THE? HMBHICAIM: BEEf^ JOURNflLlL. 



r47 



CO^WVENTIO.^ DIRECTORY. 



1889. nm« anij Place ol Mertino. 



Dec. 4-6.— Internat'onat. at Brantford.Ont.. Canada. 

 K. K. Uoltermann. Bee, Romney, Ont. 



Dec. 16, 17.— Nortliern Illinois, at Rocklord, IlTs. 



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

 18!K1. 



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



H. iM. !*eeley, Sec, Harford, Pa. 



Vff~ In order to hare this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future oaeetlnes.- Bd. 





Ciolden-Rod in L.oaiiii>ana. 



The goldeu-rod, which has been, and is, 

 iu full bloom in all the field.s around us, for 

 the pa-st few years devoted to the cultiva- 

 tion of rice, has been full of bees for the 

 past month; there seems to be much nectar 

 in it. Heretofore our bees have stored no 

 honey from the plant, that we know of— I 

 have never known the bees to work upon 

 it until this sea.son. There has been a very 

 unusual yield of honey this fall — from two 

 to three gallons to the hive have been 

 stored by good colonies, since the last ex- 

 tracting in June. Mus. I, B. Fox. 



Jesuifs Bend, La., Nov. 8, 1SS9. 



Pleased Avilli the Results, etc. 



I have always been a lover of bees and 

 honey, and never could get enough of it 

 until this season, which was the best I ever 

 had, both as to honey and increase. I had 

 20 colonies, sjiring count, and now have 50 

 strong colonies, and took 2,000 pounds of 

 comb honey, the best colony storing 130 

 pounds, and from that dow n to 5 pounds, 

 and even 2 colonies produced nothing. This 

 proves that bees are just like men — some 

 prosper, while others are drone-like. My 

 experience in winteriug bees is, that it is 

 best in the cellar, in a dark corner, with 

 outside ventilation. I do not know any- 

 thing about golden-rod here, but what \ve 

 call sweet clover is getting abundant along 

 the roadside, which is good liee-food. The 

 American Bee Journal is what every bee- 

 keeper ought to take and read. 



H. DiERDOIiFF. 



Franklin Grove, His., Nov. 8, 1889. 



Urune and <|neen Xraps. 



Ml-. Kdsall, on page 651, states that he 

 I>laced an Alley drone-ti-apou a hive, and 

 that the swarm left, and then he asks 

 ■' why !" 



Mr. Alley's answer (page 707) maybe 

 the correct solution, but I suspect not. " All 

 drone and queen ti-aps depend for tbeir 

 utility upon perforations in metal plate. 

 These perforations, in order to allow as 

 much room for workers to pass as possible, 

 are so large that a very small queen can 

 pass through them. 



Now bees attempt to swarm with the trap 

 on the hive, just the same as if there were 

 none on, and they usually cluster just the 

 ■,ame, and return just the same as other 

 swarms without a queen so often return. 

 This will be continued from day to day, 

 until some small queen hatches that can 

 pass through the metal when they swarm, 

 having a queen with them, will go oft as 

 they would if no trap were used. The bees 

 do not destroy the young queens under this 

 treatment for some 3 or 4 days or more, 

 and not until they are wholly discouraged 



about getting away, when they will kill all 

 but one, and settle down for work. 



Sometimes several young queens may be 

 seen in a good trap at once, and there is a 

 good opportunity to study their habits with 

 relation to each other, and their treatment 

 by the bees. The largest and best queens 

 usually are the most quiet, and pay but 

 little attention to anything that is going 

 on, save to escape from the trap; but the 

 smaller ones frisk about more, or sometimes 

 hump up their backs and stand there, pip- 

 ing. They are, I think, the only ones which 

 would be likely to attack and kill a rival 

 queen. W. M. Woodwahd. 



Boufleld, Ills. 



ailiipping: Queens by Mail. 



I have just read, on page 716, Chas. 

 Dadant & Son's response to my article in 

 a former issue. I was not aware that Mr. 

 Dadant hud given to other parties the 

 honor due to Rev. L. L. Langstroth and 

 myself. Mr. Langstroth shipped queens by 

 mail before either Mr. Townley or Mr. 

 Alley did — then why did Messrs. Dadant 

 erroneously mention that certain parties 

 were entitled to credit for priority? They 

 charge me with "ire," but I am not con- 

 scious of manifesting ire toward Mr. Lang- 

 stroth ; certainly I have not shown ire to- 

 ward Messrs. Dadant, and their bestowal of 

 it upon me , is strictly gratuitous from a 

 large fund. " C. J. Robinson. 



Richfield. N. Y. 



Ulue Lietluce as a Honey-Plant. 



1. Please give the name of the enclosed 

 flower. It glows very sparingly in the 

 fields around here, and blooms from about 

 Sept. 1 until about the middle of Novem- 

 ber. Bees work on it in preference to 

 golden-rod. 2. Does it yield honeys 



The fall crop of honey was a total failure 

 here, although golden-rod bloomed pro- 

 fusely, also many other fall flowers. Bees 

 do not work on golden-rod much, and I 

 think that it yields but very little honey. 

 We do not have any trouble in wintering 

 our bees, if we leave them plenty of honey, 

 and keep moths and other insects out. The 

 Amekkax Bee Joiknai. is prized very 

 highly, and is a welcome weekly visitor. I 

 think that all bee-keepers ought to take it. 

 W. R. Tate. 



Durant, Miss., Nov. 6, 1889. 



[The plant is a species of blue lettuce 

 (Muhjcillurti floridanuin). In aU proba- 

 bility it yields honey like the rest of the 

 great composite family to which it belongs. 

 — Ci-AKEXCE M. Weed.] 



Packing^ Uees tor ^Vinter. 



I am very much pleased with the Amehi- 

 CAX Bee Joiuxal, and I would not do with- 

 out it as long as my bees help me to make 

 a dollar. 3Ir. Doolittle's way of introduc- 

 ing (lueens is a good one ; it is done with a 

 great deal less loss than any other. 



I got one colony of bees on April 1, 1885, 

 and it gave me 3 swai-rns the first year; I 

 now have 56 colonies, weighing from 55 to 

 79 pounds per colony. I took off 1,0.50 

 pounds of comb honey, and 54 pounds of 

 extracted. I am selling my comb honey at 

 16 to 18 cents per pound. I have the pure 

 Italian bees, and know but little about 

 other races of bees. I winter my bees out- 

 of-doors, making boxes over the hives for 

 some, 12 inches wider than the hives, so 

 that I can fill in 6 inches all around the 

 hives with chaff, and a cushion on top. 

 Some I place to 8 or more in a row, drive 

 a few stakes, and board up back and in 



front of the hives high enough so that I can 

 cover them handily, and fill up with chafl' 

 the same as done with the others. So far 

 both methods have proven successful. 1 

 jjiefer clover chaff for packing, and gen- 

 erally pack the bees aliout Nov. 20, or the 

 last of that month, as the weather and time 

 permits, fori have 115 acres of land, and, 

 with the bees, I am kept hustling, as I do 

 the most of the work myself. I am very- 

 careful, however, uot to neglect my bees, 

 for I appreciate them highly. I am well 

 pleased with my success in bee-keeping. My 

 bees are not only good workers, but thex 

 are very gentle. J. C. Beciitold, 



Bippus, Ind., Nov. 12, 1889. 



Rearing: Uees for (lie YVinter. 



I have several colonies of bees that 

 hatched out all of their brood by Sept. 20. 

 Will they live through the winter, so as to 

 breed up next spring* Some of my neigh 

 bor's bees are iu the same condition. The 

 fall honey crop was a failure here, on a<'- 

 count of di'outh. My crop was 1,400 

 pouuds of comb honey from 15 colonies, 

 spring count, besides increasing to 45 colo 

 nies. N. C Anderson. 



Knoxville, Ills. 



[Oh, yes ; it is better to have bees bred 

 later, but if they have enough honey, and 

 are not affected by other detrimental 

 causes, they will be quite likely to winter 



well.— Ed.] 



Hiving: Rees in California. 



I hived a swarm of bees here week before 

 last; they had no place to settle, and were 

 creating a disturbance out in the road. A 

 team drove through them with a terrified 

 driver, but the horses were not stung. I 

 held up a five gallon coal-oil can, and they 

 soon settled. 1 dumped them into a cheese 

 box, and put them back of the grocery- 

 store, and tbey are now contributing their 

 daily quota to the throngs of Italians buz- 

 zing around the raisin-packers. All the 

 bees that I have seen here, are large, yellow 

 Italians. The stock was introduced years 

 ago by Mr. Harbison. 



A friend of mine told me that a swarm 

 settled on a peach-tree last August ; and 

 last week, when they plowed the orchard 

 after the rain, one of the boys brought iu a 

 pail-ful of comb honey, which he had 

 knocked off the limb. Bees require so little 

 attention that veiy few bee-keepers here 

 know anything about them. An old rancher 

 looked on in astonishment the other daj . 

 while the bees were settling on the coal-oil 

 can. He said that he had kept bees for 20 

 years, but never had yet been able to find 

 out how to " herd 'em " like that. 



J. L. WOOLFOLK. 



El Cajon, Calif., Oct. 28, 1889. 



Aster antl <jJoiden-Rod Honey. 



I send you the two varieties of a plant 

 that grows here, and a sample of the honey 

 that they produce. Please to give their 

 name. You will see that about all the dif- 

 ference is iu the colorot the bloom— the one 

 white, and the other purple. Here they 

 grow iu a light, loamy soil, and they would 

 be some of our best honey-plants if the}- 

 would bloom in July, instead of October ami 

 November; but they bhxmi so late in the 

 season, when bees have but few days that 

 they can leave the hives. The honey from 

 the plauts is capped as white as lindeu 

 honey, aud has a beautiful a]>pearauce; but 

 there is one great fault about this honey- 

 it candies as soon as stored in the comb, 

 and it is impo.ssible to extract it from un- 

 finished sections. 



