others expect in future to purchase at a 

 lower figure. This is caused by so many 

 bee-keepers putting their honey in market 

 before it is time, or before there is a market 

 for honey. 



"Now, to be practical, we must sustain 

 the Association, and there discuss the dif- 

 ferent modes of the more advanced bee- 

 keepers, and the exhibits of different apia- 

 rian supplies and how to use them, and adopt 

 the improvements, especially the frame 

 hives and single comb boxes, and read the 

 American Bee Journal, or Magazine.'" 



The report of the committee on exhibits 

 recommended as worthy of notice Hether- 

 ington's comb foundation, J. E. Moore's 

 "perfection honey box," .Root's and Bing- 

 ham's smokers, etc. 



The following officers were elected for 

 the ensuing year: Aaron Snyder, Presi- 

 dent; W. S. Ward, Vice President; M. J. 

 Garrett, Secretary; James Markle, Treas- 

 urer. 



Statistical Report.— The whole num- 

 ber of colonies reported is 1,210; the loss 

 reported being 394. The fatality among 

 those buried was less than those wintered 

 otherwise. 



The next meeting of the Association will 

 be held on the second Tuesday of October, 

 1879, at the city of Albany, N. Y. 



M. J. Garrett, Sec. 



Aaron Snyder, Pres. 



Read before the Muscatine, Iowa, Convention. 



The Management of Bees. 



BY REV. E. L. BRIGGS. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen : 



I am here, at the request of your honor- 

 able secretary, to speak upon the subject of 

 "Bee Culture," and of the means whereby 

 this useful and very interesting braneh of 

 human industry may be made, not only a 

 source of life-long amusement and recrea- 

 tion to the stalwart and able-bodied man, as 

 well as the delicate woman, in town or 

 country ; but also a source of pecuniary 

 profit equal to, if not superior, to any other 

 investment, according to the capital em- 

 ployed, in any agricultural or mechanical 

 pursuit. 



And I affirm, at the beginning, that this 

 can be done, for I know whereof I speak. 

 When yet a boy of only ten years of age, I 

 have often left my companions at play, and 

 taking my position by the side of a colony 

 of bees, while they are at work, I have 

 there sat and watched for hours at a time, de- 

 termined to get a glimpse of the " old king- 

 bee." And I have never ceased to inquire 

 until I learned, so far as 1 was capable, the 

 bee language, and all else inside a hive. 

 There was something intensely fascinating 

 to my mind then, concerning the mimic 

 kingdom of workers, drones, guards, nurses, 

 house-keepers, queen, etc. There is still 

 sweetness in tbe honey and the honey 

 comb, but even more in the wonderful de- 

 monstrations of the spirit-taught intuitions 

 and instincts manifested in the marvels of 

 the untaught skill and knowledge revealed 

 in the wormanship of a colony of bees. 



Here is 100 per cent, profit, and 50c. surplus 

 to pay for the care of the colony. 



" Is this a real fact ? " says one. "Why, 

 if that's the case, I must get some bees, for 

 in order to make $3 on a sheep, or a hog, I 

 have to feed it twice every day, all the year 

 round, on that which costs money, and then 

 only turn all this labor and food into money 

 at a very slight per cent, of profit at best. 

 Therefore, I must get some bees." 



So the man gets a colony or two at the 

 first auction, —black bees, of course, because 

 he can get them cheap. He takes them 

 home in September, sets them down some- 

 where until he can fix up a good place, lets 

 them set a month or so, and, by-and-by, 

 when passing them on some cold rainy day, 

 he says: "I declare! those bees will all 

 freeze, if left out there in the wind." So he 

 sets them up; it may be in the wood-house 

 loft, on the north side of his dwelling, where 

 the sun cannot strike them until set out 

 again some time next spring. In this situ- 

 ation the combs remain filled with frost and 

 ice-cold honey all winter. 



Some day when the weather is mild and 

 the sun shines warm, he sees a good many 

 bees flying around the old place where 

 the colony first stood, and he remarks : " I 

 wonder what the bees are all doing there ? 

 O, I see, they are gathering up the scraps of 

 comb which fell out when they set there." 

 But he sees a good many bees lying around 

 which seem to be chilled to death. Spring 

 comes at last, and he puts the hive out on 

 the other side of the house from where it 

 stood in the fall. 



The next warm day he sees thousands of 

 bees pouring in and out of the hive, with a 

 hum loud enough to be heard all over the 

 lot. "Wife," says he, "I tell you those 

 bees of mine are getting honey to-day like 

 everything. Did I not tell you that I was 

 going to make more than 100 per cent., 

 without hardly ever havingto touch them?" 

 The wife nods and smiles as she looks out, 

 and says : " Why, yes ; they are at work 

 finely ! " Two or three days after this, he 

 no longer sees the bees going in and out as 

 before, so lifting the cover he finds the hive 

 desolate,— honey all gone, the combs torn 

 and ragged, as though the mice had been 



