THE m^^mmi^mm mmm jQiamMmi^. 



699 



COtVVEi\TIOM DIRECTORY. 



1889. Time and Place of Meeting- 



Dec. 4-6.— International, at Brantford.Oiit.. CHnada. 

 K. F. IlDltermann, Sec, Koniney. Ont. 



Dec. 18, 17.— Nortliern Illinois, at Rockford. Ills. 



D. A. Fuller. Sec, Oberry Viillev, Ills. 



lajw. 



May 2.— Susquehanna Co.. at Hopbottoni, Pa. 



H. M. Seeiey, Sec, Harlord. Pa. 



iW In order to have this table complete, Secre- 

 tftries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetinee.— Bu. 





VuliK* of a Oootl Bee-PaiM>r. 



Every liee-keeper in the United 8tates 

 slioiild subseiiln; for the Amekicax BEe 

 JocuNAi-. It has heen of great help to me. 

 I have taken l.-iSO pounds of comb honey 

 from 8 colonies, spring count, and increased 

 them to 20, l>y natural swarming. I am 

 sure that I could not have done so well if I 

 had uot read the Ameukan Bee Joikxal. 

 I try to keep my bees pure Italians, for I 

 believe that they are the best bees to have. 

 Wji. Elliott. 



Haiuview, Minn., Oct. 4, 1889. 



I>i;;eHte(l .^'octar I^'ot llie Xerni. 



I have been \vatching with great interest 

 the controversies of late, in regard to honey 

 being "digested nectar." I have so far 

 taken side with the opposition, and I still 

 oppose calling anything in the line of eat- 

 ables — especially the product of our dear 

 little l)ees, and fit for the king's table — 

 di(/fstfd ! My digestive organs jiropose to 

 do the digestive work for themselves. I am 

 uot a scientist, and I will readily accept 

 Prof, Cook"s theory, liut I beg the learned 

 Professor (and I think that most of the bee- 

 keepers will join in with me) to give us a 

 xaore diytisUve naun^ for the '"digested nec- 



tai-.'" FltlEOMANX UUEINEU. 



Naples, N. Y., Oct. 15, 1889. 



Sonictliins: <br ICees to Eat. 



On page 108, under the heading of 

 '• Wild Bees," Mr. O. C. Becker asks a i]ues- 

 tiou. I would like to ask a similar one, 

 viz : Is there anything that can be com- 

 pounded, that bees will be more greedy 

 for, and eat better, than honey ; Will 

 some one please answer i 



.loEL Flint. 



Kazorville, Me., Oct. 16, 1889. 



i^oiitliM'estern mdiigan Fair. 



We had a very busy time in our comer 

 at the Southwestern Michigan fair ; it 

 seemed almost like a bee-convention. 

 There were bee-keepers here from every 

 direction, reaching out from 20 to 30 miles. 

 1 had no idea that we had so many exten- 

 sive bee-keepei*s so near us here. As a gen- 

 eral thing they reported only from one-half 

 to two-thirds of a crojj of honey, and all 

 felt rather poor. We had a vei-y nice dis- 

 play at the fair. I had a colony of Italian 

 bees on e.xhibition, a frame containing a 

 ' few bees with a tpieen, and also a frame of 

 mostly drone-bees ; the last t\\ o attracted 

 much attention — the most of the time some 

 one was trying to find the queen. I took 

 the first premium on comb hone}', on ex- 

 tracted honey, and also on Italian bees. 



SVI.VESTEK PlEUCE. 



Three Rivers, Mich., Oct. 14, 1889. 



lEaihiiiK' Fiiiid.s tor the '' Union. " 



Prom 7 colonies I obtained about 5.50 

 pounds of about the finest white clover 

 honey that I ever saw. I could have had 

 moi'e if I could have had time to manage 

 my bees to the best advantage. Would it 

 not be just and right to receive say from H 

 to 5 cents per colon}', as funds for the 

 Bee-Keepers' Union, instead of taxing 

 every member SI. 00 ; I have 9 colonics, 

 and think that it is unjust to ask me for 

 9;1.00, while the specialist has his hundreds 

 of colonies, and only pays ^1.00. I only 

 sjjeak of this as a matter for consideration, 

 and not as a ginnnbler. 



E. M. CoOMTiS. 



Memphis, Ind., Oct. 31, 1889. 



[The smallest apiarist can well afford to 

 pay a dollar to sustain an organization 

 which defends the pursuit. The more ex- 

 tensive ones can pay five or ten dollars as 

 donations. We do not favor the method 

 you mention, because it looks too much like 

 a ''tax," and would require too much book- 

 keejnng. Others may have different views, 

 and we like to have them expressed and 

 discussed. — Ed. 1 



Cyprians and Oolden-Rod. 



I am well pleased with the amount of 

 honey that I got this year. I would not 

 give one cent for all the golden-rod in the 

 town of Madison. The Cyprians take the 

 lead in my apiary, and if I had elbow-room, 

 I would keep them altogether. Mine are 

 the "Simon-pure" variety. 



Madison, Wis. D. D. Daniheu. 



Fetv Uevs Vl^orl< on Crolden-Rod. 



I have been watching the golden-rod here, 

 and have seen but few bees at work on it. 

 The fall crop of honey is a failure in this 

 locality. All the honey I have taken this 

 season, is very dark, while one apiarist 

 within two miles of me, got very nice, light 

 honey. W. H. Martin. 



Falls City, Nebr., Oct. 16, 1889. 



One of tlio AstcriK. 



Will you be kind enough to give the 

 I>roper, or botanical, name of the enclosed 

 plant ; It glows in great abundance 

 through all this part of the country, and 

 gi'ows from H to 4 feet high. It blooms 

 very profusely, beginning in September, 

 and continues through (October. It is one 

 of our best fall honey-])lants, and is known 

 here as " iron-weed." It takes this name 

 from the hanlincss of the stalks, when dead 

 and dry. E. W. Lyles. 



Char'lottle, N. C, Oct. 9, 1889. 



[It is one of the numerous family of as- 

 ters (litter IrailfHcanii), and is an excellent 

 honey -producer. — En.] 



Oolden-Rod— 'Wet Season. 



In this locality there are two varieties of 

 golden-rod — one growing on high gi'ound, 

 with u long, feathery flower ; but this one 

 does not produce honey ; the other grows 

 in swamps, and along ditches, with a 

 straight stem, and liranches out with 

 flowers in clusters on the top. The latter is 

 the best fall flower we have. My bees are 

 near a swamp o*" about ten acres of this 

 variety, and about Sejtt. 1, my 55 colonies 

 did not average 2 i)ounds apiece ; but for 

 al)Out 10 days there was nice, warni 

 weather, and my bees worked on it from 

 sunrise until sunset, averaging about 25 



pounils apiece, with 25 colonies of other 

 parties near it, too, 



We have passed through the wettest sum- 

 mer and fall ever known in this section of 

 the country. There was abundance of 

 bloom, but too wet f(n- the bees to get out 

 of the hives. I had 1 ,200 pounds of surplus 

 honey from pojilar and clover, nearly all of 

 it being comb honey. There was an abun- 

 dance of asters, but too wet and cold for 

 bees to work on it. The fall of 1887 the 

 bees gathered the finest cro]) of aster honey 

 that I ever saw. <iolden-rod honey seems 

 to be <larker. and has a stronger honey- 

 taste. H. P. 5'aucett. 



Dilworthtown, Pa., Oct. 21, 1889. 



Resnits of tlic Hea»>on. 



I prepared 36 colonies last fall for winter, 

 with 5 inches of sawdust over the frames, 

 and !ill came throiigli, with 2 rather weak 

 ones. They swarmed a great deal, but I 

 doubled up and hived back some, so I now 

 have 70 colonies, all in good condition, with 

 the brood-chambers full of the finest of 

 white clover honey ft>r winter. The aver- 

 age per colony was 70 ])ounds of honey, 

 spring count, all in one and two pound sec- 

 tions, but mostly in one-pounds. I have no 

 fall honey. There are acres of golden-rod 

 here, and bees worked on it real well for 2 

 or 3 days, then left it. I have never known 

 bees here to work on golden-rod any better 

 than they have this year. I have kept some 

 bees almost all the time since 1855. 



J. E. Walkek. 



Clarksville, Mo., Oct. 14, 1889. 



Xbe il^eaison'!) Results. 



I have 1 7 colonies of bees, and have taken 

 500 pounds of honey from them this year. 

 The AiiEuiCAN Bee Jouuxai. has been 

 worth $25 to me the past season. 



Albekt Mai.i.ehv. 



Portville, N. Y., Oct. 7, 1889. 



Rol»ber-FiIes and llees. 



I send a sample of something that eats 

 our honey-bees ; it resembles a bumble-bee, 

 but it has no sting. They are numerous, 

 and eat an immense amount of bees. 

 Please tell what it is, in the Amekicax Bee 



JOIHXAL. J. C. CoOI'EH. 



Mt. Pleasant, Tenn., Oct. 16, 1889. 



[The insect sent by Mr. Cooper is ^fld- 

 Ivpharii orcinii. It is fuUly illustrated and de- 

 .scribed in my Manual, on page 417, last 

 edition. This is one of the rol)ber-flies. It 

 is widely distributed in the South, and is a 

 serious enemy of the honey-bee. The illus- 

 tration in the Manual tells the whole story. 

 It is light yellow in color.— -A. .1. Cook.] 



Profitaltie iiieason — Carnioians. 



This has not been a very profitable season 

 to bee-keepers in this vicinity. The trouble 

 was too much cold, wet weather. I started 

 in the spring with 5 colonies, and increased 

 them to 10, taking 200 jjounds of comb 

 honey. Bees are all in good condition for 

 winter. I obtained a Carniolan ipicen last 

 May, and my experience with them is that 

 they are " hustlers," when compared with 

 myhyljrids. They are not only good work- 

 ers, but very gentle. J. E. Turxek. 



Woodington, O., Oct. 22, 1889. 



The Itate on the wrapper label of 

 your paper indicates the end of the month 

 to which you have paid. If that is past, 

 please send us a dollar to carry the date 

 another year ahead. 



