Tmm mm^mmicmn bbb jouRwa*,. 



507 



C«»\'VEXTION DIRECTORY. 



1 890. Time and )>hicc of mcctimj. 



Aug. 19.— Ndrthern Illinoie. at Harlora. Ills. 



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



Aug, 29,— Haldimand, nt South CHyug.a. Ont. 



B, C, Campbell. Sec, Cayuga, Ont, 



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



H. Smith. Sec , Ionia, Mioh, 



Oct, 2y-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 firder to have tbis table complete. 



Secretaries are requested to forward full 

 particulars of' the time aud the place of 

 each future meeting. — Tue Editoh. 



International Bee-Association. 



Pre.siiient— Hon. R. L. Ta,vIor.,L:ipcer, Jlich. 

 SECRET.4RY— 0. p. Dadaut Hamilton, Ills. 



national Bee-Keepers' Union. 



President— James Heddon ..Dowag-iac, Mich, 

 Sec'y, and Manaoer— T. G. Newman, Chicago. 



Oood Sea!«on for IlTeesi. 



The year 1890 promises to be the best we 

 have had for several years. The white 

 clover crop was a good one, and bees never 

 worked harder on clover than they did two 

 weeks ago. Then came basswood, about 

 July 1, and I might mention many varie- 

 ties of honey-plants if I could only name 

 them. I have taken off, so far this season, 

 about three times as much honey as I got 

 all told last year. I have about as many 

 colonies this year as I had last ; at this 

 time I have an apiary of 85 colonies. 



John Moller, Sr. 



Fremont, Nebr,, July 13, 1890, 



Kobbine an«I S^varininsr. 



I wintered 1 1 colonies last winter, and 

 one of them was robbed recently when we 

 were all sick. We lost a little girl .8 years 

 and 21 days old on May 24. I have had 7 

 swarms up to date, one issuing yesterday. 

 But I am unable to do much work yet, as I 

 am very nervous. A. J. M.\TnEWSoN. 



Hamlet, N. Y., July 12, 1890. 



Half a Oop of White Honey. 



There will be about half a crop of white 

 honey in this vicinity, from the clover and 

 raspberries, and there is not much bass- 

 wood here. A. W. Smith, 



Parksville, N, Y,, July 12, 1890, 



Poor Sea!«on— Swarming'. 



I wish that I had something more en- 

 couraging to write. I lost 30 colonies out 

 of 69 in wintering and spring dwindling, 

 robbing, etc., but I presume it is as Mr. 

 Heddon has so often said — it can all be 

 accredited to poor wintering. Their stores 

 were very poor, thin buckwheat honey, and 

 they were wintered in the cellar. Every- 

 thing considered, so far this is a very poor 

 season for us here. The great basswood 

 flow has come and gone, and not much sur- 

 plus realized. I never saw so much swarm- 

 ing as there was through June, and they 

 seemed to all be inclined to the woods. The 

 air was full of bees, and the farmers caught 



a great many swarms ; they came to me 

 invariably for hives and information, aud I 

 pointed them to the Amehic.vn Bee Joir- 

 NAL invariably, as their guide. 



I am very much pleased with a new pro- 

 cess that 1 have studied out in regard to 

 controlling swarming — no more second 

 swarms with me. Now that is a pretty 

 large assertion, liut my experience teaches 

 me that it is a fact, and I think it an 

 entirely new idea — at least I have never 

 heard it hinted at in all of my studies of 

 the science of bee-culture. I consider it 

 another complete and very valuable victory 

 of intellect over instinct. Heretofore my 

 old colonies produced nothing but swarms 

 — now, when I can control them, they pro- 

 duce honey — more, even, than the prime 

 swarms, and the queens are the largest and 

 finest that I ever saw. This method is as 

 sure and true as the laws of nature, and so 

 simple and easy that the most awkward 

 amateur can realize its benefits. 



Ezra J. Cuonkleton. 



Harrison Co., Iowa, July 13, 1890. 



"(Viiite Clover Honey. 



We are at the close of a short white 

 clover honey-flow, which was the finest 

 ever known here for about 18 days. Of 

 course, there has been some honey gathered 

 outside of this time. The severe drouth cut 

 us off entirely for the last ten days. I had 

 only 7 colonies to start in with, and they 

 came through the winter fairly well ; yet 

 the late spring almost starved them before 

 I knew it, so that they were weak, and I 

 will only secure about one case of honey to 

 each colony. Who can beat the following^ 



Dr. F. J. Foster had 7 colonies ; brought 

 them all through in good condition by 

 feeding, except one, which had " foul 

 brood," and had to be shaken out and 

 started anew on clean foundation. He 

 now has 20 large and healthy colonies, has 

 taken 126 pounds of white clover honey in 

 one pound sections, and has 150 pounds 

 ready to take off. His bees are the finest 

 grade of Italians, showing 4 bands, and 

 many 5, of the brightest yellow, except the 

 one that had foul brood, which are blacks. 



We hope for a fall honey-flow, and if 

 frost will keep off xmtil October, the white 

 aster alone will furnish enough honey to 

 winter our bees. Ir.i Reeves. 



Carmi, Ills., July 11, 1890. 



Introducins: Queens, etc. 



One sends a good round sum to a reliable 

 queen-breeder for a choice queen, and 

 when she arrives he wants to know how to 

 introduce her safely. There are many 

 ways given, but I have yet to find a safer 

 or easier way than the one I practice, which 

 I will give as briefly as possible ; 



Cut a piece of wire-screen 3x5 inches ; 

 to form it, wind it around a stick 6 inches 

 long by %-inch wide by ?§-inch thick. Close 

 one end by bending the wire over the end 

 of the stick, and the cage is ready. Now, 

 with cage and smoker, proceed to the hive 

 you wish to contain your new queen. 

 Capture the old queen, put her into the 

 cage, and hang her between two frames in 

 the same hive. Do all this in the morning, 

 let her remain there all day, and at dusk 

 remove her from the cage, put the new 

 queen in her place, plug the lower end of 

 the cage with honey in the comb, having 

 the plug one inch long. Hang the cage 

 back in the hive, just as it was before, and 

 do not disturb the swarm for two days, 

 and all will be well. The bees do not seem to 

 notice the change of queens. 



We have had a fair flow of very nice 

 honey, with more to follow, if the weather 

 continues to be favorable. C. L. Fisher. 



South Deerfield, Mass., July 12, 1890. 



Beex l>uing %Vell ;^'ow. 



The bees in town did not store any honey 

 until the last week, when basswood opened. 

 Those that are strong are doing well now, 

 but the heavy rains in the forepart of June 

 were very hard on my bees. I ought to 

 have fed them, but I was taking the census, 

 and neglected them for want of time to 

 tend to them. Bees are doing better in 

 the country where there are only a few 

 colonies in a place. There are about 200 

 colonies in and around the town, and I 

 think it is too many for this place. We 

 hope for a good fall crop, as there is a 

 heavy growth of all kinds of weeds and 

 grasses. W.\i. Cleary. 



Algona, Iowa, July 11, 1890. 



Tiie Horizontal Bee-Escape. 



The bottom facts are the diagram of the 

 escape referred to by Mr. Dibbern, on page 

 432, as furnishing me the idea of placing 

 the horizontal escape within a hole in a 

 board, and flush with both sides ; had no 

 board about it, but it was to be made of 

 two pieces of wire cloth, one piece tacked 

 on each side of a wood rim the size of the 

 hive, and ^^-inch wood strips placed be- 

 tween the wire-cloth V V V shaped. This 

 we all know to be the invention of other if 

 not wiser heads, and described long since 

 in Gleanings, and used by most of us at 

 the windows and doors to our shops and 

 honey-houses. 



When Mr. Dibbern sent me a drawing of 

 the horizontal trap under a hole in a board, 

 I sent him a model with an escape in a hole 

 in a board, and he wrote me this : " I am 

 much pleased with your escape. In so far 

 as there are no projections, it is perhaps an 

 improvement on mine. I admit that yours 

 is an ingenious arrangement — something 

 that I tried to conceive, but failed." Does 

 this settle it * Jxo, S. Reese, 



Winchester, Ky., July 14, 1890. 



Experience in Ordering^ Queens. 



The gi'eat rush in the bee-business this 

 season exceeds anything known in the past. 

 Dealers in supplies have been greatly in 

 arrears ; this is not their fault. They ex- 

 expected a good sale of supplies, but the 

 exceeding demand went far above their 

 expectations. I believe that we can truth- 

 fully say that dealers in bee-keeper's sup- 

 plies are always anxious to fill orders 

 promptly. It is to their future interest to 

 do so. 



Some of our best queen-breeders have 

 been unable to fill the demand for queens. 



Early in the spring, I sent an order to 

 Luther Gray, of Florida, for a tested queen. 

 He advertised 40 queens for sale, but what 

 was my surprise to hear that all were sold, 

 and the breeder was "pulling up stakes" 

 to go North. From him I received the fol- 

 lowing statement early in June : 



•'It looks as if it would be impossible for 

 me to fill orders ; and, what is more, I am 

 now too short of funds to return the 

 money !" 



This man, I understand, is sickly, and 

 needs sympathy. If he ever gets able, I 

 hope that he will make all arrearages right. 



Well, as I wanted a queen immediately, 

 the next question with me was, "Where 

 shaU I try my luck again ?" I looked over 

 my pile of catalogues, and in A. F. Stauffer 

 & Go's catalogue I read ; 



" We are now prepared to furnish Italian 

 bees and queens in any quantity. We have 

 two apiaries which enable us to fill all 

 orders promptly." 



I sent them an order for a tested queen, 

 and after receiving no reply for three 

 weeks, I wrote to Messrs. Stauffer & Co,, 

 and have just received the following : 



