TM^ MMERICJtPi WEM J©1LJRB«f£tr. 



71 



IRESPOSDEECE. 



HONEY-PLANTS. 



Insuring Bec»— Honey-Plants of 

 Minnesota. 



WritUn for the Ameiir/^n Bee Journal 

 BV J. M. DOCDNA. 



On page 8, Mr. A. C. '\^'al(li-on asks 

 if any one has had experiem-e in in- 

 -uring bees against fire while in the 

 cellar. I have had mine so insured 

 for some years in the Minnesota Farm- 

 ers' Mutual, of Minneapolis. 



liluden and IVlilte Clover. 



Linden is our only deiJendence for 

 surplus honey. It has never failed, to 

 my knowledge, and there are not bees 

 <-iiough kejjt in this county to gather 

 a hundredth part of it. 



White clover is now to be found in 

 many places, but we have no old pas- 

 ture fields, as in the East. Some years 

 ago I bought a few pounds of white 

 clover seed, and scattered it in such 

 places as it would be likely to grow. I 

 did this for several years, and got a 

 few pounds of clover honey in 1886. It 

 <lid not yield any surplus in 1887, 

 (•wing to the drouth, but I think we 

 will soon get a good return for the 

 money invested. I was not as success- 

 ful with sweet clover, as it does not 

 get started along the roads at all. 



Various Honey-Plants. 



Motherwort promises to be the best 

 honey-plant of all. It commenced to 

 bloom on June 12, 1887, and the bees 

 M'orked on it until frost. The bees did 

 not leave it for linden. I found a few 

 ])lants two jears ago, and saved the 

 seed, and now have a half peck to sow 

 in the spring. 



For pollen I have never seen any- 

 thing equal to asparagus. Does it 

 yield an}" honej* ? Golden-rod has 

 ni-ver amounted to much as a honey- 

 plant here. The bees scarcely notice 

 tlie pleurisy-root, though there is 

 plenty of it. 



I tried the spider-plant, but I could 

 not get it to gi'ow, except from plants 

 raised in a hot-bed. The Simpson 

 honey-plant (figwort) soon runs out. 

 The Chapman honey-plant is not 

 hardy in this climate ; the first severe 

 freeze killed evei-y leaf, and the root 

 appeared to be dead before the middle 

 of November. 



motbs and Italian Bees. 



What has become of the bee-moth ? 

 i have not seen one for two years. 

 There was plenty of them before I had 

 the Italian bees. I have several hun- 

 dred surplus combs, and I have never 

 fumigated them, but hang them on 



nails driven in the rafters in the shop ; 

 but not a moth has appeared for the 

 last two years. 



I made, a solar wa.x-extractor that is 

 as near jjcrfection as I could wish. I 

 made it from the directions given by 

 Mr. Demaree, on page 501 of the 

 American Bee Jouknai. for 1886. 



Good Location lor Bee-Keei>lng. 



The bees apjiear to be wintering 

 very well with the mercur}- at 44° in 

 the cellar. The thermometer showed 

 only a variation of 3^ in the cellar dur- 

 ing the late blizzard. 



To any one seeking a location for an 

 apiary, I know of no better place than 

 this county. Land is cheap and good, 

 with ])lenty of raspberry and linden, 

 and as soon as clover is well started, 

 it will fill the time between them. 

 Good returns are sure to follow good 

 management. .Some of the best towns 

 in this region have scarcel}' a colony 

 of bees in them. But this is no climate 

 for " fence-corner bee-keepers." 



Alexandria,*© Minn., Jan. 20, 1888. 



CALIFORNIA. 



Keeping Bees on the High 

 mountains. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY G. W. COVER. 



After the advent of the honey-bee to 

 this State, the absconding swarms went 

 to the Sierras. In a few years they 

 were gathering nectarfrom the flowers 

 on every hillsitle, from the valley of 

 dates, figs and oranges, to the snow- 

 manteled summits of the Sierra Neva- 

 das ; awa}- among the lakes, at the ex- 

 treme limits of the timber belt, and in 

 the gorges and canyons, is the hum of 

 the busy bee heard. The writer has 

 frequently found them at work where 

 one could stand with one foot in a snow 

 bank, and the other in a bed of flowers, 

 in August. 



I commenced bee-keeping at an ele- 

 vation of about 4,000 feet above sea- 

 level. The bees swarmed and did 

 well. The mountains was still higher 

 on either side, as I was in the canyon 

 of the Yuba. The honey-flow is later 

 as one ascends. I thought that I would 

 move up a thousand feet higher, so the 

 bees could work down in the spring, 

 and they would have 1,000 or 2,000 

 feet above them later on. The trouble 

 is, I cannot get any swarms at this 

 elevation, something over 5,000 feet. 1 

 have been here about five years, and 

 have not had swarms enough to keep 

 up my stock. Bees swarm more below 

 me, at 3,000 feet, and under that they 

 swarm to excess, and all absconding 

 swarms invarial^ly go for the higher 

 mountains. 



The honey crop failed here for the 

 first time in 14 years ; there were no 

 swarms and no honey the past year. 

 Let us hear what has been the experi- 

 ence of other bee-keepers in regard to 

 elevation, and what effect it has had 

 upon swai-ming. I have tried box- 

 hives, and the bees would not swarm 

 from them. 



DownievilIe,5 Calif., Jan. 2, 1888. 



BEE-KEEPING-. 



Report of the Work and tlie 

 Results in the Apiary. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY J. M. YOUNG. 



In looking over the pages of the 

 American Bee Jouenal, I am glad to 

 note quite an improvement in the paper 

 since last year. It is undoubtedly the 

 best work published on apiculture. 

 Every bee-keeper should read it. 



Bees throughout this portion of the 

 State did fairly up to the close of the 

 basswood bloom, however only a fair 

 surplus was stored from that source. 

 Since that time only enough was ob- 

 tained by the bees to make a fair living 

 for them. I fear that a large number 

 of colonies will be lost in this count}', 

 from starvation, long before spring. 

 Apiaries that were well cared for dur- 

 ing the last summer, will come out all 

 right. 



My report for the season of 1887 is 

 far from being a good one, and is not 

 encouraging, by any means. From 76 

 colonies, spring count, upwards of 

 1,700 pounds of honey, including both 

 comb and extracted, ^Yas■ obtained ; 

 only about 20 colonies were worked 

 for extracted honej", with two sets of 

 combs. The remainder of the apiary 

 was worked for comb honey through- 

 out. 



I put into winter quarters 96 strong 

 colonies, with plenty of honey to last 

 them until honey comes again ; 75 col- 

 onies were jiacked in a summer-and- 

 winter ehaft' hive, with the upper story 

 filled with dry l,eaves and chaff. A 

 portion of the hives are now entirelj- 

 covered with snow ; the remainder of 

 the hives are about half-covered. Just 

 as long as it stays cold I have no feirs 

 about their wintering all right. I am 

 not going to disturb them until the 

 weather begins to get warmer, ami the 

 snow begins to melt. 



One or two days the last week the 

 mercury was as low as 25° below zero ; 

 the average temperature for the week 

 being at zero. With this temperature 

 of the weather very long, I i)resume 

 that bees wintered in single-walled 

 hives will suffer badly. 



Kock Blufts,(x Nebv., Jau, 18, 1888. 



