THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



155 



Local Convention Directory. 



1 ><86. Time and place of Meetino. 



Mar. 20.— Patsalafja, at Arcadia, Ala. 



M. G. Kuahto , Sec, Rait" Brancb, Ala. 



A pr. 10.— Union, at Dexter, Iowa. 



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



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

 Jno. Nau, Sec, Middletown, Iowa. 



Apr. a9, 30.— Western, at Kansas City, Mo. 



P. Baldwin, Sec. Independence, Mo. 



May 5, 6.— Texas State, at McKinney, Te.\. 



B. F. Carroll, Sec, Dresden, Tex. 



Oct. 19, 20.— Illinois Central, at Mt. SterI'Dg, Ills. 

 J. M. llambaugb. Sec, Spring, lilts. 



^T" In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place ot future meetiaes.— Ed. 





imkwi 



Good Prospect for Honey.— 8— Jno. 

 C. Gilliland, (7-16), Hloomfield, ? Iiid., 

 on Feb. 24, 1886, says : 



My bees have wintered well, only 

 one colony lost. To-day they carried 

 in pollen lively. There has been very 

 little loss of bees in this county this 

 winter, and the prospect is good for 

 the honey yield next season. 



Bees Doing Well.— L. Highbarger, 

 Adeline, 5 Ills., on March 2, 1886, 

 writes : 



Bees are doing much better than 

 they did at this time last year. So 

 far I have been unable to discover 

 any signs of diarrhea ; but at this 

 time last year they were badly dis- 

 eased. The reason for this is that 

 they have a better quality of honey 

 to winter on. Whenever our bees 

 have honey-dew for winter stores we 

 can expect to meet with losses. 



Feeding Sugar Syrup.— W. J.Daw- 

 son, Diolison's X Roads, t5 La., asks 

 this question : 



Why do bee-keepers use sugar for 

 feeding when honey is quoted at 3>^ 

 to 4 cents per pound V 



[The only reason which can be given, 

 is that some prefer it for winter use, 

 even if it is dearer.— Ed.] 



Bees Wintering Well.— 27— F. A. 



Snell, (70-100), Milledgeville,-o Ills., 

 on Feb. 2.5, 1886, says : 



I commenced on June 1, 1885, with 

 70 colonies ot Italian bees ; during 

 June I sold 5 colonies. I secured 4.000 

 pounds of surplus honey. On Nov. 

 18, 188.5, 1 put 100 colonies into winter 

 quarters in good condition. Late in 

 May, 188.5, I reported 10.5 colonies, but 

 by June 1 I had disposed of the 35 

 colonies, thus leaving me 70 with 

 which to begin the season for surplus. 

 About one-tenth of my bees were 

 worked for queen-rearing. My bees 

 are wintering well so far. 



Bees Working on the Elms.— B. F. 

 Carroll, Dresden, d Texas, on Feb. 25, 

 1886, writes : 



The bees began work on the elm 

 bloom on Feb. 8, and JO days since 

 they have gathered a nice lot of pollen 

 and honey. The weather is very fine 

 for bees and farmers, and both are 

 busy. Corn planting is going on 

 briskly. Bees have wintered well 

 after our first zero weather ever felt 

 here. I hope this may be a prosper- 

 ous year to all apiarists. 



How Larval Bees Eat. — B. J. 



Bailie, Sarnia, Canada, says : 



I understand that Mr. J. Ruther- 

 ford, of Scranton, Pa., claims to have 

 discovered that larval bees live by 

 absorption (osmotic action), and that 

 they are not fed as our bee-books 

 would have us to understand. I wish 

 to know who was the first to discover 

 this fact. 



[This is a well known fact. It is 

 not confined to larval bees, but is also 

 true of many maggots, and nearly all 

 entozoa. The tape-worms have no 

 mouth, nor alimentary canal, and so 

 of course they have no other way to 

 secure nourishment. When insects 

 or worms are bathed in liquid ali- 

 ment, this is the common or usual 

 method of securing the nutritious 

 material. Some of our worst insect 

 pests live wholly by imbibition, or by 

 receiving food through osmosis. The 

 Ilessian-fly maggot is an example. It 

 is impossible to say who was the first 

 to discover this fact. — A. .1. Cook.] 



Bees in the Cellar.— Noah Field, 

 Spencer, 2 N. Y., on March 1, 1886, 

 says : 



We are having a cold spell now. My 

 bees are in the cellar, and they ap- 

 pear to be doing well at present. I 

 have one most excellent colony that 

 has not had a dozen dead bees in its 

 hive this winter, and I think that it 

 has over 100 pounds of honey in the 

 hive. I suppose if some bee-men had 

 it they would make 4 or .5 colonies out 

 of it. 1 think that the Bee Journal 

 contains so many good articles. I can 

 hardly wait for each number to reach 

 me. 



Wintering Bees— Old Foundation. 

 —J. M. A. Miller, Galva,ND Ills., on 

 Feb. 25, 1886, writes : 



I have just examined my 28 colo- 

 nies of bees that are in the cellar, and 

 I find them seemingly to be in a state 

 of quietude that indicates comfort. 

 They were put into the cellar about 

 Nov. 25, the hives being placed on 

 2x4 inch scantling set edgewise upon 

 blocks 8 inches thick, with the en- 

 trances all open, and no extra prep- 

 aration of ohafC, quilts,- or blocks, etc., 

 but they are simply in a dry cellar 

 with some cloths over them that were 

 on during the summer, and the covers 



are on the same as in summer. I 

 think that I never have seen bees in 

 better condition, not a pint of dead 

 bees being on the cellar bottom. Why 

 is it that if bees do so much better on 

 the summer stands in chaff hives, we 

 so often see this expression, or a sim- 

 ilar one !* " My bees are on the sum- 

 mer stands in chaff hives, except a 

 few weak ones that I putin thecellar." 

 If the chaff hive is so nice, and so 

 much better than the cellar, why not 

 put the few weak ones on the summer 

 stands, and the strong ones in the 

 cellar V I sell all of my honey in my 

 home market, and I have no trouble 

 in selling it. My trouble has been 

 for twr> years past to produce enough 

 to supply the demand. About 80 per 

 cent, of all the bees in this vicinity 

 died last spring during the cold. May 

 storms. I lose 35 colonies. Tliere 

 was no brood in the hives, and the 

 old bees died. I have a quantity of 

 foundation that is two years old. Will 

 it pay to have it worked over '? or will 

 itdo'touseit as it isV It seems to- 

 me that the bees would take to it 

 better if it was fresh. 



[You can freshen the foundation by 

 dipping it in warm water just before 

 using it. — Ed.] 



No Signs of Disease. — Gotlieb 

 Hoffman, Symerton,^ Ills., on Feb. 

 27, 1886, says : 



My bees are thus far wintering 

 nicely, both those in the cellar and 

 those on the summer stands packed 

 with chaff. They had a line flight a 

 few days ago, and there is no sign of 

 disease. 



Reversible Frames,— B. Losee, Co- 

 bourg. Out., on Feb. 22, 1886, says : 



Mr. T. C. Davies, on page 107, says 

 that he is interested in a reversible- 

 frame bee-hive. I have used mine 

 during the last 15 years, being hollow 

 walled, formed by wide standing- 

 frames, half-inch rods, top and bot- 

 tom reversible, with perforated metal 

 divisions for producing honey in sec- 

 tions, arranged to be moved without 

 disturbing the sections in the crates 

 above. 



Bees Packed in Sawdust.— J. R- 

 Nichols, Danville,© Ind., on March 

 2, 1886, says : 



My 56 colonies of bees are wintering 

 nicely, one-half of them being in the 

 cellar, and the balance packed in saw- 

 dust on the summer stands. It looks 

 now as though they would get through 

 the winter without the loss of a single 

 colony. 



Bees' in Good Condition.— F. M. 

 Taintor, Coleraine,«o Mass., on March 

 1, 1886, says : 



Bees in this locality appear to be 

 wintering finely. Mine were never 

 in better condition than at present. 

 I placed them in the cellar on Nov. 

 16, 1885,. and since then they have been 

 very quiet, with the thermometer at 

 4-5°. The weather this winter has 



