THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



43 



Local Convention Directory. 



Time and place of Meeting. 



19.-N. W. Ills. & S. W. Wis., nt Freeport, Ills. 

 Jonathan Stewart, Sec, Kuck City, Ills. 



19— :21.— Maine, nt Skowhegan, Me. 



Wm. Hcyt, Sec, Ripley, Me. 



:Z0,.2I.— Indiana State, at Indianapolis. Ind. 

 F. L. Dousiierty, Sec, Indianapolis. Ind. 



20, 21.— N. E. Ohio &N.\V.Pa..atMeadvil)e,Pa. 

 C. H. Coon, Sec, New Lyme, O. 



21.— Champlain Valley, at Middlebury. Vt. 



K. H. Holmes, Sec. Shoreham, Vt. 



23.— Hancock Countv, iit Findlay, O. 



S. H. Bolton, Sec, Stanley, O 



26— 28.— Eastorn New York, at Albany, N. Y. 

 E. W. Philo, Sec.Ualfmoon, N. Y. 



4.— Wisconsin State, atMadison, Wis. 



Dr. J. W. Vance, Sec, Madison, Wis. 



3.— N. E. MichiKiin. at East Saginaw, Mich. 

 W. Z. Hutchinson, Sec, Rogersville, Mich. 



16-18.— New York State, at Rochester, N. Y. 

 F. C. Benedict, Sec. Perry Centre, N. Y. 



27.— Des Moines County, at Burlinston, Iowa. 

 Jno. Nau. Sec, Middletown, Iowa. 



19, 20.— Illinois Central, at Mt. Sterling, Ills. 

 J. M. llambaugh. Sec. Spring, Ills. 



tW~ In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.— Ed. 



1886. 

 Jan. 



Jan. 



Jan. 



Jan. 



Jan. 



Jan. 



Jan. 



Feb. 



Feb. 



Feb. 



Apr. 

 Oct. 





Weather in the South, etc— 9— 

 Oscar F. Bledsoe, (7-5-140) Grenada, 5 

 Miss., on Jan. 11, 1886, says : 



We are having zero weather here 

 now. The mercury was 1-' below zero 

 on the morning of Jan. 9 — the coldest 

 weather ever known here in the mem- 

 ory of " the oldest inhabitant." I 

 fear that it lias played havoc with tlie 

 nuclei colonies. I am trying to win- 

 ter them in order to preserve tlie fine 

 tested queens. I cleared S400 in cash 

 from my bees last year, besides the 

 increase— a result that I consider 

 good. I am aiming higher this year. 

 May the American Bee Journal 

 be crowned with success and useful- 

 ness the present year as in the past ; 

 and may the foundations of bee-cul- 

 ture become more firm as a steady, re- 

 munerative pursuit I 



Bees Doing Well.— S. L. Sherman, 

 Oskaloosa,? Iowa, on Jan. 1, 1886, 

 says : 



The past season was rather poor for 

 bees liere. There was no fall honey. 

 One year ago I began the winter with 

 83 colonies of bees, and on May 1, 19 

 of them were alive, most of them 

 having only a handful of bees. I have 

 increased them to 8o, by the nuclei 

 system and natural swarming, and 

 obtained 500 pounds of extracted 

 honey and 200 pounds of comb honey 

 in sections. 1 now have 60 colonies 

 in a cave, 20 in the cellar, and .3 out- 

 side packed in leaves; all appear to 

 be doing well. I use the Bangstroth 

 frame. I sold my honey at 12)^ and 

 15 cents per pound. 



New Honey-Plant.— Hiram Chap- 

 man, Versailles, PN. Y.,on Jan. 2. 

 1886, says : 



In the report of the Detroit Conven- 

 tion, under the head of " Pasturage 

 for Bees," I noticed my honey-plant 

 described as resembling plantain. If 

 you vpould have an opportunity of ex- 

 perimenting with this plant, I will 

 send you some specimens of it which 

 will blossom next summer. Mr. L. 

 C. Root, Prof. McLain, of the United 

 States Apicultural Station at Aurora, 

 in., and others, will visit my apiary 

 next summer and thoroughly investi- 

 gate the plant and its possibilities, 

 and report at the convention to be 

 held at Indianapolis, Ind., next fall. 



[We would have no opportunity of 

 testing it here.— Ed.] 



Bees in Good Condition.— Arthur 

 E. Ault, North Liberty, cxiowa, on 

 Jan. 9, 1886, writes : 



l.,ast winter was the most severe one 

 ever known for bees in this locality. 

 I had 2.5 colonies packed in chaff on 

 the summer-stands, 13 of which died 

 with diarrhea and spring dwindling, 

 in the spring, and several of the re- 

 maining 12 were quite weak. I worked 

 my bees almost entirely for increase, 

 and I now have 37 colonies. White 

 clover was badly winter-killed in this 

 county, and basswood yielded but 

 little honey ; however the fall flow of 

 lioney was good. Buckwheat, golden- 

 rod,heart's-ease, and the asters yielded 

 exceptionally well. My bees are all 

 packed in chaff, being supplied with 

 natural stores, and seem to be in good 

 condition. They had a partial flight 

 on Christmas. The American Bee 

 Journal grows better and better. 



Keversible Hives.— W. Z. Hutch- 

 inson, Rogersville, 6 Mich., on Jan. 9, 



1886, says : 



I want to say a word about the utility 

 of reversible hives. They will likely 

 be pushed as never before, but pushed 

 upon their real merits— regardless of 

 patent-rights. The experience of one 

 season with reversible hives may not 

 weigh much with some people, but my 

 advice to beginners is, begin with re"- 

 versible hives. Let me prophesy that 

 when the great " blow "—of opposi- 

 tion—is over, the thousands of ordi- 

 nary movable frames that are now 

 iieing pushed into use, will stand — 

 aside for reversible hives. 



bees, all well provisioned for tlieir 

 winter's nap. Last season I increased 

 my apiary from 27 colonies to -")4, with 

 a total of 2,2.')0 Itis. of surplus honey 

 taken, mostly in l-lti. boxes, excepting 

 200 tt)S. of extracted. The .season of 

 1884 was a hard one on our bees. I 

 had to feed both the blacks and 

 Italians, and obtained no surplus. 

 We have just had a week of warm 

 weather, the snow being all gone, 

 with southeast wind and some rain. 

 The frost is out of the ground almost 

 enough to plow. What effect, at this 

 date, it will have on the clover roots 

 remains to be seen. 



ftuietude in the Apiary.— John 



Reynolds, Clinton, ?Me.,on Jan. 6, 

 18S6, writes : 



Fifty little churches without any 

 steeples, each with pastor and people, 

 music, prayer, sermon, doxology— all 

 combined. The apiary is now at rest, 

 and in contrast with the hum of the 

 " little busy bees " through the hot 

 summer, nothing is now heard from 

 them (nor should be), except a low 

 murmuring sound like the ripple of a 

 distant waterfall as it vibrates upon 

 the frosty air. I have .50 colonies of 



Keeping Bees in a Barn.— Noah 



Field, Spencer,? N. y.,Jan. 8,1886, 

 says : 



Last spring I bought a colony of 

 bees in a box-hive from a neighbor. 

 It produced one very large swarm. I 

 kept tliem in a room upstairs in my 

 wagon-barn. Each hive has a slant- 

 ing bottom-board, and a sliding door 

 that I can raise when I wish to clean 

 out the dead bees. I place the hives 

 2 feet from the floor and 3 feet apart. 

 I cut openings in the side of the barn 

 just the size of the fronts of the hives, 

 and place the honey-boxes on top of 

 the hives in the room. I got 28 ttiS. of 

 honey from the 2 hives. They are in 

 a cellar for the winter, have a plenty 

 of honey stores, and so tar they are 

 doing first-rate. I think that the 

 slanting bottom-board is a great bene- 

 fit, for the bees can take everything 

 so easily downhill to the entrance. I ' 

 also have a piece of glass in the back 

 of each hive through which I can see 

 the bees pass into and out of the 

 hive. All who have seen where I 

 keep my bees think that it is a nice 

 place. 



Home Demand for Honey.— P. J. 



England, Fancy Prairie, ©111., on .Tan. 



12, 1880, says : 



On June 1, 1885, I had 25 4-frarae 

 nuclei, which I increased to 27 colonies, 

 and secured l,-500 tbs. of extracted 

 honey, every ounce of which is sold. 

 Of course we can build up a home de- 

 mand ! Use a No. 1 article of honey 

 for bait, and people will be caught. 



Bee-Keeping in Texas. — C. M. 



Davis, Denison City, d Texas, on Jan. 



7, 1886, says : 



I have kept bees for at least 20 

 years, and I take a great interest in 

 the business— in fact I find much 

 pleasure in it also. I am in the north- 

 ern part of Texas, and it is a very 

 poor place for the bee-business, on 

 account of so much drouth. A num- 

 ber of parties that have invested quite 

 largely in bee-keeping, have failed to 

 make it pay iiere, and consequently 

 have abandoned the business. 1 have 

 been keeping a few colonies for two 

 years, but with a very small profit, 

 and what I have are very weak in 

 bees, the summer and fall having 

 been so dry that they bred but little. 

 The horse-mint is the principal 

 honey-plant in this locality, and that 



