92 



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COIWENTION DIRECTORY. 



1889. Time and Place of Meeting. 



May 1, 2.— Texas State, at Greenville, Tex. 



G. A. Wilson, Sec, McKinney, Tex. 



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



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



I:^" In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetinKS.— Ed. 





Early Urood-Rearing;. — Geo. W. 



Morris, Cornishville, Ky., on Jan. 26, says : 



We Have had no zero weather here yet. 

 On Jan. 23 1 opened two hives— one mod- 

 erately strong in bees, and one weak— and 

 found eggs, larvae, and sealed brood in both. 

 Bees have had a lliaht every tew days up to 

 the present time, and prospects look flatter- 

 ing. 



Alfalfa Honey.— Thos. B. Brundage, 

 Sheridan, Wyo. Ter., on Jan. 2,5, writes : 



In the spring of 1888 I purchased 2 colo- 

 nies of Italian bees (or what were supposed 

 to be Italians, though 1 do not think they 

 are). They were shipped on May 27, and 

 arrived in Wyoming June 2. 1 had 2 swarms 

 from one colony on July 14 and 17, and the 

 other colony did not swarm, though it 

 worked diligently. On Sept. I, I took from 

 the one colony 132 pounds of comb honey, 

 though the rest of them gathered about 4,5 

 pounds per colony for winter stores. 1 have 

 them in a eel ar, and so far they have done 

 finely. Honey in this place brings a fair 

 price, and there are only 6 colonies in the 

 county. The bees get their honey from 

 alfalfa and the wild flowers of the valley, 

 which are plentiful, and very rich in nectar. 

 It would be impossible for me to do without 

 the American Bee Journal, as it is a 

 true friend to the bee-keeper, and also a 

 guide to success. 



Tery Miia Winter.— Mr. Abe Hoke, 

 Union City, Ind,, on Jan. 27, 1889, writes : 



Bees have done nothing for the past two 

 or three years ; but the last year was the 

 worst that I have seen since u-iing frame 

 hives. They gathered honey for a few days 

 in June, then everytliing was at a stand- 

 still. I had two natural swarms, and the 

 entire increase from 21 colonies was 4. 1 

 had to feed the bees last fall, and I have no 

 doubt that some of them will starve before 

 May, unless I feed more. We have had an 

 unusually mild winter so far; the coldest 

 being tj" above zero. At present we have 6 

 inches of snow, and the mercury was at 30° 

 above zero at 3 o'clock this afteruoou. 



Bees I>oinsr Well.— F. N. Johnson, 

 Knoxville, Ills., on Jan. 27, 1889, says : 



Bees are doing well. We had a poor sea- 

 son last year. 1 have kept bees tor a num- 

 ber of years, and, like all other bee-keepers, 

 I have had some ups and downs. I have 

 used several styles of hives, but I have set- 

 tled down to a double chaff-packing hive of 

 my own. It takes nearly a square frame. 

 I have not lost a colony of bees in it for six 

 years. 1 anticipate a big crop of honey this 

 year. 



Report for Two Seasons.— Mr. W. 



Stout, Wilmington, Del., on Jan, 28, writes : 



I got no surplus honey in 1887, and hardly 

 enough to winter my bees ; what tliey did 

 get was gathered too late to cap, and con- 

 .sequently it granulated in the hive. Not 

 being strong colonies, and all old bees, with 

 their vitality all worn out, they were unable 

 to pull through. I lost about hnlf of iliem. 

 Last spring 1 eoniiuenCHd with 10 colonies 

 in very po(ir condition, increased them to IS, 

 and nbtaiueil about 300 pounds of comb and 

 extracted, about equally divided. They 

 were put into winter quarters in better con- 

 dition, both in bpes and honey, than I have 

 ever had them, I believe. 



Bee-Keepers are Jubilant.— J. 



M. Young, Eock Bluffs, Nebr,, on Jan. 2S, 

 1889, says : 



The weather in eastern Nebraska, has 

 been very mild and summer-like so far this 

 winter. The mercury has been to zero but 

 once or twice, and only for a short time. 

 Beekeepers are feeling juhilant over the 

 lair prospects of wintering their bees with 

 but little loss. My entire apiary is winter- 

 ing in chatf hives ; every mild day the bees 

 can be noted removing dead bees at the en- 

 trance of the hives, thereby insuring that 

 the colony is in a healthy condition, and all 

 is well within. The Amebican Bee Jour- 

 nal is a weekly visitor to our fireside, and 

 is fully up to the times. 



Small Yield of Honey. —Abner 

 Picket, Nassagaweya, Ont., on Jan. 28, 1889, 

 writes : 



I commenced the season of 1888 with 107 

 colonies of bees, a few colonies lieing weak, 

 but by the time the honey season commenced 

 nearly all were in good working order. 1 

 hoped and expected to receive a large yield 

 of honey, but the bees got barely enough to 

 keep up brood-rearing, until the time of the 

 linden honey flow. Alsike clover yielded 

 but a bare living for the hee.s. and I had no 

 surplus in tlie fall from fall flowers. What 

 I have is 10 pounds per colony, and an in- 

 crease of 22 colonies, for which 1 am thank- 

 ful, as many in this county have not had 

 any surplus or any increase, and had to feed 

 to keep their bees from starving. 



Itees Winteringr Splendidly. — 



W. H. Fowler, Jennings, Mich., on Jan. 28, 

 1889, says : 



My bees are wintering splendidly. I 

 bought 2 colonies last spring. I had no in- 

 crease, and only .50 pounds of surplus honey 

 in sections. 1 did not get a chance to use 

 the extractor, but I robbed each colony of 

 one frame, just to try it. 



Fonndalion iTIade on iUolds.— J. 



L. Haworth, Quaker Hill, Ind., on Jan, 24, 

 1889, writes : 



I commenced the season of 1S8S with 16 

 colonies of bees, some of which were weak, 

 I increased them to 24 good colonies, and 

 secured 115 pounds of comb honey, and 820 

 pounds of extracted. Nearly 700 pounds of 

 it was gathered in the fall. It was very 

 thick, and almost as white as the best white 

 clover honey. I procured one of the " foun- 

 dation molds" last spring, and made ver.v 

 good heavy foundation with it. but I failed 

 to make any thin enough for the sections. 

 The bees seem to work on it lust as well as 

 on Dadant's foundation. My apiary is 

 situated three miles east of Georgetown, 

 Ills. I shall move ray bees the coming 

 spring ; they are in the cellar now. 



Japanese Uiickwiieat, etc. — T. 



R. Canady, Roark, Mo., on Jan. 23, says : 



I commenced with 12 colonies in 1888. in- 

 creased them to 24, and obtained 75 pounds 

 of nice comb honey, and 100 pounds of ex- 

 tracted. Coinu honey in i>ne-pi)und boxes 

 sells fnr 15 cents per pound; extracted at 

 10 cents per pound. I had to feed 175 pounds 

 of granulated sugar to winter my liees on, 

 so I (lid not get any more honey than I fed 

 sugar. Bees are wintering well so tar. The 

 winter is verv mild, and bees fly almost 

 every day. They just had a picnic to day in 

 the sunshine. The prospects are good for 

 next season. I sowed 6 pounds of Japanese 

 buckwheat, and harvested 5)4 bushels of 

 the grain. I think that it is the best buck- 

 wheat that was ever introduced into this 

 country. 



Bees Packed for ^Vinter.— J. E. 



Turner, Woodington, 0., on Jan. 19, says : 



I began bee-keeping in the spring of 1888, 

 with 1 colony of bees, which I increased to 

 4 by natural swarming, and caught 1 swarm, 

 making 5. 1 put them into winter quarters 

 during the latter part of October, by pack- 

 ing them with chatf, in cases 4 inches larger 

 all around than the hives. I think that they 

 are wintering well. My surplus was about 

 ■50 pnnnds, principally whit^ clover honey. 

 The prospect for next year is very good. 



T%o Dangfer of Over-Prodiiction. 



—J. M. A. Miller, Galva, Ills., on Jan. 24, 

 18S9, says : 



My report for 1888 is 40 pounds of comb 

 honey from 48 colcmies, with 7 colonies that 

 had to be fed to keep them alive. This is 

 not verv encouraging, but I hope for better 

 days. 1 keep my bees in the cellar, and 

 they seem to be all right; with this warm 

 winter, I think that they would do well on 

 the summer stands. If we do not get more 

 honey soon, there will be no danger of an 

 over-production of honey. 



Oood Results— Sterile Queen.— 



Jos. E. Stoner, Atlantic, Iowa, on Jan. 24, 

 1889, writes : 



I commenced the spring of 1887 with 5 

 colonies in old boxes, for which I paid $3 

 each. I transferred them to Simplicity 

 hives, increased them to 14 colonies, and 

 took 1.50 pounds of comb houey, worth 15 

 cents per pound. I commenced in 1888 with 

 13 colonics. Increased them to 16, and took 

 550 pounds of honey— and now old bee- 

 keepers say that the last two years were the 

 poorest on record. 



I put my bees into a cave on Dec. 10. I 

 took off the cap, put on one section-case, 

 put in the slatted honey-board, one thickness 

 of thin cloth, and filled it with fine oats- 

 chaff, leaving the cap off, and I will not put 

 it on again until the bees are ready to be 

 put on the summer stands. This I think is 

 as good a way to ventilate a hive, and at 

 the same time retain the heat of a colony as 

 any I have read of on the ventilation of the 

 bee-hive. 



I had one colony with a queen that was 

 sterile. After keeping her tour weeks, and 

 finding that she would not deposit any eggs, 

 1 destroyed her, and not having any queen 

 to replace her, I gave them eggs from which 

 they reared a queen ; but it was to > late in 

 the fall for her to bocome fertilized, as there 

 were no drones. Will she become ifertilized 

 next spring, and go on performing the duty* 

 of brood-rearing the same as any queen ? 



[No. In order to save that colony, you 

 will have to give it a fertile queen as early 

 as possible in the spring, even if you have 

 to take it from another colony.— Ed.] 



