346 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Local GonTention Directory. 



1886. Time and place of Meeting. 



July 6.— Hill County, at Peoria, Tex. 



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



Aug. 31.— Stark County, at Canton, O. 



Mark Thomson, Sec, Canton, O. 



Oct. 7.— Wis. Lake Shore Center, at Kiel. Wis. 



Ferd Zaetrow, Sec, Millhome, Wis. 



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

 F. L. Dougherty, Sec. Indianapolis. Ind. 



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

 J. M. Hambaugh, Sec. Spring, Ills. 



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



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



^F" In order to have this table complete, Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetiBjrs.— Ed. 





P5XX>C" 



Good Prospects in Canada.— E. F. 



Holtermann, Biantfoid, Ont., on May 

 22, 1886, says : 



Reports from various quarters state 

 that there have been several natural 

 swarms. Everywhere bees are in 

 splendid condition. Prospects in 

 Canada never were better for an 

 abundant honey harvest. 



Taxing Bees.— L. A.Dosch,Miamis- 

 burg,KD O., says : 



I have always paid taxes on my 

 bees. They are listed on the asses- 

 sor's printed blanks the same as any 

 other agricultural stock. The asses- 

 sor asked me how many hives of bees 

 I had ; I told him, and he put his own 

 value on them at %Z each, without 

 seeing them. 



There have been but very few days 

 since the first fruit bloom that the 

 bees have not been busy gathering 

 either pollen or honey, and have built 

 up very fast. I had a tine swarm on 

 May 15, nearly a month earlier than 

 usual. My hives are full of bees, and 

 many of them with the bees cluster- 

 ing on the outside. White clover is 

 commencing to blossom, and I see 

 that the bees are already working on 

 it. 1 think I never saw a finer growth 

 of clover. If the weather continues 

 as favorable as the past month, there 

 will be a heavy yield of honey. There 

 is not more than one-third as many 

 bees here as there was two years ago, 

 some having lost all they had. I 

 know of but two or three persons that 

 have as many colonies as they had 

 two years since. There is but" little 

 of last year's crop of honey on hand 

 in this part of the State. 



Convention at, Kiel, Wis. — Ferd 

 Zastrow, Millhome, o Wis., its Secre- 

 tary, reports as follows : 



The Wisconsin Lake Shore Center 

 Bee-Keepers' Association met at Kiel, 

 Wis., on May 20, 1886, with President 

 E. Peterman in the chair. About 40 

 bee-keepers were present, and the 

 list of members was increased by 12 

 new ones. The convention was an 

 enthusiastic one, different essays were 

 read and discussed, and listened to 

 with great interest. Four hundred 

 and eleven colonies were reported in 

 good condition, mostly by farmers 

 that keep from 2 to 20 colonies for 

 home use. They were nearly all in 

 favor of out-door wintering, the hives 

 packed in chaff. The annual meeting 

 will be held on Oct. 7, 1886, at 1 p.m., 

 in Koehring's Hall, at Kiel, Wis. 



Excellent Spring for Bees.— H. L. 

 Wells, Defiance.-o O., on May 24, 1886, 

 writes : 



I began the winter of 1885-86 with 

 •5.3 colonies— 47 on the summer stands, 

 and 6 in the cellar. Those put into 

 the cellar were very weak, and would 

 not cover more than one frame, with 

 the exception of one colony. I lost 3 

 outright, .3 became queenless, and I 

 united them with others to save them. 

 I sold 3, and I now have 44 splendid 

 colonies, most of them occupying 

 from 16 to 20 frames in both upper 

 and lower stories. I am looking for 

 swarms every d.iy. I saw the first 

 white clover bloom on May 15. Locust 

 and raspberry are in full bloom, and 

 white clover will be out in ten days 

 more, I think. It has been the best 

 spring I ever have known for bees. 

 If the season continues as it has be- 

 gun, I will get from 100 to 1.50 pounds 

 per colony. 



Heavy Yield Expected.— Reuben 



Havens, Onarga,Ot Ills., on May 18, 

 1886, writes : 



This has been the most favorable 

 spring for bees within my recollection. 



Nothing for Bees to Gather.— G. 

 M. Doolittle, Borodino,© N. Y., on 

 May 24, 1886, says : 



I notice on page 307 that most of 

 the bee-keepers of the United States 

 are having a joyful time with bright 

 prospects ahead. Well, I am glad of 

 it, even if I am now compelled to feed 

 my bees to keep them from eating 

 and destroying their brood. Our 

 spring was tine until fruit bloom, so 

 that the bees reared lots of brood, and 

 consumed most of their old honey, 

 making them now strong in numbers. 

 During fruit bloom it was cool, cloudy 

 and rainy, so that the bees could not 

 work ; now it is warm and fair, but 

 there is nothing for them to get ; the 

 result is as above. 



money. Although an " old stager " 

 among bees, I can find a great num- 

 ber of points that are worth to me 

 more than ten times the cost of the 

 book. I would advise all to obtain a 

 copy, and I am confident that even 

 the most experienced bee-keeper will 

 find something in it worth more than 

 the cost of the book, which is, in 

 addition to its valuable contents, 

 printed on good paper, in clear type, 

 and excellently bound in cloth. 



Worth Ten Times its Cost.— E. 

 Kretchmer, Coburg, P Iowa, writes : 



I have had the pleasure of hastily 

 examining Dr. Miller's new book, " A 

 Year Among the Bees," and I find it 

 brimful of practical directions for 

 " making dollars out of bees." For 

 years we have had Simplicity hives, 

 and now we have " Simplicity Man- 

 agement " in Dr. Miller's book ; for 

 from first to last he guards against all 

 avoidable expenses, and works for 

 the income of honey, which means 



Good Increase.- Theo. Alexander, 

 Bowling Green,v3 O., on May 26, 1886, 



says : 



I have 2 colonies that have cast 7 

 good swarms, the first came out on 

 May 3, and the seventh on May 22. 

 Who can show a larger increase 'i 



Cellar Wintering, etc.— J. Jardine, 



Ashland, o Nebr., on May 24, 1886, 

 writes : 



I got over 3,000 pounds of honey last 

 year, and it is all sold now. I could 

 have sold much more if I had had it. 

 It was all in one-pound sections, and 

 all gathered from the heart's-ease. 

 From Aug. 15 to Sept. 20 is our honey- 

 flow in this part of the State. On 

 Dec. 12, 1885, 1 put into winter quar- 

 ters 105 colonies, keeping the tempera- 

 ture in the cellar at from 40° to 4-50 

 all winter. I took them out on April 

 9, and found 103 colonies strong in 

 bees, and 2 of them queenless. They 

 went to work in a few days after they 

 were out, and to-day I had a fine 

 swarm. The cellar wintering is good 

 enough for me. I hope we will have 

 a good year for honey. A few days 

 since I got two fine Carniolan queens 

 that were reared from imported stock. 

 They are fine looking queens, and I 

 introduced both nicely in 24 hours. I 

 want the bee that produces the nicest 

 white comb honey. I have tried the 

 Italians, the Germans, the Albinos, 

 etc. The Albino is a fine bee, a good 

 worker, and very gentle ; but the 

 Syrians are too cross forme, at times. 

 I use mostly the 8-frame Simplicity 

 hives, and like them very well, so far. 



Feeding Plant-Louse Nectar.— L. 

 Reed, Orono,© Mich., on May 24, 

 1886, writes : 



My winter loss was 20 per cent, 

 previous to April 12, whfn I put them 

 out to stay, and they were in splendid 

 condition, hives full of bees, and they 

 seemed to be doing finely. They 

 worked very strong on willow and 

 soft maple, and the prospect never 

 was better for the time of year. On 

 May 7, upon going into the bee- yard, 

 I noticed bees on the outside of sev- 

 eral hives, and the ground literally 

 covered with bees crawling in every 

 direction. They could not fiy, and 

 seemed to be crippled. They were 

 mostly young bees. My first thought 

 was that they were starving, but on 

 examination I found that they had 

 plenty of honey. There is only one 

 way that I can account for it. About 

 two weeks before I had put into each 



