Tmm mmerickn: mmm jouwimmi^. 



171 



April 15. The past two seasons, early 

 May brought cold weather, which the 

 bees coulil have passed to better ad- 

 vantage in the cellar, rather than 

 "noseing" around the willows with 

 "overcoats and mittens on." 



Stliniilative Feeding. 



The question of stimulative feeding 

 in the spring is one of importance. 

 There is no ijuestion but such feeding 

 has an effect upon the colony in 

 quickening their energies and giving 

 them the impulse of breeding. This 

 impulse is not confined to the queen 

 alone, as some people seem to l)elieve, 

 but the energizing influence pervades 

 the whole colony. 



The question of feeding in the carlj- 

 spring to induce breeding is one which 

 needs to be carefully consiilered, be- 

 cause it is easy to do more harm than 

 good by adopting tlie practice. I be- 

 lieve it is better to feed in September 

 for spring strength than in the follow- 

 ing Maj', unless it be the very last of 

 the month, as the seasons latterlj' have 

 come to us. 



Heepins: tlie Bees Warm. 



But there is one thing that is always 

 in oi'der in early spring, and that is, 

 to take every precaution possible to re- 

 tain the internal heat of the hive, and 

 prevent ingress of cold from without. 

 The bees have this provident care in- 

 herent in their nature, as is shown by 

 their care in sealing up all cracks and 

 crevices in every part of the hive be- 

 fore the advent of cold weather. 



The moving of hives in the spring, 

 and manipulating them from the top, 

 as each hive should be when placed 

 upon the summer stands, so far as is 

 necessary to clean out all dead bees 

 and remove moldy combs, and to con- 

 tr'ict the brood next to proper size for 

 the colony ; these manipulations nec- 

 essarilj' sunder the carefullj' glued 

 joints and crevices, leaving numerous 

 wajs for the cold to creep in, and 

 warmth to escape from the hive. 



This may be quite effectually pre- 

 vented by the use of cushions, dry 

 chaff and leaves — the latter is alwaj-s 

 preferable to chaff. Extra pains to 

 tuck the cushions and quilts down, and 

 not be sparing of the amount put on 

 through May, will pay for the trouble. 



For the reasons just stated, I would 

 as far as possible winter bees in chaff 

 hives, or change the colonies to such 

 as soon as practicable in Maj-. The 

 chafl" hive as now made is superior to 

 the single-walled hive. To Mr. E. P. 

 Chunrhill, of Hallowell, I believe, be- 

 longs the credit of making improve- 

 ments in the chaff hive, which places 

 it ahead of an}' single-walled hive 1 

 have used for the production of comb 

 honej". • 



Lewiston, Maine. 



HONEY-LABELS. 



Tlic Oruiiiilatioii of Extracted 

 Honey— Report for lg§§. 



Written for the ^linerlain BceJini/rnal 



BV CllAS. K. BIXI^EK. 



I have before me some labels bear- 

 ing the following inscription : "This 

 honey will candy as soon as cold 

 weather begins, and is, in fact, the 

 best proof of its purity." 



Candying may be a proof in some 

 localities, but is certainly not in this. 

 I have at present honey in glass and 

 earthen jars, lK)th filled at or nearly 

 the same time, of the same kind of 

 honey, and having the same kind of 

 covering. Both jars were kept in the 

 same room, and subject to the same 

 temperature. Tlie honey in the 

 earthen jar was candied long ago, but 

 in the glass jar it is liquid still. Now 

 if the glass jar had been labeled as 

 above, and been sold, what would the 

 purchaser have thought ? He would 

 have had some reasons for thinking 

 that it was adulterated. It might leave 

 a wrong impression. 



In the winter of 1886 heart's-ease 

 honey did not candy until very nearly 

 spring. I believe that the labels should 

 read so as to leave a possibility for the 

 honey not to candy, something like 

 the following: "This honey may 

 candy," etc. 



Xlie Season of 1888. 



In November of 1887 I put into a 

 cave 35 colonies of bees. All wintered 

 excepting two, which starved. But 

 very few had lioney enough to last 

 until the time of white clover bloom. 

 April was dry, cold and wind\% and 

 everytliing was very late. Box-elder 

 blossomed the last of the month, and 

 bees did verj' well on it for a few days. 



May was cold and wet, and bees did 

 nothing during fruit bloom. They had 

 but little brood for the time of the 

 year. White clover began to bloom 

 the last of May, but yielded little or no 

 nectar. Feeding was the order of the 

 day during the lirst of June, but in the 

 latter part of the month white clover 

 yielded enough honey to start swarm- 

 ing. I had I) swarms in an apiary of 

 38 colonies, mostly Italians. Black 

 bees in this vicinity swarmed from one 

 to four times each. 



Basswood failed, and during the last 

 of July some colonies absconded. A 

 good deal of feeding was done. The 

 fall rains began early, and continued 

 through August, which produced an 

 enormous growth of flowers. Bee- 

 keepers were liopeful, but just as the 

 principal plants began to bloom, a hail- 

 storm cut down everything in the 

 flower line in this immediate vicinity. 



The sugar-barrel was the only apparent 

 outlet. The hail was on Aug. 10 ; on 

 Aug. 17 bees were gathering enough 

 lioney to live on, and in a few days 

 they began storing in the surplus re- 

 ceptacles. 



On Sept. VI the flow ended. From 

 3(j colonics I got about 800 pounds of 

 heart's-ease honey — about half comb 

 honey, in one-pound sections. The 

 brood-chambers were solidly lilled, and 

 bees have more honey this winter than 

 any winter since 1885. The last was 

 the third poor season in this locality ; 

 but white elov('r is in good condition, 

 and we are hoping for a good flow of 

 honey in 1889. 



Honey sold here for 18 to 20 cents 

 per pound for comb, and 10 cents for 

 extracted. 



On Dec. 4 I put the bees into a cave. 

 Tlie winter has been very pleasant so 

 far, the temperature in the cave being 

 at or near 42-, Fahr. The bees seem 

 to be wintering finely, and ver^' few 

 dead bees are to be seen. 



Hoyt, Iowa, Feb. 4, 1889. 



CONVENTION DIRECTORY. 



1888. Time and Place of Meeting. 



Mar. 13, 14.— Cedar Valley, at Waterloo, Inwa. 



J. .1. Owens, Sec, Waterloo, Iowa- 



Mar. ;10.— Agency, at Agency. Mo. 



T. S. Sniith. Sec. Agency, Mo^ 



Apr. 23.— DesMoines County , at Burlington, Iowa> 

 .lohn Nau. Sec. MiiiJletown, Iowa, 



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



G. A. Wilson, Sec McKinney, Tex- 



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



U. M. Seeley, Sec. Harford, Pa. 



May 21.— Northern Illinois, at Pecalonica, III. 



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



tW~ In order to have this table complete, Becre- 

 carles are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetlnea.— BD. 



stiSM^K^^^ 



Bees and Toads E. E. Smith, 



Watertowu, Wis., on Feb. 2ti, writes : 



On page 102 Mr. E. Strong writes 

 about to.ads eating bees. As I under- 

 stand him, he says that toads will not 

 eat bees. The toad that he was watch- 

 ing was either a cunning one, or a dif- 

 ferent species of toads from what we 

 have here. 1 had one hive last sum- 

 mer that had a poor cover, and as I did 

 not like tlie hive, I did not take the 

 trouble to make one, so I put it under 

 a shed. The floor of the shed was 

 about 8 inches from the ground. I 

 leaned a board from the ground to the 

 floor of the shed, so that if any bee 

 happened to fall on its way home, it 

 could come up on the board. One 

 night in the summer I heard a toad 

 coming through the grass, as much as 



