THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



123 



Local Convention Directory. 



188t>. Time and place OS Meeting. 



Mar. Ml.— N. Jersey & Kiistern, at N. Y. City, N. Y. 

 W. B. Treadwell. Sec, 16 Thomas St., New York. 



Apr. 10.— Union, at Dexter, Iowa. 



M. E. Darby, Sec., Dexter, Iowa. 



Apr. 27.— Des Moines County, at BurlinRton. Iowa. 

 Jno. Nau, Sec., Middletown, Iowa. 



Oct. 19, 20.— Illinois Central, at Mt. Sterline. Ills. 

 J. M. llambauBh, Sec, Spring, Ills. 



IW In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetinsB.— Kl). 







Bees ftuiet in the Cellar.— T. F. 

 Kinsel, Sliiloli,5 O., writes : 



My bees are in the cellar. The 

 temperature, is never higher than 44° 

 Falir. , and never as low as 3;i°. They 

 are very quiet yet ; with my ear 

 aeainst the hives I can always hear 

 them— day or night. Are they hiber- 

 nating y Do bees snore in their 

 sleep y 



[We give it up. Ask us something 

 easier, next time. — Ed.] 



Pleasant Weather Again.— G. M. 

 Doolittle, Borodino,© N. Y,,on Feb. 

 9, 1886, says : 



The cold weather has ended, and 

 to-day the bees had a fine flight, with 

 the mercury at .51° in the shade. All 

 of my bees had a flight except one 

 colony that died about Feb. 1, with 

 the diarrhea, contracted about the 

 middle of October. There is some- 

 thing about this disease that none of 

 us understand yet. 



Varnish Barrels for Honey.— T. J. 



C, Cincinnati, o^ O., asks tlie follow- 

 ing question : 



Would barrels that had copal var 

 nish in them, be good to keep honey 

 in, if they were cleaned out and then 

 waxed V 



[By no means. The honey would 

 be spoiled.— Ed.] 



Bee-Keeping in Texas.— C. Beal, 



Columbia, ex Texas, on Feb. 7, 1886, 

 writes : 



I have received a vast amount of 

 useful khowledge in bee-culture from 

 the perusal of the Ajiekican Bee 

 JouuNAL. Cook's Manual is worth 

 its weight in gold to any man, though 

 he has but a few colonies of bees. 

 Honey is so plentiful here that we let 

 the bees live on tlieir natural stores. 

 The 10- frame Langstroth hive is good 

 enough for me. Myself and Mr. Jesse 

 Parks formed a partnership in the 

 bee-business last spring, he furnish- 

 ing the bees and the hives in flat, and 

 I doing all the work. The honey was 



equally divided. I extracted about 

 275 gallons. I commenced last spring 

 with 70 colonies, increased them to 

 130, lost 7 by the combs melting down 

 and by the moth. All my old colonies 

 were in box-hives, and my young 

 colonies are in Langstroth and Gallup 

 hives. My apiary is on the banks of 

 the Brazos river. We had 5 overflows 

 during spring and summer, which was 

 a big drawback to bees gathering 

 honey. My bees, for the last 10 days, 

 have been carrying in pollen. They 

 are all blacks, and become very cross 

 sometimes, but with a Bingham 

 smoker I can soon quiet them. Last 

 October I introduced 4 Italian queens 

 successfully, and now the young Ital- 

 ians are working nicely. 



Feeding Bees for Winter, etc.— J. 

 H. Andre, Lockwood,? N. Y., on 

 Feb. 10, 1886, writes : 



On page 59 I spoke of putting 'A 

 colonies into winter quarters which 

 had been fed late in the fall, and cold 

 weather shut the young bees in with- 

 out their having a flight. It is con- 

 ceded that such colonies will not 

 stand the winter well on account of 

 pollen eating, butit is nearly 3 months 

 since they have liad a flight, and I 

 carried them out for a flight to-day, 

 and so far as I could see they were 

 all right, and spot the snow but very 

 little. One of them was fed for a 

 week or more, probably 8 or 10 pounds 

 of syrup. I do not see how Mr. Dadant 

 could have told any more plain facts 

 in the same amount of space than he 

 did on page 75. It is my opinion that 

 good honey is the most natural food 

 for bees, and I cannot see where the 

 profit comes in by extracting all the 

 honey and then feeding all winter. 

 I noticed on a neighbor's farm a 

 willow tree that did not blossom until 

 after fruit-blossoms were gone. It is 

 the only one I ever saw in this 

 vicinity. The bees were working 

 upon the blossoms in a perfect swarm. 

 It would be a valuable acquisition to 

 our bee- pasturage here, as it blossoms 

 between fruits and white clover. I 

 would like to hear its name through 

 the Bee Jouknal, and whether it is 

 planted in any place purposely for its 

 honey-producing qualities. 



Good Prospect for Clover.— John 



Nebel & Son, High Hill,oMo., on 

 Feb. 10, 1886, write : 



Our bees seem to liave stood the 

 winter pretty well so far. They had 

 a good cleansing flight on Feb. 7 and 

 8, the mercury being as high as 50° 

 above zero, and the 6 inches of snow 

 which lias been on the ground since 

 Jan. 8, has all melted. The snow has 

 proven a blessing in protecting the 

 clover this winter, as it is alive and 

 looks as if there would be a good crop 

 this season. We never have much of 

 a clover crop when the earth is bare 

 and the weather extremely cold, as it 

 has been the past month, the mercury 

 being as low as 20° below zero, and 

 for hve days 11° and 12° below. We 

 notice that the bees have wintered 

 better during the past cold spell than 

 ever before. As they had no flight 



for 6 weeks w<^ thought some of thera 

 would be in poor condition, but we 

 find that very few dead bees have 

 been carried out, and they have not 

 spotted the snow as much as they 

 usually do when being confliied so- 

 long. They are wintering on the 

 summer stands packed in chaff. Those 

 in cellars are resting quietly. Al- 

 though it is not over yet, we feel safe 

 now in getting our bees through the 

 winter. 



Strengthening Weak Colonies.- H. 



R. Boardman, P^ast Townsend,5 O., 

 on Feb. 18, 1886, writes : 



I protest against the plan men- 

 tioned by W. Z. Hutchinson, in his 

 reply to Query, No. 201. It certainly 

 will result in disaster to change places 

 with 2 colonies of bees in early spring 

 when honey is not coming in. I have 

 had queens killed and large numbers 

 of bees destroyed by making such 

 changes when I considered it very 

 fair honey weather. My advice to 

 beginners would be, to be a little cau- 

 tious about changing places with 

 colonies except in the heighth of the 

 honey gathering. 



An Original Invention.— Wm. A. 



Stolley, Grand lsland,ONebr,, wishes 

 to give this testimony : 



I have read ilr, Demaree's article 

 on page 102, and I feel it my duty to- 

 testify that I was employed by Mr. 

 Ileddon during the year 1884, and I 

 am personally acquainted with the 

 development of his latest invention, 

 for many of his experiments were 

 jilaced in my charge. I know that the 

 idea of a brood-camber in two parts 

 originated with him, and I remember 

 just when, where and how. I further 

 know that the idea of thumb-screws 

 for clamping frames was original with 

 him, though we found it had been 

 previously used in bee-hives, but not 

 as (nor for the purpose) he uses it. 

 Simple justice compels me to say that 

 1 never saw any one more careful and 

 conscientious about copying the work 

 of another. I think he would as soon 

 steal wood, as the results of another's 

 mental labor. His students know, 

 and will testify to the truth of these 

 statements. 



Finding ftueens,— Warren Pierce, 



Garrettsville, <^0., writes: 



Although the answers given ta 

 Query, No. 195, are sufiicient for the 

 expert, and will work especially well 

 with Italian bees, yet for a crowded 

 colony of blacks or cross hybrids, and 

 an inexperienced hand, I think I can 

 suggest a better plan, as follows : 

 A short time before you wish tore- 

 move the queen, examine the hive 

 and see that the honey-board, quilt or 

 enameled-clotli which covers the 

 brood-chamber, is not propolizM 

 down, but can be removed without 

 delay. Then after they have become 

 quiet, give them a few good puffs of 

 smoke, and in a few seconds remove 

 the quilt carefully and look among 

 the bees on top of the frames. If you 



