THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



331 



Local Convention Directory. 



I88ti. Tiine and place of Meetino. 



July .— Hill County, at Peof la. Tex. 



H. A. Goodrich, Sec, Massey, Tex. 



Aug. :H.— Stark Tounty. at Canton. O. 



Murk I'homaon, Sec, Canton, O. 



Oct. 12— 14.— North American, at Indianapolis, Ind. 

 F. h. Dougherty, Sec. Indianapolis, Ind. 



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

 J. M. Hambaupti, Sec, Spring, Ills. 



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



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



UT" In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and phice of future meetings.— Ei>. 



IC^4^^^te 



OL/R^ LErnt^^B^^ 



Display of Honey-Plants.— Mrs. C. 

 Robbins, of liulirtiiapolis.O Ind., Cor- 

 responding Secietary of the National 

 Bee-Keepers' Society, writes : 



The committee of arrangements 

 for the National Bee-Keepers' Con- 

 vention to be held at Indianapolis, 

 Ind., on Oct. 12-1-1, 1886, think that a 

 display of honey -producingplants and 

 flowers from as many different States 

 as possible would add considerable to 

 the interest and educational feature 

 of the Convention. Therefore, the 

 committee invite such a display, and 

 will arrange them in any a manner 

 that is desired after reaching here. 



Constructing a Honey-Room.— D. 



M. Imlay, (94—81), Seward, o* Nebr.. 

 on ]\Iay 15, 1886, writes : 



Bees wintered well in this locality, 

 and have made their living since 

 April 8. I notice a few white clover 

 blossoms, which, by the way, is rap- 

 idly gaining a foothold on the " Great 

 American I>esert." Our honey crop 

 is still all from heart's-ease and buck- 

 ■\theat. My loss, as indicated above, 

 is mostly from robbers, and on 

 account of weak colonies to start 

 ■with. Will not some of the " doc- 

 tors " in bee-culture give us some 

 information as to the construction of 

 a room in which to store surplus 

 honey, so as to have it as dry as pos- 

 sible, and yet have it clean and free 

 from dust V 



Fremont Progressive Convention. 



—Samuel Odell. Secretary of this new 

 bee-association, gives this report : 



The '■ Fremont Progressive Bee- 

 Keepers' Association " was organized 

 with 12 charter members at Fremont, 

 Mich., on May 8, l.SSti, and the follow- 

 ing oBicers were elected for the en- 

 suing year : President, Geo. E. Hil- 

 ton; Vice-Presidents, A. E. Upton 

 and A. M. Alton ; and Secretary and 

 Treasurer, Samuel Odell. The mem- 

 bership-fee was placed at 2-5 cents for 

 gentlemen ; ladies to be admitted 

 gratis. Then followed discussions on 

 various topics of importance to bee- 



keepers, after which an interesting 

 essay was read, entitled, " Does bee- 

 keeping pay V" by Geo. B. Hilton. An 

 invitation was extended to all who 

 may desire to become members of the 

 association, to give their names and 

 2-5 cents to the Secretary. The con- 

 vention then adjourned. 



Prevention of Increase.— 7— A. P. 



Cowan (73—71) Grattan,*oMicli., says : 



As I have not seen an answer to 

 Query, No. 238, I will state that I 

 have tried the plans usually recom- 

 mended, and foinid them to fail in 

 this locality. My plan is this : As 

 the bees swarm, kill or make use of 

 the old queen, and let the swarm re- 

 turn. After 7 days destroy all queen- 

 cells except one, and it is done. At 

 least I treated 40 colonies so last sea- 

 son, and not one swarmed again. I 

 clip my queens'wings,f or convenience. 



Grand Season Expected. — P. P. 



Nelson, Manteno,o+ Ills., on May 14, 

 1886, writes : 



For the past two years bees in this 

 locality have been working on the 

 reversible order. My bees went back 

 from 40 colonies to 12, but now I have 

 27 good, strong colonies. We have 

 had the most favorable spring for 

 bees that I have ever experienced. 

 The honey-tlow began on April 22, and 

 in 4 days the combs were glistening 

 with honey, and new comb was started. 

 Everything indicates a grand season 

 for bees and honey. 



Colony Taken from a Bee-Tree — 



n. M. Burwell, D. D. S., of West 

 Winsted,^ Conn., on May 14, writes : 



Last fall I found a bee-tree that had 

 been cut. The bees were clustered 

 on a limb and were building comb 

 there. They had dwindled to about 

 4 quarts. I brought them home in a 

 tin pail and put them on full sheets 

 of foundation ; fed them granulated 

 sugar syrup, and left them on the 

 summer stand. (This was in Sep- 

 tember.) They wintered, and are 

 strong, and as good as any of my 

 colonies. I enjoy looking over my 

 bees, the honey I get from them, and 

 more yet, the reading of the Bee 

 Journal. 



Driving Bees, etc. — Lorenzo J. 

 de Sobotker, Iliverton,N3 Miss., on 

 May 11, 1886, writes : 



The weather here has been very 

 propitious, pleasant and warm for 

 bee-keepers. For the last week the 

 bees have been doing well, increasing 

 in brood, colonies growing into strong 

 ones, bees working upon honey locust, 

 liawthorne, white clover, and some 

 minor bloom, and storing in the sur- 

 plus arrangements. I have .found, 

 this season, that from the middle of 

 April until now, driving bees a la 

 lleddon, from "gums" into movable- 

 frame hives, is the best plan of trans- 

 ferring, and keeps down swarming 

 thereby. I accomplished the same 

 results in the movable-frame hives by 

 the use of the honev-extractor. 



Colony that Does Not Swarm,— L^ 



R. Williams, Paris, <^ Texas, on May 



17, 1886, says : 



Bees are gathering some honey 

 now, but are not swarming much, 

 ('olonies are strong, and they work 

 well, I have one colony of Italian 

 bees that are the best honey-gatherers 

 I have. It has a tine, large three-year- 

 old queen, and they have never 

 swarmed. It is a strong colony, and 

 has a great many fine drones. Does 

 any one know why they do not 

 swarm Y (My brood-chamber is 12^x 

 16J^ inches, and 11}^ inches deep; 

 and the honey-chamber is V2}^xl&% 

 inches, and 5J^ inches deep, each con- 

 taining 11 frames.) 



Holly.— A. A. Dodge, Palma Sola^ 

 9Fla., on May 7, 1886, writes : 



I send a specimen of a honey-plant 

 and also a piece of honey-comb made 

 from its honey. Will you please 

 name the plant y It is nameless in 

 this part of the country. The bees, 

 are gathering honey from it, and also 

 from the scrub-palmetto. Bees are 

 40 days behind the usual season, on 

 account of the cold winter and spring 

 months ; but they are now prospering 

 finely. 



[The plant is Ilex glabra, one of the 

 many species of " Holly."— T. J. 



BUKRILL.] 



Fine "Weather for Bees.— J. H. 

 Andre, Lockwood,? N. Y., on* May 

 13, 1886, says : 



Bees seem to be doing just fairly 

 well. I think that if some who are 

 talking about their bees booming and 

 rushing, would examine the hives 

 well they would find nothing better 

 than last season, that came through 

 the winter well. We have had very 

 tine weather, however, for about 35 

 days, and the bees have not been shut 

 in a single day — only a part of a few 

 days on account of showers. I fear a 

 drouth now, which will be very bad 

 at this time of the year, as the season 

 is the earliest it has been since 1865, 

 and clover will blossom in a week or 

 ten days. A dry time now would 

 shorten the crop very much, but our 

 old stand-by, raspberry, will help us 

 along as usual. Friiit trees have 

 about halt of a full crop of blossoms, 

 and a week or ten days earlier than 

 usual. W'e have not had enough frost 

 to kill anything since about April 5. 



Cloudy, Chilly May.— Jas. McNeill, 

 Hudson,<x N. Y., on May 17, 1886, 

 says : 



I had my first swarm of bees on 

 May 14, oil which date fruit bloom 

 closed— two weeks earlier than usual. 

 Bees have vi'intered well. In my home 

 apiary out of 1-55 colonies only 2 were 

 queenless; nearly all the rest are in 

 line condition. We have had a 

 cloudy, chilly, wet Alay so far ; so 

 that bees did not get much more than 

 a living out of fruit-bloom. 



