THE AMERlCAl^ BEE JOURNAL. 



311 



in cliffs and rocks, tliese bees are 

 found year after year, goes to sliow 

 that migration is not necessary to 

 tliis bee as to " birds of passage,'' etc.; 

 tliat if the conditions are favorable 

 they may be kept tlie yearronnd. The 

 fact that tliese beesc;in be mistaken 

 for hornets by the natives, as in ^Ir. 

 Benton's experience in Ceylon, shows 

 how little we can depend on their 

 judgment in snch matters. 

 Toungoo, Hurmah, Feb. 28, 1885. 



For tlie American Bee Journal. 



Honey-Dew for Winter Stores. 



J. W. BAYAKD. 



In July of 1SS4. after the heat and 

 drought had destroyed all the white 

 clover, as well as other honey-produc- 

 ing flora, my bees completed their 

 work of liliing the sections, with 

 honey-dew from the leaves of the 

 forest— such as ash, hickory, walnut, 

 buckeye, chestnut and maple. Dur- 

 ing the flow of honey-dew, not from 

 flowers, but from bark-lice and aph- 

 id?e, some of my colonies cast about 

 4 or 5 swarms. 1 gave them a full 

 complement of nice, clean combs with 

 the hope that they might provide for 

 winter stores from fall flowers ; but 

 the thing grew desperate, and about 

 Sept. 1 I found them on the point of 

 starvation. 



I now determined to make a test of 

 the possibility of wintering bees on 

 honey-dew (of which I had a large 

 surplus), and so I fed them up lib- 

 erally. They at once commenced 

 breeding, and by the last of October 2 

 of the late colonies were up to the 

 maximum of prime ones, and 2 others 

 in a very satisfactory condition. 

 About Nov. 10, 1 made a critical ex- 

 amination of all the combs, but I 

 found neither eggs, larvfc, nor brood, 

 and not the shadow of pollen, for the 

 reason that all they were able to 

 gather from corn-blossoms and other- 

 wise, was consumed in liliing up their 

 ranks with young, vigorous bees. 



On Nov. 23 winter commenced, but 

 at the end of about three weeks we 

 had three days of beautiful weather 

 which induced a universal flight of 

 all the colonies, not one of which 

 showed the least symptom of disease, 

 save tlie 4 above-mentioned ; their 

 condition showed the worst possible 

 type of diarrhea, as fully one-half of 

 each colony lay dead on the bottom- 

 board, while others too sick to fly, 

 simply tumbled out of the hive and 

 died on the ground. Determined to 

 give them fair treatment, and make a 

 fair test of the experiment, 1 cleaned 

 them all up and dried out their hives, 

 preparatory to another siege of frost 

 and snow, which continued through- 

 out Febiuary. This settled it; for 

 long before ^larch dawned upon them, 

 every bee in the 4 colonies was dead, 

 and that, too, from eating honey-dew, 

 pure and simple, as a winter diet. 



In this connection, bee-keepers 

 might feel anxious to know the con- 

 dition of my other colonies (80) at the 

 close of a hard winter, and after the 

 storage of such an abundant crop of 

 honey-dew as we enjoyed last season. 



At the first flight after their long con- 

 linement in February, every colony 

 that had yielded a surplus of honey- 

 dew, shovvcd alarming symptoms of 

 diarrhea— as smearing the fronts of 

 their hives and spotting the snow in 

 all directions, the color of the excreta 

 being almost identical with that of 

 the honey-dew itself, as stored in the 

 combs. On the other hand, all the 

 colonies that produced a surplus of 

 white clover honey, were not only 

 free from disease, but showed quite a 

 small percentage of loss compared 

 with the former. 



In offering the foregoing, I promul- 

 gate no theory or pet notion, but give 

 simple facts as they developed before 

 my own eyes, and under the guidance 

 of my own hands. On pages 499 and 

 537 of the ]jEE Jouknal for 1884, 

 timely warning was given, not to 

 trust "the honey-dew as winter stores 

 for bees, except, perhaps, as an ex- 

 periment ; and I shall anxiously 

 await reports from all those who have 

 applied the tests and reached conclu- 

 sions during the winter Just ended. 

 Then, if we have added but one grain 

 to the great store-house of knowledge 

 in the science of apiculture, we shall 

 be more than compensated for all our 

 sacrifice and trouble. That more 

 than one potent factor underlies the 

 destruction of our bees in winter, has 

 been clearly demonstrated from time 

 to time ; and now the proper thing for 

 bee-men to do, is to search for a thor- 

 ough remedy through the various 

 channels of experience and fact. 



Athens. o, O. 



Read at the Bee-Keepers' Congress. 



Honey-Production of Tennessee. 



W. I-. HENDERSON. 



say that the fall crop was a total fail- 

 ure. This was, no doubt, due to the 

 unfavorable state of the atmosphere 

 for the secretion of nectar in the fall 

 bloom. 1 expect that an unusual 

 amount of wax will be offered in the 

 market in the spring, as a large ma- 

 jority of the bee-keepers in our State 

 use the primitive '-gum" and box, 

 and know of no other way of utilizing 

 the empty combs, except to melt them 

 into wax. Prejudice and ignorance, 

 coupled with the fact that so many 

 have been imposed upon by patent 

 venders of clap-trap, moth-proof 

 hives, may have deterred many other- 

 wise intelligent persons from adopt- 

 ing the movable-frame hives. We 

 have the country, but what we need 

 is intelligent and posted bee-keepers. 

 Murfreesboro,© Tenn. 



I have no means of knowing, so as 

 to give an approximating accurate 

 statement of tlie amount of honey 

 and wax produced in Tennessee. The 

 last census, although very unsatis- 

 factory in some respects, gives the 

 only data to which we can refer, and 

 I suppose the following paragraph, 

 taken from a late paper, was taken 

 from it : 



'' The annual report of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, makes this re- 

 cord : Corn production for 1884, 

 1,795,000,000 bushels; wheat, 513,000,- 

 000 bushels ; oats, 583,000,000 bushels. 

 These aggregates are the largest ever 

 recorded,' the rate of yield being 25.8 

 liushels of corn, wheat 13, and oats 27. 

 Tennessee produces more honey than 

 any other State in the Union, the 

 annual crop being over 2,000,000 

 pounds. New York comes in second 

 best." 



It may be that since the taking of 

 the census in 1S80, the Department of 

 Agriculture at Washington, through 

 its numerous local reporters, have 

 gathered statistics monthly and yearly 

 of' the production of honey, as of 

 wheat, corn, oats, live stock, etc. 



The mortality of bees throughout 

 Tennessee during the winter of 1884- 

 85 was great, due almost entirely to 

 starvation. I'.ut little honey was 

 gathered after July of 1884, and I may 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



Western Bee-Keepers' Convention. 



The Western Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion held their semi-annual meeting 

 in the Court House, at Independence, 

 Mo., on April 23 and 24, 1885. The 

 meeting was called to order by the 

 President, A. A. Baldwin, at 11 a. m., 

 on April 23. The Secretary read the 

 report of the last meeting, which was 

 approved. A committee to select 

 subjects for the consideration of the 

 convention, was appointed by the 

 President. At 12 m. the convention 

 adjourned until the afternoon. 



At 1:30 p. m. the convention re- 

 assembled and took up the following 

 question : " How shall we manage 

 our bees to put them in the best pos- 

 sible condition for the season's 

 work 'i"' which was discussed at length 

 with the following conclusions : Con- 

 tract the brood-nest to the number of 

 combs the bees can cover, keep plenty 

 of honey or syrup in the hive, and 

 spread the brood and add extra combs 

 as fast as the increase can cover them. 



The second subject was, " How 

 shall we manage our apiaries during 

 the swarming-season^in order to ob- 

 tain the best results '?" After a long 

 discussion the following conclusion 

 was reached : Let the bees swarm 

 naturally, and if increase is desired, 

 take the old queen and a part of the 

 bees, and hive them on empty combs 

 or foundation, and return the bulk of 

 the bees to the old colony ; in six days 

 destroy all queen-cells, and give a 

 queen-cell ready to hatch. This is 

 the method adopted by Mr. L. W. 

 Baldwin and the Secretary, and has 

 proven satisfactory. 



" How shall we care fCr our honey?" 

 —a very important question to apiar- 

 ists and honey-dealers— was discussed 

 at length, and the general conclusion 

 arrived at was, tliat it should be kept 

 in a warm, dry room where it would 

 not undergo the process called " sweat- 

 ing." 



The discussion of the question, 

 " How shall we dispose of our honey '?" 

 concluded the afternoon session . The 

 result was a diversity of opinions as 

 to how the honey crop should be sold ; 

 but the more favored of which was 

 that it should be sold at wholesale or 

 through commission houses. 



