;THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



603 



Local Convention Directory. 



1886. Time and place of Meeting. 



'Oct. 6, 7.— Kentucky State, at Frankfort. Ky. 



Jno. T. Connley, Sec. Napoleon, Ky. 



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



Ferd Zastrow. Sec. Millhome, Wis. 



•Oct. 12— 14.— North American, at IndianapoUs.Ind. 

 F. L. DouRherty, Sec, Indianapolis, Ind. 



Oct. 16.— Sheboygan Co.. at Sheboygan Falls.Wia. 

 Mrs. H. Hills, Sec, Sheboygan Falls. Wis. 



Oct. 19, 2U.— Illinois Central, at Mt. Sterling. Ills. 

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



Oct. 21.— Southern Illinois, at Benton, Ills. 



F. H. Kennedy, Sec, Duquoin, Ills. 



Oct. 27-29.— Western, at Kansas City. Mo. 



P. Baldwin, 8ec„ Independence, Mo. 



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



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



fW In order to have this table complete, Secre- 

 tartes are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.— Ed. 





Favorable Season.— W. .T. Cullinan, 

 Mt. Sterling,to Ills., on Sept. 9, 1886, 

 writes : 



This season may be classed among 

 the favorable seasons for this locality. 

 My bees averaged 60 pounds of comb 

 honey and 11 pounds of extracted up 

 to Sept. 1, after leaving them ample 

 stores for winter ; and they are now 

 storing honey as rapidly as at any 

 time during the summer. I could 

 Tiave secured 150 or 200 pounds more 

 honey only for rearing queens. I find 

 it expensive business to rear queens 

 early in the season. We had a nice 

 rain last evening, which will help the 

 flow in this vicinity. 



Heavy Fall Flow of Honey.— Wm. 

 H. Graves, Duncan,© His., on Sept. 

 10, 1886, says : 



I now have 100 colonies of bees. I 

 have had one of the heaviest flows of 

 fall honey I ever saw up till now. 

 Bees are still at work, mostly on 

 black-heart. I live on Spoon river, 

 and the bottoms are covered with it. 



The Lexington, Ky., Fair.- ^T. H. 

 Eowland, Keene,© Ky., on Sept 9, 

 1886, writes : 



Tlie Lexington, Ky., Fair has just 

 closed. It was, as ever, a splendid 

 show. The exhibition of '■ live 

 stock " was not to be excelled, and 

 rarely equalled in the world. The 

 attendance was the largest ever 

 known in the history of the associa- 

 tion. Among other distinguished 

 visitors was the Governor of Utah, 

 who is a native Kentuckian. The 

 bee and honey department was repre- 

 sented chiefly by the Miicci Bros., 

 who showed some very fine imported 

 queens, together with the original 

 packages in which they were expressed 

 from Italy. They also exhibited two 

 cages in wliich they had received two 

 queens by mail from Italy. Mr. Mucci I 



told me that he had succeeded after 

 much trouble and correspondence in 

 getting them by mail direct from 

 Italy. A " spring frame hive" was 

 exhibited by Mr. Martin— the same 

 hive which took tlie premium at the 

 New Orleans Exposition. Careful 

 examination revealed no new feature 

 of any practical benefit. The frames 

 have no projecting top-bars, but rests 

 on legs ; a brass wire in each end of 

 the frame slips in a saw-cut in the 

 end of the hive, and holds the frame 

 laterally, but does not support the 

 weight of the frame when full of 

 honey, consequently any operation 

 requiring the super to be lifted would 

 allow every frame to slip out of the 

 hive ! There are also two slices of 

 frames in each hive, which fact alone 

 would preclude its extensive use. The 

 old gentleman is an enthusiast, how- 

 ever, and thinks he has a bonanza ! 

 Mr. W. Frank Storm, a bee-keeper of 

 the city, made conspicuous by his 

 badge of scarlet and gold lace, was on 

 hand showing and explaining to the 

 curious and interested. Everything 

 shown was neat and attractive. 



Good Eesults.— D. S. Way, Urbana, 

 9 Iowa, on Sept, 8, 1886, writes : 



Bees are in splendid condition in 

 this part of the country. I have ex- 

 tracted 1,200 pounds of white clover 

 and basswood honey from 14 colonies, 

 this season, which I think is good for 

 a new hand at the business. 



Cleaning Bee-Smokers.— Robt. Cor- 



bett, Manhattan, t5 Kans., says : 



For cleaning the nozzle of a bee- 

 smoker, take a piece of hard wood the 

 full size of the base of the nozzle, 

 tapered to fit completely. Rim off 

 one corner and insert a steel or iron 

 plate at right angles, having the same 

 bevel. Use this while the nozzle is 

 hot, as a scraper, followed by a swab 

 of the same taper, and you can keep 

 your smoker in order. If it is not in 

 order the force of the bellows, in a 

 measure, is lost. To tell 3, 4, or 6 

 months ahead, when a cold spell is 

 coming in the summer: Whenever 

 the moon news or changes, with the 

 sign of or zodiac in the neck, we will 

 have frost in all the Middle States, 

 and cold in the more southern States. 

 No matter wliether in May, June, 

 July or August, it is sure to come at 

 the time. 



My Experience with Bees.— Rev. 

 J. Hunt, riain City,© Ohio, on Sept. 

 14, 1886, writes : 



I have been engaged in the bee- 

 keeping about ten years. I have now 

 about 20 colonies ; I have had more at 

 times. I started with one colony of 

 Italian bees, bought for $\2, and all I 

 have now have sprung from them. I 

 started witli no experience, but with 

 enthusiasm and hope ; I have made 

 some mistakes, and met with losses, 

 especially in wintering. Several per- 

 sons in this vicinity have taken up 

 bee-keeping, but became discouraged 

 and gave it up. They found that it 

 took as much time, money and calcu- 



lation to make a dollar as it would 

 average in other kinds of business. 

 When I commenced, white clover 

 honey in boxes sold for 2-5 cents ; now 

 the best comb lioney in sections is 

 sold for 17 cents ; probably to fall still 

 lower. To have an outfit in an apiary 

 of what is convenient and necessary, 

 is expensive, and unless one is a good 

 mechanic and aims to keep down ex- 

 penses, he will find it difficult to pay 

 them out of his bee-profits. 



Building Combs on Trees.— Grant 

 Stinger, Unadilla,o+ Xeb., on Sept. 6, 

 1886, writes : 



On Sept. 1, 18S6, 1 found a swarm of 

 bees on a box-elder tree, that must 

 have been hanging there longer than 

 bees usually do when they swarm, as 

 they had built comb enough to till 5 

 Langstroth frames, had brood hatch- 

 ing out, and were going on with 

 their work as busily as if they had 

 been in a hive. They had nothing 

 over them but the green leaves and 

 blue sky. Is not this strange ? I 

 have 8 colonies of Italian bees ; can I 

 winter them successfully in chaff 

 hives out-of-doors V 



[It is not usual for bees to locate 

 and build combs without anything to 

 protect them from the weather. You 

 can successfully winter bees in chaff 

 hives on the summer stands if not in 

 a locality too cold or too much ex- 

 posed.— Ed.] 



A Kentucky Bee-Killer.— Clarence 

 M. Weed, Champaign, ot Ills, writes : 



Mr, G. H.Lillard, of Napoleon, Ky., 

 sends a specimen of a large black and 

 yellow fly much resembling a buj5ibf&" 

 iaee, stating that " they catch the 

 bees and suck the life from them ;" 

 and asking to what species it belongs. 

 The insect proves to be Mallaphora 

 orcina Weld, which, so far as known 

 to the writer, has no common name 

 to distinguisli it from the several 

 other bee-killers or bee-catchers. It 

 belongs to the great family of preda- 

 tious two-winged flies, asiliclce, and 

 hence is related to the Nebraska bee- 

 killer (Promaclius bastardii). This 

 specie measifre's an inch in length, 

 with a wing expanse of 1^^ inches. 

 An excellent description with a rather 

 poor illustration of it may be found 

 on page 320 of the eighth edition of 

 Prof. Cook's Manual of the Apiary. 

 Of the habits of these flies. Prof. 

 Cook writes : '' Their flight is like 

 the wind, and perched near the hive 

 they rush upon the unwary bee re- 

 turning to the hive with its full load 

 of nectar, and grasping it with their 

 hard strong legs, they bear it to some 

 perch near by, when they pierce the 

 crust, suck out the juices and drop 

 the carcass, and are then ready to re- 

 peat the operation. A hole in the 

 iDee siiows the cause of its sudden 

 taking off. The eviscerated bee is 

 not always killed at once by this rude 

 onslaught, but often can crawl some 

 distance away before it expires." 



