THE RISOLBMIQRU BEI& JOUmnmi^, 



539 



,; i»„mi. 



that gathered it. We went to his api- 

 aiy, and he there showed nic tlie finest 

 and most beautiful queens, drones and 

 workers that I ever saw. I was not 

 long there before I tried to persuade 

 him to nuilie an exliibitof liis tine stock 

 at the International Fair, to be held in 

 Burt'alo, eoninieneing on September 3, 

 and continuing ten days. 



I now have a letter just received 

 from Mr. Keenej, saying that he will 

 make an exhibit of fjuecns, drones and 

 fnll colonies of his bees, at the Bufl'alo 

 Fair; and he will give his experience in 

 judicious breeding at our next society 

 meeting, which is to be held in Hull'alo, 

 on September 5, during the fair. I 

 consider his exhibit and experience of 

 great value to our pursuit. 



It is my object to induce more peo- 

 ple to keep bees, for the reason that we 

 have only 300,000 bee-keepers in the 

 United States, and only an average of 

 10 colonies each. They produce annu- 

 ally about 120,000.000 pounds of honey, 

 and at the same time we import 2,400,- 

 000,000 pounds of sugar, at a cost of 

 about ^75,000,000. Not more than ten 

 ]>er cent, of those favorably situated 

 for the cultivation of bees, are engaged 

 in the pursuit. If thej' were so en- 

 gaged, the annual product of honey 

 would not fall below $150,000,000, for 

 honey alone. 



Instead of being importers we would 

 be exporters of sweets, with a balance 

 largely in our favor. A large percent- 

 age of these imports do not bring with 

 them a character above suspicion. 

 Instead of pajing our money for the 

 vile adulterations of foreign importa- 

 tions, our apiculturists should gather 

 the pure and wholesome nectar annu- 

 ally wasted in their own fields. 



I do not think that there is anj- fear 

 of over-production, for consumption 

 generall}' keeps pace with production. 

 It cannot be expected that we will 

 have a full crop of honey in all parts of 

 of our vast domain every season. 



To induce more people to engage in 

 the pursuit of apiculture, our queen- 

 breeders should breed for docilit}", so 

 that even the timid may handle bees 

 with impunity. 



I hope that all who can, will attend 

 our great Fair. Mr. O. L. Hershiser, 

 of Big Tree Corners, N. Y,. is the sup- 

 erintendent of the honey and apiarj- 

 department, and also Corresponding 

 Secretary of the Erie County Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Society, and will gladly answer all 

 communications. 



Holland, N. Y. 



A Favorable Word from any of our 

 readers, who speak from experience, has 

 more weight with their friends than any- 

 thing we might say. Every one of our 

 readers can lend us a helping hand, in this 

 way, without much trouble. 



C01«VEI\TI0.\ DIRECTORY. 



1889. Time and Place of Mtetint. 



Auk. 31.— IlHldiiiiaiifl, at KIsherTille. Ont. 



H. C. CampbeU, Sec, Cayuga, Ont. 



Sept. —.— Maine, at Livermore FaUe. Me. 



,1. F. Fuller, Sec, Oxford, Me. 



Sept. 3.— Iowa State, at Ot'sMoines. Iowa. 



J. W. Mnre, Sec. DesMoines, Iowa. 



Sept. 5.-Erle rountv. at liuflttlo. N. V. 

 O. L. Ilerslilser. Cur. Sec. Big Tree Corner, N. Y. 



Sept. 14.— Susquehanna Ci,., i>t New Milfnrd, Pa. 

 II. .M. Soeley, Sec . llarford, Pa. 



Oct. 16— 18.-Northwesterri, at Chicago. Ills. 



W. Z. Hutchinson, tiec., Flint. Mich. 



Dec. 4-6.— Internatinnal, at Brantford. Ont.. Canada. 

 K. F. Holtermann, 8ec., Romney, Ont. 



ly In order to have this table complete, Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.- BD. 



Heart's-Ease Bloom, elc. — Mr. 



Frank S. Johnson, Campbell, Nebr., on 

 Aug. 10, 1889. writes : 



I took a long drive over the country 

 yesterday, and the stubble-Melds are 

 one mass of pink bloom, of the heart's- 

 ease, or heart-weed. The bees are 

 working finely, making very white, 

 delicate comb, and storing a very mild 

 amber honej-. My Carniolan queen 

 is doing finely, and has her hive well 

 tilled with white-lianded bees. Judg- 

 ing from the descriptions of the Carnio- 

 lans, I should say that .she was a pure 

 one. The golden-rod is blooming 

 every where. I think it is rather earlier 

 than usual. I believe that there will 

 be a great yield of honey in this State. 



Puir-Ball Smoke— LTniting Col- 

 onie§ — Samuel Flory, South English, 

 Iowa, writes : 



Probably many are not aware of the 

 effect that smoke from puff-balls has 

 upon bees — (I say pufi-balls, for I 

 know no other name.) It grows on 

 damp places, a little like mush-room ; 

 when dry it is like dust inside. I 

 gather them, get them thoroughly dry, 

 put them into the bee-smoker, mix a 

 little dry, decayed wood with it, so that 

 it will hold fire better, then blow the 

 smoke into the entrance of the hive 

 until the bees become stui^id and drop 

 down, which will not take long, proba- 

 bly five minutes, or a little over. In 

 order that I may Vie fully understood, 

 I will give my method of proceeding : 

 Wishing to unite colonies No. 1 and 

 No. 2, and wanting to save the queen 

 of No. 2, I smoke those in No. 1 first ; 

 after smoking, as above stated, I un- 

 cover the hive, lift out the combs, and 

 brush off the bees that maj' hang to 

 the combs ; this done, I pour the bees 



on a cloth (a Ixiard will answer), then 

 hunt tlie queen, which is easily found, 

 and destroy her. Then go to colony 

 No. 2, smoke it the same way, until 

 stupefied, remove the hive-cap and hon- 

 ey-board, i)our the bees from No. 1 on 

 top of the frames, cover it up, and the 

 work is done. By the time the bees 

 revive, they will be all mixed up so 

 that there will be little or no fighting, 

 and lint very few bees will return to 

 their former place. I have practiced 

 this for several years, and it has alwajs 

 "worked like a charm " for me, and 

 has never caused any bad effect what- 

 ever. 



Oiie-Tliird of a Crop Matthew 



Rebholz, Kane, Ky., on Aug. 10, 1889, 

 says : 



The season opened with the finest 

 prospects for a full crop of honej- ; 

 white clover was plentj-, but June came 

 and our hopes were blasted, for the 

 first week in June it was very cold, the 

 second week it rained all the tine, and 

 the remainder of the month was entire- 

 ly too wet. One of my neighbors, who 

 started in the spring with 10 colonies, 

 did not get over 100 pounds of honey. 

 I got about 40 pounds of honey to the 

 colonj'. Take the whole country over, 

 there is not more than about one third 

 of a crop ; but we will not despair. 



Eillle Colony in a Small Hive. 



— Edward Clark, Nat, Ala., on August 

 5, 1869. writes : 



On June 22 I found about a pint of 

 bees clustered on a bush in the woods, 

 near where there had been a bee-tree 

 cut. I put them into a little hive con- 

 taining three frames, which were about 

 six inches each waj', the center one 

 being filled with comb containing eggs; 

 one outside frame filled with comb was 

 about full of uncapped honey, and the 

 other frame had a small piece of emptj- 

 comb in it. In about a week I exam- 

 ined them, and found a queen-cell 

 with an egg in it. In about a week 

 more I examined them again, and 

 found that the egg had hatched into a 

 worm. I then tliought I would soon 

 have a nice little colony of bees ; but 

 the naxt time I examined them, about 

 a week later, they had torn down the 

 queen-cell and enlarged four or five 

 other cells to a little larger than drone- 

 cells, and put all the eggs into them, 

 except about half a dozen, which they 

 had carried to another comb. The 

 next time that I examined them, they 

 were all dead. I am a little boy, only 

 ten j-ears old, and know nothing about 

 bees except what I have learned this 

 year, and would be glad to learn 

 through the American Bee Journal, 



