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43 



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COWyENTION DIRECTORY. 



1890. Time and place of meeting. 



Jan. 20. — Colorado State, at Denver, Colo. 



B. Mllleson, Pres., Denver, Colo. 



Jan. 20, 21.— Eastern New York, at Albany, N. Y. 

 W. S. Ward, Sec, Fuller's Station, N. Y. 



Jan. 21-24.~MinneB0ta State, at Excelsior, Minn. 

 VVm. Urie, Sec., Minneapolis, Minn. 



Jan. 22.— Vermont State, at Burlington, Vt. 



J. H. Larrabee, Sec., Larrabee's Point, Vt. 



Feb. 5-7.— New York State, at Rochester, N. Y. 



G. H. Knickerbocker, Sec, Pine Plains, N. Y. 



May 3.— Susquehanna Co.. at Hopbottom, Pa. 



H. M. Seeley, Sec, Harford, Pa. 



May 19.— Northern Illinois, at Rnckf<;trd, Ills. 



D. A. Fuller, Sec, Cherry Valley, Ills. 



' In order to have this table complete, 



Secretaries are requested to forward full 

 particulars of the time and the place of 

 each future meeting. — The Editoh. 



sekSS^fM 



Earned an Interest in tlie Union. 



My bees earned an interest in the Bee- 

 Keepers' Union the past season. I obtained 

 about 25,000 pounds of honey, and in- 

 creased my apiary 95 colonies more, mak- 

 ing about 235 colonies now in winter quar- 

 ters, in good condition. Later I will try to 

 send a full report of this year's crop. 



N. Stainingek. 



Tipton, Iowa, Dec. 30, 1889. 



liSatlierins: Pollen and Honey. 



This December is the mildest in Georgia 

 for several years, the mercury at noon be- 

 ing from 70 to 80 degrees, and early in the 

 mornings at 60 degrees. We had one cold 

 spell in November, and heavy frosts, but 

 vegetation is not killed yet. The bees are 

 flying every day, and bringing in pollen, 

 and have gathered some honey this month. 

 They seem to have some doubt about the 

 weather, but some are rearing brood, any- 

 way. I now have 80 colonies in fine con- 

 dition. R. H. Campbell. 



Madison, Ga., Dec. 27, 1889. 



Farmers' Institute — Almanac. 



We had a splendid time during the two 

 days' session, in December, of the Farmers' 

 Institute here. Among the important 

 matters discussed was apiculture, which 

 vfas interesting; but the time was so limit- 

 ed, for just as the subject came to a " weld- 

 ing heat," the next on the programme was 

 called for. On the second day, taxing bees 

 was discussed. 



The Honey Almanac is a grand success. 

 It opens the way through a perfect wilder- 

 ness of old-fogy notions. By it we do not 

 guess, but know, that honey should not be 

 regarded as a luxury, but as a staple arti- 

 cle on every man's table, the whole year 

 around. We need a bee-keepers' institute 

 in this part of the country, and must have 

 it, for the purpose of educating in a practi- 

 cal way. G. B. Olnet. 



Atlantic, Iowa. 



fVinterins: Bees— Honey-PIauts. 



I would like to ask some questions 

 through the American Bee Jodrnal, viz : 



1. Can bees be kept in a house built on 

 top of the ground, with double walls all 

 around, and filled in between with sawdust, 



chaff, or fine straw tramped in hard or 

 close, in the climate of central and north- 

 ern Minnesota? 



2. Which is the best kind of bees, the 

 pure Italians, the pure blacks, or the 

 hybrids S 



3. I put my bees into a bee-house dug fi 

 feet in the ground, boarded up, and covered 

 with 2 feet of hay, and one foot of earth, 

 then 2 feet of fine straw and chaff over the 

 soil or earth. I then took off the covers,and 

 placed the hives on a shelf, and put on one 

 thickness of coffee-sacking for a blanket; 

 then put on top of each hive a 6-inch box 

 (open) filled with forest leaves, pressed in. 

 Do you think that they will do well pre- 

 pared in that way? They have plenty of 

 honey. 



4. What kind of honey-plants will do the 

 best in northern and central Minnesota, to 

 plant for bee-pasturage? 



Litchfield, Minn. D. B. Cas.sady. 



[1. Yes; many keep them in above- 

 ground cellars, but they are not as good as 

 those below the ground, unless extra care 

 be taken in building them. 



2. We think that the pure Italians are 

 the best. Kead Prof. Cook's article on 

 page 89 of this issue. 



8. The bees ought to do well in that re- 

 pository. 



4. Sweet clover will probably do as well 

 as any. The territory is so large and 

 varied that it would be difficult to give 

 definite instructions that would fit such a 

 large tract of country. — Ed.] 



TSo Fall Honey Crop. 



My report for 1889 is rather slim. I 

 started with 21 colonies, and increased 

 them to 43, and took 1,200 pounds of sur- 

 plus honey, all from white clover and bass- 

 wood. Fall honey was a total failure. 



F. M. Mekritt. 



Andrew, Iowa, Dec. 28, 1889. 



Spring Weatlier in IVIid-Winter. 



I have 70 colonies in the cellar, and all 

 seem to be doing nicely. I left one weak 

 colony out, not thinking it worth putting 

 in the cellar. Another hive was left out, 

 that the bees had left quite a quantity of 

 honey in. The weather has been so warm 

 that the weak little colony has carried all 

 of the honey out of the forsaken hive. Some 

 have secured plenty to carry them through 

 the winter, and seem active and strong. I 

 am going to leave them out, and see what 

 the result will be. Since the fall rush of 

 honey, the price has depreciated somewhat, 

 and I am selling mine at 13 cents. There 

 is no frost in the ground, and we are hav- 

 ing spring weather. J. M. A. Millek. 



Galva, lUs., Dec. 28, 1889. 



Keeping Itees Cool in tlie Cellar. 



The weather for four weeks has been so 

 very warm that it is difficult to keep over 

 156 colonies of bees in the cellar cool 

 enough. Indeed, I do not see how we could 

 do so, if the cellar was not well ventilated, 

 and kept perfectly dark, and the brick floor 

 wet with water, when at the highest tem- 

 perature. To-day the mercury stands at 

 57 degrees, bees are roaring warm, and yet 

 they have not flown out very badly, be- 

 cause the cellar is so well ventilated that 

 the air smells pure ; yet it has been too 

 warm to sweep up any dead bees, as it 

 seems to arouse the bees if we stand near 

 an entrance, or jar the hive in the least. 

 They seem to stand ready to pour out. If 



one could have told me that we were going 

 to have such a warm spell, it would be bet- 

 ter to have the liees out-of-doors, or have 

 left out part of them till later. We do not 

 need to build up a sale for our honey, as we 

 can dispose of it faster than we can get it 

 ready for market. We had 13,000 or 

 14,000 pounds of comb honey, and could 

 sell twice that amount if we had it for sale. 

 Mrs. L. C. Axtell. 

 RosevlUe, Dls., Dec. 24, 1889. 



R<;siilts of* the Reason. 



My report for the summer of 1889 is as 

 follows: I commenced the season with 27 

 colonies of bees, increased them to 62, by 

 natural swarming, and secured about 800 

 pounds of comb honey in one-pound sec- 

 tions. The most of it was white clover 

 honey. S. Burton. 



Eureka, Ills., Dec. 80, 1889. 



Fine ^Veather— Bees Flying. 



The weather is fine, and bees are flying. 

 Although I have 110 colonies in the cellar, 

 I have 75 colonies on the summer stands 

 yet; but, upon expamination, I find that 

 although heavy in the fall, they are getting 

 lighter fast, and if such weather continues, 

 I will have to feed before spring, as they 

 consume twice as much as those in the cel- 

 lar ; therefore I will put all into the cellar. 



Muscatine, Iowa. John B. Lisdle. 



I-iarge Apiary in Florida. 



The past has been a very good season 

 here. I had one colony on the scales from 

 which I extracted 130 pounds, and it is not 

 one of the best in the apiary, but may be 

 above the average ; it is now strong in bees 

 and honey. The bees are now carrying in 

 honey and pollen. We (Alderman & Rob- 

 erts) have 1,200 colonies of bees in good 

 condition, and the prospects now for a good 

 crop were never better since I have been in 

 the business, which is 13 years. We have 

 two 4-frame extrators that are just the 

 thing; but we will have to add another, and 

 I think that we will try the 8-frame extrac- 

 tor. I want to prepare to take 40 baiTels 

 of honey a day ; as the fiow here is short, 

 we have to get everything in place, and be 

 ready for the work. I would not be with- 

 out the American Bee Journal for SIO.OO 

 a year. J. B. Roberts. 



Wewahitchka, Fla., Dec. 30, 1889. 



How to Pronounce "Carniolan." 



I was very much amused in reading in 

 the always most welcome American Bee 

 Journal (page 731, for 1889), the ques- 

 tion how to pronounce the word " Carnio- 

 lan." The editor is quite right when he 

 pronounces it with a bigO; but it is not the 

 German, but the Italian, or rather the 

 Latin name, and as Americans write, it is 

 more an English word, than anything else. 

 The Carniolan Dukedom is called "Ducado 

 delCragno;" the bee, " Ape Cragnolina," 

 in our local dialect. In Italian we say, 

 "Ducato Carniolino," " Ape Carniola," or 

 Carniolina (Apis Carniola) ; in German we 

 call it "Herzogthum Krain," " Krainer 

 Biene:" in the Slavonian language (a slave 

 dialect), "KrajnskaVoivodina," "Krajnska 

 pcela" (pronounce Pchala, the first o like 

 in ale). It -will be seen that Mr. Pratt's 

 German, who lived for sometime in Aus- 

 tria, had hardly any occasion to call the 

 bees by the Anglo-Latin name, first given 

 them, if I am not mistaken, by Frank Ben 

 ton, who never heard that name before, I 

 am sure. A. Schceder, Jr. 



Trieste, Austria. 



