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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Local Convention Directory. 



Time and place 0/ Meeting. 



!5.— IlUnoiB Central, at Mt. Sterling, Ills. 

 J. M. llambauKh. Sec, Spring, Ills. 



—Michigan State, at Ypsilanti, Mich. 



H. D. Cutting, Sec Clinton, Mich. 



■Nebraska State, at Lincoln, Nehr. 



H. N. Patterson, Sec, Humboldt, Nebr. 



^" In order to have this table complete. Secret 

 tarles are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.— Ed. 



1886. 

 Nov. 24, : 



1887. 

 Jan. 12.- 





began to gather surplus ; yet, before 

 these were half through yielding, 

 morning-glory came, and it being 

 more plentiful, and nearer the apiary, 

 bees neglected everything for it. 

 Then the hives vpere soon full of as 

 nice honey as I ever saw. This is a 

 splendid houey-plant, yielding for 

 about 2.5 days. Farmers of the bouth 

 are acquainted with this vine, as it 

 grows on almost every farm. I have 

 seen it all over corn and cotton, en- 

 tirely hiding both from view. I have 

 seen bees gather full loads from it in 

 less than a half minute. Bees are 

 working on scattering flowers now, 

 and are getting some honey. I am 

 testing Italian bees. I have 2 colonies 

 of them. 



greet them in health and vigor next 

 spring. I find a home market for my 

 honey at 10 cents per pound. A very 

 singular case of a dog being killed by 

 bees, occurred in a neighboring town. 

 She was a fine blooded dog with 

 puppies, and was tied to a stake in 

 the yard while the pups were playing- 

 in an adjoining yard where there was- 

 5 colonies of bees. They in some way 

 disturbed the bees and ran with the 

 bees after them to the mother, when 

 the bees turned their attention to- 

 her, and stung her so badly that she 

 died in less than 20 minutes. The- 

 puppies escaped. The dog was valued 

 at S50, but there is no prospect of a 

 lawsuit growing out of it. 



Wintering Bees in Clamps.— Jno. 

 W. Walker, Welcome, Ont., on Oct. 



30, 1886, says : 



Bees have not done extra well this 

 year in this locality. They swarmed 

 themselves weak. I had IS strong col- 

 onies last spring ; now I have 50. I 

 have taken 1,500 pounds of honey in 

 pound sections, besides quite a quan- 

 tity of extracted honey. I do not 

 place the hives close together. Each 

 one weighs now between 50 and 100 

 pounds. I winter my bees in a clamp 

 packed in straw and chaff with the 

 front facing the south, so when the 

 sun comes out strong it warms the 

 hives. I lost one colony last winter, 

 and that through carelessness in the 

 spring by not having proper ventila- 

 tion. 



Honey-Flow Stopped by Drouth.— 

 r. H. Kennedy, Duquoin,? Ills., on 

 Oct. 30, 1886, says : 



This has been rather a bad year for 

 honey in this locality. The drouth 

 stopped the honey flow in the fall. I 

 had a few colonies that yielded over 

 100 pounds apiece. While at the con- 

 vention at Benton, lUs., I visited the 

 apiary of Mr. C. M. Dixon, of Parrish, 

 Ills., who obtained 146 sections from 

 one colony of bees from the fall honey 

 flow. 



Bees did Well.— E. Pickup, Lim- 

 erick, 6 Ills., on Oct. 29, 1886, writes : 



On page 243 it is shown a debt of 

 $100 was paid with $5. I passed Mr. 

 Brown's note of $70 to Mr. Jones ; he 

 passed it to Cone & Co., and they 

 passed it back to Brown, making $210 

 paid without any money. The bees 

 will soon be ta'king their winter's 

 nap. They did well in June and the 

 first week" in September. I like to 

 read the Bee Journal during the 

 long winter evenings, so as to keep 

 posted. I offered the county agent of 

 the American Bible Society 1,000 

 pounds of honey as an " endowment " 

 fund, and it was accepted. I weighed 

 it this evening to deliver to-morrow. 



Exhibit at the St. Louis Fair. — 



Louis Werner, Edwardsville, 9 Ills., 

 on Oct. 29, 1886, says : 



There was a large and fine display 

 of honey, bees, and apiarian supplies; 

 at the great St. Louis Fair, held at 

 St. Louis, Mo., on Oct. 4, 1886. The 

 money premiums offered in the bee 

 and honey department amounted tO' 

 nearly $150; also diplomas were pre- 

 sented. xVmong those who secured 

 valuable premiums for making excel- 

 lent exhibits, were Messrs. S. D. and 

 E. S. Armstrong, of Jerseyville, Ills. ; 

 Dr. Geo. Liebrock & Son,, of Mascou- 

 tah, Ills. ; .Jos. Swallow, of St. Louis, 

 and myself. 



Counting Comb Surface.— H. J. 



Northrup, Lansingburg,oX. Y.,says : 



In the answers to Query, No. 324, 

 do the writers count both sides of the 

 comb V For instance : 6. W. Dem- 

 aree says that the ten frame Lang- 

 stroth hive has a corab surface of at 

 least 1,440 square inches. J. E. Pond, 

 Jr., says that a Langslroth size comb 

 contains about a square foot of cells 

 on each side, which according to my 

 reckoning would double Mr. Dem- 

 aree's figures. Who is right? I would 

 like to know how to count comb sur- 

 face, whether one side or both. 



Bee-Keeping in Texas. — W. S. 

 Douglass, Lexington,© Tex., writes : 



I commenced last spring with 32 

 colonies, all in good condition. Wild 

 peach opened, but it yielded very 

 little honey. Willow yielded some 

 honey, but' on account of incessant 

 rains, bees got very little from it. 

 They began to get short of stores, yet 

 the hives were full of brood from top 

 to bottom. I began to think of feed- 

 ing, but suddenly bloom came and I 

 never saw such a rush. The entrances 

 were clogged with bees coming and 

 going both early and late. This con- 

 tinued for six days, when it began to 

 rain, yet between showers the bees 

 still w'orked hard. Swarms began to 

 come out then, and I got 7 swarms 

 during rattan bloom. Other wild 

 flowers bloomed, but the bees got no 

 surplus from them. Smartweed, or 

 wild tobacco, as it is generally called, 

 came about the same time, and bees 



Good Crop— Dog Killed by Bees.— 

 J.M. Clark, Hillsdale,? Mich., on Oct. 

 30, 1886, says : 



I packed 11 colonies in chaff last 

 fall, and had the same number in fine 

 condition to commence the season 

 with last spring. They built up rap- 

 idly on fruit-bloom, and were in fine 

 condition for white clover, of which 

 we had a good crop. The basswood 

 yield was less than one-fourth of what 

 it was last year, but the fall crop was 

 large and good. My 11 colonies in- 

 creased to 23, by dividing, with a few 

 natural swarms, most of which my 

 wife hived, as I was away from home. 

 My crop of honey is 1,600 pounds, 

 mostly extracted, after leaving from 

 2-5 to 30 pounds for winter stores to 

 each colony. I weighed my colonies, 

 hives, honey-bees and all, and then 

 deducted the weight of the empty 

 hive and combs, allowing about 3 

 pounds for bees. All are now ready 

 to pack for winter, and I hope to 



Good Results.— Wm. Ford, Mar- 

 shalltown,© Iowa, on Xov. 1, 1886,- 

 writes : 



I commenced in the spring with 10 

 colonies — 8 strong ones and 2 weak — 

 and increased them to 24 strong colo- 

 nies, besides taking 700 pounds of 

 honey, 365 pounds being extracted, 

 and .335 pounds comb honey. I hived 

 3 swarms, 2 on June 7, and 1 on June 

 9. They were hived on frames with 

 just starters in them. They built 20' 

 Langstroth frames full of comb, and 

 stored 122 pounds of extracted honey 

 apiece, and 28 pounds in the brood 

 frames in just four weeks from the 

 time they were hived. My bees are 

 all in good condition now for winter, 

 and have from 25 to 50 pounds of good 

 white clover honey in each of their 

 brood-chambers for winter stores. My 

 bees averaged 70 pounds of honey per 

 colony, spring count. 



Caucasian Bees. — R. F. Holter- 

 mann, Brantford, Ont., writes: 



Mr. J. B. Hall, of Ontario, has for 

 some time experimented with the 

 Caucasian bees, and kindly gave me 

 some of the results of his observa- 

 tions They are very docile and even 

 quieter than the Carniolans ; the hive 

 can be jarred with impunity. They 

 are very small, with three small, dark, 

 yellow bands heavily coated with light 

 down. The drones are darker than 

 black drones, and heavily coated with 

 fur, each segment having a small 

 line of bright golden color. When 

 the swarming impulse seizes them, 

 they start 100 to 1.50 queen-cells. The 

 queens, as they mature, keep cutting 

 their way out of the cells for a week. 



