684 





MMERIC^K BEB JO^RNSIu. 



fc^A^A<»>A^A^AJ 



^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^ ' ^ ^iifc^^a j fc^^^^fc^i^^a^A^fci K^^^^^-A ^iii 



€OWTEIVTIOIV DIRECTORY. 



1889. Time and Place of Meetino. 



^ec. 4-6.— International, at Brantford. Ont., Canada. 

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



I>ec. 16, 17.— Northern Illinois, at Rockford. Ills. 



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

 S890. 

 Jttay 2.— Susquehanna Co.. at Hopbottom, Pa. 



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



p^ In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetinKs.— Ed. 





IVorking on tiie Oolden-Rod. 



— F. B. Reynolds, Rossburgh, N. Y., 

 Oct. 7, 1889, writes : 



As you want the opinion of bee- 

 keepers in regard to golden-rod as a 

 honey-plant, I will give my obsei'va- 

 tions. I never could find a bee on it 

 until this season, and I must say that I 

 never saw bees work harder on anj-- 

 thing of the plant line ; it seems as 

 though at times they would devour the 

 whole plant. They did not work on 

 buckwheat ; I had a piece of Japanese, 

 not more than ten rods from my api- 

 iiry, and I saw but very few bees on it. 



Bee-Keeping in miniiesota. — 



H. H. Rosebrock, Owatonna, Minn., 

 ■on Oct. 8, 1889, writes : 



We have had, here in Minnesota, a 

 very curious year for bees. In the 

 spring, bees got some honey from 

 fruit-bloom — enough to increase in 

 numbers — but then we had dry and 

 «old weather, so that in the latter part 

 ^)f May and the first part of June, my 

 bees came nearly' starving — they were 

 killing drones. But from July 1 to 

 Sept. 1, we had a continual flow of 

 honey — it was no science to produce 

 comb honey. My yield from 150 colo- 

 nies, spring count, is 4,500 pounds of 

 extracted, and 2,500 pounds of comb 

 honey. The increase was small. In 

 other years our honey season lasts 

 from June 15 until Aug. 1, and per- 

 haps from Aug. 20 to Sept. 10. We had 

 more buckwheat and golden-rod hone}' 

 than anything else. 



Oood Fall Hoiic}-Flo\v E. L. 



Pratt, Marlboro, Mass., on Sept. 17, 

 1889, writes : 



Before the sixdaj's' rain that we are 

 now having, the bees had been getting 

 in an immense amount of honey from 

 fall bloom. It is of light color and 

 good quality. At this time last fall, 

 we were feeding our bees, but now we 



are taking away full combs of honey, 

 and inserting empty comb or founda- 

 tion. I have noticed a peculiar fact 

 for the past few seasons : two 3ears ago 

 at this time, the bulk of the flying was 

 toward the north ; this season it is all 

 south. I went to a 3-acre buckwheat 

 field ll miles north of our jard the 

 other day, for the purpose of seeing 

 that grand sight of bees working on 

 buckwheat ; but not a single bee did I 

 see, although the plants were in full 

 bloom. The field is about half and 

 half Japanese and common buckwheat. 

 The fresh and heavilj'-scented breezes 

 that come from it, seemed heavy with 

 nectar. 



Primrose and A§ter. — J. M. 



Pratt, Todd's Point, N. Y., on Sept. 30, 

 1889, writes : 



I enclose three flowers — please give 

 their names as numbered. No. 1, I 

 think, is golden-rod ; if so, it is not 

 nearly what it is claimed to be for 

 honey, in other places. No. 2, I saw 

 bees working on strong this morning, 

 at 9 o'clock. No. 3, I think is a won- 

 derful yielder of honey, but not of a 

 pleasant flavor, and can be scented 

 100 feet from the hives. All three 

 came into bloom in the middle of Sep- 

 tember, and continue till heavy frost. 



[No. 1 is golden-rod. 



About No. 2, Prof. C. M. Weed, En- 

 tomologist and Botanist of the Ohio 

 Experimental Station at Columbus, O., 

 remarks as follows: "It is evening 

 pri mrose, Oenothera biennis. It is usually 

 fertilized by moths, and I should not 

 suppose it to be much of a honey- 

 plant." 



No. 3 is one of the numerous family 

 of asters. — Ed.] 



Prize Golden.Rod very Higlily 



— H. F. Gressman, Water Valley, N. 

 Y., on Oct. 7, 1889, says : 



I find in some localities that golden- 

 rod pi'oduces but little if any honey ; 

 in this neighborhood it is abundant, 

 and yields a large amount of honey 

 during pleasant weather. Several bees 

 niaj' be found on one stalk, even if it 

 stands alone in the field. Everywhere 

 it is literal!}' covered with bees. We 

 prize golden-rod as a very valuable 

 honey-plant. 



This has been a very poor year for 

 bees — far worse than last year. We 

 obtained no honey from white clover. 

 Basswood yielded quite a fair crop of 

 honey, but the weather did not permit 

 the bees to gather nectar only two or 

 three days during the height of the 

 honev-tlow. 



Experiments with Hives and 



Frame§.--R. B. Woodward, M. D., 

 Somerset, O., on Oct. 9, 1889, writes 



We have had a good season. I be- 

 gan in the spring with 17 colonies, in- 

 ci'cased to 23, and secured 1,600 

 pounds of clover honey — one half or 

 more in the comb. I sold my crop 

 on an average of 16 cents per pound. 

 I have discarded all black bees, includ- 

 ing the Carniolans, which, with us, ai'e 

 in no waj' superior to the best strains 

 of Italians or Syrians. I used 3 sis,es 

 of frames — II4XI32 inches, 9Jxl7|, 

 and 5|xl7| inches, and saw no difl'er- 

 ence in the results. My hives are all 

 18}xl4J inches. The difl'erent depths 

 are made to suit the size of frames. I 

 am much pleased with shallow frames 

 — 5|xl7§ inches, and 9 frames to the 

 case — for extracting purposes. Bees 

 are in fine condition for wintering. I 

 winter my bees out-doors, and have 

 never lost any colonies. 



Only Half a Crop — Albert K. 

 Dakin, Tully, N. Y., on Oct. 7, says: 



The honey crop in this locality has 

 not been more than one-half of a crop, 

 on account of the wet weather. I have 

 sold my crop so far for 12 and 15 cents 

 per pound. 



UTot a Liarge Honey Crop. — A. 



M. Vannoy, Hedrick, Iowa, on Oct. 

 14, 1889, writes : 



Our fall honey crop in this part of 

 Iowa, is non est, on account of too 

 much windy, rainj^ weather ; although 

 we had the finest crop of golden-rod 

 bloom ever known in this part of the 

 country, we got little or no golden-rod 

 honey ; so our large honey crop is 

 really not as large as it is supposed to 

 be. Bees, where they have had proper 

 care, are in good condition for winter. 

 There ai"e more bees, and in better 

 condition, in this immediate vicinity, 

 than at any time in the jiast 20 years. 



Oood Results. — Robert Scbultz, 



Alma, Wis., on Oct. 8, 1889, says : 



My 3 colonies of bees, or what I had 

 left from 7 colonies last winter, did 

 well. I now have 13 colonies. I had 

 the first swarm on May 11, the second 

 on May 22. and the third on May 24. 

 I hived all three, and took from the 

 first swarm, 100 pounds of honej-, and 

 it swarmed again on June 18. I hived 

 the swarm, and took ofif 112 pounds ; 

 from the second swarm I took 70 

 pounds ; and from the third swarm, 64 

 pounds ; from the old colony I took 90 

 pounds. I took oft' 663 pounds of 

 honey in all. The American Bee 

 Journal is a great help. 



