268 



THE BEE-KEEPER'S REVIEW 



did not know — and some of them acknow- 

 ledged experts — pronounced it good white 

 clover honey, until Mr. Townsend in- 

 formed us it was raspberry honey." 



This same sample referred to was 

 gathered at this yard we are now talking 

 about, and it is a fair sample of all the 

 honey gathered in the northern part of 

 Michigan, where the soil is a light sandy 

 loam. There is an impression among 

 some that raspberry honey is of an amber 

 color; this is not so, at least not as it ap- 

 plies to the wild red-raspberry grown on 

 the sandy loam of Northern Michigan. 



Years ago, when the country was new 

 in Clinton and Gratiot counties, on that 

 rich clay soil, the wild jed-raspberry 

 honey was of a amber color, although the 

 flavor was very good. That was long ago, 

 and this part of the State is now all cleared 

 and made into farms, and there is no 

 raspberry honey produced in Michigan to- 

 day that isn't white. 



don't spend time in the fall hunting for 

 queenless colonies. 



k. was the first week of April. 1906, 

 when I arrived at this yard and began 

 taking the bees from the clamps. There 

 were 198 colonies the fall previous; and 

 when we took them out there was the 

 usual quota of queenless colonies; six, 1 

 think, that were dead. These six, with 

 several other queenless colonies, had we 

 looked them over the previous fall, would 

 not have been put into winter quarters at 

 all. But this is our practice; rather than 

 go to the trouble of looking through the 

 yard for queenless colonies, we put them 

 all into winter quarters thinking this is 

 the most profitable way. 



When the honey season opened in June, 

 we had 168 colonies with which to com- 

 mence the season. This is a shrinkdge of 

 about 15 per cent; all normal colonies 

 wintering in fine shape; this shrinkage 

 being wholly on account of queenless col- 

 onies. This is the largest per cent, of 

 loss we ever had, that we could attribute 

 wholly to queenless colonies. This we 

 think was caused to a considerable ex- 



tent, by there not being any land marks 

 in this yard, so the returning queens in the 

 old colonies that swarmed, missed their 

 location and entered the wrong hives. 



After papering these colonies, I started 

 for home, being at this yard six days, in- 

 cluding two days I spent at the Northern 

 Michigan Convention. 



May 9th, my oldest son, Delbert, and 

 myself arrived at the yard; this being my 

 second trip, and Delbert will stay all 

 through the season, getting home in time 

 to commence school Sept. 1st. Previous 

 to going, we had shipped all the needed 

 supplies for this yard, and they were 

 there when we arrived. This shipment 

 consisted of our sections and foundation, 

 also 50 additional upper stories and the 

 necessary 400 frames and foundation. 

 These bodies had to be nailed and painted, 

 frames nailed and wired, then full sheets 

 of foundation put in. Then, after clean- 

 ing the supers, fence-separators and slats, 

 we were ready to commence setting up 

 sections and putting in foundation; yes, 

 and there was the item of 500 comb 

 honey super frames that we nailed and 

 wired, and put foundation in, in connec- 

 tion with the above work. It is sufficient 

 to say, twelve busy days were consumed 

 before I left for home May 21st; then 

 there was a plenty left for Delbert to do, 

 inasmuch as the honey season was (we 

 thought) only three weeks off. 



PRODUCING both comb AND EXTRACTED 



HONEY IN THE SAME APIARY AND 



SAME HIVE. 



This yard consists of 84 colonies in 10- 

 frame Langstroth hives that were worked 

 for comb and extracted honey. Aside 

 from some one being in the yard all the 

 time, this extracted portion was worked 

 the same as all our other yards were 

 worked for extracted honey. 



The two kinds of hives wintered about 

 the same; if there was any difference 

 'twas in favor of the extracted portion; 

 these colonies not swarming to amount to 

 much th3 previous ssason, thair brood- 

 nests might have bsen in a little better 



