410 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



could be made in extensive establish- 

 ments, shipped in kegs or bottles ! 

 How to malse the best viiiea;ai- so that 

 it can be made to rival cider vinegar. 

 Give SI, 000 or more if soinetliing good 

 can be attained. Give enough so that 

 our best scientists will experiment in 

 that line. 



I have also thought we should have 

 suitable receptacles in which to sell 

 our honey, so that it may be placed 

 directly on the table (I mean ex- 

 tracted honey). A vessel which will 

 show at a "glance that it contains 

 honey ; no readiug of label or word 

 from the landUidy. For instance, a 

 glass bee hive of the old straw pat- 

 tern, with a large queen-bee for faucet 

 at the fly-hole. By prpssing or lifting 

 the wings between the thumb and 

 finger, the honey may flow from the 

 queen's mouth. Such a thing would 

 take. It could be made of silver or 



fold, and be an ornamenton any table. 

 Vhen once such a receptale is owned, 

 it will be kept Hlled with honey. No 

 one would debase her or himself by 

 putting syrup in it. Or, again, make 

 them like syrup cups new in use, but 

 for tlie top there sliould be a bee-liive; 

 also the word honey in gold in front 

 of the body of the cup, fixed between 

 the glass as fancy saloon bottles are 

 now made. 



Believe me there is money in the 

 above suggestions, more than in dis- 

 cussing " theories " or " problems." 

 Necedah.0 Wis. 



Local Convention Directory. 



188ti. Time and place of Meeting. 



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



H. A. Goodrich, Sec, Maeaey, Te,x. 



July 16.-Marshall f^o.. at Maralialltown. Iowa. 



J. W. Sanders, Sec., LeGrand, Iowa. 



Aut'. 31.— Starli County, at Canton, O. 



Marl£ Thomson, Sec, Canton, O. 



Sept. 4.— Sheboygan Co., at Sheboygan Falla.Wis. 

 Mattle B. Thomas Sec, Sheboygan Falls, Wis. 



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



Ferd Zastrow, 8ec., Millhome, Wis. 



Oct. 12— 14.— North American, at lndianapoli5f.Ind. 

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



Oct. 1!), 20.— Illinois Central, at Mt. Sterling, Ills. 

 J. M. llambaugh. Sec, Spring, Ills. 



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



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



|y" In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.- Bd. 





Immense Flow of Honey.— Wm. 



Bitzer, Wheeling, 5 W. Va., on June 

 17, 18S6, says : 



During the past week we have had 

 an immense flow of honey from white 

 clover. At present it is very cool, 

 but the prospect is fair for a good 

 crop of most excellent honey. 



Building Worker Comb.— Charles 



Mitchell, Molesworth, Out., on June 



23, 1886, writes : 



I have been innocently following 

 the advice of Mr. W. Z. Hutchinson, 

 in answer to Query, No. 264, by liiving 

 large first swarms on C empty frames 

 wiih starters }^-inch wide, and on 

 the sixth and seventh days putting on 

 upper stories ; and 1 thought I was 

 stealing a march on the use of comb 

 foundation. However, I am always 

 a little suspicious, and looked into the 

 hives to see what was going on, when 

 to my disgust I found that they were 

 completely ruined. There was not a 

 worker comb the size of my hand, in 

 the six hives. Had 1 followed the 

 same advice this season I should have 

 lost from $300 to $500 this summer, 

 all for saving the cost of a few pounds 

 of comb foundation. I have bought 

 100 pounds of comb foundation, and I 

 fully believe that the man who can- 

 not buy a few pounds of foundation 

 had better let bees alone. 



Virgin Queens, etc— E. C. Kepner, 

 Pikeville,o* Tenn., on June 22, 1886, 

 answers the open questions on page 

 379, thus : 



To the first I will say, yes, when the 

 hive contains a virgin queen. I say 

 yes to the second question. This will 

 occur during continued wet or cool, 

 cloudy weather. I also say yes to the 

 third question ; this occurred in my 

 own apiary but yesterday. I had a 

 swarm come off with a virgin queen, 

 and also an old queen, as 1 keep my 

 old queens' wings all clipped. I was 

 at the entrance of the hive soon after 

 the swarm began to issue. The first 

 queen that came out was a virgin 

 queen, and soon after the old queen 

 came forth. On examining the hive 

 I found several young queens just 

 ready to hatch. 



Bee-Keeping in Mississippi.— 20— 

 L. J. de Sobotker, (.8.5-83), Riverton,*o 

 Miss., on June 15, 1886, writes : 



Since the last week in May we have 

 had fearfully hot and sultry weather— 

 90° to 95'' in the shade. The bees 

 have lost a good deal of time between 

 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily for over a 

 week. They actually clustered out- 

 side the hives in such a manner that 

 a novice would certainly have thought 

 that they would all soon be going to 

 the woods, and leaving the hives 

 empty— empty of bees they certainly 

 were from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on several 

 days, and I felt afraid that if such 

 heat should continue much longer, 

 that the brood would be injured and 

 the combs commence to melt. Just 

 as suddenly as the great lieat had 

 come on so suddenly on June 3 the 

 temperature lowered 24'^ in a few 

 hours, and then changed to bleak, 

 chilly weather. This the bees did not 

 relish either, as tliey kept out of 

 siglit in the hives enjoying, I suppose, 

 the fruits of their toils during the 

 early mornings and late evenings of 

 the hot spell ; however, now they are 



quite busy again, and there is no 

 noticeable check in the flow of nectar 

 from tlie fields. I have also been 

 troubled a good deal with robbing, 

 especially with those that had been 

 left in box-hives after dividing; but 

 in one day I stopped them by wetting 

 thoroughly a lar>,^e bunch of grass and 

 putting it in front of the entrance for 

 a few hours,and contin uing to sprinkle 

 the robber bees with water. Toward 

 sunset I took a strip of glass 6 to 8 

 inches long and 2 inches wide, and 

 placed it on edge against the front of 

 the hive over the entrance, so that it 

 made a very narrow passage-way at 

 either end, and that would only admit 

 a couple of bees at a time. Ttiis gave 

 the robbed bees a chance to (ill up the 

 passage and keep the robbers at bay, 

 which effectually broke up the rob- 

 bing. The weather is now good, 

 there is a profusiim of bloom, plenty 

 of nectar in the field, and the bees are 

 doing well. 



Report. — B. Betten, Goodeirs,ot 

 Mich., on June 21, 1888, writes : 



I bought a 2-frame nucleus on July 

 21; the bfes wintered well and have 

 increased to four strong colonies. I 

 think I can increase them to ten this 

 season all right. The honey-flow is 

 good here. 



[Ten colonies from one nucleus is 

 too much. You will be very likely to 

 lose them all next winter.— Ed.] 



That New England Lawsuit.— 

 Marshall Darling,Waterbury,9Conn., 

 on June 21, 1886, writes : 



My lawsuit in the District Court 

 has not been tried yet. It has been 

 postponed twice now, but it will be 

 tried, I think, on .June 28. My bees 

 have never done lietter at this time of 

 the year than they are doing now. 

 Wliite clover is plenty here this year. 

 I have had 5 swarms. I have sold 

 some of them and have 12 colonies 

 left. 



PreventiEg Annoyance by Bees.— 

 C. H. Dibbern & Son, Milan, vj Ills., 

 on June 17, 1886, write : 



From reading the statement of 

 Messrs. Thos. and Benj. Young, on 

 page .'ffS, it seems evident that they 

 are somewhat to blame themselves. 

 If we expect to keep large apiaries in 

 towns and cities, and remain at peace 

 with our neighbors, we must manage 

 tliem so that they will trouble other 

 people as little as possible. It will 

 not do to let the beeg swarm all over 

 town, and get people all "stung up." 

 If they cannot keep their swarms 

 from getting mixed up, and straying 

 off, they should use a few swarm- 

 catchers or otherwise divide, or keep 

 them from swarming. Some have 

 condemned the catcher, but we have 

 used for years four or five of our own 

 make, consisting of nothing but an 

 oblong frame with wire-clotlion three 

 sides, and cloth tacked on the open 

 end. and we find them a grand thing. 



