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THE SMERICIEK miS® J@13iKr«M£f. 



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to give honey a tlioroiigh trial. At the 

 time she commenced taking the lioney, 

 she was very thin in flesh, and a great 

 snfl'erer, weighing about 100 pounds. 

 In a few weeks she was materiallj- bet- 

 ter, and found that slie had increased 

 13 iDounds in weight. During the sea- 

 sou she regained her health eompleteh', 

 and weighed 142 pounds. She is now 

 a picture of health. I shall be pleased 

 to reply to any one desiring further 

 particulars. It would be quite impos- 

 sible for me to mention here all the 

 lienefits that I have realized from read- 

 ing the very valuable American Bee 



<70URNAL. 



Varieties of Hardy Raspber- 

 ries, etc. — L. C. Woodman, of Grand 

 Rapids,*o Mich., on Jan. 2, 1888, says : 



Mr. C. A. Bunch, in a recent num- 

 ber of the Bee Journal, asked that 

 some Michigan bee-keeper should give 

 some information in regard to hardy 

 raspberries. As I have 10 acres in cul- 

 tivation, I will try to answer. I would 

 put the Cuthbert, a red variety', at the 

 head for bee-keepers ; and then the 

 Souhegan, Tyler and the Ohio, of the 

 black-cap varieties, next to the head. 



My bees are in the cellar, and seem 

 to be wintering nicely. My chaff-hive 

 iipiary, 3 miles from home, seems to be 

 •wintering equally as well. 



Large Crop of Honey, etc — J. 



E. Cady, Medford, 9 Minn., Dec. 31, 

 1887, writes : 



My crop statement for 1887 is as 

 follows : Number of colonies in tlie 

 spring, 109, which I increased to 118 

 colonies. I took 8,575 pounds of 

 honey, nearly 600 pounds of it being 

 comb honey, and the balance extracted; 

 2,035 pounds was from buckwheat and 

 fall weeds. It has been storming for 

 the last three days, and the snow is 

 getting quite deep. Bees in the cellar 

 seem to be quiet and comfortable at a 

 temperature of 48-. 



To tlie ]Moiintaiiis J. F. Flory, 



Lemoore,© Calif., on Dec. 10, 1887, 

 writes : 



Bees have not stored a full crop of 

 honey here ; in some places they stored 

 less, and in others more than half a 

 KTop, so that on an average it has been 

 about half a crop. We have about 500 

 colonies, 300 colonies here, and the 

 others some 8 miles away. We shall 

 move them next spring about 50 miles 

 west, up the mountains. I have 25 

 acres in fruit, and 18 acres in raisins. 

 We have so many yellow-jackets, or 

 wasps, that cut open the fruit, and 

 then the bees suck out the juice. I am 



an enthusiastic bee-man,have been such 

 for over 30 years, and so dislike mov- 

 ing my bees from this place ; but I see 

 no other remedy at present. I think of 

 keeping perhaps some 20 or 30 colo- 

 nies here, but the rest I will move. 



But Lit lie Honey Obtained 



A. H. Thorne, Fountain City, o* Ind., 

 on Dec. 27, 1887, says : 



I started last spring with 22 colonies 

 of bees, bought 6 more Italian colonies, 

 and increased them to 40 good colonics, 

 and introduced eight Carniolan queens 

 successfully, which I will try the com- 

 ing year. I had to feed my bees for 

 winter, and I did not get honey enough 

 for use in my own home. The name, 

 "extracted hone}^" is good enough 

 for me. 



Carrying out Brood, &o — J. M. 



Doudna, Alexandria, *o Minn., on Dec. 

 29, 1887, writes : 



The honey season was very short, 

 only lasting 8 days, from July 4 to 12. 

 Early in June the bees began to carry 

 out brood. I had read that the cause 

 was " no honey," and so it proved. I 

 immediately commenced to feed them, 

 and continued until the linden bloom, 

 and then I obtained 2,700 pounds from 

 68 colonies. All of it has been sold at 

 good prices. Bee-keeping has paid 

 me better this year than ever before. 

 To me the Bee Journal is worth ten 

 times its cost every year. 



Hardy Raspberries and Bees. 



— J. H. Newman, Charlevoix, 5 Mich., 

 on Dee. 26, 1887, writes : 



Mr. C. A. Bunch (on page 795 of 

 the Bee Journal for 1887) asks about 

 hardy raspberries, and in reply I would 

 say that the red raspberries are nearly 

 all hardy here, with tlie temperatm-e 

 sometimes 30"^ below zero. The best 

 we have are the Cuthbert, Turner, and 

 Shaffer's Colossal, of the red berries. 

 Of the black raspberries we raise the 

 Ohio, Tyler, and Souhegan, which are 

 good and hard}-, but not so hardy as 

 the red kinds. The bees seem to work 

 well on all the raspberries, both wild 

 and tame ; and they work on the ber- 

 ries as 'well as the blossoms. 



Experience \witli Bees, etc. — 



A. B. Cougdon, South Hadley Falls, J 

 Mass., on Dec. 24, 1887, writes : 



In the spring of 1886 I bought 2 

 colonies of bees in box-hives, and not 

 knowing how to transfer them, it was 

 not done until the next spring, so the 

 first )ear was wasted, just because I 



did not post myself before beginning 

 with bees. This year I transferred 

 them into movable frame hives, and 

 doubled them up, as it was a very poor 

 year for honey liere also. I did not 

 get any honey, but I am not discour- 

 aged, and I think, and know, that if 

 there will be any honey taken in this 

 vicinity next year, that I shall have my 

 share of it. 



I have put my bees into the barn in 

 a comfortable place. I had to feed 

 them some sugar syrup before putting 

 them away. I have looked at them, 

 and they are as quiet as can be, and I 

 think they will come out in the spring 

 as bright as need be. They are hybrids, 

 but I intend to Italianize them in the 

 spring. 



Bees did Poorly. — Wm. Robson, 

 Rolla,© Mo., on Jan. 2, 1888, writ«s : 



Buoyant with flattering prospects in 

 the spring of 1887, the supers were 

 arranged, new hives prepared, and 

 every thing made ready for the har- 

 vest of 1887, when along came storms 

 from all directions, for a change. Did 

 I get any honey ? Yes, but allow me 

 to explain : I left a few cases of honey 

 on the hives over winter, that was 

 gathered during the summer of 1886, 

 but not being filled with comb and 

 honey as desired, they remained until 

 white clover began to bloom. I then 

 removed them, and for the first time 

 in my life I had the pleasure of tasting 

 honey from the bloom of the apple 

 trees. I placed other cases on the 

 hives and awaited results. The " re- 

 sult " is an empty jjocket-book, for 

 want of honey to sell. Since I can re- 

 member, which is 40 years ago, I have 

 no knowledge of bees doing as poorly 

 as th?y did the past season. I have 

 spoken to several about their bees, 

 how they were doing, etc. ; their x'eply 

 is, " no good ; all dead." 



A Puzzling Colony, etc. — R. J. 



Mathews, Riverton,*o Miss., on Dec. 

 18, 1887, writes : 



I commenced the season w^ith 9 col- 

 onies, increased them to 19, and took 

 one from a tree in the woods, so I now 

 have 20 colonies in good condition. I 

 obtained 1,040 one-pound sections of 

 honey, and 250 pounds of extracted 

 honey, of which about 75 pounds was 

 of very poor quality, and the rest was 

 fair. I consider that pretty good for a 

 bad season generjilly. 



To-day it is clear and warm, the 

 temperature is up to 65° out^doors in 

 the shade, and I see from one colony 

 cif hybrid bees a large number of 

 drones flying. I have another colony 

 that puzzles me. On Sept. 2 I took its 

 queen (a black one) from them, and 



