170 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Local Convention Directory. 



1886. Tivit and place of MeeHnu. 



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



M. G. Kuahto , Sec, Bait Branch. Ala. 



Apr. 7.— Wabash County, at Wabash, Ind. 



J. J. Martin, Sec, N. Manchester, Ind. 



Apr. 8.— Southern Illinois, at Duquoln, Ills. 



F. H. Kennedy, Sec, Duquoln, Ills. 



Apr. 10.— Union, at Dexter, Iowa. 



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



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

 Jno. Nau, Sec, Mlddletown, Iowa. 



Apr. 29, 30.— Western, at Kansas City, Mo. 



P. Baldwin, Sec, Independence, Mo. 



May 5, 6.— Texas State, at McKinney, Tex. 



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



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

 J. M. UambaUKh, Sec, Sprlnif, Ills. 



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

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 lime and place of future meetings.— Kl). 



A Bee-Keepers' Meeting. — Mark 



Thomson, Canton, d O., writes as 

 follows : 



The bee-keepers of Stark County 

 met in Grange Hall, at Canton, O., on 

 March 2, 1886, and effected a tempo- 

 rary organization by electing Jacob 

 Oswalt, of Maximo, President; J. H. 

 Smith, of Canton, Vice-President; 

 and Mark Thomson, of Canton, Sec- 

 retary and Treasurer. A meeting for 

 the purpose of effecting a permanent 

 organization was called for Tuesday, 

 April 13, 1886. The afternoon was 

 spent in a general experience meet- 

 ing, participated in by all the mem- 

 bers present. Much interest was 

 manifested, and great good to the 

 cause promises to result from the 

 organization. 



Cold and Stormy Weather.— G. M. 



Doolittle, Borodino,ON. Y., on March 

 4, 1886, says : 



The past week has been extremely 

 cold and blustering here ; in fact, 

 about as rough a week as we ever get. 

 The mercury was from .5^ above to 10° 

 below zero. 



Cleansing Foul-Broody Hives and 



Combs.— Frank Curl, Des Moines,© 

 Iowa, writes : 



On page 139, Mr. Ward says that by 

 the use of lye he has disinfected both 

 combs and hives which were infected 

 with foul brood, and advises others to 

 try the plan. As Mr. Ward does not 

 state when he made his discovery, I 

 would suggest that others wait until 

 they hear from him next spring, when 

 he may have a chance to make more 

 experiments. 



Bad Weather for White Clover.— 

 Geo. Spitler, Mosiertown,-o Pa., on 

 March 1, 1886, writes : 



We are having zero weather with- 

 out snow. Our bees liad a chance to 

 fly in February, but all the colonies 

 did not come out, yet all seemed to be 

 in good condition. The present 

 weather will be hard on white clover. 

 Bee-keepers are fearing losses on 

 account of their colonies being short 

 of stores. 



Bees all Alive.— II. Clark, Palmyra, 

 9 Iowa, on March 4, 1886, says : 



My bees generally bring in the first 

 pollen from April 1 to tlie l.'jth. So 

 far I have not lost a colony this win- 

 ter, although the most of them are 

 packed out-of-doors in 8-frame Lang- 

 strotli hives. I am satisfied that our 

 loss of bees in wintering is caused by 

 having bad honey for stores. Last 

 spring 90 per cent, of the bees were 

 dead here ; while now they all appear 

 to be all right. On Feb. 4 it was 80-^ 

 below zero. 



Sectional-Hive ftuestions.- J. R. 



desires the following queries an- 

 swered : 



1. When hives are made with 

 square joints between sectional parts, 

 is there no danger of water running 

 in from rains to the injury of the 

 bees V and does it not take more time 

 to adjust or manipulate them than 

 those having lock-joints ? 2. What is 

 the right space between frame end- 

 bar and the hive ¥ Is % of an inch 

 not inconvenient to the bees, that is, 

 too long a step, as It were, from hive 

 to frame V 3. How much play should 

 the top-bar have endwise y 



[1. Long experience declares " no,'' 

 for both parts of the query. 



2. I prefer the standard % of an 

 inch for suspended frames. It makes 

 the bees no trouble, but will trouble 

 the operator if less space is used. I 

 would use an inch but for brace- 

 combs. 



3. Just enough so that notwith- 

 standing the variations in the lengths 

 of the top-bars, all will go in and out 

 without wedging. The more accurate 

 the work the less allowance needed. — 

 James Heddon.] 



Disinfecting Foul-Broody Hives.— 



Dr. L. C. Whiting, Fast Saginaw,© 

 Mich., on March 4, 1886, writes : 



Mr. G. J. Pease, on page 137, wishes 

 to know how to clean his hives and 

 roof from foul brood. Heat applied 

 to the hives in some way, equal to tlie 

 boiling point, is all that is required. 

 If the hives are loose from the bottom- 

 boards, build a lire in an old iron 

 vessel of some kind, and make a 

 chimney of them by piling them up 

 one on top of another, and wlien the 

 wax on the inside is melted and runs 

 down, throw in a handful of sulphur, 

 and place one of the bottom-boards on 

 top to keep in the vapor. In '> min- 

 utes the hives will be as safe as new 

 ones. Treat the bottom-boards and 

 frames to the same heat, melt the 

 combs into wax, and scald the honey 

 and feed it to the bees in the summer 

 whsB DO honey is eoming iu. If it is 



fed without heating, it will spread the 

 foul brood to all the colonies fed. If 

 his neighbor's bees get any of this 

 honey before it is scalded, they will 

 have the disease and pass it back to 

 Mr. P's bees by the time they are well 

 started again. So lie will see the im- 

 portance of using great care in all the 

 manipulations. The roof, if painted, 

 is safe, and I think that it would be 

 without. 



Short of Stores.— J. A. Pearce, 

 Grand Rapids,*o Mich., propounds 

 these questions : 



1. Is there any way to tell that a 

 colony of bees in the cellar are getting 

 out of stores by the actions of the bees 

 or otherwise? 2. What is the best 

 time of day to put bees out of the 

 cellar V 



[1. We know of no better way than 

 to look into the hive to find out 

 whether the bees have enough food. 



2. When everything seems favor- 

 able for a flight at once, put the bees 

 out, contract the entrances to the 

 hives, and smoke the bees a little to 

 prevent any great rush from the 

 hives.- Ed.] 



Condition of Bees in Virginia.— 



Jos. F. Shaver, North River, 5 Va., 

 on March 3, 1886, writes : 



About half of the bees in this 

 county are dead. The loss was caused 

 by the very poor honey season last 

 summer, this extremely cold winter, 

 and the negligence of some bee- 

 keepers. As there was but little 

 honey gathered last season, some bee- 

 keepers gave their bees no attention, 

 and hence their loss. My 2.5 colonies 

 have wintered nicely thus far. I have 

 them on the summer stands with 

 enameled cloth and cushions on the 

 brood-frames, and corn fodder packed 

 all around the hives, except at the 

 entrances. Most of my queens have 

 commenced laying, although the 

 weather is still quite cold. 



Cider and Bees.— R. K. McCune, 

 Fair Water.o Wis., on March I, 1886, 

 writes : 



We occasionally see articles in the 

 bee-papers hinting that honey and 

 bees are damaged by pomace at cider- 

 mills. It is true tliat bees sip at fruit, 

 but it does not necessarily follow that 

 they are gathering it to put among 

 their stores, or even extracting honey 

 from it. We see them in the same 

 way frequenting barn-yards and hog- 

 pens, but no one would for a moment 

 suppose that they were gathering 

 anything to store in their hives. 

 Again, it is frequently said that bees 

 must have salt. Do bees salt their 

 honey V All will say no. Then, I 

 say, neither do they cider it. It may 

 be asked, what do they do with those 

 ingredients y It is a known fact that 

 many kinds of animals and fowls do 

 at times use substances foreign to 

 their natural food, as medicine. Why 



