474 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Reader, scarcely a week passes all 

 winter without some such conversa- 

 tion as the above on this subject. If 

 I had only 10 colonies of bees, and 

 never calculated to keep any more 

 than that number, and had no cellar, 

 I would build a place on purpose to 

 winter them in, and save honey 

 enough every year to pay the expense. 



Osage, Iowa. 



[The above article is republished 

 from Vol. IV of the Bek Journal, 

 page 145, as requested by Mr. G. M. 

 Doolittle on page 215. — Ed.] 



Local Convention Directory. 



I never saw bees bring such loads of 

 pollen as they got from sumac, and 

 at that time I had quite a lot of white 

 comb about capped, but not suffi- 

 ciently capped to take off, and con- 

 sequently I have a lot of sections 

 nicely yellowed from the pollen. They 

 are not stained as are those left on 

 too long, that is, darkened, but 

 yellowed. I think our season, so far. 

 is the poorest in years. We have had 

 very cold nights and dry weather. 



1886. Tivieandpiace of Meeting. 



Aug. 31.— stark rnunty, at CaDton, O. 



Mark Thomson, Sec, Canton, O. 



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

 Mattie B. Thomas, Sec, Sheboygan Falls, Wis. 



Oct. 7.— WlH. I^-ake Shore Center, at Kiel. Wis. 



Ferd Zastrow, Sec, Millhome, Wis. 



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

 F. Ij. Dougherty, Sec, Indianapolis. Ind. 



Oct. 19, 20.— lllin. lis 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. 



1W~ In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.— BD. 







. F. 



22, 



Little Fall Bloom Expected.— J 

 Hays, Macomb,*o Ills., on July 

 1886, says : 



I have 1.30 colonies at present all in 

 tirst-class condition. The bees can 

 do nothing as present, as the clover is 

 dead and dry, and there is but little 

 prospect of much fall bloom. lean- 

 not get along without the Bee 

 Journal. 



Kerosene Oil for Bee-Stings, etc.— 

 11— M. L. Spencer, (77—120), Little 

 Genesee,? N. Y., on July 21, 1886, 

 writes : 



In respect to Query, No. 297, about 

 ants, I would say that our common 

 kerosene oil, the kind burned in 

 lamps, will kill them, eggs and all; 

 every one that it once covers is de- 

 funct. A few drops on tlie hives, or 

 in the cracks of the hive will keep 

 the ants away. I also use it for bee- 

 stings. I extract the sting in the 

 usual way, by scraping, and put a few 

 drops of oil on the wound, and work 

 some into the same. It kills the pain 

 and prevents the swelling. I think 

 the acid left ill the oil from refining 

 kills the poison. Although the sting 

 does not swell, on me as formerly, I 

 believe the pain is as bad as ever, if I 

 use nothing for relief. I keep the oil 

 in a small, spring-bottom can (sewing- 

 machine size), and it can be injected 

 into cracks and crevices of the hives. 



More Honey-Dew.— C. Theilmann, 

 Theilmanton,(x Minn., writes : 



I send another sample of louse- 

 secretion or honey-dew, by this mail. 

 It is so great and distinct that the 

 dew even runs off the leaves at the 

 lower ends ; also the lice are there on 

 the under side of the leaves, and 

 have, it seems, extracted honey on 

 the same side they were on last night, 

 while the leaves were lying (the same 

 as packed) on the window-casing. 

 These milk-weeds stood on a clear 

 place away from trees, in my pasture. 

 The corn-leaf enclosed, which has 

 honey-dew on it also, was under an 

 oak-tree. I could not discover any 

 honey-dew elsewhere on the corn in 

 the open air in the field. The woods 

 is full of honey-dew, every brush and 

 weed is covered thickly with it ; the 

 leaves on the trees are getting crip- 

 pled, and have many dry spots. I 

 could not discover any scale or bark 

 lice anywhere, and have examined 

 closely, but the corn-leaf seems to be 

 evidence of them. Will Prof. Cook 

 please explain to us fully, through 

 the AsiEiiiCAN Bee Journal, his 

 conclusion. 



[I can hardly come to any very sat- 

 isfactory conclusion. The milk-weed 

 is loaded with nectar and thickly 

 covered with lice, which are unques- 

 tionably the source of the sweet 

 liquid. Corn has often been referred 

 to as yielding abundance of honey. 

 It may be that corn does, at times, 

 yield honey from extra floral glands. 

 In this case the nectar may have come 

 from the overhanging oaks. This 

 very dry year is remarkable for the 

 numerous lice, and wherever the lice 

 are, there the nectar may be looked 

 for.— A. J. Cook.] 



Injustice to Honey-Producers.- W. 



Mason. Fillmore.+o lud., says : 



I am much pleased with the pluck 

 you displayed in reply to Dr. Kellogg's 

 article of injustice to the honest 

 honey-producer. It is very unjust to 

 make such charges in such general 

 terms. I admit that fraudulent honey 

 may be found in the markets by 

 manufacturers of shoddy honey, just 

 as the olemargarine butter gets there; 

 but the honest honey-producer should 

 not be responsible for this dishonesty 

 practiced by scoundrels, and I suggest 

 that every producer of honest honey 

 should label his honey with a guaran- 

 tee, stamped on it in such a way as to 

 remove all doubts, and if he is not 

 willing to do that then let him fall. 

 In this way we can protect our busi- 

 ness, or else ask Congress to do so 

 for us, as in the butter trade. 



Appreciating the " Union."— Mrs. 



11. Hills, Sheboygan Falls, o Wis., 

 writes : 



Mr. Newman: — Permit me to 

 thank you for your very kind and 

 courteous letter in answer to my 

 appeal to you in regard to my local 

 honey market, etc. I would like, 

 also, to express ray high appreciation 

 of what is being done by the " Bee- 

 Keepers' Union." I should hardly 

 have dared to presume to ask for your 

 advice, in the matter above referred 

 to, but for that Society. Your ready 

 sympathy, and kind answer, amply 

 repay me for what I have paid to the 

 " Union." I cannot conceive why 

 other beekeepers do not avail them- 

 selves of the privilege of becoming 

 members. 



[It is exceedingly surprising that so 

 few seem to appreciate the splendid 

 work being accomplished by the 

 Union for the pursuit of bee-keeping. 

 There ought to be at least ten thou- 

 sand members now instead of only a 

 few hundreds.— Ed.] 



Spring Use of the Reversible Hive. 



—Mark Thomson, Canton, <^ Ohio, on 



July 19, 1886, writes : 



Since apple bloom the honey-flow 

 has been continuous, and colonies 

 properly managed, have done remark- 

 ably well. Swaims hived on founda- 

 tion in the new Ileddon hive have 

 given a surplus of .50 pounds to the 

 colony. The most of those that I 

 know who use this hive are well 

 pleased with it thus far. The ques- 

 tion that comes to most is, can we 

 build up in the spring with this hive 

 as easily as with the Langstroth or 

 Quinby y 



Unprecedented Drouth. — James 

 Ileddon, Dowagiac, ? Mich., on July 

 21, 1886, says: 



The drouth here is unprecedented. 

 I fear we shall have no fall honey at 

 all, if rain does not soon come to our 

 relief. Farm crops are all drying up. 

 On several occasions the sun has lifted 

 millions of caldrons of water from the 

 bosom of old Lake Michigan, and 

 cruelly poured it back into the lake, 

 and right before the eyes of suffering 

 humanity. I have only about 25,000 

 pounds of clover and basswood ex- 

 tracted honey from 2.')0 colonies (after 

 spring sales), for basswood gave us 

 less than one-lialf an average yield. 

 My comb honey will nearly all come 

 from the new hives, and amounts to 

 only two or three thousand pounds. I 

 had but 10 swarms throughout, but 

 have doubled my colonies by dividing 

 them. Nearly all of New England 

 reports "total failure;" much the 

 same comes from many other locali- 



