758 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Can any one tell me what was the cause 

 of this ? I started in the Spring of 

 1889 (at the age of 19) with one colony, 

 never having seen the inside of a hive ; 

 nor, till the present time, have I seen 

 any apiary of frame hives but my own. 

 Now I have fixtures and an extracting 

 house that cost about $75, and my bees 

 have paid for it all, besides I now have 

 8 good colonies more than I started 

 with. We have not had any white 

 clover honey in this locality for the past 

 three years, although it blooms abund- 

 antly, so it should produce our chief 

 supply of honey. I should think my 

 crop of would be doubled. 

 Trenton, N. J. Joseph Ehket. 



Less Honey than in 1890. 



My bees gathered but very little surplus 

 honey last Summer — only a little over 

 300 pounds — and that is much worse 

 than the season of 1890, when my crop 

 was something over 2,000 pounds of as 

 nice honey as I ever saw. It was white 

 clover and basswood, for I had no Fall 

 honey last year. This year there seemed 

 to be more white clover bloom than com- 

 mon, and my bees worked hard on 

 basswood for about one week, but they 

 got no honey from it. I had 70 colo- 

 nies, Spring count, and they gave 3 

 prime swarms, and one after-swarm, 

 which I returned. 



Wm. H. Graves. 



New Carlisle, Ind., Nov. 17, 1891. 



Good Honey Crop. 



The bees have done fairly well in this 

 locality this year. Although the season 

 was not favorable, yet my bees have 

 gathered 40 pounds of surplus honey 

 per colony, Spring count. I had 40 

 colonies in the Spring, in good condition, 

 which increased to 57. I had about 40 

 swarms, but many were returned. The 

 bees are now in Winter quarters, con- 

 tenting themselves with their stored 

 sweets. Aaron Nyhuise. 



Chandler, Ind., Nov. 21, 1891. 



Bee-Hunting. 



I have on hand 14 colonies of bees. I 

 "hunt "bees in the Fall. I found 16 

 colonies, and the blacker the bees the 

 more honey they had. I had mostly 

 comb. My colonies are Italians. Will 

 some one interested in Italian bees please 

 explain why the blacks were ahead in 

 stores ? About half I found were 



Italians. I notice that some object to 

 hunting bees with a smoker. I have 

 used it on 25 swarms this Summer with 

 success, losing only one swarm. I have 

 united all the after swarms, reducing 

 the number to those I now have. I take 

 the Bee Journal and think it very inter- 

 esting. Homer Scott. 

 New Hudson, Mich., Nov. 25, 1891 



Large Increase. 



My report for the two years I have 

 kept bees is: I bought 5 colonies in the 

 Spring of 1890. They increased to 9, 

 and gave me 285 pounds of honey in 

 1-pound sections. In February, 1891, 1 

 moved about 10 miles, and onaccountof 

 bad weather, and my having la grippe, I 

 lost all but 4 colonies. I have now 

 increased these by natural swarming 

 to 10 colonies, all in fine condition for 

 the Winter, and I have 200 pounds of 

 honey in 1-pound sections. This has 

 been a poor season for honey, but it has 

 been a great one for increase. Some 

 having increased five-fold. I look for a 

 hard Winter, and fear great loss will 

 result where bees are weak in numbers, 

 and have not plenty of stores. 



A T) A,"VTrTiTT"T 



Stanberry, Mo., Nov. *23,"l891. 



Good Crop of Honey. 



I have learned a good deal about 

 taking care of bees from reading the 

 Bee Journal, and I am satisfied. I 

 put 25 colonies in the cellar last year, 2 

 starved, and I lost 2 in the Spring. I 

 sold 2, leaving 18 to start with last 

 Spring, and I got some over 900 

 pounds of comb-honey as nice as I ever 

 saw. I now have 40 to put in the cellar 

 in good condition. My bees swarmed 

 late ; I had one swarm as late as July 

 15; it was a double swarm — 2 came out 

 together, and I could not separate them. 

 They gave me 403^ pounds of nice honey, 

 and they now have plenty for Winter. 

 Who says that a " swarm in July is not 

 worth a fly ?" Ira J. Wood. 



Vernon Centre, N. Y. 



Houseliold Friend. 



The American Bee Journal arrives 

 regularly every Friday, and I am so well 

 pleased with it that I think I could 

 hardly do without it. 



Frank Arnold, 



Deer Plain, Ills. 



