186 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Local Convention Directory. 



1886. Time and place of Meetivg. 



Apr. 6.— Eastern Indiana, at Richmond, Ind. 



M. G. Reynolds, Sec, WillianiBburg, Ind. 



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



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



Apr. 8.— Southern llUnots, at Duquoin. Ills. 



F. H. Kennedy, Sec, Duquoin, Ills. 



Apr. 10.— Union, at Dexter. Iowa. 



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



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

 Jno. Nau, Sec, Middletown, Iowa. 



Apr. 2S, 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, atMt. Sterl'ng, Ills. 

 J. M. llambuuKh, Sec, Spring, Ills. 



|y In order to have this table complete, Secre- 

 tarlee are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meettBKS.— Ed, 





Bees have Wintered 'Well.— F. H. 



Kennedy, Duquoin,? Ills., writes: 



The bees have wintered well here, 

 and the outlook for the season of 1886 

 is very encouraging. We think that 

 honey is cheap, but I find sale for all 

 I have to dispose of at 10 cents per 

 pound. 



Gone.— B. B. Tony, Holly Tree.d 

 Ala., on March 12, 1886, writes : 



Our brother, Nelson Perkins, late of 

 Minnesota, is no more. He was laid 

 away yesterday ; his last resting 

 place being but a few hundred yards 

 from the place where he first settled. 

 We miss him in the bee-fraternity. 

 We and our children and all his 

 acquaintances miss his good counsels. 

 Also the M. E. Church has lost a 

 brother of undoubted Christian in- 

 fluence. Still we hope his good in- 

 fluence is not lost, but will remain 

 with all who knew him. He is now 

 free from his pains forever— gone over 

 the river— and is waiting for his 

 friends. 



Home Market for Extracted Honey. 

 — 1. N. Arnold, Richraond,c>tIowa, on 

 March 10, 1886, writes : 



I see so often in the Bee Journal 

 complaints about a home market for 

 extracted honey. I will give my ex- 

 perience which might be of some 

 beneht to bee-keepers who have a 

 poor home trade. When I first had 

 extracted honey I took a sample of it 

 and a copy of the Bee Journal to 

 our county-seat and the other smaller 

 towns. I showed the honey, and the 

 picture of the extractor and honey- 

 knife in the Bee Journal, and ex- 

 plained how it was extracted, and 

 told what an advantage it was to the 

 bees to return the combs to them ; 

 also telling how it had been proven to 

 take from 14 to liO pounds of honey to 

 make a pound of comb. I tell them it 

 was as fine comb h<>ney as ever was 

 made, before it was uncapped and ex- 

 tracted. When I can get a man to 



taste my honey and listen to me, if he 

 has a spare dollar I am sure to sell 

 him a bucket of honey. If he buys 

 once I never have any trouble to sell 

 him honey the second time. I sold 

 2.000 pounds of extracted honey, and 

 had 1,000 pounds of white clover and 

 linden honey in two-pound sections. 

 I sold the 2.000 pounds of extracted 

 honey, and had three-fourths of the 

 honey in sections on hand ; so I told 

 my customers that I had a fine lot of 

 comb honey which I would sell to 

 them at 14 cents a pound. (I had sold 

 my extracted honey at 10 cents per 

 pound.) Some of them told me they 

 did not want to pay 4 cents a pound 

 to chew beeswax. If I would have 

 depended upon the middlemen or 

 grocerymen working up an extracted 

 honey-trade for me, I am sure I would 

 not have a trade for 1,000 pounds a 

 year, where I have a home trade for 

 8,000 or 10,000 pounds a year. 



Feeding Bees, etc.— E. H. C, Matts- 

 ville,5 Ind., propounds the following 

 queries : 



1. How can I tell whether or not 

 my bees are needing feed '? I dislike 

 to open the hives in cool weather. 2. 

 Will elm, soft maple and sycamore 

 lumber warp if cured in the shade, 

 and then used for making hives V 



[1. Without seeing the contents of 

 the hive you cannot, with certainty, 

 determine the quantity of honey it 

 contains. You can guess of the amount 

 of honey better than any one not 

 there. 



2. That is the tendency of those 

 woods, when compared with pine and 

 whitewood (tulip or yellow poplar). 

 Both of these are good, and have 

 merits peculiar to themselves, but 

 many prefer the whitewood. — Ed.] 



The Season of 1885.-T. C. Wire, 

 Grinnell.O Iowa, on March 8, 1SS6, 

 writes : 



I commenced the season of 188-5 

 with 15 colonies, increased them to 

 44, and obtained 600 pounds of comb 

 honey in one-pound sections. Bees 

 did very well until the grasshoppers 

 came and robbed the clover of its 

 sweetness. While the grasshoppers 

 were so thick the bees did not gather 

 enough to live on. We had a cold 

 rain that destroyed a good many of 

 the grasshoppers, and the bees worked 

 for 2 or 3 weeks as only bees can ; 

 then the frost put an end to honey- 

 gathering. I took oft the honey-racks 

 and found 11 late swarms with but 

 very little honey, so I made a feeder 

 that I could use without disturbing 

 the bees. As I had nothing to feed 

 them but white comb-honey worth 15 

 cents per pound. I bought granulated 

 sugar and fed enough to last them 

 through the winter. I examined 

 them last week and they were all 

 right and strong. I winter my bees 

 in a shed open to the south, with a 

 tight roof, ciouble back and ends, and 

 filled with leaves. I place the hives 4 



inches from the ground, 4 inches 

 apart, and 4 inches from the wall, 

 and pack them with dry sawdust. I 

 put a board in front of the hives and 

 tuck around and over it with old 

 carpet, and leave the tops of the 

 hives exposed to the sun. 1 use chaff 

 cushions in the caps. When the 

 weather is warm enough I turn down 

 the board at the entrances and let the 

 bees fly, and take a hooked wire and 

 help ttiem clean house. They have 

 kept very dry. 



Bee-Culture in Maine. — J. B. 



Mason, Mechanic Falls, p Me., writes: 



Ten years ago but very little was 

 done in bee-culture in Maine. While 

 it is true that there were a few bee- 

 keepers who showed a little interest 

 by trying some of the improved hives, 

 one could see nothing throughout the 

 State but a few rough box-hives in 

 some back place, or half hidden by a 

 stone wall or fence. So little honey 

 was produced that it was very seldom 

 seen in the market, and when it was 

 brought to market it was in rough, 

 unsightly packages. Now, honey can 

 be found in nearly all our markets, 

 and put up in as nice shape as any- 

 where in our country ; and nowhere 

 in the world can a nicer quality of 

 honey be produced. Maine can boast 

 of hundreds of apiaries of from 2 or 3 

 colonies to hundreds, neatly arranged 

 with movable frame hives all painted 

 nicely, and all the improved imple- 

 ments that are now used in bee-keep- 

 ing in any State are now used here. 

 Tons of comb foundation are used, 

 and tons of honey produced. There 

 are several persons in the State who 

 now devote their entire time to the 

 business. For statistics the reader is 

 referred to an article on page 104. 



Selling Adulterated Honey.— 13— 

 J. W. Bittenbender, (40), Knoxville,? 

 Iowa, writes : 



It seems that since bee-keepers 

 have made such progress in produc- 

 ing comb and extracted honey some 

 people cannot or will not believe that 

 honey can be sold at the present low 

 price without its being adulterated. 

 In these days of enterprise I do not 

 think there can be any one so igno- 

 rant in this direction as to write such 

 articles as have been published in 

 certain newspapers. We all are 

 aware that there is a class of men 

 who, when they see others pros- 

 per in business, become jealous and 

 immediately endeavor to devise some 

 way by which to injure them. When 

 I first began in the bee-business I had 

 to contend with just such persons 

 who tried to injure my business by 

 malting false statements about me ; 

 but I thought that if I have not 

 proved myself more of a man than 

 that people should believe that I had 

 adulterated my honey, why they 

 must just believe it until they learn 

 better. They finally did learn better. 

 and false reports ceased. I trust that 

 all have been honest enough to trust 

 this matter to itself. The proper way 

 is, not to sell a package of honey 

 without the bee-keeper's address upon 



