THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



267 



ions or other absorbpiits over the brood- 

 frames. 1 wish tliat those wliose bees were 

 put into winter quarters under all of tliese 

 conditions, wouki report as to tlie result, 

 and also where they were wintered ; also, 

 that all who have met with severe losses, 

 would report the extent of their losses, the 

 manner of wintering, the condition the 

 bees were in in the tall, and tlie Uinil of 

 stores that the bees had to winter on. If 

 all would report, stating; all the particu- 

 lars, it would be of benefit in arrivingat 

 the solution of this alliniportanl question. 

 My losses liave been e.xtremely heavy, 

 bavins; but 4 colonies left, and they are 

 rather weak ; still, 1 think tliat I can ac- 

 count for it all. Heretofore uiy losses 

 have been very light. My bees had all 

 the conditions 1 have mentioned, but dur- 

 ing last August and September they gath- 

 ered a quantity of hoiiey-dew which was 

 mostly stored in tlie centre of the brood- 

 frames, and which would be the first 

 stores consumed. If I could have ex- 

 tracted all the lioney-dew and fed sugar 

 syrup, as I ought to have done, I think 

 that my losses would have been compara- 

 tively liglit ; but owing to poor health and 

 lack of means to buy sugar, I could not do 

 so, and so I had to take my chances. 

 Upon examining my bees in the first week 

 of January, after the first thaw, they ap- 

 peared to be all right, showing no signs 

 of diarrhea, and but few dead be,es. 

 There was not another chance to ex- 

 amine them until March 1, when I found 

 39 dead colonies, which, I think, was 

 owing to its being so cold that they could 

 not move to get the honey, as there was 

 but little signs of diarrhea. The balance 

 of them seemed to be badly affected, and 

 dwindled very fast. I am satisfied that if 

 my bees had had good spring lioney or 

 sugar syrup, nearly all of them would 

 have survived the winter. They were 

 wintered on the summer stands, most of 

 the hives containing chaff cushions, and 

 passage-ways over the brood-frames, the 

 same as 1 have always winiered my bees. 

 They all left plenty of honey. My losses 

 are discouraging, but 1 am not discour- 

 aged. I have a nice lot of combs to build 

 up on, and a (luantity of nice honey to e.x- 

 tract. 

 • LigOBier,(^ Ind. 



Local Convention Directory. 



1885. Time and place of MeetinQ. 



May 2.— Central Illinois, at Jacksonville, 111. 



Wm. Canim, Sec. Murrayville, III. 

 May 4.— Linwood, Wis., at Kock Elm Centre, Wis. 



B. Thomson, Sec, W^averly. Wis. 

 May 5.— Western Michigan, at Fremont. Micli. 



F. S. Covey, Sec, Coopersville. Micli. 

 May 5.— W. New Vork and N. Pa., at Cuba, N. Y. 

 VV. A. Shewman, Sec, Kandolpb, N. Y. 

 May 5, 6.— Western Maine, at Mechanic. Falls, Me. 



F. D. Wellcome, Sec, Poland, Me. 

 May 7.— Progressive, at Bushnell, Ills. 



J. G. Norton, Sec. Macomb, Ills. 

 May, 7, 8.— Texas State, at McKinney. Tex. 



W. K. Howard, Sec, Kinfiston. Tex. 

 May 9.— Northern Ohio, at Norwalk, O. 



H. R. Boardman, Sec, E. Townsend, O. 

 May 12.— Keystone, at Scranton, Pa. 



A. A. Davis, Sec, Clark's Gre»n. Pa. 

 May 12.— Cortland Union, at Cortland, N. Y. 



W. H. Beach Sec, Cortland, N. Y. 

 May IS).— N. W. Ills., and 8. W. Wis., at Davis, Ills. 



Jonathan Stewart, Sec, Rock City, III. 

 May 2S.— Mahoning Valley, at Newton Falls, O. 



E. W. Turner, Sec, Newton Falls, O. 

 May 2H.— N. Mich. Picnic, near McBride, Mich. 



F. A. Palmer, Sec, McBride, Mich. 

 May 29.— Ilaldimand. Ont., at Nelles' Corners, Ont. 



BjC. Campbell, Sec 

 June 19.— Willamette Valley, at La Fayette, Greg. 

 E. J. Hadley. Sec^ 

 Dec. 8— 10.— Michigan State, at Detroit. Mich. 



H. D. Cutting, Sec, (Clinton, Mich. 



|y In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 Ime and place of future meetings.- Ed. 





OURL£ 



(lood Honey-Season Aiiticmated. — 



Katlian Davis, Wyckoff,c>+ Kans., on 

 April 20, 188.5, writes : 



Last spring I began witli 30 colonies of 

 bees, and during the season I increased 

 them to GO colonies by natural swarming. 

 I have not suffered as Iveavy a loss during 

 the past winter as some of the bee-keepers 

 in Kansas. I wintered my bees on the 

 summer stands. I have now 30 colonies 

 in good condition, the majority of the others 

 liaving died from starvation. Bees stored 

 no surplus honey last season. The pros- 

 pects never were better for a good honey 

 season than at present. There are 

 but few bees kept in this locality. Fruit 

 trees will be in bloom in a few days. I 

 have been sowing all kinds of clover ; the 

 melilot or sweet clover does splendidly 

 here, and it blooms when there is nothing 

 else for the bees to work on. I will try to 

 save a quantity of .seed from it the coming 

 season. 



Report, from R. B. Oldt, (100—98), 

 Ludington,K3 Mich., on April 15, 188.5: 



My bees had good flights on April 3 and 

 6, after a confinement of five months and 

 five days. They could have withstood 

 being confined for a month longer, as they 

 came out as clean and bright as they were 

 last fall when I put them in. I think that 

 if any close observing bee-keepers could 

 see my bees now, they would have no dif- 

 ficulty in settling the wintering problem. 

 I lost '2 colonies by starvation. Who can 

 beat that in 43° north latitude ? 



No Natnral Pollen Yet.— O. J. Hall, 



Union, p Mich., on April 18, 188.5, 

 says : 



Last fall I put 7.5 colonies of bees into 

 winter quarters, and I have lost 2 of them. 

 1 removed them from the cellar on Marcli 

 31 and April 1 ; some of them have 

 died since, some are weak, some are 

 medium, and some are strong. No nat- 

 ural pollen has been brought in yet. This 

 is my ninth season in the bee-business. 



Bees Nearly all Dead.— J. G. Nor- 

 ton, Macomb,K3 Ills., on April 16, 

 188.5, writes thus : 



The winter is over, and as I hear of the 

 general heavy losses of bees, I will re- 

 port a few from this locality. One bee- 

 keeper lost .59 ont of 69 ; another 100 out 

 of 125 ; another SO out of 89 ; another 40 

 out of 42 ; another 90 out of 100 ; and 

 many others owning from 5 to 30 have lost 

 all ; in fact, it is a hard matter to find any 

 bees left in this part of the State, where, 

 last fall, they could be numbered by the 

 thousand colonies. I have been very well 

 satisfied with my success, although"! can- 

 not report " no loss." I packed 36 colo- 

 nies with chaff last fall, and I have lost 3 

 of them, one being queenless, and the 

 other 2 having been very light in bees last 

 fall; all the rest are in very good condi- 

 tion. Many reasons are given for the 

 great loss of bees, but wherever I see a 

 colony that had plenty of stores last fall, 

 and the sides and the top of the hive 

 packed with chaff or sawdust, allowing no 

 moisture to remain among the bees, there 

 I find a good colony to-day. I am, how- 

 ever, inclined to consider the pollen 

 theory ; but from experience and thorough 

 investigation, I am not yet ready to take 

 any interest in hibernation. 



Successfnl Wintering.— David Wil- 

 cox, Orford,© X. II., on April 13, 

 188-5, writes tlins : 



I am very glad to he able to report that 

 my bees are in fine condition. 1 wintered 

 my bees in the New Kiigland No. 7 hive. 

 1 sold all my surplus honey for 25 cents 

 per lb. I packed my bees as described by 

 Mr. H. I). Davis, on jiage 234, and of the 

 44 colonies that I had last tall, not one 

 was lost during the iiast severe winter. 

 The combs are as bright, and the honey is 

 as fresli as it was last fall. Two colouies 

 that were second-swarms wintered all 

 right, which convinces me that any colony 

 that is well jiacked, and that has plenty 

 of stores, will winter safely in a good 

 hive. 1 do not think that my bees con- 

 sumed more than half their stores during 

 the past winter. 1 saw one frame filled 

 with lioney from toj) to bottom on botli 

 sides. I am very much gratified with my 

 success. 



Cider for Winter Stores.— E. Hen- 

 kle, Washington C. H.,? Ohio, on, 

 April 16, 188.5, reports as follows : 



Having never seen anything in the Bee 

 JouRN.vi. from this jiart of Ohio, I con- 

 sider it my duty to give at least a small 

 report. 1 started in the winter with .52 

 colonies of bees, all in good condition,' 

 well packed with chaff and leaf cushions, 

 and well sheltered from rain, sleet and 

 snow on the summer stands. On Feb. 3,. 

 they had a nice flight, and all seemed to 

 be doing well ; then it froze solid again 

 until Feb. 28, when they had another 

 flight, but at this time they had the worst 

 attack of bee-diarrhea that 1 have ever 

 seen. They spotted the hives and every- 

 thing that they touched, and they have 

 been dwindling and dying ever since. I 

 have lost 14 colonies, all leaving plenty of 

 honey in their hives. Last season was a 

 very poor one for honey in this part of the 

 State ; we had only a 3-weeks' honey-flow 

 from white clover, when a drouth cut off 

 the crop. We have to depend upon white 

 clover, as we have no basswood in this 

 part of the State. About the middle of 

 August the bees began working on the 

 apples and in the cider-mills, and con- 

 tinued it as long as there were any apples- 

 out. They must have stored quite a 

 quantity of apple-jack in that time, and 

 this was the first food they got when it 

 became warm enough for them to tak& 

 uoutishinent ; which, I think, accounts 

 for their having the diarrhea. In 1880 we 

 had just such a season as that of last vear, 

 and I lost every one of my bees. Tthen 

 thought that cider was the cause of the 

 loss, and 1 still hold that view. I think 

 that the rest of my bees will survive,asthe 

 maple trees are in bloom, and the bees are 

 carrying in pollen when it is warm enough 

 for them to fly. I have U acres of Alsike 

 clover for them to work on next summer, 

 and one acre of melilot. 



Neglected Bees, etc.— 6— Wm. Ma- 

 lone, (38—9), Oakley,? Lowa, on April 



9, 188.5, writes as follows : 



On page 133, I said that out of 231 colo- 

 nies of bees, in this township, I did not 

 think that .50 would live through the win- 

 ter, but I can find only 18 alive now, and 

 9 of them are mine. JNTow, that our bees 

 are dead, we are looking for the cause of 

 their death ; some say that cider kiHed 

 the bees, others say that it was honey-dew,, 

 but I say that it was neglect that killed 

 them in this part of Iowa. I have ex- 

 amined a great many of the dead colonies, 

 and in every case the bees had starved ; 

 in many cases honey was in the same 

 same comb, but none in reach of the clus- 

 ter. In the summer of 1882, we had three 

 times as much honey-dew as we had last 

 year, and in August, too, and our bees 



