THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



105 



to investigate the probability of foul 

 brood existing along tlie line of 

 Filmore and York counties ; where- 

 upon the following resolution was 

 unanimously adopted : 



Resolved, That this Association 

 request the (iovernor to notifj; the 

 inspectors that have been appointed 

 under the foul-brood law, that they 

 must report the inspection of all colo- 

 nies in the infected districts under 

 their supervision, by the lOth day of 

 May next, in default of which their 

 commission will be cancelled and 

 others appointed in their places. 



The remainder of the session was 

 spent on miscellaneous subjects, and 

 the convention then adjourned to 

 meet in Lincoln for their next annual 

 meeting. H. N. Patterson, Sec. 



For the American Bee Juurnal. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Discoiiraffiiig Broofl-Reariiis. 



8— J. A. GKEEN, (So— 100). 



I fully agree with Mr. Dadant, in 

 his communication on page 60. In 

 my locality, the bee-keeper who would 

 ■discourage brood-rearing in his hives 

 15 or 20 days before the beginning of 

 the honey crop, would be very apt to 

 be unsuccessful. 



Here, sweet clover often yields a 

 great deal of honey after wliite clover 

 and basswood have ceased blooming. 

 There is also considerable uncertainty 

 as to the time of blooming of both 

 white clover and basswood. Moreover, 

 any one of these plants is liable to fail 

 to yield honey while the others pro- 

 duce it freely. Ordinarily only a 

 small part of my honey crop comes 

 from basswood, the other sources of 

 supply being white clover, sweet 

 clover, and in the fall, heart's-ease. 

 Last year almost all of my honey was 

 obtained from basswood, and this 

 bloomed unusually late. If I had 

 stopped brood-rearing 15 or 20 days 

 before the usual time that white 

 clover blooms, it would take very few 

 figures to represent my honey crop of 

 last year ; (not so very many, as it is.) 



Still worse off would have been a 

 bee-keeper only 12 miles from my 

 apiary, who got no white clover or 

 basswood honey, but had a good yield 

 from sweet clover after my honey was 

 all gathered, although there is plenty 

 of sweet clover within reach of my 

 bees. This illustrates well what a 

 difference there is in localities. Again, 

 if I expect to get any fall honey— and 

 sometimes our heaviest yield is in the 

 fall— there must be no diminution of 

 brood-rearing during the earlier 

 yields, else there will not be enough 

 bees to gather this crop. 



Let no one be led into the system 

 of discouraging brood-rearing until 

 he has by long experience made him- 

 self familiar with all the sources of 

 honey-supply in his locality. While a 

 careful man might carry it out suc- 

 cessfully where there is but one short 

 honey-flow, I have never seen the 

 time from the first of June to the last 

 of September when I considered that 

 ray hives were too full of either brood 

 or bees. 



Dayton, 5 Ills. 



A New Sumlus-Case, 



J. M. SHUCK. 



The engravings show a new surplus 

 honey-case deviseTl and used by me 

 during the last season. It is sec- 

 tional. permanently separatored,and is 

 invertible. There are no top or bot- 

 tom bars in the way to hinder, when 

 sections are to be removed. The sec- 

 tions have the false lops and bottoms, 

 peculiar to all my cases, to protect 

 them from the travel of the bees ; in 



me that the queen might be found 

 where the bees had been poured out 

 the morning before — about 24 hours 

 previous— and there to my amazement 

 was a cone-shaped cluster of bees as 

 large as a tea-ciip, and in the centre 

 of it was the queen, cold and stiff. 

 Upon taking her to a lire, in a few 

 minutes she was restored to activity, 

 and on lifting the cushion over the 

 bees and presenting her, the first 

 thing, even before she left the fingers, 

 a bee ''gave her to eat," and there- 

 upon, almost instantly, a joyful hum 

 passed through the hive ; and quicker 

 than it can be told, dead bees were 



fact, the bees can touch the sections 

 nowhere, except on the inside. I 

 think that no other method of sep- 

 aratoring in use is equal to this. New 

 inventions are plentiful, but practical 

 bee-keepers will criticise closely, in 

 order to be able to choose the best. 

 Des Moines,© Iowa. 



For the American Bee JournaL 



Queeii-Iiitrofluctioii-Aii Incident. 



EEV. WEISBL BEALE. 



Mr. John Hewitt's article on the 

 introduction of queens, page 54, re- 

 minds me of the following touching 

 incident of filial fidelity in the bee ; 

 which also confirms his system of 

 introducing queens : 



Last fall, while putting my colonies 

 in order for wintering, they were 

 carried, one by one, a few yards from 

 the summer stands, and the frames 

 removed, boxes cleaned, etc. ; the 

 bees adhering to one hive were poured 

 on the ground with the scrapings 

 from the hive, and the queen with 

 them. Shortly after the colony had 

 been replaced upon its stand, robbing 

 began, thus indicating something 

 wrong with the queen. Her hive was 

 closed until sundown, and visited 

 early the next morning — a light frost 

 having fallen— when it occurred to 



carried out, and defensive warfare 

 against robbers began. 



The fidelity exhibited in protecting 

 their mother on that frosty night, and 

 the joy manifested on her safe return 

 home, are worthy of our imitation. 



New Madrid, o- Mo. 



For the American Bee JounuiL 



Introflncinff Queens, etc, 



FRED BECHLY. 



Mr. Hewitt, on page 54, says : " I 

 may be pardoned for saying that this 

 system of mine is infallible." Some 

 years ago I had a colony of bees that 

 had been queenless for a month or 

 more, and had become weak in bees, 

 with no brood or eggs, and no sign of 

 laying workers, and at a time when 

 honey was scarce and robbers were 

 plentiful. I took a nice, large hybrid 

 queen and let her run in at the hive- 

 entrance, and the bees balled her at 

 once. A few minutes later I looked 

 to see what they were doing, and 

 found several bees dragging her out, 

 dead, with one bee in front with its 

 sting through her tongue. I then 

 gave them another queen by caging 

 her over night, and she was well 

 received. It woiild seem that although 

 Mr. Hewitt's plan is a very good one, 

 it is not entirely " infallible." 



