124 



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CONVENTION DIRECTORY. 



1890. Time and place of meeting. 



April 16. 17.— Missouri State, at Marshall. Mn. 



J. W. House. Sec. Santa Fe, Mo. 



May 1.— Southwestern Wisconsin, at Bosoobel, Wis. 

 Benj. B. Kice, Sec, Boscobel, Wis. 



May 3.-8usquehanna Co., at Hopbottom, Pa. 



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



May 19.— Northern Illinois, at Rocfcford. Ills. 



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



1^" 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 Editok. 



I winter all of my bees on the sun;imer 

 stands, without any protection— in fact, 

 they have not needed any so far, as the 

 weather is mild. They are all in good con- 

 dition, with plenty of honey, and are flying 

 most of the time, and bringing in pollen 

 from corn-meal. Honey is plentiful in the 

 market, and sells at 20 cents per pound. I 

 have my honey on hand yet. If I should 

 want to sell it to the merchants, 15 cents 

 per pound is all that they would give me. I 

 sell it to customers for 1 7 cents per pound. 

 N. W. Afflerbaugh. 

 Cameron, Neb., Feb. 8, 1890. 



the part stung three or four puffs with the 

 hot air and smoke, and the pain is gone in- 

 stantly ; that is, if I am stung on the wrist. 

 The Bingham smoker is better for the cur- 

 ing of bee-stings, than any other smoker 

 that I have used. Keep a red-hot fire m the 

 smoker, and you have the best remedy for 

 bee-stings that I know of. 



B. T. Baldwin. . 

 Marion, Ind., Feb. 10, 1890. 





'>M 



\o^ 



Appreciates Our Journals. 



The American Bee Journal I cannot do 

 without, and the Ili.vstrated Home Jour- 

 nal is what one needs in a family ; there is 

 no trash in it, and no demoralizing stories, 

 long or short, to do harm to those not hav- 

 ing tastes formed, or not yet able to dis- 

 criminate between what ought, and ought 

 not, to be read. I have discontinued one 

 paper that is highly spoken of, and substi- 

 tuted the Illustrated Home Journal, 

 ■which, at its present standard, is excellent. 



T. F. KiNSEL. 



Shiloh, O., Feb. 10, 1890. 



Bees »i«l Well I>ast Summer. 



I have 28 colonies of bees, which did very 

 well last season. I sold 300 pounds of 

 honey at 15 cents a pound. ' The bees are 

 now in a much better condition than they 

 were last year at this time. 



H. G. Brown. 



Eagleville, O., Feb. 9, 1890. 



A Very Mild Winter. 



I think that the American Bee Journal 

 grows better every issue— in fact, I would 

 not keep bees without it. The winter, so 

 far, has been quite mild, so that bee-keep- 

 ers who winter their bees on the summer 

 stands, consider themselves in luck ; to-day 

 it looked like an April day, and the bees 

 roared as in summer time, but we expect 

 to have enough bad weather in March and 

 April, to make up for this fine weather. 



Marion Miller. 



Le Claire, Iowa, Feb. 4, 1890. 



Wintering Bees in tlie Cellar. 



I have 29 colonies of bees in the cellar, 

 and some of them are doing all right, but 4 

 or 5 colonies are not all right; they came 

 out of their hives, and spotted the fronts 

 all over. I do not know just what the cause 

 is, but it is my intention to try to make a 

 success of the bee-business. 



M. C. Davis. 



Richland Center, Wis., Feb. 12, 1890. 



Bee-Keeping- in ^Vest VirRinia. 



I started in the bee-business in 1888, 

 ■with 7 colonies of Italian bees, and have 

 increased thein to 19. Last year was a 

 very poor one here; there was a great pro- 

 fusion of white clover, but it was so very 

 cool and wet during fruit-bloom, and most 

 of the summer, that my bees did scarcely 

 any good. I had to feed them 200 pounds 

 of sugar and honey. So far they seem to 

 be doing nicely ; although this has been an 

 exceptionally warm winter, they do not 

 seem to consume much stores. I have chaff 

 hives, altogether, and therefore I winter 

 the bees on the summer stands. I expect 

 to give the dovetailed hives a trial the 

 coming summer, if the season admits. I am 

 very much interested in the discussions 

 concerning the thick top-bar; I have never 

 tried it, but will do so as soon as it becomes 

 settled— it in its favor. I use the standard 

 Langstroth frame. We are expecting a 

 better season this year. 



S. Ray Holbert. 

 Clarkson, W. Va., Feb. 10, 1890. 



Uootl Prospects for this Vear. 



The honey crop of last year was very 

 good; I realized from 4 colonies, spring 

 count, 974 pounds— all comb honey. I ex- 

 tracted only the imperfectly filled sections 

 Three-fourths of my crop was gathered 

 from white clover, and the rest from lin- 

 den The prospects for this year are good. 

 A. F. Sanger. 



Mot Grove, Mo., Feb. 8, 1890. 



Uneasy Bees— White Clover. 



I put 62 colonies into the cellar last win- 

 ter, and lost 2 queenless hybrid colonies; 

 the rest were all strong. In May I had to 

 feed them, and there were hard times for 

 bees. My crop was 9,500 pounds of ex- 

 tracted honey, which I sold for 6^ cents 

 per pound. My bees ijre getting uneasy in 

 the cellar, and when there is a nice day, I 

 will take them out for a flight. White 

 clover looks well. Pn. Pfeiffenberger. 



Addison, Wis., Feb. 5, 1890. 



DiRestea Wectar— Mild Winter. 



We are living in a rapidly-advancing age, 

 and nothing but a double quick pace will 

 keep one to the front. Theories born yes- 

 terday, are pronounced as facts to-day. It 

 Solomon were on earth to-day, he would 

 probably reverse his old " song," so as to 

 make it read thus: That which we have 

 done we will do no more, and that which 

 we have not done, we will do, or die in try- 

 ing; for everything shall be new under the 

 sun. , .. 



Only a few months ago bees were sting- 

 ing acid into honey with their tails; now 

 they digest it there; and if "digested" 

 would only stop there, but it will not, or 

 does not seem to do so. The article from 

 Mr Kauzler, on page 70, brings us fully up 

 to that date; and I will also add that man 

 also is digested eggs, hogs, etc, This brings 

 us up to date. Now let us try to keep up 

 to the times in bee-culture, and, above aU, 

 do not allow our literature to get behind. 



I have lived in this vicinity for over 55 

 years, and this is the mildest winter that I 

 ever knew. Bees went into winter quar- 

 ters well supplied with stores, and the 

 weather has been such as to enable them to 

 fly about half the time. D. Millard. 



Mendon, Mich., Feb. 5, 1890. 



Carniolan Bees— Selling Honey. 



Last June I sent for a Carniolan queen, 

 and put her into a queenless colony ; in two 

 weeks I opened the hive, and found every 

 comb full of brood. I thought then that I 

 had the bees that would do me some good 

 in the future. They were good vvorkers. I 

 put on the surplus case, and the'y went to 

 work in it. In the fall, when honey com- 

 menced to fail, they commenced to rob my 

 Italian bees; in the morning they would 

 be out before the Italians, passing in and 

 out of every hive that I had on the place. 

 I soon decided that this would not do; sol 

 got the smoker, and smoked them to get 

 the queen, and when I found her, oft' went 

 her head. The bees were of three colors- 

 black, gray, and some had the Italian 

 mark. I will let the reader judge what 

 kind of bees they were. I do not pretend 

 to know anything about the Carniolans. 



I\ameless Disease— Bee-Stings. 



This has been one of the most beautiful 

 winters for a long time. Drones have been 

 flying in my apiary for two or three weeks. 



I put 107 colonies in, and they are all 

 in fine condition so far. The "nameless 

 disease " and poor seasons are the worst 

 things that I have to contend with; the 

 "namele.ss disease" is a regular puzzler to 

 me. I saw a young bee hatch with it, and 

 have had it commence in colonies after the 

 queen was three years old. I have had 

 queens die with it; drones have it also, but 

 they do not show it as much as workers and 

 queens. I wish that some one would hurry 

 up and find a sure cure for it. 



An article was written for one of the bee- 

 papers, telling how he cured bee-stings, by 

 holding the part stung over a lamp. I have 

 cured stings this way for the last six or 

 eight years, only in this way I use a Bing- 

 ham hot-draft imoker. When I am stung, 



I I rake the sting off, grab the smoker, give 



Honey from Ciolden-Kod, etc. 



On reading several recent numbers of the 

 Bee Journal, I have been surprised m 

 noticing how many places m the Unitea 

 States report a failure in golden-rod as a 

 nectar-bearing plant. In eastern Kansas, 

 it is our best hope for fall honey and sev- 

 eral times it has saved us from total fail- 

 ure-particularly in 1888, in which year 

 there was no honey from fruit-bloom or 

 clover but a very atiundaut flow of nectar 

 from golden-rod. In 1889, there was quite 

 a good yield from clover-an average of 60 

 pounds per colony; in the faU, golden-rod 

 bloomed freely, and for a few days bees 

 were thick on it, neglecting every other 

 flower until a frost in one night quite 

 stopped all further honey-flow for that sea- 

 son The conclusion would seem to be,that 

 golden-rod must have rain and tolerably 

 warm weather, to produce nectar, and, 

 under these conditions, it will do grandly. 

 Give it a further trial, before condemnmg 

 it as "no good." , 



We are hopeful for this year; clover is 

 abundant, having been weU protected by 

 snow during our severest weather, and 1 

 hope to report 100 pounds per colony, or 

 better, next fall. Wm^M. Rowe. 



Lawrence, Kans., Feb. 5, 1890. 



