I'HE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



821 



in, but always when passing out of 

 the hive. Possibly your plan may 

 work with the proper size of holes. 

 Cut and try them. We have a profu- 

 sion of pollen here, but no trouble 

 about its Koing into the sections. All 

 our houey-boanls break joints, how- 

 ever,— James IIeddon, 



I would not advise round holes for 

 the purpose, as any size that would 

 allow a loaded bee, pollen and all to 

 pass, would most certainly allow a 

 queen to pass also. The holes should 

 be longer than wide, and by being so 

 made Ihey will allow a worker to pass 

 handily, where, if the hole were 

 round," she could not possibly pass, if 

 it was the same diameter as the width 

 of the others.— J. E. Pond, Jr. 



Convention Notices. 



^^r Tbe Annual Convention of the Vermont 

 Bee-Keepera' Association will be held at the Vun 

 Kess Houae, Burlington. Vt., on January 13 and 14, 

 1887. R. H. Holmes, Sec, Shoreham, Vt. 



^^T The next annual convention of the Cort- 

 Jand Union Bee Keepers' Aas'iciation will be held 

 in Union Hall, at Cortland, N. Y., on Jan. Iii. 1887. 

 D. F. Shattuck. Sec. 



13^ The eleventh annual meetinK of the N. "W. 

 Ills. & S. W. Wis. Bee-Keepers' Association will be 

 Jield in the Grand Army Hall in Kockford, His., 

 on the third Tuesday in January. 1887. There 

 will be a iwu days' session. J. Stewart, Sec. 



BF~ The Northeastern Ohio, Northern Pa. and 

 "Western New York Bee-Keepers' Association will 

 bold its Hth annual convention in Chapman's 

 Opera Honse, at Andover, < '., on Wednesdav and 

 Thursday. Jan. in and '.JO. 1887. First-class hotel 

 accomnK-tdiitiuns are offered at $1 per day to those 

 attendine the convention. A general invitation is 

 extended to all. M. B. Mason, Sec. 



t^" The New York State, the Eai^tern New York 

 fl,nd the New Jersey & Eastern Bee-Keepers' As- 

 aociatiuns will hold their ^reat united convention 

 at Albany, N. Y.. on Jan. 11, 12 and la, 188H. This 

 coDventii>n will be one of the largest, if not the 

 largest, ever held anywhere in this couniry. and It 

 behooves every bee-keeper to attend. A grand 

 ■exhibit of apiarian dxtures is proruised. 



Geo. H. Knickerbocker- Sec. N. V. State. 



■John aspinwall. S^c. Eastern N. Y. 



F. H. Jou.NSux. Sec. N.J. & Eastern. 



B^" The next annual meeting of the Nebraska 

 State Bee- Keepers' Association will be held in 

 Lincoln. Nebracka, on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 1887. 

 at Red Ribbon Hall, commencing at 1 :3') p.m. and 

 continuing for :i days. E. Kretchujei, ot <'oburg. 

 Iowa, will deliver an addres.^ on Modern Apicul- 

 ture. E. M. Hayhurst, of Kansas City, and many 

 others I rom abroad are expected. Members can 

 return on one-third fare over the B. i M., U. P. 

 and M. P. lines, by securing a certlQcate of pay- 

 ment of taretoljincoln,from the agent of their sta- 

 tion. In order tn secure the reduced rates on re- 

 turn trip member.^ holding sucb certificates must 

 presertthem to the Secretary of the Bee-Keep- 

 •ers' Association for endorsement. 



H. N. Patteuson, Sec. 



Preiuinui WortU Having.— The New 

 York World and the American Bee Jour- 

 nal (both weekly) will be sent for one year 

 to any address in North America for $1.90. 

 And in addition PRESENT to every such 

 CLUB SUBSCRIBER a " History of the United 

 States," containing: 3'30 pages and 22 fine en- 

 gravings, bound in leather and frilt. 



This " History '* will be sent free by ex- 

 press at the subscriber's expense; or will 

 be mailed for 10 cents extra to any place in 

 the United States or Canada. 



It is arranged chronologically by years, 

 from 1492 to 1885. Every event is narrated 

 in the order of its date. These are not con- 

 fined, as in other works, to political matters. 

 but embrace every branch of human action. 



This premium is worth the whole of the 

 money sent for both periodicals, and should 

 induce thousands to suV>scribe, and thus get 

 two unrivalled weeklies for nothing. 



Explanatory.— The figures before the 

 names indicate the number of years that the 

 person has kept bees. Those after, show 

 the number of colonies the writer had in the 

 previous spring and fall, or fall and spring, 

 as the time of the year may require. 



This mark © indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near tne center of the State named ; 

 6 north of the center; 9 south; O* east; 

 •Owest; and this c5 northeast; N3 northwest: 

 ■>• southeast; and P southwest of the center 

 of the State mentioned. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



'AYcarAmoiiEtlieBees," 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



I have at last found time to care- 

 fully read Dr. Miller's book, " A Year 

 Among the Bees," which I received 

 sometime last March or April, if I 

 recollect rightly ; and I wish to say 

 that I am glad the Doctor wrote the 

 book in the style and way he did. It 

 is as fascinating as a story or novel, 

 and much more so to me, for after I 

 had once begun 1 was crazy over it 

 until I had tinished. I saw in some 

 bee-paper that the book lacked dig- 

 nity. Perhaps it does, but I should 

 never have known it, had I not been 

 told. This reminds me of a lady in 

 this place who says there are a few 

 persons who call on her professing 

 great friendship, but while there 

 their eyes are going from one thing 

 to another all over the rooms, criti- 

 cising the way she keeps her house, 

 and telling of it afterward, rather 

 than coming to see her for her real 

 worth. She said to me one day, " I 

 had much rather they would stay 

 away." I read the book for the good 

 there was in it, and not for the dig- 

 nity, for elegance in bee-keeping as a 

 rule does not command a very high 

 price. 



One special reason why I am glad 

 that the Doctor wrote the book in the 

 way he did, is that it will take the 

 conceit all out of the reader who ex- 

 pects to keep bees on the plan 

 that " bees work for nothing and 

 board themselves." The greatest 

 trouble with most of those who enter 

 the ranks of bee-keeping is, that they 

 expect an easy time, in fact an easy 

 time is what quite a share of the peo- 

 ple of today are hoping for. Such is 

 not calculated to the' highest enjoy- 

 ment of life. Even the hardship of 

 working steadily with the bees dur- 

 ing those hot days spoken of by the 

 Doctor, wherein he " thoroughly wet 

 with presperation " two changes of 

 clothing a day, gives the keenest rel- 

 ish to a few minutes spent in the 

 shade ; while nothing to do but to sit 

 in the shade makes the participant 

 nothing but a chronic grumbler. 



Then, such stings as made the Doc- 

 tor " groan when no one was within 

 hearing," must be borne with forti- 

 tude, for success in apiculture does 



not come without tliese. I do not sup- 

 pose any elegant person, seeing me 

 dance around as I frequently do from 

 the pain caused by the stings I often 

 get, would call it dignilied, for 200 

 pounds dancing in a bee-yard at such 

 times, does not always move grace- 

 fully ; yet all this 1 willingly submit 

 to for the pleasure the pursuit gives 

 me. If any reader who perhaps has 

 just commenced bee-keeping thinks 

 he cannot endure such hardships, my 

 advice would be for him to quit at 

 once, before further money is lost in 

 it ; for I can give no assurance of suc- 

 cess to such an one. 



There are only two points which I 

 wish to further notice at this time. 

 Dr. Miller speaks of a single bee 

 threatening and scolding him by the 

 hour, and of having a colony or two 

 so cross that a careless observer might 

 say that tlie bees in the whole apiary 

 were cross. This is the way it used 

 to be with me, but of late years I am 

 not troubled that way. Kot that I 

 think I have a more peaceable strain 

 of bees, but I have taken a course 

 with them which seems to be effectual 

 in getting rid of these cross nuisances. 



A few years ago myself or any other 

 person could not step into the bee- 

 yard without being quickly met by an 

 angry bee ; now strangers go all 

 about the yard with me, and not an 

 angry bee follows them. I was led to 

 believe that the trouble all comes 

 from letting that " scolding " bee fol- 

 low me around. If I have a mishap 

 at a hive so as to get the colony thor- 

 oughly angry, and a half dozen or 

 more angry bees are allowed to follow 

 me about,"! find that those same bees 

 are likely to keep that up as long as 

 they live, whenever I come near the 

 hive. Some hve years ago I came to 

 this conclusion, and I said if this was 

 so, such bees might as well die first 

 as last ; so I made a paddle about 8 

 inches long and 6 iuclies wide, out of 

 I4 inch stuff, which I slipped into a 

 leather loop at the back of the seat 

 that I carried about the apiary to sit 

 on. This was always handy, and 

 whenever a bee was angry enough to 

 follow me 3 rods from the hive, it was 

 quickly killed by one blow of the 

 paddle. In this way ray apiary is 

 now kept clear of this annoyance. Of 

 course, I use all precaution possible 

 in not getting the bees angry, and it 

 often happens that I do not kill one 

 such bee in a week. Again, t have to 

 kill 10 or 12 within a minute when I 

 have made an milucky move at a hive. 



The other item of which I wish to 

 speak is, that since reading the book 

 I am better satisfied with the plans 

 and fixtures I have adopted than ever 

 before. So many were saying a year 

 or two ago that my plans of working 

 with the bees were laborious, and my 

 fixtures complicated ; that I went to 

 consideralile expense to get sample 

 surplus arrangements, etc., from 

 many of our most successful honey- 

 producers ; but after thoroughly test- 

 ing all of them, I did not see wherein, 

 all things considered, I could gain 

 anything a long the line of bee-labor, 

 by adopting them, and now I feel sure 

 that Dr. Miller's plan of securing 

 honey is not a whit ahead of mine. In 



