December, 191 1. 



American IBec JoarnaJTI 



be contained apparatus for converting the 

 "virtuous sweets' which it collects into 

 one kind of nourishment for itself, another 

 for the common brood, a third for the royal 

 princesses, glue for its carpentry, wax for 

 its honey-comb cells, poison subtle for its 

 enemies, honey for its master, with a pro- 

 boscis almost as long as the body itself, 

 microscopic in its several parts, telescopic 

 in its mode of action, with a sting so infin- 

 itely sharp that, were it magnified by the 

 same glass which makes a needle's point 

 seem a quarter of an inch, it would yet be 

 invisible, and this. too. a hollow tube, that 

 all these varied operations and contrivances 

 should be enclosed within half an inch of 

 length and two grains of matter, while in 

 the same 'small room ' the ' large heart' of 

 at least 3odistinct instincts is contained, is 

 surely enough to crush all thoughts of athe- 

 ism and materialism, without calling in the 

 aid of 12 heavy volumes of ' Bridgewater 

 Treatises.'" 



Beeswax Importations for 1910 were 

 as follows : 



Pounds. Dollars. 



British India 27.024 7.817 



Cuba Soi.SM I47,48q 



France 773 103 



Germany 150,324 50.129 



Haiti 37.744 10.S82 



Italy 71.641 21.438 



Mexico 37.000 8.063 



Netherlands 21.183 6.581 



Santo Domingo 83.273 21.586 



Other countries 30.850 0.027 



Total 072.145 282.005 



The above amount is not far from 

 1,000,000 pounds of beeswax, and, in 

 value, a little over a quarter of a million 

 dollars, which would make it about 30 

 cents per pound. It seems that it might 

 be a good thing if bee-keepers in this 

 country would pay a little more atten- 

 tion to the production of beeswax, and 

 thus supply the demand themselves 

 here in the United States. 



The Illinois State Convention met at 



Springfield, Nov. 23 and .34 — last month 

 It was fairly well attended, and was a 

 good meeting throughout. The pro- 

 ceedings will be published in book 

 form early next year, when each of the 

 over 300 members of the Association 

 will receive a copy. It will also con- 

 tain a full report of the Chicago-North- 

 western convention which met in Chi- 

 cago the 6th and 7th of this month. 



The officers of the Illinois State As- 

 sociation for the ensuing year are: 

 President, C. P. Dadant, of Hamilton ; 

 1st Vice-President, E. J. Baxter, of 

 Nauvoo ; 2d Vice-President, J. E. Pyles, 

 of Putnam ; 3d Vice-President, W, B. 

 Moore, of Altona; 4th Vice-President, 

 A. Coppin, of Wenona; .5th Vice-Presi- 

 dent, Louis Werner, of Edwardsville; 

 Secretary, Jas. A. Stone, Rt. 4, Spring- 

 field ; and Treasurer, Chas. Becker, of 

 Pleasant Plains. 



The Missouri Convention. — The offi- 

 cers elected at the annual meeting of 

 the Missouri State Bee-Keepers'Asso- 

 ciation, held at Electric Park, Kansas 

 City, Mo., Sept. 2(5 and 27, 1911, were as 

 follows : President, J. W. Rouse, of 

 Mexico, Mo.; Vice-President, Irving 

 E. Long, of Marceline; and Secretary- 

 Treasurer, J. F. Diemer, of Liberty, 

 Mo. 



Members who are in arrears can send 

 dues to the secretary. Missouri bee- 

 keepers who are not members should 

 join the association for their own good. 

 One dollar pays for membership in 

 both State and National associations. 

 J. F. Diemer, Sec. 



The Colorado Convention The Colo- 

 rado State Bee-Keepers' Association 

 will hold its convention Dec. 12 and 

 13, 1911, at the Auditorium Hotel. 14th 

 and Stout Sts.. Denver, Colo. There 

 will be a rate of one fare for the round 

 trip, good from Dec. 8 to 15. (The 

 American National Live Stock Asso- 

 ciation meets at the same dates, so 

 those interested may attend both con- 

 ventions.) There will be sessions de- 

 voted to freight-rates, foul brood, grad- 

 ing honey, selling, etc. This conven- 

 tion will be one of discussion rather 

 than set speeches or papers prepared 

 in advance. The Auditorium Hotel 

 has placed its Convention Hall, seating 

 17-5, at our disposal. 



Wesley Foster, Sec. 



Boulder, Colo. 



the State Capitol Building, at Trenton, 

 N. J., Saturday, Dec. 23, 1911. The 

 morning session at 10 a.m. will be de- 

 voted to the annual reports of officers, 

 election of officers, and other business. 

 We hope to have a large attendance of 

 progressive bee-keepers from other 

 States as well as New Jersey. This be- 

 ing the first year of apiary inspection 

 work in this State, we expect an inter- 

 esting report from our State inspector. 

 A fuller program will be sent on appli- 

 cation to the secretary, A. G. Hann, of 

 of Pittstown, N. J. 



J. H. M. Cook, Pres. 



The Chicago-Northwestern Convention 



for this year is held too near the date 

 of mailing this number of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal for us to say anything 

 about the meeting. Next month we 

 expect to report on it at least briefly. 

 It was expected that a number of promi- 

 nent bee-keepers of the central part of 

 this country would be in attendance, 

 which of itself would insure a good 

 meeting. 



■•^ 



New Jersey Convention The annual 



meeting of the New Jersey State Bee- 

 Keepers' Association will be held in 



" The A B C of Potato Culture" is the 



name of a book of nearly 400 pages, 

 with 40 illustrations, and devoted en- 

 tirely to the growing of potatoes. It is 

 written by T. B. Terry and A. I. Root, 

 and tells how to grow successfully one 

 of the greatest money-making crops. 

 In fact, a careful study of this potato- 

 book will help you in growing almost 

 atiy kind of farm crop. Every farmer, 

 wliether large or small, ought to have 

 a copy of it. The postpaid price of this 

 book, bound in paper, is 57 cents; 

 bound in cloth, 85 cents. We club the 

 paper-bound edition with the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal for one year — both for 

 $1.40; or the cloth-bound book with the 

 American Bee Journal one year — both 

 for $1.60. Address all orders to the 

 office of the American Bee Journal. 



Bee-I^eping <^ For Women 



Conducted bv Miss Emma M. Wilson, Marengo. 111. 



Wintering Weak Colonies of Bees 



Every fall when the time came to beiiin to 

 get bees ready for winter, it was my practise 

 to examine all the hives in order to deter- 

 mine if they had sufficient winter stores 

 and were strong enough in beesto go through 

 the winter. If I found a weak colony it was 

 united with some other weak one or with a 

 near-by hive, as advised in my bee-books and 

 journals. 



But now I no longer follow the old guide- 

 posts in this respect so closely. Indeed. I 

 united a few weak colonies. If I have any I 

 try to winter them, for I think queens too 

 valuable to lose, as one surely would be, if 

 united with another colony. 



The fact that a colony is weak or does not 

 come up to the average either in the amount 

 of brood reared or honey produced, is not 

 always a sign that the bees are inferior, or 

 that the queen is a poor one. "There are 

 many agencies at work to hamper a weak 

 colony or nucleus, and retard its growth. 

 The weakness may be due to a dearth of 

 honey or pollen at a critical time, or to a 

 scarcity of nurse-bees or insufficient bees to 

 cover brood and eggs; or. there may be too 

 much ventilation, a draft through the hive, 

 mice. ants, or something else may have pre- 

 vented normal growth and development. 



Another season may find the harmful in- 

 fluence, whatever it was. removed, and the 

 colony often becomes strong and prosperous, 

 storing a large amount of honey, and may 

 even be the best in the yard. 



One season is not sufficient to determine 

 the value of a queen. Of course, if we know 

 her to be an old queen that has done poorly 

 the season before.it would be best to de- 

 stroy her and unite her beesto some other 

 colony. Also, if the weak colony has a small, 

 dark and runty-looking queen she should be 

 destroyed. But I think it pays to keep all 

 colonies having young, vigorous • looking 

 queens even if they are weak. I would give 



such queens another chance the next sea- 

 son. They're very apt to " make good." 



I consider all weak colonies having young 

 queens as nuclei, and prepare them for win- 

 tering in one of three ways, using the one 

 which seems most convenient. If it is fairly 

 strong, though not strong enough to winter 

 alone. I place it on the nearest hive with its 

 entrance turned in the opposite direction 

 from the lower one. A good many bees will 

 not find their new entrance now. and will 

 join the lower colony, thus making the weak 

 colony still weaker; therefore. I reduce the 

 entrance so that only one or two bees can 

 Passat a time, and remove all but two or 

 three of the heaviest frames, placing divi- 

 sion-boards at each side and filling the 

 empty space with planer shavings. 



But if very weak I raise up the hive by 

 putting an empty body or box under it. 

 Then, at my next visit the bees have become 

 accustomed to their elevated entrance, and 

 can be put on top of their neighbor colony. 

 In this case I do not change the location of 

 the entrance. 



If I have 2 weak colonies or nuclei close 

 together. I crowd them into a single hive- 

 body with a tight fitting division-board be- 

 tween them, cutting off all communication 

 both above and below the frames. Or, it 

 the weak colonies or nuclei are too strong to 

 crowd into one body, I shove one of them 

 backward on its bottom-board until there is 

 an opening in the back. Then I place an 

 excluder on it and put the brood-chamber 

 with the bees to be united on top of this. 

 Now I fasten all the parts— cover, two 

 brood-chambers and bottom-board together 

 with crate-staples, so they can not move or 

 come apart, and then lip the whole thing on 

 end backwards so that the opening at the 

 back now becomes the hive-entrance, and 

 close up their former entrance witli grass or 

 a piece of lath. 



The object in tipping the hive on end is to 

 enable the queen from the lower chamber 



