THE AMERICA]^ BEE JOURNAL. 



363 



who said that the comb was iierfect, 

 cells of the riglit size and pioper 

 depth, and sold for o(l cents per vard. 

 All the bees had to do was to wax the 

 paper and (ill it and cap it. lie was 

 sure that he was not raistal<eii. I 

 have been woiking with the bees (i 

 years, have been a constant reader of 

 the Bee Journal for 4 years, and I 

 have never heard of this '• paper 

 comb " before. If there is such a 

 thing, why is it not spoken of or 

 advertised V 



[There is no such thing. The man 

 is mistaken, and like many others, 

 talks about something he knows 

 nothing of.— Ed.] 



so. does tlie 

 qualities V 



race possess superior 



Swarms and Swarming. — R. F. 



Holtermann, Brantford, Ont., writes : 



In answer to Mr. J. C, Rawlins, on 

 page 330, I would say that I have had 

 a natural swarm with nothing nearer 

 a queen than eggs in the queen-cells. 

 The swarm may have come out sooner 

 than it intended, owing to my having 

 examined them a few minutes before 

 they issued. Doubtless they had 

 filled themselves with honey anil were 

 nearer being ready for swarming. 

 My first swarm, this year, I had on 

 May 29. It was a hne one. 



ftueenless Colony, etc.— D. R. Rose- 



brough, Casey, o+ Ills., writes : 



In my spring report I stated that I 

 had a queenless colony. It has a 

 queen now, but it is not worth as 

 much by $.5.00 as the others, for 

 all the other colonies are overflowing 

 with bees, and are working in the 

 surplus apartments. The one ttiat 

 had to rear a queen is only a mere 

 nucleus. Speaking of bees as a nui- 

 sance, I have my bees very near a 

 house in which lives my tenant, and 

 he calls my bees tame bees. A jiart 

 of them are Cyprians. The only 

 trouble is in winter, when the bees 

 speck the clothes hung out to dry. 



Length of Drones' Wings.— Dr. G. 

 L. Tinker, of New Philadelphia, o+O., 

 says : 



Recently I have taken the measure- 

 ments of a large number of dones' 

 wings, and (ind more variation tlian I 

 had supposed. The Italians measure 

 quite uniformly )4 inch in length, and 

 5-32 of an inch in breadth of the large 

 wings. Pure Carniolans are from 1-16 

 to 1-32 shorter, and the same width. 

 Some of my best Syrio-Albino drones 

 have wings nearly 9-lG, or almost 1-10 

 of an inch longer than those of any 

 other I have found. The breadth is 

 also slightly more than 5-32 of an 

 inch, it occurs to me that such 

 drones are the ones we should get 

 our queens mated with. If we select 

 the most active and swift-winged it 

 will surely add one good point to our 

 stock in breeding up a superior strain 

 of bees, I should be glad if others 

 would take measurements of their 

 drones' wings and report in the Bee 

 Journal. Have any got drones with 

 wings longer than tM»i of an inch ? If 



Honey Locust. — C. II. Dibbern, 



Milan, -o Ills., on May 27, 188ti, writes: 



I send two specimens of the bloom 

 of the honey locust. You will ob- 

 serve that they are entirely different. 

 Please tell us through the Bee J(_)Ur- 

 NAL if these are different species, or 

 are they male and female '? I will 

 state that they grow on separate 

 trees, and there seems to be about an 

 equal number of each. 



[The flowers of the honey locust are 

 what the botanists call poljigamous, 

 that is, they are sometimes perfect, 

 having both stamens and pistils, and 

 sometimes these organs are in sep- 

 arate flowers. In this case they are 

 evidently upon different trees, and 

 the case is not a very uncommon one. 

 Probably these trees will continue 

 year after year to do just the same 

 thing ; still it would not be surprising 

 upon close looking if some of both 

 kinds of flowers should be found on the 

 same tree. I find on one of the speci- 

 mens sent, both the male and female 

 organs.— T. J. Burrill.1 



Drouth in Texas.— B. F. Carroll, 

 Dresden, (5 Texas, on May 31, 188G, 

 writes : 



We have not had a drop of rain 

 since April 24. The honey crop is a 

 complete failure. The horse-mint is 

 in bloom, but we get no honey. If 

 we get rain soon we may have a few 

 pounds from the cotton bloom. 



Extracting, Prolific ftueens, etc.— 



20— Jonas Scholl, (72—70), Lyons Sta- 

 tion, o+;ind., on May 27, 1886, writes : 



I commenced extracting to-day — 16 

 days earlier than last year, and 10 

 days earlier than two years ago. The 

 honey is quite thick, and very good, 

 being mostly from poplar bloom. Bees 

 wintered just splendid the last four 

 years. I winter my bees only on the 

 summer stands, and on natural stores 

 with blankets and leaves above. For 

 rapid increase of brood through April 

 and May, I have not yet seen any 

 better or more convenient arrange- 

 ment. The leaves and blankets stay 

 on until ready for the surplus ar- 

 rangement. I have this spring taken 

 more particular notice of the spread- 

 ing of the brood-nest, and among 70 

 colonies I have seen but few that 

 failed to rear brood to the very top- 

 row of cells in the frames ; so that 

 reversing would not pay on that score. 

 Perhaps my way of retaining the heat 

 above the cluster has something to do 

 with it. On page 279 Mr. Ileddon 

 makes a statement that I think should 

 not go unchallenged. He says : " By 

 interchanging and inverting we can 

 develop one halt more brood than we 

 get from the same brood-capacity in 



non-invertible hives." Now I claim 

 to liave <pieens just as prolific as any 

 that Miciiigaii can produce, and if he 

 were here 1 could sliow him some 65 

 of them that are running 10 Lang- 

 stroth frames to their full capacity of 

 brood ; and to get tliein to do double, 

 or even one-tliird more by any re- 

 versible arrangement, is simply im- 

 possible. Tlie time set for the meet- 

 ing of the North American Coiiven- 

 tioti, at Indianapolis, on Oct. 12-14, 

 1881), is certainly very appropriate, 

 and will, I think, suit Indiana bee- 

 keepers generally. 



Excellent Season So Far.— Wm. B. 



McCormick, Uniontown, 9 Pa., on 

 May 29, 1886, says : 



We have had an excellent season so 

 far in this section for bees and honey. 

 The white clover is now in full bloom, 

 and the bees are booming. So far I 

 have had 12 swarms, two of which 

 were second-swarms ; the first being 

 on May 18. 



Abundance of White Clover.— Alex 



Rose, Sullivan,© Ills., on May 31, 

 1886, writes : 



I am among the bees every day. I 

 wintered 22 colonies out of 24. only 

 losing one, and one was queenless, 

 with which I have a swarm which is 

 doing well. I bought 9 colonies this 

 spring for ,S9. and I now have 48 colo- 

 nies. Some of the hives of the old 

 ones are full of honey, and the bees 

 have commenced to cap it over, but 

 swarming checks that for a few days. 

 I have been keeping bees for 8 years, 

 but I never have seen such a crop of 

 white clover— the country is perfectly 

 white with the bloom. The linden or 

 basswood is beginning to bloom. I 

 am looking for a large crop of lumey 

 this year. I use 2-pound sections. I 

 sold honey last year for 20 cents per 

 pound in sections. Some in frames 

 and some broken up honey I sold for 

 10 and 15 cents per pound. I do not 

 expect so much this year. My record 

 shows that I put on sections last year 

 on June 16 ; this year from May 6 to 

 May 12. I expect to take off several 

 hundred pounds of honey before June 

 16, this year. 



Convention Notices. 



^" The .'ith reKular nieetinK of the Hill <;ounty 

 Bee-Keepers' ABsociation will be heltl on the first 

 'J'ucsday in July, isso, at the apiary of Hon. J. M. 

 McDaniel, of Peoria, Tex. At the same time and 

 place will be held a bee-lteepers' honey picnic. 



H. A. GOODRICB. Sec. 



jy The next annual meettne of the Mictjigao 

 State Bee-Keepers' Association will be held Id 

 Ypsilanti, Mich., on Dec. 1 and 2. 1886. 



H. 1). CDTTIXU. Sec. 



I3f" The regular semi-annual joint raeetioK of 

 the bee-keepers of llendriclis and Boone counties 

 of Indiana, will be held on Thursday, .June 17, 

 1K86, at the residence of J. P. Catterson, 4 miles 

 northeast of Brownsburgh, Ind., and -^ miles west 

 of Trader's Point. A cordial invitation is extend- 

 ed to all. 



