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THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



Field Notes From Iowa 



By J. AV. STINE, Salem, Deputy Inspector for Iowa 



Some colonies in southeastern 

 Iowa made preparations for swarm- 

 ing the latter part of April. I had 

 20 colonies to start with nearly 

 one-half of these were making pre- 

 paration for swarming the 1st week 

 in May. The dandelion and fruit 

 blocm starting so early gave the 

 bees a fine chance to build up 

 strong early. Some supers were put 

 on the latter part of April. This is 

 the earliest I ever knew them to 

 be ready for the supers. There will 

 probably be quite a little fruit 

 bloom surplus honey if the weath- 

 er is favorable through May. 



I find my select tested Italian 

 queen purchased from Mr. Dadant 

 last season far surpasses my barn- 

 eolean queen in every point. She 

 was built up in bees the last of 

 April, so I put the supers on her 

 hive and am raising some fine 

 queens from her this season. I al- 



so find the Italians are more gen- 

 tle. 



The field meeting which is plan- 

 ned to be held in Mt. Pleasant 

 July the 28 promises to be a meet- 

 ing of great interest. It is expected 

 we will have several bee-keepers 

 from Illinois and Missouri present. 

 All the men who have been assign- 

 ed subjects have said they would 

 be present. The program and more 

 of the particulars will occur in the 

 July number. 



We have found that the localities 

 visited last year in the inspection 

 work comparatively free from dis- 

 ease. 



We would be glad if there 

 would be any of the bee-keepers of 

 Iowa having experiences or new 

 plans of general interest to bee- 

 keepers if they would sand them 

 into this department. 



Field Notes From Tennessee 



J. >I. BUCHANAN, Franklin, Tenn. 



One hundred colonies were win- 

 tered in two-story hives with the 

 excluders removed, and I don't 

 think I ever saw bees breed up 

 faster in the spring. By the 

 last of April some of the hives had 

 as many as 15 frames fairly well 

 filled with brood. There has been 

 plenty cf pollen all spring, and good 

 weather during fruit bloom. We 

 usually winter in one story, but 

 last fall there was a heavy aster 

 flow, and this honey not being first 

 class for market, was left on the 

 hives, each colony in the yard hav- 

 ing from ten to forty pounds in 

 partly filled frames in the super, in 

 addition to the usual supply in the 

 brood chamber.. The result has 

 been more than satisfactory and I 

 am wondering how much the one- 

 brood chamber man loses, especially 

 if he uses only eight frames. Of 

 course what was left of this dark 

 honey was removed before the 

 white honey flow. 



We are not expecting a very 

 heavy flow from clover this season, 

 as much of the clover that would 

 have bloomed this summer was kill- 

 ed by the drouth last year, some 

 localities having none at all left. 

 Black locust is beginning to bloom 

 (May 8th) and bids fair to yield 

 well. There is very little basswood 

 left now, and we don't count much 

 on that. Sourwood will yield well 

 on the uplands, and the cotton 

 bloom will depend on the weather 

 during June and July. 



I wonder what the average time 

 is for nailing and wiring frames. It 

 takes about the same time to put 

 in the wires as to nail the frame. 

 Using standard Hoffman frames, 

 and wires four times across, my 

 assistant nailing and I wiring, we 

 have been finishing fifty frames 

 per hour. We have a wiring board 

 with a form for holding the frame, 

 and spools at the ends for the 

 wire to run around; the spool of 



