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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[March 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



The November Journal. 



Mk. Editor:— The November Journal came to 

 hand unusually early — October 30, while its usual 

 time is between the 10th and 14th of each month. 

 Like its predecessors, it is fraught with most val- 

 uable information on bee culture. 



Carl Gatter gives us a valuable treatise on honey 

 as a medicine. I, being somewhat of a philosophi- 

 cal or lay doctor, fully endorse his views. 



Next comes the Michigan State Bee-Keepers' 

 Association. If other associations would give full 

 and valuable reports like this one, we, the "Bee 

 School" boys, would open our throats wide toswal- 

 lowthem. The mortality of bees last winter seemed 

 to be the burden of their discussion. My own ex- 

 perience convinces me that Quinby is right, as to 

 long protracted cold being the cause of the disease. 

 I have so little, if any, of the disease — dysentery, 

 as it is called — among my bees, as to be ignorant of 

 it, except through the bee journals. The winters 

 here are so mild that my bees are scarcely ever 

 confined over three weeks at a time in midwinter, 

 without a few warm days at intervals, in which 

 they can fly out. Last winter I believe they were 

 confined at least nine weeks without a warm day to 

 fly out, and yet came out all right in the spring, 

 though very few in number, owing to the fact that 

 the queens ceased laying very early in the fall, 

 and consequently there were very few young bees 

 when the winter set in. They came out in the 

 spring better than I could have expected in such a 

 case. One stand, that had filled three large caps, 

 24 lbs. each, without bottoms, and from which I 

 had not extracted any, went up. The bees in this 

 stand were very full in November, and appeared so 

 about the first of January, but I had not opened 

 them until about February 20, and, to my surprise, 

 there was the queen with only a tea-cupful of bees. 

 Every comb was filled, from top to bottom, with 

 honey, except the three middle ones, and they 

 were also three-fourths full, showing that the queen 

 had been crowded out of her brood-nest until win- 

 ter set in, and consequently they were nearly all 

 old bees, and wintering between two walls of ice 

 could do no better than they did. I trust that even 

 a novice can see this case was not dysentery. It 

 was my own fault in not extracting half their honey 

 in the summer or fall. This was the only stand I 

 neglected, and it illustrates how the old fogies keep 

 bees, leaving every stand to take care of itself, as I 

 did. I would here state I saved all the honey from 

 the stand referred to, and the queen, by giving her 

 to a queenless colony, and she proved one of the 

 most prolific queens- 1 had during the past season. 

 Some would have said that from her being in a hive 

 full of honey and so few bees to keep her warm, 

 she was of course of no further account, her pro- 

 lificness was played out. But the contrary proved 

 the case. 



Friend Gallup, as might be expected from his 

 great knowledge of the wants and habits of the bee, 

 is always in the front ranks of improvements. 

 True, the hive has become a knotty question; but 

 the perfect hive is not yet invented. Who will invent 

 it? From all the knowledge we have now attained 

 to in bee culture, it would seem to me, as the most 



important thing, to first choose a frame of the size, 

 shape and make to suit any sized hive, from a three 

 framed nucleus to a 36 or 40 frame hive, so con- 

 structed, by means of a partition board, as to con- 

 tract and enlarge the brood nest, according to the 

 weather and the size and strength of the colony. I 

 have tried different hives, and consequently dif- 

 ferent sizes of frames, until I am tired of it. I am 

 now fast getting all my hives so constructed as to 

 receive one size of frame. I find this a great con- 

 venience — a saving of time and trouble, such as 

 the experienced alone can understand. But you 

 will ask, what size of frame have you chosen? 

 Well, for the present, I have chosen the common 

 Langstroth, as has also "Novice." I like the new 

 frame with metallic corners, invented by Novice, 

 the best of all frames I ever saw, and intend to use 

 them alone hereafter. So far as cap honey is con- 

 cerned, Langstroth is right in the size of his frame. 

 But as honey caps are becoming a thing of the past 

 with me, I would prefer a frame one inch deeper 

 and two shorter for the extractor. 



I would like to write much more, but must 

 remember friend Nesbit's warning, "bee short." 



R. M. Argo. 



Lowell, Ky., Nov. 9, 1872. 



North-Eastern Bee-Keepers' Association. 



The third annual meeting of the North-Eastern 

 Bee Keepers' Association was held at the Butterfield 

 House, Utica, N. Y., Feb. 5th and 6th, 1873. 



The association was called to order by President 

 Quinby. 



The roll having been called, the secretary read 

 the report of the last meeting, which was adopted. 

 The treasurer's report was presented and approved. 

 The retiring president then read his annual addre s, 

 which we present entire. 



PRESIDENT QUINBY' S ADDRESS. 



Two years ago, it was stated in the North Ameri- 

 can Convention of bee-keepers, at Cleveland, Ohio, 

 that Mr. Quinby had accumulated a fortune by 

 keeping bees. This was promptly denied, as far 

 as dollars and cents were concerned. The term for- 

 tune is very indefinite as to amount of money con- 

 stituting one. Some persons would have it with 

 one hundredth part as much as others. And then 

 again a fortune may consist in the accumulation of 

 knowledge, wherewith the dollars may be gained in 

 the future. In yet another view a fortune may be 

 considered in the light of treasures laid up in 

 heaven ; in the satisfaction of having done some- 

 thing for the benefit of man, a perpetual reward. I 

 hope I may have done or shall do something that 

 way. The fact that a fortune was not secured 

 pecuniarily, by me, is, I think, owing to distribution 

 as fast as accumulated. Whenever a fact was ob- 

 tained that would benefit others as well as myself, 

 it was forthwith given to all who would receive it. 

 Those who did take it, did it very often so reluct- 

 antly that one would suppose they expected some- 

 thing would be given for listening to it. 



Fifty years ago, when a boy, I heard a neighbor 

 that kept bees talking to my father on the subject ; 

 who made this remark, "I believe that I could 

 make an independent fortune out of bees." Here I 

 got a lasting impression. Without waiting to under- 



