TfHE S;»(IERICRN BE® JO^RNRIL. 



297 



works, besides our regular out-puts, so 

 my friemls, among your readers, may 

 know that I shall be a busy man for 

 the coming year. 

 Dowagiac, Mich. 



OHIO. 



Report of llie Fayette County 

 Convention. 



Written fur the. American Bee Jov/mal 



The first meeting of the Fayette 

 County Bee-Keepers' Association was 

 held on April 11, 1889, at the residence 

 of J. W. Gillespie, at Washington C. 

 H., Ohio, and was attended by quite a 

 number of representative bee-keepers. 

 After a bountiful repast served by the 

 hostess, Mrs. G., the meeting was 

 called to oi-der by President Waters, 

 who gave quite an interesting address. 



After the usual preliminary business 

 was dispensed with, the election of 

 officers for the ensuing year was held, 

 and resulted as follows : 



President, D. Waters ; Vice-Presi- 

 dent, Lewis Haines ; and Secretary- 

 Treasurer, S. R. Morris. 



Mr. J. W. Gillespie was appointed as 

 a committee of one to formulate the 

 Constitution and By-Laws of the Asso- 

 ciation into pamphlet form, and have 

 some new copies printed, after which 

 a report from each member present 

 who has bees, was heard with regard 

 to their wintering. 



Reports on ^Vintering:. 



J. H. Ferguson wintered his bees on 

 the summer stands, starting in the win- 

 ter with 2 colonies, and has them yet, 

 but one is queenless. 



Lewis Haines began the winter with 

 68 colonies, and now has 62 in good 

 condition ; he wintered them on the 

 summer stands, a part in Root chafi- 

 hives, and part protected otherwise. 



Scott Hopkins had 15 colonies, and 

 came througli witli 9 colonies ; he win- 

 tered them on the summer stands with- 

 out protection. 



S. R. Morris began the winter with 

 66 colonies, and now has 60 ; winter- 

 ing half of them on the summer 

 stands, protected bj' sawdust cusliions, 

 and half in a winter repository. 



D. Waters started into winter with 

 13 colonies, and came througli with 8 ; 

 wintering them on the summer stands 

 without any protection. 



After the reports were ended, a mo- 

 tion prevailed that the President ap- 

 point a committee consisting of one 

 from each township, for the purpose of 

 working up the interests of bee-culture, 

 and the successful progress of the As- 

 sociation. 



Tlie following names wiU constitute 

 the committee : 



Concord township, Wm. Bay ; Green, 

 R. Binkley ; Jasper. Levi Rice ; Jeffer- 

 son, G. M. Eichelbcrger ; Madison, C. 

 West ; Marion, Wm. Clarkson ; Perry, 

 Lewis Haines ; Union, J. H. Ferguson ; 

 Paint, S. R. Morris; Wayne, Joseph 

 Bonham. 



After a general discussion on bee- 

 culture, the convention adjourned to 

 meet at the residence of D. Waters on 

 Thursday, May 9, 1889, at 10 a.m. 

 Everybody interested is invited to at- 

 tend. 



The programme for the next meet- 

 ing will be as follows : " Spring man- 

 agement of bees, for the purpose of ob- 

 taining a large yield of honey," by 

 Wm. V. Bay ; " What should be done 

 with queenless colonies," by J. H. Fer- 

 guson ; " Signs of failure in queens," 

 by Lewis Haines : " The outlook for the 

 coming season, with reference to the 

 honey crop," by H. Ellis. 



S. R. Morris, .Sec. 



MOVING BEES. 



Shipping an Apiary by Freight 

 '200 miles. 



Written Sot the American Bee Journal 

 BY WM. LOSSING. 



There is no part of the American 

 Bee Journal that I read with more 

 interest than the letters from every 

 State, and especially when written by 

 some olil and experienced bee-keeper. 



Last fall I decided to change my 

 location, so I moved to Howard Lake, 

 Nebr., and employed a fellow bee- 

 keeper, Mr. Andrew Quist, to see that 

 my 203 colonies were properly placed 

 in the cave, which he did in first-class 

 order. On April 10 I arrived at Hokah 

 on the midnight train, and by the next 

 ni"-ht I had 147 colonies out ; the next 

 morning I finished carrying them out; 

 I lost 3 colonies outright, and 4 were 

 queenless when put in, making 7 in all. 



Then came the tug of war — loading 

 all these bees in a freight-car for a ride 

 of 200 miles, and to receive the " care- 

 ful handling" of railroad brakesmen. 

 When they arrived at Howard Lake, 

 it seemed as though they would be a 

 total wreck ; but to my happy surprise, 

 only 4 colonics had succumbed to the 

 "gentle" knocks of a freight-train, 

 aifd the balance came through in fine 

 condition. 



I placed the hi\es so that the combs 

 would be parallel with the car. I did 

 not nail the frames, but just left them 

 as the bees had fastened them with 

 propolis last fall. I left each hive witli 

 plenty of upward ventilation, and a 

 little in front, so that if the combs of 



honey broke down, it might run out ; 

 but that part failed, for those tliat per- 

 ished were broken down, and the bees, 

 honey and all were in a mess together. 

 1 gave each colony plenty of water as 

 I loadiHl them on the car. 



This looks like a promising season. 

 I am located 8 miles east of the apiary 

 of Mr. Fayette Lee, wlio has reported 

 this as a great place for honej". I will 

 expect to be able to make a like report, 

 as we have here plenty of basswood, 

 white clover, golden-rod, asters, and 

 in fact almost everything that grows in 

 a Northern climate. 



I have sold 50 colonies to one man, 

 since I moved, so when I get through 

 uniting weak colonies, I will have 

 about 135 left, to make a joyful sound 

 around our little home " out West." 



Howard Lake, Minn., April 29, 1889. 



BEGINNING". 



An Experience in the Keeping 

 of Bees. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY M. RICHARDS. 



Three years ago I had my first ex- 

 perience with bees. I was going to 

 Hampton, Nebr., with a load of grain, 

 when I saw an unusual throng of what 

 I supposed were flies, in a cornfield 

 by the roadside. I went to examine 

 them, and to my surprise I found a 

 huge bunch of bees hanging on a corn- 

 stalk. I took a good view of them, 

 and the next thing was to get them 

 into a box to take them home, a dis- 

 tance of about 3 miles. 



I went to the nearest house to pro- 

 cure a box, and the old gentleman who 

 resided there, told me about his adven- 

 tures with bees away back in Ohio, 50 

 years ago. I was somewhat interested 

 ill his history, but I was more interest- 

 ed in getting the box ; so I urged my 

 business a little harder, and he said he 

 had no box, but that he could give me 

 a molasses-keg. I thought that was 

 good enough, so we got it ready, ac- 

 cording to his ideas. He went with 

 me, and placetl the keg, as lie sup- 

 posed, in the proper way ; then ho 

 told me to knock them down, when I 

 slipped up near the hill of corn, and 

 "■ave it a terrible blow with a stick, 

 just below the bees. 



I made my escape without getting 

 stung, and after awhile the old gentle- 

 man went home, and I remained until 

 dark, but the bees did not like to go 

 into the keg. So I went home, and 

 about 3 o'clock in the morning I re- 

 turned, but found the bees still clus- 

 tered on the side of the keg. It was 

 pretty dark, and I was not very much 

 afraid of tliem in the night, so I had 



