THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



351 



Local Convention Directory. 



1886. Time cmd place of Meeting. 



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

 Jno. Nun. Sec, Mlddletuwn, Iowa. 



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



P. Baldwin, Sec, Independence, Mo. 



Apr. 30.— Northern Ohio, at Wellinptnn, O. 



11. K. Boardnian, Sec, E. Tnwnsend, O. 



May 1.— Llnwood, at Rock Ehn. Wia. 



B. J. Thompson, Sec. 



May 4,— W. N. V. and N. Pa,, at Randolph, N. Y. 

 A. D. Jacobs, Sec, Jitmestown, N. Y. 



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



B. h\ Carioll, Sec, Dresden, Tex. 



May 11.— Cortland Union, at CorMand, N. Y. 



D. F. Shattuck, Sec, Homer. N. Y. 



May 18.— Central MichiEan, at N. Lansing, Mich. 

 E. W. Wood. Sec, N. Lanslnti, Mich. 



May 20.— Wis. Lake Shore Center, at Kiel, Wis. 

 Ferd Zastrow. Sec, Millhome. Wis. 



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

 J. M. IlambauBh, Sec, Spring, Ills. 



Dec. 1, 2.— Michigan State, at Ypsilanti, Mich. 



H. D. Cutting, Sec, Clinton, Mich. 



fW In order to have this table complete, Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetinirs.- Bd. 



'^^^^ 





mt>^ 



Gathering Pollen— 11. E. Hill, 

 Titusville,x3 Pa., on April 9, 1886, 

 says : 



A warm spell of weather about 

 March 25 opened the willow and soft 

 maple. But ou March 27 the tempera- 

 ture lowered to 30° above zero, which 

 suspended work in the hives. We 

 are having nice weather now, and 

 the bees are carrying in pollen to-day. 



Only One Colony Lost.— W. Stearns, 

 Lima,*© O., on April 12, 1886, says : 



Here the last season was a very 

 poor one for honey ; consequently 

 very many colonies died during the 

 past winter for want of honey. I lost 

 only one colony out of 50 put into the 

 cellar, and that one the mice destroy- 

 ed. I intend to unite them down to 

 38. The bees are bringing in pollen 

 to-day for the first. 



Reversible Hives, etc. — Edwin 

 Wilby, Toronto, Ont., on April 4, 

 1886, writes : 



I think that Mr. Ileddon's new hive 

 is just the thing. I have long thought 

 that the brood-nest should not be dis- 

 turbed any more than is necessary. I 

 commenced to keep bees 26 years ago, 

 making my own hives, as I was a car- 

 riage-maker by trade. I commenced 

 with the box-hive, at which time I 

 had not heard of Mr. Lungstroth's 

 book. I afterward bought Lang- 

 stroth's book, and made his style of 

 hives after tliat. My bees never were 

 troubled with foul brood, and I never 

 lost any bees by having pollen left in 

 the hives in the winter. I notice on 

 page 184 is an article by Charles F. 

 Muth, and as far as my experience 



goes I can endorse every word that he 

 says. I wish to thank him for putting 

 his experience in print. I always 

 have kept bees for pleasure, but ray 

 son attends to them now. We luive 

 26 colonies in the city, all in good 

 condition, packed in sawdust 2 feet 

 thick, back, front, and on each side 

 of the hives. It has been 23^ below 

 zero the past winter here. We had 

 very little surplus honey last summer. 

 All my bees are wintered on the sum- 

 mer stands, 8 inches from the ground, 

 under a water-proof shed. Tliey stand 

 on a platform, and all have 6 inches 

 of sawdust under each hive on the 

 I)latforni. I never lose any except 

 now and then one by a queen dying. 



Success in Wintering.— Wm. B. 

 McCormick, Uniontown,? Pa., on 

 April 9, 1886, says : 



I have wintered my 25 colonies of 

 bees without any loss— 9 colonies in 

 the cellar and 16 packed on the sum- 

 mer stands ; both did equally well. I 

 think that my apiary is now entirely 

 clear of foul brood, which destroyed 

 my 40 colonies (save one) during the 

 summer of 1883. I hope we may have 

 a good honey season the coming 

 summer. 



Bees have Wintered Well, etc.— 2 

 —J. L. Comstock, (36-35), Sac City,K) 

 Iowa, on April 12, 1886, writes : i 



I started with 9 colonies iu the 

 spring of 1885, increased them to 36, 

 and took off .500 pounds of surplus 

 honey. On Nov. 28, 1885, I put 36 

 colonies into the cellar. 1 put them 

 out on April 7, 1886, and found one 

 colony queenless, so I united it with 

 another, which leaves me 35 good 

 colonies to start with. We organized 

 a bee-keepers' association here on 

 March 27, known as the " Sac County 

 Bee-Keepers' Association." The fol- 

 lowing officers were duly elected for 

 the ensuing year : President, S. R. 

 Gulp ; John 15arlow, Vice-President ; 

 Wm. P. Drewry, Treasurer; J. L. 

 Comstock, Secretary ; Executive Com- 

 mittee, Wesley Cheney, Wm. P. 

 Drewry, and Walter Harrison. The 

 association is to meet on the last 

 Saturday of each month at 10 a.m., at 

 the Court House in Sac City, Iowa. 



Experience in Wintering.- Thos. 

 S. Wallace, Clayton,*o Ills., on March 

 31,1886, writes: 



I invari:ibly put my bees into the 

 cellar, which is about 16x36 feet with 

 a partition in the centre, and with 

 cemented floor. One room is used to 

 store apples, potatoes, etc., and my 

 bees ; the other room is used for a 

 kitchen and dining-room. I place 

 the hives one on the other in rows 

 just so I can pass between them. I 

 close the entrances before I put them 

 into the cellar. After they are all 

 in I go through and let them all out. 

 I have a ventilator in the bottom of 

 each hive. I put about 50 colonies in 

 the cellar about Dec. 1, and .50 more 

 on Dec. 31, 1885. I left them in tor 

 about 3 months, when I put them out. 



I found 5 colonies dead— 1 was out of 

 honey, the other 4 had honey but not 

 enougti bees to keep up tlie heat. 

 They had used up the honey that was 

 in reach, but could not spread out to 

 get more. Bees are in good condition 

 up this date, but the weather is very 

 poor lor bees. It has been snowing 

 every few days. I keep ray bees on 

 honey if they have it; if they have 

 no honey I feed them sugar syrup. 

 I think that pollen is certainly neces- 

 sary for bees to eat, or nature would 

 not have them gather so much of it. 

 I think that more bees die from eat- 

 ing poor honey than from eating 

 pollen. I do not think that pollen 

 will hurt any healthy colony of bees 

 in a proper place. I think that the 

 moth will wholly subsist on pure wax. 

 I have had them to hatch and breed 

 in nice boxes of white clover honey, 

 and almost destroy it before I would 

 know it. They did not seem to eat 

 the honey, but the wax. 



No Dead Bees this Spring.— T. F. 



Bingham, Abronia,? Mich., on April 

 8, 1886, writes : 



Bees had a nice flight to-day— only 

 one colony dead from those that were 

 wintered out-of-doors. Those in the 

 cellar have been there for 5 months, 

 and are as quiet as when put in. Shall 

 put them out in a day or two. There 

 are no dead bees around here this 

 spring. 



Bringing in Honey.— John Key, 

 East Saginaw,© Mich., on April 8, 



1886, says : 



My bees have gone to work on the 

 maples to-day, and are bringing iu 

 some honey. If the weather keeps 

 warm the willows will be in bloom m 

 a few days, and then the bees can get 

 plenty of pollen. My bees "came 

 through the winter in good condition : 

 I did not lose a colony. I think that 

 fully 80 per cent, of the bees in North- 

 ern Michigan have wintered. 



Bee-Keeping in Kentucky.— G- W. 

 Ashby, Valley Station, 5 Ky., on April 

 5, 1886, writes : 



For the last 10 days we have had 

 one continued series of rain, hail, and 

 snow storms. During the few days 

 of warm weather that we had in 

 March, the bees brought iu pollen 

 plentifully, and some water. I have 

 a few Northern willows that the bees 

 literally covered in their eagerness to 

 gather everything in bloom. I have 

 made some inquiry, and find that 

 there has been but little loss in win- 

 tering, except among my bees. I 

 have lost U ; all by not feeding them 

 early enough to give them time to cap 

 their stores over, consequently it 

 soured, and the capped honey was so 

 scattered that they died, with plenty 

 of honey, but they could not get at it. 

 Some have lost 1 or 2 in 30 colonies ; 

 some none in 15 to 20. We have some 

 " bee-gum " men here yet; one has 11, 

 and lost one. He has 2 colonies in 

 patent hives that wintered all right. 

 I engaged to transfer all of his bees 



