1919 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



63 



A Prolific Colony of Blacks 



About the 25th of May I bought a 

 colony of bees that were pure blacks. 

 They were in an old hive about ready 

 to tumble down, on home-made 

 frames an inch shorter than the 

 standard, and so solid that they 

 could not be moved without tearing 

 the hive to pieces. The bees were 

 very strong and about ready to 

 swarm. I took off one side of the 

 hive and loosened the frames, which 

 were well filled with sealed brood 

 and honey. The old queen was killed 

 and the brood divided in two parts 

 and placed in two hives, each divis- 

 ion being given an Italian queen. 

 This was just at the beginning of 

 dandelion. After the new queens had 

 been laying about two weeks the 

 brood was raised above an excluder 

 in each case and the queens placed 

 below with full sets of drawn combs. 

 I extracted during the summer 295 

 pounds of alsike honey, and in the 

 fall 80 pounds of aster honey from 

 the two. 



The queens kept the lower hive 

 bodies full of brood all summer and 

 the middle of August I took off the 

 second stories of brood and made 

 two swarms from each by giving 

 queens. I now have six strong colo- 

 nies with at least 40 pounds of honey 

 in each hive, besides nearly four hun- 

 dred pounds of surplus, all from one 

 black colony bought at the beginning 

 of the season. 



My apiary averaged about 100 

 pounds per colony. 



A. H. FAIRCHILD, 

 Bruno, Mich. 



Nebraska Locations 



An Illinois reader writes to en- 

 quire about locations in Nebraska. 

 Where sweet clover is well estab- 

 lished, Nebraska offers some attrac- 

 tive openings. In the eastern part of 

 the State there are many places 

 where white and alsike clover are 

 grown extensively by the farmers. 

 In some counties sweet clover is- also 

 grown as a field crop. In such a 

 neighborhood, where all clovers are 

 present, the beekeeper has a favora- 

 ble situation. Add to these the 

 heartsease and other fall flowers to 

 be found along the streams and fail- 

 ure is seldom reported. Sweet clo- 

 ver seems to reach its highest devel- 

 opment in nectar secretion in Ne- 

 braska and surrounding States. It is 

 important that a location be selected 

 where the acreage of sweet clover 

 and other plants is large enough to 

 insure success. 



Winter and Bees 



There seems to be quite a differ- 

 ence of opinions regarding wintering 

 bees. I well remember reading what 

 our late lamented friend, Doolittle, 

 did by suspending a colony all win- 

 ter, without bottom or top, and how 

 well it came through the winter in 

 his latitude. That reminds me of 

 what I saw last winter in West 

 Texas. A party of- us were deer 

 hunting in December and while 

 traversing one of those mountain 

 ranges I discovered a small colony of 

 bees in a box, which had been placed 



on the stump of the tree they had 

 been taken from. The box had near- 

 ly fallen to pieces with age and the 

 weight of a heavy limestone rock for 

 a cover. My curiosity prompted me 

 to look in, as it was in an exposed 

 place and the mercury close to the 

 bottom. I lifted off the rock and in- 

 stantly several infuriated bees came 

 out and ran my companion away; 

 but the sight that greeted my eyes 

 made my mouth water, and I imme- 

 diately got out my knife and sliced 

 off a large piece of white comb 

 honey. The cluster was in view and 

 appeared full of life as they gradu- 

 ally loosened up around the bounti- 

 ful supply they had on hand. At 

 that time, in Austin, the weather was 

 barely freezing and my honey had 

 all granulated and away up on that 

 cold mountain top was that colony of 

 bees in first-class condition and the 

 honey not candied. I was about 

 converted to the idea of a good hive 

 and it full of honey. 



WALTER W. DURHAM, 

 Austin, Texas. 



CLASSIFIED DEPARTMENT. 



Advertisements in this department will be 

 inserted at 15 cents per line, with no discounts 

 of any kind. Notices here cannot be less than 

 two lines. If wanted in this department, you 

 must say so when ordering. 



Tobacco Honey 



We are in a location where hun- 

 dreds of acres of tobacco are raised 

 every year. I have taken bees and 

 placed them near the fields and they 

 will store some honey from the plant 

 some years. It is very dark, much 

 like buckwheat in color, strong and 

 very heavy body. Buckwheat is not 

 my favorite honey, but I can eat it. 

 Tobacco honey I cannot. It is very 

 slow to granulate, and I have never 

 seen it harden as other honeys will, 

 even when well ripened and two 

 vears old. 



W. K. ROCKWELL, 

 Bloomfield, Conn. 



The Wisconsin Meeting 



The annual meeting of the Wiscon- 

 sin Beekeepers' Association was held 

 on December 5 and 6, at Madison, 

 Wis., with five affiliated county 

 branches participating. 



Papers were read by Walter Dieh- 

 neld, J. D. Millar. H. L. McMurrv. 

 A. C. F. Bartz, C. W. Aeppler, N. E. 

 France, J. A. Warren, H. F. Wilson, 

 Jim Cherf and C. P. Norgard. 



Action was taken towards request- 

 ing some changes in the Wisconsin 

 foulbrood law. 



Officers elected for 1919 were as 

 follows : 



President — Gus Dittmer. 



Vice President — Rev. J. E. Cook. 



Secretary — H. F. Wilson. 



Treasurer— A. C. Allen. 



Poison Ivy Again 



In the December number of the 

 American Bee Journal Dr. Bonney 

 gives a prescription for poison ivy. 

 In the case of my own family the 

 following effected a cure of a bad 

 case in 24 hours : 



Take a hot flat-iron, just as hot as 

 can possibly be borne, and apply to 

 every bit of the affected portion. It 

 must be applied to the bare skin, and 

 no portion of the skin affected must 

 be missed. Iron as you would 

 clothes. A. T. COPELAND, 



Olalla, Wash. 



FOR SALE — S-frame nuclei with young un- 

 tested Italian queen introduced, to be de- 

 livered after May 1; safe arrival guaranteed; 

 one-third with order, balance first of April; 

 $5 each. Irish Bros.. Doctortown, Ga. 



FOR SALE — Leather-colored Italian queens, 

 tested, to Tune 1, $2; after $1.50; untested, 

 SI; $10 per dozen. A. W. Yates, 



15 Chapman St., Hartford, Conn. 



GOLDEN ITALIAN QUEENS and bees; 

 honey-getters, prolific and gentle. Bees by 

 the pound. Write for prices. 



J. W. Rice, Box 64, Fort Smith, Ark. 



FOR SALE — 30 hives of black bees in S and 

 10-frame hives, new and painted; for bulk 

 honey. $0.50 per hive. 



J. T. Collins, Ludowici, Ga. 



WANTED — 100 2-pound packages leather-col- 

 ored bees; untested queen in each package. 

 Make me an offer. Walter Anderson, 



R. 2, Box 36, Eau Claire, Wis. 



GOLDENS that are true to name. Untested 

 queens, $1; 6, $5; 12, $9; 50, $35; 100, 

 $67.50. Garden City Apiaries, 



San Jose, Calif. 



BEES AND QUEENS from my New Jersey 



apiary. J. H. M. Cook, 



lAtf 84 Cortland St., New York City. 



FOR SALE — Pure 3-banded Italian queens, as 

 good as you can buy with money, from 

 June 1 to September 1. 



J. F. Diemer, Liberty, Mo. 



FOR SALE— From 1 to 100 strong colonier 

 extra fine strain Italian bees, with winter 

 stores; select tested queens in 1-story S-frame 

 single-wall hive, standard full depth self- 

 spaced Hoffman frames; nearly all wired. If 

 sold before January 1, $S each; same colonies 

 on frames without hives, «6 per colony. The 

 bees are free from disease. F. o. b. here. 

 Wilmer Clark, Earlville. Mad. Co.. N. Y. 



FOR SALE— 3-banded Italian bees for sale n 

 lib. packages, S-lb. packages with queens; bees 

 that produced for N. A. Kimery, of Liberty, 

 N. C ; $2,000 worth of red clover seed, first 

 crop. The M. C. Silsbee Co., Avoca, N. Y., 

 says: "Bees purchased of you last season pro- 

 duced better than $50 worth of honey per 

 colony, 1918 crop." We refer you to above 

 named parties regarding this statement. We 

 breed strictly for honey-gathering qualities 

 and beauty; last, but not least, for hardi- 

 ness. We try to please our customers. Give 

 your needs in first letter. 



H. B. Murray. Liberty, N. C. 



QUEENS — Bees by the pound, 3-banded and 

 Golden Italians. The best of either. Tbey 

 are hustlers, gentle, cap their honey white, are 

 very resistent to European foulbrood. Now 

 that peace has been declared, our boys will be 

 home for service. We believe the express 

 companies will be able to deliver promptly. So 

 we are also quoting prices by express. Book- 

 ing orders now, one-fourth down, balance at 

 shipping time. By parcel post, prepaid, one 1- 

 pound package, $2.90; 2-pound, $5; 3-pound, 

 $7 By express, f. o. b. here, one 1-pound 

 package, $2.40, 2-pound, $4.25; 3-pound, $6.25. 

 Select untested queens, $1.50 each; tested, 

 $2.50; select tested, $3 each; 10 per cent dis- 

 count on orders amounting to 26 packages or 

 more. Add price of queen wanted. Send for 

 free circular giving details. 

 Nueces County Apiaries, Calallen, Texas. 



E. B. Ault, Prop. 



