and are now very 

 quiet. I keep the temperature as 

 near 4.5° as I can. They seem to be 

 the quietest at that degree of temper- 

 ature. I bad 3,900 pounds of honey 

 the past season, 1,200 of which was 

 extracted, and the balance comb 

 honey ; and average of 156 pounds per 

 colony, spring count. I ventilate my 

 cellar with a 3-inch pipe that connects 



the cellar. with a chimney. When it 

 gets very cold I intend to shut off a 

 part of the draft, or all of it, so as to 

 keep the temperature as near 45'= as 

 possible. 



Favorable Winter so Far. — VV. 



Mason, Fillmore. »o Ind., on Dec. 27, 

 1S86, writes: 



So far we are having a very mild 

 winter. Several times snow has 

 fallen, but not deep. Bees on the 

 summer stands are doing well this 

 winter, and as a rule they have plenty 

 of stores. I look for good reports in 

 the spring, if the winter continues 

 favorable. I weighed a part of my 

 colonies on Nov. 12, and the rest on 

 Nov. 25, and stored them in ji bee- 

 house. To all appearances tliev are 

 now in fine condition. My colonies 

 run a little below the average last 

 fall. My bees reared a large crop of 

 brood in August and September, 

 there being a few swarms cast as late 

 as Aug. 27. Tlie fall crop of surplus 

 honey was lost by the over crop of 

 fall brood, and no doubt it will re- 

 quire more winter stores on this 

 account. 



The Honey Crop of 1886.— E. F. 

 Meeker, Duncan,© His., on Dec. 23, 

 1886, writes : 



I started last May with 80 colonies 

 of bees, and 1 have increased them to 

 131. I tookofi ll,000pounds of honey, 

 7,000 pounds of which was in one- 

 pound sections. My crop is nearly 

 all sold. I have all races of bees, and 

 have been cross-breeding for the past 

 three years. 



The Season of 1886.— R. Bacon, 

 Verona.© N. Y., on Dec. 22, 1886, re- 

 ports as follows : 



Failures attended the most of our 

 bee-work through the past season in 

 this locality. Spring opened quite 

 well for bees, but later everything in 

 their line changed. White clover, 

 which looked very promising in the 

 start, failed to yield much honey; 

 basswood was almost a total failure, 

 and we got but tew swarms. Very 

 many colonies had to be fed for win- 

 ter, and the small crop of honey 

 secured had to be sold very cheap. 

 Taking it all in all, it was a hard year 

 for bee-keepers, and makes them feel 

 a little discouraged. 



Raising the Price of Honey.— Mrs. 

 L. Harrison, Peoria,© Ills., says : 



I have a favor to ask of the " Honey 

 Producers' Association," when it 

 meets at Chicago, and it is this : Will 

 they please raise the price of corn y 

 Dry corn, raised last year, only 

 brought 28 cents per bushel in central 

 Illinois, at the nearest railroad sta- 

 tion ; the corn was raised on land 

 worth S65 per acre. Honey is low, 

 but no lower than other produce, and 

 the business was never on a better 

 basis than at present. Little more 

 than ten years ago, honey was seldom 

 seen, and only inquired after at drug- 



stores. But now it is handled by all 

 tirst-class dealers in groceries. The 

 business is not overdone ; there are 

 thousands of men, women and child- 

 ren in the United States who never 

 tasted honey. People do not buy 

 molasses, as they did a score of years 

 ago ; they are afraid of everything in 

 the form of syrups, and honey is 

 silently taking their place. I would 

 like to see the price of honey higher, 

 but all the "resolves" of producers 

 will not affect it more than the Pope's 

 bull against the comet. 



Winter Stores.— John Baldwin, 

 Steamburgh,N3 Pa., asks: 



Some of my bees in the cellar are 

 short of stores, and I feed them once 

 a week, by turning half-a-tumbler of 

 syrup on the bees and combs. Is that 

 right ? 



[While the plan you have adopted 

 has been successful in many instances, 

 enough good honey for winter stores 

 should have been " laid by " in the 

 combs, early in the season.— £d. J 



Prices of Honey— Double-Walled 

 Hives.— A. W. Fisk, Bushnell,*o Ills., 

 on Dec. 27, 1886, writes : 



I read with interest Mr. Baldridge's 

 article suggesting the idea of organiz- 

 ing a union convention for the pur- 

 pose of taking measures for protection 

 against the ruinous low prices for 

 honey. It is my impression that a 

 convention of this kind, properly 

 organized and managed, would benefit 

 us more than any other organization, 

 and I hope this subject will be freely 

 discussed, and some wise measure 

 devised to put up, and keep up, the 

 price of honey. We are experiment- 

 ing here with double-walled chaff 

 hives, and I think if they are properly 

 constructed they cannot be excelled 

 for summer and winter protection and 

 management. I am wintering a col- 

 only of bees in a double-walled hive. 

 I have 6 colonies in double-walled 

 plastered hives, and some in double- 

 walled chaff hives, all on the summer 

 stands. I also have a few bees in 

 single-walled hives in the cellar, and 

 all are doing well so far, although we 

 have had no very severe weather. 



Home Market for Honey. 



^ff~ To create Honey Markets in every 

 villag-e, town and city, wide-awalfe honey 

 producers should get the Leaflets " Why Eat 

 Honey " (only .50 cents per 100), or else the 

 pamphletson "Honey as Food and Medicine," 

 and scatter them plentifully, and the result 

 will be a demand for all of their crops at 

 remunerative prices. " Honey as Food and 

 Medicine " are sold at the following prices : 



Single copy, 5 cts. ; per doz., 40 cts. ; per 

 hundred, $2.50. Five hundred will be sent 

 postpaid for $10.00; or 1,000 for $15,00. 

 On orders of 100 or more, we will print, if 

 desired, on the cover-page, " Presented by," 

 etc. (giving the name and address of the bee- 

 keeper who scatters them). 



To give away a copy of " Honey as Food 

 and Medicine" to every one who buys a 

 package of honey, will sell lots of it. 



