AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



57 



Gathering Honey Now. 



My bees have been gathering honey 

 and pollen every day this month, I had 

 21 colonies in the Spring ; I have taken 

 from them 601 pounds of comb-honey 

 and 2,840 pounds of extracted honey, 

 and have about 300 pounds yet to 

 extract. They increased to 42 colonies. 

 I make my hives, 8 frames, and 2 story, 

 or 1 6 frames in both stories. The frames 

 are 9H by 16 inches, inside measure. 

 The hives and frames are made of coal- 

 oil cases, taken to pieces and re-made, so 

 as to take the above-mentioned frames. 

 They cost me from 5 to 10 cents per 

 case. It takes about 2}4 cases to make 

 a hive and frames. They stand in the 

 open air, in the shade of trees. They 

 are covered in the rainy season with 

 raisin trays. I have no fussing here 

 about wintering. P. W. McFateidge. 



Ontario, Calif., Dec, 20, 1890. 



Insuring Bees. 



In regard to insuring bees I will say to 

 E. L. Plumb, who asks for information 

 on this subject, on page 811, of last 

 year's Bee Jouknal, that I insure in 

 the Phoenix Co. of London, England. 

 The following clause occurs in our house 

 and barn policy : Six hundred dollars 

 on bees, bee-hives and honey, while in the 

 dwelling or yard of the above-described 

 premises." I have 100 colonies insured. 

 The rate on farm and personal property 

 here, is 1 per cent, for 3 years. The 

 clause concerning bees, hives and honey, 

 was inserted in the policy at the same 

 rate. H. P. Langdon. 



East Constable, N. Y., Dec. 15, 1890. 



Mice in the Apiary. 



As the year is drawing to a close, I 

 will give a short report of my apiary. I 

 commenced with 126 colonies, Spring 

 count, which gave 12 swarms. I re- 

 turned all but 4 to the hives, and these 

 I sold to my neighbors at ^1.50 per 

 swarm, they furnishing hives. I ob- 

 tained 5,200 pounds of extracted-honey, 

 the larger portion of which I sold at 10 

 cents per pound. The past season has 

 been the poorest with me for 28 years, 

 considering the number of bees and the 

 condition they were in at the beginning 

 of the Spring. The Fall crop was good, 

 and the hives were well filled with sealed 

 honey, and brood-rearing continued un- 

 til the middle of October. I placed 88 

 colonies in the Winter repository, and 

 52 in chaff hives on the Summer stands, 

 and they all seem to be in good condition 



now. During the latter part of October 

 I noticed an increase of mice, and I 

 think they had a better season than the 

 bees, or else they had a reunion in my 

 bee-yard, bee-house and cellar, and as I 

 was anxious to get rid of them, I tried 

 the following remedy : I went to the 

 drug store and got 15 cents worth of 

 strychnine, and had it pulverized, then I 

 had the cook prepare a dough with 

 sweetening, and everything necessary 

 for a sweet cake, in which I mixed the 

 powdered strychnine, and after it was 

 baked, I distributed it in a dozen differ- 

 ent places, making sure nothing bigger 

 than a mouse could get to it ; and I have 

 not seen one since. I look for a better 

 season in this locality the coming year. 

 The white clover having had a good 

 start this Fall, I think the bees will 

 come out all right in the Spring. 



P. Lattner. 

 Worthington, Iowa, Dec. 27, 1890. 



Market for Honey at Home. 



I think that the new shape of the Bee 

 Journal is quite an improvement over 

 the old. The bees here, in Northern 

 Ohio, had quite a "fly " on New Year's 

 day. They spotted the hives quite 

 badly, which shows that they had unripe 

 honey for Winter stores. Last Summer 

 I got about 15 pounds of comb-honey 

 per colony, at the home apiary, and 28 

 pounds of comb-honey at the " out-api- 

 ary." Our honey was all bass wood. We 

 got 18 cents per pound, and the grocers 

 came to the house for the honey. This 

 is the way to get rid of your honey. Get 

 up a home trade. I had about 2,000 

 pounds of honey for my crop last year. 

 Elbert Greeley. 



Lorain, O., Jan, 2, 1891. 



Reader, the Bee Journal is working 

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 for its interest, by devoting a few hours to 

 get a neiv subscriber for it, and thus help 

 to make it still more valuable and useful to 

 the pursuit. 



R. AVord of commendation from our 

 readers to those not among our subscribers, 

 will be more potent than anything we can 

 say. If you like our Journal— please let 

 your neighbor know it, and let us thank 

 you in advance for this favor. 



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