G68 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



About Nov. 20 or 25 will be a suitable 

 time to put in the colonies. Remove 

 the covers and honey-boards, leaving 

 quilts only over the bees; lift Iheni 

 quietly upon the benches and leave 

 them in quietude and darkness until 

 the warm spring days arrive. 



The owner of a few colonies may 

 with advantage remove them from 

 the cellar and allow them to have a 

 flight on any genial day of February 

 or March, remembering to place them 

 on the stands which tliey severally 

 belong to. 



If open-air wintering is preferred, 

 procure one of the many double- 

 walled, chaff or sawdust packed hives, 

 and they will prove a snccess in the 

 majority of wniter seasons. Excep- 

 tionally severe seasons now and then 

 occnr when they prove an insufficient 

 protection. However, if colonies of 

 bees are in single walled hives, place 

 them close together in a row- facing 

 the east, in a sheltered spot in early 

 October. In early November remove 

 them while you construct a protection 

 for them. I)y laying a floor of boards 

 long enough to accommodate the row 

 of hives ; set up posts at tlie corners, 

 and n'riil boards around the floor, and 

 in this box place 9 inches or a foot of 

 chaff ; place the hives novv on this, (i 

 inches or so from the front, and make 

 a spout or trough the size of the en- 

 trance, reaching from each hive to an 

 aperture cut in the boards. Nail the 

 boards to the post to form the box a 

 foot or so distant from the back and 

 sides of the row. AVhen the box is 

 filled with dry chaff to a level with the 

 tops of the hives, remove the tops and 

 I'oney-boards, substituting therefor a 

 thick, well-made cushion of chaff or 

 cedar sawdust; raise tlie sides of tlie 

 box high enough to cover the cushions 

 with chaff 6 inches ; cover all with a 

 good rain-proof roof, and the bees will 

 be tolerably certain to survive an 

 ordinary Canadian winter, provided 

 all other conditions are right, such as 

 having abundant stores, prolilic 

 queens, etc. 



Streetsville, Out. 



o UR L£ WTsmWxrx^ 



Cure Tor Stings, etc. — Gustav Leo- 

 pold, Joliet,(^ Ills., on Oct. 13, 1885, 

 writes : 



I notice in the last ]5ee Journal 

 that a woman lost her life by a bee- 

 sting. The following is a sure cure 

 for tli^e slings of bees, wasps, hornets, 

 scorpions and snake-bites: As soon 

 as a person has been stung, pull the 

 sling from tlie wound and snak a cloth 

 in spirits of hartshorn and ajiply it 

 to the wound. Should the i)atient 

 faint, whisky should lie given at once 

 and enough to bring the patient un- 

 der its iiiMuence. and to keep him so 

 at least for four hours. Tlie whisky 

 will keep the jioison from penetrating 

 to the brain and heart. If the weather 

 is very hot the patient ought to be 

 placed in a cool cellar. AH remedies 



which are applied by rubbing are 

 worse than none. Applying th«niouth 

 to suck the poison from tiie wound is 

 a humbug; it will cause severe head- 

 ache and produce vomiting. My bees 

 are in line condition this tall. I sold 

 my 50 colonies last spring, and then 

 bought 9, which I have increased to 

 o9 colonies this season. 



Hercules' Club.— T. Pierce, Ganse- 



voort,o+ N. Y., writes : 



I send a sample of the blossoms and 

 berries of a plant, and a full-length 

 leaf with the stem. It blooms during 

 August and September, and the liees 

 just swarm on it all day long. It is 

 found near the sidewalks, and as peo- 

 ple ))ass by they stop to look for the 

 sw'arin of bees', as they suppose tlie 

 bees are swarming. It grows like a 

 tree in form, bin the branches grow 

 very bluntly and the body has many 

 short, flue thorns upon it. Please 

 give its name in the Bee Jouunal. 

 Here it is called a " club tree." 



[This is Hercules' Club (Ai-ah'a spi- 

 ?iosa), sometimes called Angelica-tree. 

 It is widely distributed throughout 

 the United States, but the portions 

 above ground are liable to be des- 

 troyed by frost north of about 40" to 

 42 north latitude. Suckers from the 

 roots cause it to spread rapidly when 

 once started. It is a plant more no- 

 ticeable on account of its oddity than 

 for its beauty, and can scarcely be 

 said to be worth anything, unless in- 

 deed it maybe of service for bees. Of 

 the quality of the honey gathered 

 from it I know nothing, but I should 

 suspect it as not being first class. 

 There is evidently a good supply of it. 

 Tire flowers are adapted for cross-fer- 

 tilization by insects and doubtless 

 attract others as well as bees. The 

 tree is nearly related to ginseng and 

 wild sarsaparilla.— T. J. Buiikill.] 



Space below Frames.— Chas. Mitch- 

 ell, JMolesworth, Out., writes thus 

 concerning space below the brood- 

 frames for wintering : 



Almost without expense or trouble 

 when nailing liives together, the en- 

 trance can be madeiy inches high. 

 For summer the apiarist can shove in 

 loosely a %-inch board cleated at botli 

 ends, which leaves a ^jj-incli entrance 

 the full width of the hive. For win- 

 tering the cleated board may be re- 

 moved, which will then leave about 

 U^ inches of space below the frames. 

 Practically considered this ought to 

 be cheap and convenient. 



could be done with bees in a poor sea- 

 son. I did not allow my bees to in- 

 crease. Last spring I extracted from 

 a few colonies about 50 pounds of 

 white clover honey. Not much comb 

 was built this season on account of 

 the intense heat and changeable 

 weather. I am well pleased with a 

 small apiary ,as I obtained more honey, 

 accordingly, than I would from a 

 larger one. I will unite some of my 

 colonies again this fall. I save the 

 good combs of honey in the summer 

 and then give them "to my bees for 

 winter stores. I am still "extracting 

 honey, and I think that I will have a 

 good crop of honey for a bad season. 

 It is raining today, and the weather 

 is somewhat cold. 



Report for Two Seasons.— E. J. 

 Fuller, Beaver Centre, xs Pa., on Oct. 



7, 1885, writes : 



I started in the spring of 1881 witli 

 5 colonies of bees, and increased them 

 to 20 colonies. L'lst winter I win- 

 tered 8 out of the 20, 4 of which were 

 strong and 4 weak. I sold one, and 

 commenced the season of 1885 with 7 

 colonies, which I have increased to 

 25. They are all in fair condition for 

 winter. "The past season I have taken 

 150 pounds of honey in one-pound 

 lioxes. The weather having been un- 

 favorable for the last four weeks, the 

 bees gathered scarcely enough to 

 winter on. 



Poor Season, Moths, etc.— F. H. 



Kennedy, l)uquoin,$ Ills., on Oct. 14, 

 1885, writes : 



This has been rather a bad season 

 for bees, and so we have had but little 

 surplus honey. There are but few in 

 this locality who make a specialty of 

 bee-keeping. Most of those who be- 

 gin get a hive and place it down, ex- 

 pecting the bees to produce honey 

 without care or attention. I think 

 that there will be a change ere long. 

 At our meeting in Duquoin, Ills., on 

 Oct. 1, iSIr. C. M. Dixon advanced the 

 idea that bees gather the moth-egg 

 from the flowers, in the pollen, more 

 often than the miller lays the egg in 

 the coinl) in the hive. Honey gathered 

 by Italian bees is not apt to become in- 

 fested with moths when taken from 

 the bees and put away for future 

 use. 



Local Convention Directory. 



1885. Time and place 0/ Meeting. 



Oct. ~~, 23.— Northern Michigan, at Sheridan. Mich. 

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



Oct. :1S, 119.— Central Illinois, at Jacksonville, ni9. 



Not. .'i. <;.— N. J. & Eastern, at Trenton, N. J. 

 Vf m. B. Treadwell, Sec, lli Thomas St., N. Y. 



Nov. 12.— Central HUchlKan, at Lansinp, Mich. 



E. N. Wood, Sec, N. LunsinK. Micli. 



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



a. D. Cutting. Sec. Clinton, Mich. 



Dec. 8— 10.— North American, at Detroit. Mich. 

 VV. Z. Hutcliinson, sec, ItoKeisvilIe, Mich. 



Dec. s-'o,— Northwestern, at Detroit, Mich. 



W. Z. Hutchinson. Sec. Uugersville. Mich. 



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

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meotiuKa.- Kl>. 



