Tmm MMEMICMff BE® JOl^KKMIL,-. 



201 



ordered ten finished hives ; but when 

 they arrived, some of my coh)nies had 

 been swarming, and this made extra 

 labor to transfer the swarms from the 

 box-hives and nail-kegs into the new 

 Langstrotli hives. But it worked with 

 gi-eat satisfaction. 



This renewed my energies, and my 

 increase became more as year by year 

 passed. I always have kept my bees 

 in strong condition, wintered in a par- 

 titioned department under my dwell- 

 ing-house until the year 1883, when I 

 concluded to build a bee-house and 

 cellar. 



My location is on the westerly- banks 

 of the Mississippi river, about 12 miles 

 north of Burlington, in which honey 

 has such an extreme demand. Nature 

 has endowed my surroundings with 

 such an abundant of honey-plants of 

 every describable sort which grow in 

 the Mississippi Valley and its adjacent 

 rough bluff lands, and which give the 

 bees every advantage. 



The size of the cellar and house was 

 16x24 feet, made of frame, filled out 

 between the outer and inner wall sid- 

 ing with sawdust, in order to keep ex- 

 treme cold out of the cellar in winter. 

 It was cool in summer, and a kindling 

 fire would keep it comfortable in win- 

 ter for making and repairing apiarian 

 fixtures for the coming year. 



It consisted of a carpenter-room, 

 honey-room, and smoke-room. The 

 carpenter-room was 12x16 feet, and in 

 it tliere was a set of carpenter tools, a 

 circular saw, work bench, 69 honey- 

 racks filled with foundation, and comb, 

 all ready for the coming harvest ; 12 

 empty hone3--crates of 24 pounds each, 

 and 10 empty honey-crates of 48 

 pounds each. 



The honej-room was filled with in- 

 numerable articles used in an apiary, 

 $35 worth of Dadant's comb founda- 

 tion, a roll of perforated zinc, brood- 

 combs to fill 20 hives, etc. 



The garret contained 2,000 one- 

 pound sections, and 1,000 two-pound 

 sections, and 62 newly-nailed Lang- 

 stroth hives. In the smoke-room had 

 been placed our meats a few weeks 

 ago, for smoking it in the near future. 

 The bee-cellar liad an 18 inch wall 

 with a small, opaque window in each 

 side, and end of it. The bottom was 

 well cemented, with a chimney base in 

 the centre, and a hole to carry ofi' the 

 damp air from the cellar. It was ven- 

 tilated with a 5-inch tile inserted in 

 the wall and extending 130 feet dis- 

 tant. The cellar contained 69 colonies 

 of Italian bees, and on the morning of 

 March 8, all was consumed by the 

 flames. 



In 1884 I had 101 colonies, but they 

 became reduced to 69 colonics, by the 

 gi'asshoppers tlie first year, anil drouth 

 the last two years. In 1887, although 



there was too much drouth for actual 

 comfort, we had aViout 200 pounds of 

 surplus comb honey, which sold at 16 

 cents per pound ; and 400 pounds of 

 extracted honey at 8 to 9 cents. 



All who keep a few colonies of bees 

 should also read the American Bee 

 Journal ; for if its instructions are 

 fully complied with, there is no excuse 

 for not becoming prosperous and suc- 

 cessful in bee-culture. 



Sperry, Iowa, March 14, 1888. 



BEE-KEEPINa. 



Keeping Bees in Missouri, and 

 Fastening Foundation. 



Written for the American Bee JourfLal 



BY H. L. TUCKER. 



I am 20 years old, and have. been in 

 the bee-business ever since I was old 

 enough to do anything. At Arrow 

 Rock, Mo., my father and I now have 

 86 colonies of bees, most of which be- 

 long to him ; 56 colonies are pure Ital- 

 ians, 10 are Syrians, or Syi'ians mixed 

 with Italians, and the rest are hybrids. 

 Our bees came through the winter of 

 1886-87 almost entirely without loss. 

 They were in splendid condition about 

 April 1, but after that they seemed to 

 build up veiy slowly. 



The spring was very dry. At length 

 the time for swarms and storing to be- 

 gin arrived, which is about May 25 in 

 this locality, but for some cause or 

 other white clover liad a very small 

 bloom, and only yielded honey enough 

 to keep up breeding. After this, I had 

 to feed some of the colonies, especially 

 the hybrids. 



Boneset yielded some honej' from 

 Aug. 25 to Sept. 5, and on Oct. 1, the 

 hybrids had an average of little over 5 

 pounds per colony, tlie Italian colonies 

 about 20 pounds, and the Syrians 

 about 35 pounds. 



In preparing them for winter, I 

 took one frame out of each hive, and 

 spread the rest apart,giving the widest 

 spaces to the centre frames. I use the 

 Simplicity hive. I aim to give an 

 average of 30 pounds per colony for 

 winter stores. I fed 500 pounds of 

 honey and 600 pounds of the best 

 granulated sugar, making the sugar 

 into syrup according to the " Heddon 

 plan." 



Our report for the season of 1886 is 

 as follows : On May 15 we had 62 

 colonies in good condition, increased 

 them to 88, by natural swarming, and 

 took about 5,900 pounds of extracted 

 honey, and 700 pounds of comb honey, 

 all from clover, and the bees stored 

 enough fall honey for winter. This 

 time, also, the Syrians were ahead, the 

 average stored by 6 colonies of Syrians 

 being at least 25 to 30 pounds ahead 



of the average stored by all the rest ; 

 they had the same opportunity, and 

 the same attention as the others. I 

 found them to be very cross and ill- 

 natured to handle, but, on the whole, 

 I think them worthy of attention, and 

 that their good qualities more than 

 counter-balance their bad ones. 



Fastenins Foundation in Sections. 



I see that nobody has as yet given a 

 plan for putting foundation in the sec- 

 tions as good as the one I use, so I will 

 explain it : 



I use one-pound sections, and full- 

 sized pieces of foundation. Make a 

 paddle 3i inches wide, and get a stand 

 or box about 30 inches high, and light 

 a lamp and place it on the floor near 

 the edge of the stand. Get a piece of 

 board the width of the sheets of foim- 

 dation, and place it on the stand, so 

 as to have one end extend out over the 

 lamp. Now all is ready to begin op- 

 perations. 



Place several pieces of foundation 

 on the board with the edges exactly 

 even (the edges of the foundation 

 must extend over the edge of the 

 board at least J inch) ; turn up the 

 light just right, dip the paddle in some 

 water, and commence plastering the 

 pieces of foundation in the sections. 

 One will soon become verj' expert at it 

 with a little practice, and it will not 

 take nearly as long to get at it, as it 

 does. to tell it. , 



I have tried all the methods in use 

 so far, and find that this excels them 

 all, because it is quickly done, and if 

 properly executed, the foundation 

 never falls out. 



I have been a constant reader of the 

 American Bee Journal for years, and 

 it has been a source of much delight 

 to me. I have derived much useful 

 information from it. I would like to 

 hear, through its columns, a discussion 

 of the bee-resources of the country, 

 especially of the South and Southwest. 



Nevada, Mo. 



BROOD-CHAMBERS. 



A Review of Dr. Tinker's Posi- 

 tion on Them. 



Writt^en for the American Bee Journal 



BY JAMES HEDDOX. 



On page 169, Dr. Tinker has re- 

 stated his position on the above topic. 

 The Doctor is a vei-y good writer, and 

 the spirit of his sentences is kind, but 

 his criticism of something he knows so 

 little al)out, seems very unwise. 



It is refreshing to know that the 

 Doctor feels so kindly toward me that 

 he would have lieen glad to promote 

 my interests by saying something good 

 of the sectional brood-chamber. 



