'^mm m^mmmicmn mmm j&uRnmiL. 



555 



after a few minutes stuck upon the 

 alighting-board ; but when they were 

 brought to the seashore, not one came 

 back. 



More than this, when Romanes lib- 

 erated the insects on the meadow, only 

 200 yards distant from the house, not 

 a single one found its way home, 

 whilst a similar distance over the 

 flower garden was so quickly covered 

 that the observer would find the bees 

 already sticking to the aligliting-board, 

 no matter how quickly he would run 

 back to the house himself. Herewith 

 then it is clearly shown that the bees 

 found themselves at home wherever 

 and because they were acquainted with 

 the locality by previous visits, whereas 

 there, where they had no previous 

 knowledge, on the meadows and on 

 the seashore, every means of directing 

 their course failed them. They guided 

 themselves therefore bj' means of pre- 

 viously-gained experience, just as car- 

 rier-pigeons and as men do. 



After adducing other instances of 

 the manner in which some non-gregari- 

 ous bees and wasps find their way to 

 their nests built in the ground, or in 

 sand-hills, or iu empty snail-shells, and 

 their proceedings when attempts are 

 made to puzzle them by shifting their 

 landmarks, the writer concludes as 

 follows : 



"Viewed in this manner, the powers 

 of guidance of the insects loses much 

 of its marvelous character, but it be- 

 comes only so much the more interest- 

 ing. We see bow the animal, simply 

 by a sensible use of its natural re- 

 sources, accomplishes things which at 

 first sight appear difficult of explana- 

 tion even to our so much more devel- 

 oped powers." 



COIVVEMTIOIV DIRECTORY. 



noolittle on Qiieen-Rearfngf. 



Queens can be reared iu the upper stories 

 of hives used for extracted houey, where a 

 queen-excluding honey-board is used, which 

 are as good, if not superior, to Queens 

 reared by any other process ; and that, too, 

 while the old Queen is doing duty below, 

 just the same as though Queens were not 

 being reared above. This is a fact, though 

 it is not generally known. 



If you desire to know how this can be 

 done — how to have Queens fertilized in up- 

 per stories, while the old Queen is laying 

 below — how you may safely Introduce any 

 Queen, at any time of the year when bees 

 cay fly — all about the difl'erent races of 

 bees — all about shipping Queens, queen- 

 cages, candy for queeu-cages, etc. — all 

 about forming nuclei, multiplying or unit- 

 ing bees, or weak colonies, etc.; or, in fact 

 everything about, the queen-business which 

 you may want to know, send for " Doolit- 

 tle's Scientific Queen-Rearing;" a book of 

 170 pages, which is nicely bound in cloth, 

 and as interesting as a story. Price, $1.00. 



1890. Tbnc and place of meelbyj- 



Aug. 19.— Northern IllinoiB, at Harlem. Ills. 



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



Aug. 29.— Haldlmantl, nt South Cayuga, Out. 



B. C. Campbell, Sec, Cayuga, Out. 



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. R. L. Taylor.. Lapeer, Mich. 

 Secretary- C. P. Dadant Hamilton, Ills. 



ITational Bee-Keepers' Union. 



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

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





Reversiljle rranie— Honey Crop. 



I send by this mail a sample of a simple 

 device for reversible frames. By attach- 

 ing one on each corner of the frames, they 

 can be quickly and easily reversed. I do 

 not know whethei" it is new or old. 



The hone3' crop in Southern Indiana 

 failed to " pan out," as was expected in 

 early spring. White clover was never more 

 abundant, aud the promise of an abundant 

 harvest was cut short by the dry weather, 

 600 pounds of comb and 200 pounds of 

 extracted was the sum total of my crop 

 from 18 colonies. I get 20 cents per pound 

 for all the comb honey I have to sell, in my 

 home market. W. C. R. Kemp. 



Orleans, Ind., Aug. 1, 1890. 



[The device for reversing frames is a 

 piece of tin bent over the ends of the frame, 

 with a slot and screw, allowing it to project 

 at will. We have several in our Museum 

 made on the same principle — so that it is 

 not new. — Ed.] 



Ree-Keeping; in Australia. 



No doubt the readers of the Bee Journal 

 will be surprised to receive a letter from 

 this part of the globe ; however, it will let 

 them know that we are not quite "dead" 

 in the bee-keepiug line out here. I am a 

 member of the Hunter River Bee-Keepers' 

 Association, of New South Wales — the only 

 association iu the country towns that I 

 know of. Through it I have received sev- 

 eral copies of the American Bee Journal, 

 and I must admit that I have been greatly 

 instructed bj' reading them. 



We have only one bee-paper in the colo- 

 nies, or rather New Zealand, and that is 

 the Austmlof'idii Bee Journal, published 

 once a mouth at Auckland, and edited by 

 Mr. Isaac Hopkins — one of the foremost 

 men in bee-culture in the Southern Hemi- 

 sphere. Lately, however, that periodical 

 has been incorporated with the New Zea- 

 land Farmer, which now appears as the 

 New Zealand Farmer, Bee and Poultry 

 Journal. 1 think that more space will now 

 be available tor apicultural items. 



In reading the American Bee Journal, 

 one out here cannot but be impressed with 



the amount of trouble American bee keep- 

 ers have in wintering bees. It is the mid- 

 dle of winter with us now, and yet every 

 fine day my bees are carrying in pollen. 

 Why, to see snow once in ten years on the 

 mountains, in this locality, is something 

 out of the common, and, as regards frosts, 

 we but seldom see ice. It will thus be seen 

 what a mild climate we have. White 

 clover and basswood, or linden, seem to be 

 your chief sources of honey. We have the 

 far-famed eucalyptus trees, which are of 

 great value to the bees. Then alfalfa, or 

 lucerne, thrives well here ; also hoarhound, 

 and many other plants ; but the climate is 

 rather too hot for white clover and bass- 

 wood. We have no other than black bees 

 here, but there are plenty of Italians in the 

 colony, and ne.xt spring I hope to intro- 

 duce them. As far as I know there are uo 

 Syrian, Carniolan or Cyprian bees in this 

 Colony. Bee-keeping is only in its infancy 

 here, but in the course of a few years I 

 expect it to take great strides. 



W. Shaw. 

 Mudgee.New South Wales, July 11,1890. 



A Dry Outlook for Apiarists. 



The honey crop here is almost an entire 

 failure. The intensely hot, dry days of the 

 past week, have pretty effectually killed 

 the clover. It is a very dry outlook for 

 beekeepers here. C. H. Dibbern. 



Milan, Ills., Aug. 4,1890. 



Ready for tlie Fall Crop. 



Bees had a very poor spring this year, 

 but got a little honey in June — just enough 

 to create some swarming. I now have 

 located in my home apiary 1,000 colonies 

 of bees, and all are in fine condition for the 

 fall crop of houey. E. Stahl. 



Kenner, La., Aug. 1, 1890. 



Slim Crop of Poor Honey. 



The honey crop hereabouts will be very 

 slim this fall.and the houey of poor quality. 

 Last year, with 22 colonies, spring count. I 

 had2,12.'5 pounds of choice honey; this 

 year, with 3(! colonies, I will not have 500 

 pounds of good, bad and indifferent honey, 

 with an increase of 18 colonies. 



S. H. Herrii-K. 



Rockford, Ills., Aug. 1, 1890. 



Xlie I>ake Pepin IMsaster. 



The account of the Lake Pepin disaster, 

 on page 500, is erroneous. The Inves- 

 tigating Committee find that there were 

 only 304 persons in all ; 98 dead bodies 

 the Red Wing authorities say, and 104 es- 

 caped—at first they said 100 bodies. The 

 baby story was all a hoax. Mr. Basey nor 

 I know of no such thing. I was at the 

 wreck, which lay in sight of my house uutU 

 all the bodies were found. 



Edwin Wilson. 



Lake City, Minn., July 30, 1890. 



By request. Rev. S. Roese replies to the 

 above as follows : 



Since receiving statements and ofBcial 

 report concerning the late Red Wiug dis- 

 aster, 1 tiud that the number of saved and 

 lost, as stated on page 500, is somewhat 

 incorrect. Early newspaper reports con- 

 cerning the lost and saved, were somewhat 

 conflicting and incorrect, and the baby 

 story wholly without foundation. I sent to 

 the Lake City Republican office for more 

 official statements and reports, and on 

 reviewing the same, a "special" published 

 July 19, with a statement of D. W. 



