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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Local ConTention Directory. 



1885. Time and place of Meeting. 



Sept. 23, 24.— Kentucky State at Covington. Ky. 

 J. T. Counley, Sec, Napoleon, Ky. 



Oct. I.— Southern Illinois, at Duquoin, Ills. 



F. H. Kennedy, Sec, Duquoin, Ills. 



Oct. 2.— Union, at Dexter. Iowa. 



M. E. Darby. Sec Dexter, Iowa. 



Oct. 10.— \raba8h County, at N. Manchester. Int1. 

 J. J. Martin, Sec, N. Manchester, Ind. 



Oct. 15, 16.— Western, at Independence. Mo. 



C. M. Crandali. Sec. Independence. Mo. 



Oct. 15.— Progressive, at Macomb, Ills. 



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



Oct. 21.— Md., Va. Sl W. Va., at Hagerstown, Md 

 D. A. Pike. Pres., Smitbshurg, Md. 



Nov. 5, e.— N. J. & Eastern, at Trenton, N. J. 

 Wm. B. Treadwell, Sec. 16 Thomas St., N. T. 



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



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



Dec. 8— in.— North American, at Detroit, Mich. 

 W. Z. Hutchinson, Sec, Rogei sville, Mich. 



Dec. 8-10.— Northwestern, at Detroit, Mich, 



W. Z. Hutchinson. Sec, Uogersvitle, Mich. 



^f~ In order to have this table complete, Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.— Kl>. 



Good Time with the Bees.— E. Stahl, 

 Kenner.cx La., on Aug. 6, 188.5, says : 



We are having a good time here 

 with bees this season. I have over 

 five hundred of as strong colonies of 

 bees as can be found anywhere in the 

 United States, and they are loaded 

 with honey. One fault I tind here in 

 the JTew Orleans marliet is that 

 honey is worth nothing at present. I 

 have been engaged in bee-culture for 

 about 20 years in this locality. I have 

 a large amount of honey on hand, and 

 a quantity of beeswax. 



Makine: Hoiiey-Cases. — George M. 

 Thomson, Grand Junction,© Iowa, 

 says : 



I would like to ask of' those who 

 have used the Ueddon case, whether 

 J^-inch lumber is as good for making 

 its sides as lumber that is heavier. 



Introducing Qneens, etc. — L. L. 

 Triem, Laporte City,© Iowa, on Sept. 

 12, 188.5, writes : 



On page .520 I find Mr. Henry Alley's 

 article on introducing queens, and 1 

 have carefully read his instructions. 

 but I lind no place where he says any 

 thing of the length of time theqiieen 

 is to be caged before the tin slide is 

 to be taken away so the bees can re- 

 move the candy. I have introduced 

 six queens as per his plan, viz : bees 

 are to be queenless three days, the 

 new queen is then caged 48 hours, the 

 tin covering over the candy removed, 

 and the queen is accepted every time. 

 Will Mr. Alley please tell us whether 

 he allows the bees to eat out this bee- 

 food at o»iC€, or is the queen to be 

 caged any time y Our work at pres- 

 ent in the apiary is to weigh each 

 colony intended to be wintered, hav- 

 ing an 8 frame Langstroth hive with- 



out the cap, but having a tight honey- 

 board, 25 pounds, bees 3 pounds, pol- 

 len 2 pounds— total 30 pounds— is 

 deducted, and each is then fed sugar 

 syrup a la Doolittle, until it weighs .55 

 pounds. Another plan we have fol- 

 lowed for two years, is to register 

 every colony. The hives are all num- 

 bered, a page in the register being 

 allowed for each colony. Each queen 

 if reared artilicially or naturally Is so 

 marked. My queens reared by the 

 natural process are far ahead. 



Willow Bark-Lice.- L. G. Sartorius, 

 Conrad Grove,© Iowa, writes thus : 



I find insects on some of my white 

 willow the color of wood-ashes. The 

 full grown ones are half as large as a 

 house- lly. They are on the trunks 

 and limbs of the willows, and the 

 space which they occupy is totally 

 covered with them from one inch to 

 one foot in length, generally on one 

 side of the tree or limbs. My bees 

 are working on tlie leaves and limbs 

 of these trees. What is it V Is it 

 injurious to the bees V 



[This is the willow bark-louse {Lack- 

 nus dentalus), a not very uncommon 

 insect. The bees are after the sweet 

 fluid (honey-dew) exuded by the lice. 

 Tastes may possibly differ upon the 

 desirability of honey supply from 

 such a source, but certainly most of 

 us prefer the nectar of flowers. To 

 say the least, this " honey " is of ex- 

 ceedingly poor quality. I do not know 

 that it is actually injurious to bees. — 



T. J. BURRILL.] 



The Early Honey Crop.— Abe Hoke, 

 Union City,ot Ind., on Sept. 14, 1885, 

 says : 



In this locality we had a pretty good 

 crop of early honey, but for the past 

 two months the bees have not made 

 more than a living, and the last three 

 weeks of that time has been too cold 

 for honey secretion. To-day it is 

 warmer, and the bees are at work. I 

 started in the spring with 14 colonies, 

 and I now have 30, having sold col- 

 onies and secured at least fiOO pounds 

 of comb honey in 2-pound sections. I 

 am glad to see that thellEE Journal 

 will hereafter be published for one 

 dollar a year. I think I can get up a 

 club of subscribers for it. 



Oil-Clotli Covering.— J. S. II. asks 

 for information as follows concerning 

 the use of oil-cloth covers on hives : 



On page .S.56 is a query concerning 

 the use of enameled-cloth covers on 

 top of the frames in winter, and those 

 who answered it were not in favor of 

 its use. 1 am somewhat acquainted 

 with a bee-man who uses chaff-hives 

 witli oil-cloth covers on top of the 

 flames, but not all over them, lie 

 puts them on in tlie front part of the 

 hive, letting them extend about three- 

 fourths of the way back, then turns 

 the oil-cloth back toward the front of 

 the hive, and then places a chaff- 

 cushion on top of the oil-cloth. He 



claims that the oil-cloth in front 

 makes it warmer for the bees to clus- 

 ter under, and then its being turned 

 up from the back part of the hive, 

 gives the moisture a chance to pass 

 up into the cushion. He began the 

 winter with 18 colonies, and succeeded 

 in wintering all of them. Is not car- 

 pet a poor covering for bees in win- 

 ter y Does it not hinder the moisture 

 too much in escaping V I also would 

 like to know the best way to put the 

 oil-cloth on the hives. 



A Bee-Sting in the Eye.— Thos. 

 Gorsuch, Gorsuch,© Pa., on Sept. 15, 

 1.88-5, says : 



This lias been a poor season for 

 honey in this locality. There was 

 plenty of bloom, but it did not yield 

 much honey. On Sept. 9, while show- 

 ing a friend through the bee-yard, a 

 bee lit on my left eye, and as one is 

 apt to close the eye on the approach 

 of danger, I did so, having both hands 

 occupied at the time. The result was 

 that the bee left its stinger in my eye- 

 ball, but it did not strike the sight. 

 I had the stinger removed, and then 

 applied baking-soda in cold water for 

 one hour ; I then applied slippery elm 

 in cold water for 24 hours, which kept 

 down the inflamation, and at present 

 my eye has no pain, but it is very 

 weak. I give the treatment so if any 

 of my fellow- bee-keepers should meet 

 with a similar mishap, they can try it. 

 I did not know what else to do on 

 account of the pain, and not knowing 

 what the result would be. will Dr. 

 Tinker and others give their opinion 

 regarding the use of soda, and the 

 like, when applied to the eye V Will 

 it prove injurious to the eye ? 



Three Seasons of Bee-Keeping. — 



Charles Brown, Drumquin, Ont., on 

 Sept. 7, 188-5, writes : 



In the spring of 1883 I bought one 

 colony of black bees in a box-hive, 

 and it increased to 10. I doubled 4 

 back to 2, and wintered 8 of the 10, 

 being packed in chafl. I transferred 

 them at the time of apple bloom, into 

 frame hives. In 1884 they increased 

 to 28 colonies, of which 3 starved dur- 

 ing the winter, 2 I sold, and 22 came 

 out all right in the spring. Last 

 spring I bought 2 colonies more, and 

 haye increased my apiary to 65. I sold 

 5, and they are all strong, except one 

 that had a drone-laying queen, which 

 I caught, and then introduced an 

 Italian queen, and now I will have to 

 feed the colony. I commenced ex- 

 tracting 'on July 6, and finished on 

 July 23, obtaining 2,000 pounds of ex- 

 tracted honey and 100 pounds of comb 

 lionej; in sections. I Italianized 12 

 colonies, and nearly all the rest are 

 hybrids. I think that there is no 

 trouble in wintering bees, if they 

 have plenty of honey and are in chafl 

 hives with a 4-inch space filled with 

 chafl, and are on the summer stands. 



f<f~ The 4th semi-annual meeting of the 

 Wnhash County Bee-Keepers' Association 

 will be held at North Manchester, Ind., on 

 Oct. 10, 188.5, in the G. A. H. Hall, Union 

 Block. First session at 10 a. m. All bee- 

 keepers are cordially inv-ited to be present. 

 J. J. M.\RTIN, Sec. 



