TUm alVIERICfEM BEE JQURNHLILr. 



27 



let them out. If this is not done, we 

 shall find in a short time only the 

 round shells of their thorax, lilve so 

 many beads, on the honey-board. 



I may say of thi.s sj-stem, that I have 

 been able to g-et more honey in sec- 

 tions by it than by any othei- plan of 

 management, while the honey stored 

 in the extra brood-chambers has ap- 

 peared as so much gain over the other 

 plans adopted. I believe the system 

 to be not f)nly perfectly feasible, but 

 more easily executed than any other ; 

 the hive must be constructed to storifv, 

 so that the section supers (whicli 

 should be identical with the brood- 

 eliambers) can be built up in any way 

 desired. 



I shall respectfully ask the bee-keep- 

 ers to give the new system a trial, be- 

 lieving that no other is capable of 

 aifording so large results. 



New Philadelphia, O. 



COXVEXTIOX DIRECTORY. 



1889. Time and Place of Meeting. 



Jan. 15.— Vermont State, at Middleburv. Vt. 



JIarci.i A. Douglas. Sec, Sboreham, Vt. 



Jan. 15, 16.— N. W. 111. & 8. W. Wis., at Rnckford. Ills. 

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



Jan. 16. — Indiana State, at Indianapolis. Ind. 



Geo. C. Thompson, Sec, Soulhport. Ind. 



Jan. 30, 31.-N.E.O..N.Pa.& W. N.Y., at Franklin, Pa. 

 C. H. Coon, Sec, New Lyme, Ohio. 



May 4.— Susquehanna County, at Montrose, Pa. 



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



tw In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.— Bd. 





Xo ?Ve>v Yoi-Uers — Xlie Union.— 



G. H. Ashby, Albion, N. Y., on Dec. 28, 

 l^SS, writes : 



In looking over the list of members of the 

 Bee-Keepers' Union, 1 find but tew from 

 New York .State. Tlie Union has a large 

 suit peudirg in this State, and more should 

 take an interest in it ; for they know not 

 who will want protection next. Now, bee- 

 keepers of New Yorit, please "chip in," 

 and place the "Empire State" in her proper 

 place in the Union, and not allow our in- 

 dustry to be protected at the expense of 

 other States. State pride, if nothing more, 

 should place us in tlie lead in the list of 

 members. 



■..earning l>y Experiment)*. — H. 



Heidenescher, Jr., Landeck, O., on Dec. 27, 

 1 siS, says : 



It would be very hard for me to do with- 

 out the AMEiiicAN Bf.e Journal, because 

 1 would like to hear trora otheis about the 

 bees. I liave U colonies of bees in Lang- 

 stroth hives, and they had a good Uigiit 

 yesterday. 1 will try to keep on going step 

 by step (slowly but surely) in bee-culture, 

 for it has to be learned mostly by experi- 

 menting, and all beginners should do the 

 same. 



Healtliriilne!^!.! wi' llee-Kccpins'. 



— llev. W. K. Whitney, Altoona, l*a., on 

 Dee. 26, 1888, writes : 



1 cannot do without the A.merican Bee 

 Journal, i like its scientitic, moral (I 

 might indeed say, religious) tone. 1 am a 

 Methodi.st preacher, and keep a few bees, 

 more for pleasure than profit. For three 

 years I liave been in this city— a place not 

 well adapted to bee-keeping— and have been 

 unusually busy in building a new church. 

 Even in the suburbs of a city, I believe tlie 

 keeping of a limited number of colonies of 

 bees could be made profitable. 1 wish that 

 professional and business men knew the 

 healthful, pleasurable profit, to both mind 

 and body, to say nothing now of the sweet, 

 health-giving honey that might be had, by 

 keeping a few colonies of bees, and reading 

 the American Bee Journal. 



Bees Roaring: in Cold Weatlier. 



— T. A. Anderson, Loutre Island, Mo., asks 

 this question, dated Dec. 31, 1888 : 



Is Mr. Demaree satisfied as to bees roar- 

 ing in cold weather '.' I hope that he tested 

 the matter thoroughly last winter. 



dood Prospefts tor the I^ext 

 Season.— E. Henkle, Washington, O., on 

 Dec. 26, 1888, writes : 



I have been going backwards for the last 

 two years in bee-keeping. I began the win- 

 ter of 1887-88 with 36 colonies, and last 

 spring I had 30. I had 3 swarms, and not a 

 pound of surplus honey. I had to feed 8 or 

 10 colonies in October, in order to get them 

 in good condition for winter. My bees died 

 more or less all summer, and I now have 34 

 colonies in good condition, well protected, 

 cushioned and packed, on the summer 

 stands. We have had no white clover here 

 the last two years, but the prospect is good 

 for a bountiful crop next year. 



IVIild Winter for Bees.— W. Pear- 

 son, La Colle, P. Q., on Dee. 26, 1888, says : 



We are having a mild winter here so far. 

 I have 17.5 colonies of bees in the cellar, that 

 are wintering first-rate so far. 



■^Vell Pleased with tlie Pursuit. 



— B. F. Fritz, Fulton, Mich., on Dec. 27, 

 1888, writes : 



I have had bees for two years, and I am 

 well pleased with the pursuit. 1 have sold 

 bees and honey enough to get back all the 

 money I invested, and 10 per cent, interest, 

 besides, while invested ; and I also have 

 honey left to meet the wants of two fami- 

 lies, besides 11 colonies in good condition. 

 I could sell four times my crop of honey in 

 my home market. Careful marketing is the 

 secret. The demand is so great that my 

 merchant has come to the house to get it. 

 The flora of this locality is good, and 1 am 

 monarch of all of it. 



Loss o< IToung: Queens.- A. V. 



Kouba, Crete, Nebr., on Dec. 26, 1888, says : 



The general complaint of bee-keepers is, 

 that the season just past has been a poor 

 one for honey as well as for increase, and 

 only some individual colonies did well in 

 gathering honey. 1 have secured 860 pounds 

 of comb honev, and 600 pounds of extracted 

 honey, from "22 colonies, spring connt. I 

 have also increased ray apiary to 43 good 

 colonies, and 5 nuclei. The spring of 18S8, 



in this locality, was cold and rainy, and I 

 hail a heavy loss of young queens on their 

 "wedding night." 



In the early part of May, I made up 21 

 nuclei, and gave each of Ihein a maturing 

 queen-cell ; but before the cells had time to 

 hatch out, there came on a cold spell, and 

 result was the loss of 18 queen-cells. I gave 

 them other cells, but this delay brought on 

 an abnormal condition in the nuclei, and 

 they "balled" every young queen on their 

 return from the mating Higlit. Only three 

 (and they were supplied with hatching 

 brood) came into good condition. 1 think 

 that the outlook for wintering is good, and 

 1 hope to be able to make a better report 

 next year. 



Results of the Season.— Mr. J. A. 



Richenbacher, Gahanna, 0., on Deo. 29, 

 1888, writes : 



The past season has been another poor 

 one for honey, hence there was not much 

 gathered in this locality. Most of my bees 

 were weak when spring came, so I united 

 the weak colonies, reducing the 20 colonies 

 to 11. When spring opened, the prospect 

 was for a good season, and bees did well ; 

 but when summer came, the bees did not do 

 so well. White clover, which is our main 

 honey source, did not yield much nectar ; 

 linden did scarcely as well ; but the fall 

 flowers yielded some honey, but they were 

 cut short by an early frost. I got about 26 

 pounds of comb honey, and about 135 

 pounds of extracted honey, and increased 

 my apiary to 18 colonies. I held them back 

 from swarming. It will not pay to keep 

 bees in this locality without planting for 

 them. 



Bees in Splendid Condition. — 



Z. T. Hawk, Audubon, Iowa, on Dec. 29, 



1888, says : 



There has been no zero weather in west- 

 ern Iowa yet, and, so far as I have heard, 

 bees are in splendid condition. I wish the 

 American Bee Journal a happy New- 

 Year. 



l^o Up>vard Ventilation. —Lionel 



Brokaw, Summer Hill, Ills., on Dec. 35, 

 1888, writes : 



Last spring I began with 10 strong colo- 

 nies and 5 weak ones, increased them to 20 

 strong colonies, by natural swarming, and 

 obtained 500 pouuds of surplus comb honey. 

 It is worth 15 cents per pound here now. I 

 arranged my hives for winter on the sum- 

 mer stands, well filled with bees and 

 honey, with woolen quilts over the frames, 

 and no upward ventilation. The hives are 

 fronting south, with a wind-break on the 

 northeast and west. 



Colonies in <]iood Condtitiou. — 



A. Sperling, Dewey, Ills., on Dec. 28, 1888, 

 writes : 



My report for this year in bee-keeping is 

 not very encouraging. I wintered 42 colo- 

 nies, lost 6 during the summer, by swarming 

 out (scarcity of nectar being the cause), and 

 made 4 colonies by division. They gathered 

 very little honey until Aug. 30, previous to 

 that date. Most of my bees had not enough 

 honey in the hive to last them 34 hours, and 

 I had to feed some to keep them from starv- 

 ing. Most of the colonies now are in good 

 condition. 1 obtained 400 pounds of comb, 

 and 100 pounds of extracted fall honey, and 

 left them enough for winter and spring 

 consumption. About one-half, or more, of 

 all the bees in this locality are dead. 



