OURLetter BoxREPORTS PROSPECTS &c
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The "Bee Journal" a Great Help.
There is so much valuable information in theBee Journalthat I cannot afford to destroy them, but will bind them and keep them as a book of reference. Really, I don't see how I could do without theBee Journal, or some other bee-paper that would come up to its standard. Last year I produced 1,500 pounds of comb honey, while in former years I never got over 400 pounds. Of course the extra flow last year accounts for much of my better success, but I also attribute very much of it to the "Old Reliable."
Myself and son have now 55 colonies in winter quarters, all apparently doing well except one colony that I think is queenless. Our success last year would have been much greater had the dry weather not cut the basswood flow short.
A. H. Snowberger.
Huntington, Ind., Jan. 5, 1894.
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Had Plenty of Good Flights.
I had 5 colonies, spring count, and increased to 11. They did very well the forepart of the season, but it was too dry to grow buckwheat, or any other honey-plant. The bees went into winter quarters in good condition, and are all right up to date. They have had plenty of good flights so far, but the worst is to come yet. In the spring, if the weather stays warm, they consume more than when it is cold. Bees were rather scarce last spring.
W. F. Rinck.
West Alexandria, O., Jan. 1, 1894.
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A Good Report—Bee Management.
My 18 colonies of bees came through the winter in good condition last spring. They gave me a surplus of 2,000 pounds of white and sweet clover honey, 1,400 pounds of extracted, and 600 pounds of comb honey. The former sold here at $1.00 a gallon, and the latter at 13 cents a pound. I run 5 colonies a different way for extracted honey, and those 5 gave a surplus of 800 pounds. It was done as follows:
I watch until they prepare to swarm, and the honey-flow is close. I take out all frames from the brood-chamber, except the one the queen is on, which I put in the center, and fill the chamber with new frames of full sheets of comb foundation. I then take a full sheet of Root's perforated zinc, with ¼-inch bee-space between the frames and zinc, and put it over the brood-chamber. I then put a chamber on top of the zinc, and put the frames with the bees and brood in this top chamber, and cover it up. Now I have a laying queen and lots of room for brood below, and as fast as the brood hatches above, they fill it with honey if the flow is here. It was here this year, for they filled the top chamber, after the first extracting, in four days—6 frames two-thirds capped.
My increase is from 18 to 25 colonies, which are in double-walled hives, and in as good condition for winter as I ever had them.
Henry Bohlmann.
Defiance, O., Jan. 1, 1894.
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Uses of Perforated Zinc.
In reading the short item by Mrs. Jennie Atchley, in regard to the different uses of Dr. Tinker's perforated zinc, I thought I would add a little of my experience to those already given.
1st. In hiving young swarms, I have found it to be excellent to place over the entrance to keep them from leaving or returning to the home hive.
2nd. When four or six swarms issue at the same time, and cluster together, I have found it to be of the greatest value to me. I look the bees over, find my queens, and place them in separate hives, and put on the zinc over the entrance; then I take a large dipper and dip the bees from the place where they alighted, putting them in front of the different hives, when the bees will separate, each swarm going into its own hive.
In using the zinc, some might misunderstand me. I only leave the zinc on the entrance from two to four days; if the queens are young, I only leave it on two days, so as to give them a flight. With old queens I leave it on longer.
Andrew M. Thompson.
Canaseraga, N. Y.
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Something from Central California.
Being a Californian, and having not as yet crossed the State line, it is with great pleasure that I read the reports from other States or localities throughout the United States. I was pleased to see in theBee Journala report from Kern county—a county joining Tulare county on the south—of my neighbor realizing nearly 300 pounds per colony. Now I have reasons to believe that bees will produce a great deal of honey per colony in Kern county, as I own a small ranch containing 685 acres down there, and am quite familiar with the country. We have the largest alfalfa fields in the world in Kern county, Calif. We have a man in Kern county who owns in one body almost 1,000,000 acres of land.
I have seen the time that all the countiesin the San Joaquin valley, consisting of Kern, Tulare, Kings, Fresno, Modara, Merced, and Modesto—all were joined in large tracts, and had their herds after herds of bellowing cattle roaming over its one level plain, as the San Joaquin valley is level, not one elevation 50 feet high in a valley that is 75×200 miles in size.
Our Senator, Tom Fowler, who owned cattle all along the coast from San Francisco to Los Angeles, used to say: "I own the cattle that roam on a thousand hills." I am the same old 76. Tom and all of his bellowing herds are no more. The "76 ranch," which is located in Tulare county, was Tom's head-quarters. It has been cut up into small farms, all the way from 20 up to 2,000 acres, and there are thousands of happy and beautiful homes, school houses, churches and towns, instead of the mustang and its master.
Our part of the State is not generally known, as this is central California, and the cities north and south try to claim us as theirs.
Fred M. Hart.
Traver, Calif.
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A Little Experience with Bees.
Bee-keeping has about "gone to seed" in this part of the country. If a person undertakes to keep bees on modern principles, he is considered a crank. They think "pa" knew it all. "Pa" kept 15 or 20 colonies, and would get 20 or 25 pounds of honey from one colony. "Pa" would take care of his bees; he would put little blocks or nails under each corner of the hive, and then moths would not bother them!
I have read Quinby's book, "A B C of Bee-Culture,"Gleaningsfor two years, theBee Journalfor one year, also "Bees and Honey," and with my practical experience, I feel that I am just beginning to learn my A B C's.
My experience is not very extensive. I ran one colony this year for increase, and made 10 colonies from it, and they only cast one natural swarm. I got the idea of artificial increase from "Bees and Honey." That alone has been worth ten times the price of theBee Journalto me. Those 10 colonies of bees could not be bought for $20. People will say "times are too hard—I can't spare the money."
I can't close without telling how much I enjoy "In Sunny Southland." That alone is worth the price of the paper. Long live theAmerican Bee Journal!
C. L. Doyle.
Fayette Corners, Tenn.
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Half a Crop—Golden Italians, Etc.
The common verdict regarding the honey season in this locality is but half a crop. A cold, wet and late spring left the colonies in such a weak condition, that were they not stimulated, they would have been in no condition at all when the honey-flow came. We had a splendid flow from honey-locust, although there were such high winds and continual rains during the bloom, that the bees could work scarcely a day at a time.
Right here I want to say one good thing for those golden 5-banded Italians, which race almost every one wishes to condemn. They were working almost every day, while the others did not dare venture out. This shows them to be very strong on the wing, but as to their superiority as everyday honey-gatherers, over the leather-colored variety, I am not prepared to say. For a hardy strain, long livers, and a business class of bees, give me uniformly marked leather-colored Italians, every time.
To return to our honey-resources: White clover was almost a total failure, as a severe drouth existed during the bloom, and it did not secrete much nectar. Smartweed was our main stand-by, with golden-rod a close second. They yield an excellent honey.
My style of marketing is three one-pound sections in a frame, for which I had no trouble in obtaining 60 cents. Extracted brings 12½ cents, although there is complaint of adulteration in our market.
Our bees are in fine condition for winter, and we have hopes for a better season next year.
J. C. Wallenmeyer.
Evansville, Ind., Dec. 17, 1893.
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Good Season in 1893, Etc.
A queer winter we are having thus far. The forepart of December was cold, the mercury reaching zero a number of times, with very little snow. The middle of December it warmed up, the snow all disappeared, and on the 22nd it was 70 degrees in the shade; on the 25th it was 60 degrees, and I let my bees have a flight. They were not as thick as in June.
The last season was a good one in this locality. I never saw white clover so thick before. We had a heavy wind and hail storm in buckwheat bloom, which was a complete stop to the buckwheat flow, which started in well. Golden-rod and asters did not yield much. There were a good many runaway swarms the past season, quite a number being found on the lake shore. I got four. The lake takes off one-half, or nearly that, of my pasture (being situated on the shore). We have about 8 inches of ice now, and have had very good ice-boating so far.
S. H. Eastwood.
Cicero Centre, N. Y., Jan. 8, 1894.
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Won't Winter on Sorghum.
On page 559, of theBee Journalfor 1893, there is an item concerning sorghum for wintering bees. Mrs. Atchley suggests that I try it and report, which I will do with pleasure.
I can only report failure. Mrs. Atchley reports that she could not get her bees to take hold of sorghum. I had 5 colonies which I fed on it last October, sufficient to carry them through the winter. They are now all dead but one colony, and that one is reduced in numbers to a mere handful ofbees. They all had plenty of sealed stores when they died, and fell down on the bottom-board. All of my other colonies are wintering well, that have honey stores.
Now, if Mrs. Atchley wants to try sorghum next winter, I think if she will go to some of her colonies of bees in warm, dry weather in October—some that have plenty of bees and not much honey—and raise the front end of the hive a little higher than the back, and pour in the pure sorghum just a little for one or two evenings, to get them started to eating it, then increase a little more, feeding every evening, I think in a week or so her bees will have plenty of sealed stores to last them through the winter—if they should live that long. But I don't think they would.
I don't wish Mrs. Atchley to feed her bees on sorghum, nor any one else, unless you want to lose your bees, for that you will do if they are fed on pure sorghum.
Some Northern bee-keepers may think there is a disease among my bees, but such is not the case. There never was any disease among bees in this country, that I know of.
N. E. Cleveland.
Decatur, Miss., Dec. 23, 1893.
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Getting Statistics on Bee-Culture.
I notice on page 743 of theBee Journalfor 1893, under heading of "Comb Honey in the United States," a request for all manufacturers of honey-sections to report all sales of sections to Dr. Miller, for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of honey produced, etc. That would be one way to guess at the amount, but I don't think it would be very much of a guess.
It appears to me that there is but one way to get at the amount of honey produced in the United States. Every assessor has a long list of questions provided on purpose to get at the statistics of the country. When these statistics are finally compiled, they are sent out all over the country, and we can see at a glance just how much wheat, oats, corn, etc., each State has produced the previous season. Now, I don't think it would require very much persuasion on the part of the bee-fraternity to secure the placing of two or three more questions on that list, viz.:
1. How many colonies of bees did you have, spring count, on June 1st, last year?
2. How many pounds of comb honey did you produce?
3. How many pounds of extracted honey?
This would bring out a full report of the amount of honey produced in the United States. It would also show the number of colonies of bees kept by the States.
C. H. Pond.
Kasson, Minn.
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Value of Bee Papers and Books.
There is little use trying to keep bees, either for pleasure or profit, without at least one live bee-paper to awaken interest and enthusiasm, and keep the apiarist abreast of the times. When we see an apiary that shows neatness, taste and prosperity, we need not be told that the owner or manager has access to bee papers and books; and when we find a bee-yard with hives huddled together regardless of order, distance or taste, with many of the colonies dead and dying, we are sure that the knowledge, skill and enterprise that come from the study of apiarian literature, have never reached that desolate and forlorn spot. Of course the bees are black, but no darker than much of the filthy comb and honey inside the hives. By neglect, much of the worker comb has become unfit for brood-rearing, and hence drones are reared in superabundance, and these deteriorated male bees fill the air for miles in all directions, to vitiate the pure blood of all well-kept apiaries.
But the intelligent, careful, painstaking apiarist will find encouragement in the assurance that all bees kept by such slipshod methods are doomed, and on the principle of "the survival of the fittest" must go, and the sooner the better for all concerned.
Bees in this section did well last season, and went into winter quarters in excellent condition. The recent warm spell gave them a fine airing (those on the summer stands), and now they should winter with but little loss.
S. S. Butts.
Wyalusing, Pa., Dec. 28, 1893.
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The Season of 1893, Etc.
I read theBee Journalwith much pleasure, for my bees are almost all the comfort that I have left, as I have no family now. My wife died last February. I have two daughters, but they were married years ago. I have a comfortable home, and enough of this world's goods to live on, but what matters that, when the ties of love are forever broken?
Well, the last season was not very good for the bee-man in this part of the State. The dry weather set in just as the basswood came into bloom, and cut it short. It was just a little cool for white clover, so our crop was short. I have always worked for comb honey, and for that reason I have never had very heavy returns.
My bees came out of the cellar in fair condition last spring. I put away 20 colonies, and lost 4 through my neglect (the breaking up of my family unnerved me for business). The bees increased to 30 colonies, which are now in the cellar, as that is my method of keeping them. They are heavy with winter stores, and so far are doing well. They were put in on Nov. 22nd.
I want to say a few words in favor of the yellow bee, as I have both. They stored nearly all the surplus. In a good season the blacks will do just as well, but when the crop is short, the yellow bees are the best for me.
I have sold 500 pounds of honey, and have 100 or more of uncapped honey left.
D. C. Wilson.
Viola, Iowa, Dec. 19, 1893.
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Great Premiumon page 101!
Transcriber's Notes.1. Silently corrected simple spelling, grammar, and typographical errors.2. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.
Transcriber's Notes.
1. Silently corrected simple spelling, grammar, and typographical errors.
2. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.