Tmm mimmmiQMn mm® joivftivair. 



419 



ieed chambers, with a tia slide over 

 the hole in the side, making a combined 

 shippinu; and introducing cage; but on 

 account of its large opening for the 

 bees, and the tin cover, it is objection- 

 able, although it is the easiest to put 

 the queen and bees in, that I have ever 

 seen. Last season I u.sed some of the 

 Benton cages, with the opening in the 

 wire-cloth, for introducing the queen. 

 Although I am not quite satisfied with 

 any cage that I have ever seen, I think 

 that a combination cage is the only 

 successful way of supplying the trade, 

 for many people have not the time, 

 knowledge or inclination to introduce 

 a queen successfully in any other way. 



The candy is made iu the old, fannl- 

 iar way, with pulverized sugar and 

 honey mixed until it gets over being 

 sticky, and then pressed very closely 

 into the apertures designed for it, a 

 paper being put over that, and the 

 wire-cloth is tacked on over all. 



With the Benton cage, having the 

 opening come over the feed chamber, 

 cut the paper the size of the hole in 

 wire-cloth, and leave the other end 

 loose to put the bees in. Having the 

 provisioned cage ready, I select the 

 nucleus that I wish to take the queen 

 from, open the hive and lift the frames 

 until I find her, when I hang the frame 

 she is on in a comb-holder, keeping my 

 eye upon her ; then lift her carefully 

 by the wings, and put her head first 

 into the cage; then in the same manner 

 put about 12 worker bees into the Ben- 

 ton cage, and 20 in the Peet cage, 

 providing the weather is at all cool ; a 

 less number may answer in warm 

 weather. 



Securely fasten the wire-cloth, then 

 fasten the cover, which is raised a lit- 

 tle from the cage for ventilation ; be- 

 sides this, to make doubly sure of 

 giving no trouble to mail agents, tie 

 with a cord both ways around the cage. 

 I like to ship the first of the week, so 

 as not to have the cages left iu the 

 post-ofHce or mail-bags over .Sunday, 

 and we do not take them to the post- 

 office for the fast mail-train which 

 takes the mail-bag on without stopping, 

 as the sudden jar of taking on the mail 

 might injure the queen. 



UNITING IN THE FALL. 



I select the nucleus having the queen 

 that I wish to be the mother of the col- 

 ony; lift the frames from the hive they' 

 are in, to one that is suitable for win- 

 tering; arrange the frames as if it were 

 a full colony, and when they are 

 nicely settled, I take one or two nuclei 

 that 1 know to be queenless, and shake 

 the bees in front of the prepared hive, 

 distributing the extra brood where 

 there is not a laying queen, to let it 

 hatch out. If this is done in the mid- 

 dle of the day, and I wish to move the 



nucleus hive then, I move the nearest 

 hive pretty well \ip to its former stand 

 to catch the bees flying. 



If I want to be sure to get all of the 

 nucleus, I leave the hive with a frame 

 of honey to catch those flying, and, 

 towards night, I brush them into the 

 united colony. I follow this plan until 

 all are united. 



I do not know anything about the 

 virgin-queen trade, but I should not 

 expect it to prove satisfactory, neither 

 the rearing of two queens in one hive, 

 except for the purpose of seeing what 

 one could do, just out of curiositj-. 



Some may think that this has been a 

 chapter of "I's ;"' but if I have made it 

 plain to 3-ou, that you do not need a 

 lot of odd fixtures ; that a little care 

 will produce good cells ; that unsealed 

 larva; make the bees happy ; that 

 queeus can be introduced without to- 

 bacco or a cup of honey ; and that you 

 can mark the hives without bricks, 

 stones or grass, I shall have accomp- 

 lished more than I expect. 



Bedford, Ohio. 



CONVENTION DIRECTORY. 



1890. Time and place of meeting. 



July 17.— Carolina, at Charlotte, N. C. 



N. P. Lyles, Sec, Derita N. C. 



Sept 10.— Ionia County, at Ionia, Mich. 



H. Smith. Sec, Ionia, Mich. 



Oct. 29-31.— International American, at Keokuk, la. 

 C. P. Dadant, Sec, Hamilton, Ills. 



Oct.— Missouri State, at Mexico, Mo. 



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



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 Editor. 



International Bee-Association. 



President— Hon. K. L. Tajlor.. Lapeer, Mich. 

 Secretary— C. P. Dadant Hamilton, Ills. 



National Bee-Keepers' Union. 



President— James Heddon ..Dowagiac, Mich. 

 Sec'y. and MAN.iGER— T. G. Newman, Chicago. 



1^ " 



Results in 1$$9— Oood Prospects. 



My report for 1889 was not very encour- 

 aging. In the spring I had 10 good colo- 

 nies to start with, from which I had 30 

 swarms, 300 pounds of extracted honey, 

 and 150 pounds of comb honey, with no 

 fall honey to speak of. I put 39 colonies 

 into the cellar on Dec. 5, and took out, on 

 April 4, 1890, 3-1 good colonies, 4 having 

 starved, and one was queenless after that. 

 For over a month bees could not fly half a 

 day, and in that time I had 4 colonies rob- 

 bed, and 3 swamied out, and of course 

 were killed by the other bees, which leaves 

 me now 17 colonies. Fruit trees are all in 

 bloom, with good prospects for the season. 



W. B. R.VT. 



Alaska, Wis., June 9, 1890. 



White Clover and liaM.s«vood. 



White clover is ju.st beginning to bloom ; 

 basswood is promising well as far as plenty 

 of buds are concerned, and both are prom- 

 ising well, if the weather will be so that it 

 will yield honey. But the spring has been 

 so backward that bees did not breed up 

 very fast, so it it does yield, the amount 

 gathered will not be so very large, after 

 all. We had too many frosts in May, and 

 the bees were obliged to cease brood-rear- 

 ing, or they would have starved — some 

 have actually starved. 



Jacob T. Timpe. 



Grand Ledge, Mich., June 7, 1890. 



Wet YVeatlier — Section Folder. 



I keep a few bees in northwest New 

 York. The liees are in a starving condi- 

 tion just now, as there is no honey to be 

 had, on account of wet weather. Apple- 

 bloom did not amount to anything. The 

 white clover is peeking out now, and we 

 hope for a good crop. My bees did well 

 last j-ear. The winter was mild, so they 

 wintered well, and were in good condition 

 this spring. 



I have made a foot-power machine to 

 put sections together, and it works well. I 

 can put together 25 in 3 minutes. It is 

 handy and easy to work. I am a stone- 

 cutter and builder, but on account of a 

 gun-shot wound in my right shoulder I had 

 to quit my trade, and so I keep a few bees 

 to help make a living. I wonder whether 

 there are any other comrades who keep 

 bees, or read the great guide for bee-men — 

 the American Bee Journal. 



M. M. Ritter. 



Seneca Co., N. Y., June 9, 1890. 



Spring Cool and Liate. 



The winter loss of bees in this part of 

 Iowa was at least 60 per cent., mostly 

 from starvation. I lost 30 colonies out of 

 95. The honey-flow is very good here 

 now, when the weather will permit the 

 bees to work. Too much rain and cool 

 weather keeps them back about half of the 

 time. Some bee-keepers lost all they had 

 in winter, while others lost a part. The 

 spring has been very late, cold and damp 

 since the first of May. April was dry and 

 cold, though white clover is plentiful, and 

 has plenty of honey in it. If we have good 

 weather soon, we will have a fair crop of 

 honey. J. R. Eskew. 



Shenandoah, Iowa, June 11, 1890. 



Wintering Bees— Honey-I>ew. 



I have beeu successful in getting my col- 

 onies all through the winter and spring, 

 except one that lost its queen, and was 

 robbed while I was away at work. I had 

 one swarm on May 20, it being the only 

 one I have heard of in this vicinity, except 

 3 that starved out. Bees are booming now 

 on the tulip blossoms and white clover, 

 with a good prospect for basswood in July ; 

 but I had to feed them up until about a 

 week ago. I think that one-third of the 

 bees in Western Pennsylvania have died 

 from starvation this spring. Unpardon- 

 able neglect killed them. " Anything that 

 is worth having, is worth caring for," is my 

 motto. Double-walled hives packed and 

 covered with some material that will ab- 

 sorb the dampness arising from the bees, 

 and sufficient ventilation, have scored 

 another point over cellar-wintering. 



I think that some of the " close confine- 

 ment " advocates must feel chagrinned this 

 year. Has any bee-keeper ever seen a 

 swarm of bees go into a hole in the ground, 

 or into a cellar, of its own accord ? I be- 



