1014 



Dec. 13, 1906 



American Tte© Journal 



cold. He never lost an opportunity to min- 

 ister to their wants, and he believed the in- 

 sects had a real attachment for him. 



From the day of Seer's death there was un- 

 rest in the colony of bees. On the day of his 

 funeral they swarmed about the hearse, and 

 thousands followed it to the cemetery. The 

 following day it was discovered that the 

 hives were deserted. Several swarms of bees 

 were found in the trees near the grave of their 

 former owner. The others had mysteriously 

 disappeared. 



One of those who sent us a copy of the 

 above, writes thus : 



" Old-time bee-keepers claim that if a rela- 

 tive of a bee-keeper dies the bees will dwindle 

 away, provided they are not moved at least 

 one foot. I would like to hear from other 

 bee-keepers if such is the case, and what is 

 the reason therefor. The above clipping seems 

 to prove it." 



It will be noticed that the dispatch is dated 

 Nov. 12, and if several swarms went to the 

 cemetery anywhere near that date in Iowa, 

 they must have had more affection than good 



sense. It must have been a novelty to see 

 bees swarming in November! 



It is the old superstition over again, that 

 bees visit the coffin of their care-taker, and 

 doubtless the mistake was made of not 

 "whispering to them the death of their 

 owner!" 



Some bees might be seen on a freshly var- 

 nished coffin, and so they might on a freshly 

 varnished chair; but it would be all the same 

 to them who occupied either. As to swarms 

 leaving their hives to settle near the grave of 

 their owner, some testimony would be needed 

 to prevent one from thinking it pure inven- 

 tion. 



Some newspapers that published the item 

 headed it with these words: " Bee6 Mourn 

 at Keeper's Bier." If they did, they must 

 have had a little too much " beer." 



The " most remarkable " thing in the case 16 

 that such rot should be allowed to find place 

 in an ably conducted paper. 



Oliscellaneou 

 flews -Items 



The Chicago-Northwestern Conven- 

 tion was held last week. While the attend- 

 ance was not as large as last year, the interest 

 was good. It was, as usual, a question-box 

 convention. A full report was taken in 

 shorthand, which we expect to publish in due 

 time. The election of officers resulted as fol- 

 lows: President, George W. York; Vice- 

 President, Miss Emma M. Wilson, of Ma- 

 rengo, 111. ; and Secretary-Treasurer, Herman 

 F. Moore, of Park Ridge, 111. 



A photograph was taken of the convention, 

 which was very good indeed. Price, post- 

 paid, in mailing tube, 60 cents. Send orders 

 to the office of the American Bee Journal, 

 and we will see that the pictures are mailed. 



Russell 303, J. J. Cosby 243, E. E. Pressle* 

 154, and scattering 6 votes. 



W. Z. Hdtchinson, Secretary. 

 Leonard S. Griggs, Member. 



Mr. N. E. France, General Manager, 

 National Bee-Keepers' Association — 

 Dear Sir : — As the result of the ballot for 

 officers of the National Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion, as given above, I declare the following 

 persons elected to serve for the year 1907, to- 

 wit: L. A. Aspinwall as President, Geo. E. 

 Hilton as Vice-President, Jas. A. Green as 

 Secretary, N. E. France as General Manager, 

 and G. M. Doolittle, Jas. A. Stone and K. A. 

 Holekamp as Directors for the ensuing term. 

 K. L. Taylor, 



Chairman of Directors. 



The Recent National Election of 



officers for 1907 resulted as follows: 



N. E. France, Platteville, Wis., 



General Manager National Bee-Keepers' 

 Association — 



Dear Sir : — We, the undersigned, have 

 counted the votes cast for officers for the 

 National Association for 1907, and the results 

 are as follows: 



Whole number of votes cast for President, 

 752, of which L. A. Aspinwall receives 403, 

 M. A. Gill 340, and scattering 9 votes. 



Whole number of votes cast for Vice-Presi- 

 dent 797, of which Geo. E. Hilton receives 

 315, E. W. Alexander 299, W. H. Laws 179, 

 and scattering 4 votes. 



Whole number of votes cast for Secretary 

 801, of which Jas. A. Green receives 436, 

 George W. York 306, W. Z. Hutchinson 56, 

 and scattering 3 votes. 



Whole number of votes cast for General 

 Manager 807, all of them being cast for N. E. 

 France. 



Whole number of votes cist for Directors 

 3383, uf which G. M. Doolittle receives 620, 

 Jas. A. Stone 515, R. A. Holekamp 442, Wm. 



Moving Bees in Texas. — The picture 

 6hown on the first page was secured recently, 

 and represents quite a caravan of wagons 

 loaded with bees —200 colonies, at one trip, 

 near Beeville, Tex. Messrs. W. H. Laws and 

 J. W. Taylor are both extensive honey-pro- 

 ducers and queen-breeders. Their total api- 

 aries aggregate over 1700 colonies, all located 

 among the mesquite brush of. Southern Texas. 



The Apiary of P. W. Brey is shown 

 on the first page of this week. When sending 

 the photograph, on Nov. 26, Mr. B. wrote as 

 follows : 



There are 176 colonies in my apiary, al- 

 though the photograph shows only 171, as 

 there are 3 colonies cut off on the northeast 

 corner and 3 on the southwest corner. The 

 lady to the right in the picture is my wife. 

 The next is my daughter and her little boy. 

 The next is my niece and her baby boy. The 

 older boys are my sons, Harry, Earl, and 

 Edwin with his dog. 



I have been keeping bees for about 20 years, 

 and have had many ups and downs during 



that time. Among them my house was 

 burned, losing almost all the furniture, a 

 comb foundation mill, a lot of comb founda- 

 tion, 4000 pounds of honey, and all of my ex- 

 tracting combs. The bees had not been put 

 into the cellar yet, so they were not burned. 

 As I had no cellar of my own to put them into, 

 I put them in my neighbor's cellar. It was a 

 poor one for the bees, with no chance for 

 ventilation, and the result was that I lost 60 

 colonies that winter. 



I have generally kept from 100 to 200 colo- 

 nies during the last 15 years. The picture 

 was taken in August, 1904, That was a very 

 good season for honey. I had 118 colonies, 

 spring count, increased them to 176 colonies, 

 and took 12,500 pounds of light extracted 

 honey, being an average of about 106 pounds 

 to the colony. Last year was a total failure; 

 but this year I got 10,000 pounds of extracted 

 honey. P. W. Bret. 



"The Bacteria of the Apiary, with 

 Special Reference to Bee-Diseases," by Dr. G. 

 F. White, Expert in Animal Bac eriology, 

 Biochemic Division, Bureau of Animal Indus- 

 try, is a bulletin just issued, and is for sale by 

 the Superintendent of Documents, Govern- 

 ment Printing Office, Washington, D. C. It 

 will be mailed for 10 cents, and all remittances 

 should be mailed payable to him. Stamps, 

 personal checks, or foreign money will not be 

 accepted in any case. This bulletin is also 

 known as " Technical Series, No. 14, of the 

 Bureau of Entomology." It is undoubtedly 

 the most exhaustive pamphlet on the subject 

 ever issued in this country, and should be 

 found in every bee-keeper's library. 



State Foul Brood Laws.— We have re 

 ceived, through Dr. E. F. Phillips, Acting in 

 Charge of Apiculture, a copy of a reprint en- 

 titled, " State and Territorial Laws Relative 

 to Foul Brood," issued by the Bureau of En- 

 tomology at Washington, D. C. Dr. Phillips 

 says thiB reprint will be sent free to any per- 

 sons requesting it, but the supply is rather 

 limited, and therefore the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology prefers to send it only to persons who 

 really have some use for it. Of course, every 

 inspector, and all others who are interested 

 in securing State laws on bee-diseases, should 

 have a copy of this compilation of all the 

 laws, so as to be in possession of as much in- 

 formation as possible on the subject. 



The Mexican Supper in San Anto- 

 nio. — This, as previously announced, was 

 fully equal to the warmest anticipations. 

 About 4 :30 p m. of the second day of the con- 

 vention (Friday), Mr. France, we think it 

 was, arose and said that as theTexans wanted 

 to give the bee-keepers a genuine Mexican 

 supper at 6 o'clock, it would be necessary to 

 adjourn soon in order to be on hand before 

 the eatables " cooled off " too much. 



The Secretary, just before adjourning, said 

 that as we were in a strange land, among 

 many strangers, and some of them treacher- 

 ous Mexicans and long-horned Texans; and 

 as we were soon to indulge in what might 

 prove to be risky and somewhat serious, to 

 the inner man at least; he wished to warn all 

 to be prepared for the worst. He had just 

 heard and seen fall on the floor from a Texas 

 member's pocket, something that looked like 

 a "concealed weapon." Of course, if such 

 were the case, it might be well for all to go 



