290 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



few days, shedding the rain and keeping 

 out the wind. 



My reason for putting the paper on is, 

 that the paper closes up the cracks be- 

 tween the hive and cover, thus retaining 

 all the heat made by the bees. Another 

 reason is, I can examine the bees in 

 Winter without molesting or disturbing 

 the cluster, when there is a fine, sunny 

 day, so that the bees can fly. If I want 

 to know how the bees are doing inside 

 the hive, all I have to do is to raise the 

 cover, pull up tlie paper, and at a glance 

 I can see how the bees are clustered, 

 also what amount of stores they have, 

 with scarcely disturbing a single bee. 

 In the Spring, I take the paper off, and 

 put on the supers. 



Woodslde, N. C, Jan. 29, 1892. 



That Convention in Sacramento, Calif. 



RAMBLER. 



When the Bee Journal for Jan. 22 

 arrived, I was quite interested, as well 

 as a little amused, over Mr. Pryal's 

 description, on page 106, of his forlorn 

 search for a bee-keepers' convention in 

 Sacramento. 



In the first place, he made a great 

 mistake in not inquiring for the "Ramb- 

 ler," who was at that time making 

 Sacramento liis home, and was on the 

 streets of that city that very Dec. 16 ; 

 and if Messrs. Root or Cook had ap- 

 peared, he would have been there to 

 meet them. 



When the gentlemen mentioned first 

 projected their tour to California, con- 

 ventions were mentioned for Reno, 

 Nevada, and for Colfax and Sacramento, 

 Calif., all three of which did not ma- 

 terialize. 



When we learned that a convention 

 was wanted in Sacramento, we began to 

 "dust around" and correspond with 

 bee-keepers ; and all the names we could 

 secure within a hundred miles of Sacra- 

 mento were barely a baker's dozen (13); 

 even some of these with whom we cor- 

 responded gave no encouragement for a 

 convention. 



Mr. Watkins, of Eldorado, said the 

 effort had been made a few years before 

 to organize an association, but not a 

 bee-keeper came to the appointed place, 

 except himself. Therefore, taking the 

 limited number of bee-keepers at com- 

 mand, and the lack of interest, we wrote 

 the facts to Mr. Root, while he was in 

 Salt Lak(!, and as a consequence there 

 was only a convention of two forlorn 



bee-keepers plodding around in the 

 Sacrameto mud, unless some one else 

 turns up as a convention candidate. 



When bee-keepers in the East read 

 about California bee-keeping, they im- 

 agine that apiaries are distributed all 

 over the State ; but when they arrive 

 here they find the great majority of 

 them are in the southern counties. 



Near Sacramento is where the first 

 colonies of bees from the East began 

 business. The honey resources of this 

 valley are now good, but there are few 

 large apiaries. There is one 12 miles 

 south of Sacramento, of 200 colonies, 

 owned by Mr. Warner. We learned of 

 another one 12 miles north, having 

 about the same number; also Mr. Lewis, 

 living in the city, has 100 colonies. 



The reason of the movement to the 

 South is, the greater range for sage 

 honey, and of better quality. There is 

 no sage in the Sacramento valley, and 

 though the honey is of good quality, it is 

 not so white as that obtained in other 

 portions of the State. 



We trust that the foregoing explana- 

 tion will set our friend, Mr. Pryal, right. 

 Next time he wishes to find a convention, 

 he should look first for " Rambler." If 

 we had only met, what a nice conven- 

 tion we would have had ! 



Riverside, Calif., Jan. 25, 1892. 



Locating a Home lefore Swarming. 



CHARLES E. FALKNER. 



About June 1, 1890, a neighbor of 

 mine — Taylor Phillips — got a bee-hive 

 of me, and wanted me to cut a bee-tree 

 for him, and transfer the bees in the 

 hive, which I did. 



After tlie work was done, he called 

 my attention to another tree standing 

 near by, where he said he liad found 

 another bee-tree. The sun being nearly 

 down, and as we were looking towards 

 the west, we could see the bees very 

 plainly, though they flew very weak. I 

 thought there was no swarm in the tree 

 — that the bees were only cleaning out a 

 home. I could see them as they flew 

 from the tree, drop particles of rotten 

 wood. He laughed, and said: "Oh, there 

 is a swarm of bees in that tree. They 

 flew quite strong about noon to-day. 

 You come over to-morrow afternoon 

 about 4 o'clock." I agre(>d to come. 



The following day, at the time ap- 

 pointed, I was on hand, and Mr. Phillips 

 said I would have to wait until a Mrs. 

 Magner came. He said : " Not more 



