264 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



the poor queens are weeded out, and 

 good ones introduced from such stock 

 as described above, tlift-eby insuring 

 good drones, tlien the reports from ;ill 

 our different colonies will be uniform- 

 ily good. 



I see that Mr. Henry Alley advo- 

 cates the yellow drone theory ; but I 

 must say, since following the princi- 

 ples given above, my drones have lost 

 their bands of yellow. When I had 

 the most hybrids I had the most yel- 

 low drones. I do not wish to convey 

 the idea that yellow drones are an in- 

 dication of impurity, for I am well 

 aware that we may breed for such 

 drones with succes.s, and yet keep our 

 stock pure. 



In regard to the new races of bees, 

 I think that if we have our Italians 

 bred up to a high standard of excel- 

 lence, we had better be slow to intro- 

 duce new blood into our apiaries. 

 From past experience I say, good-bye 

 hybrids. 



Kalamazoo, Mich. 



Local Convention Directory. 



1882. Time and Place of Meeting. 



April 29— Musliiniium Valley, at Berlin Center, O. 

 lieonidus Carson, Sec, Frederick, O. 



May 2, 3 -Eastsrn N. Y. Union, at Coblesltill, N. Y. 

 C. Quackenbush, Sec, Barnesville, N. Y. 



n— Cliamplain Valley, at Middlebury, Vt. 

 T. Brookins, Sec, East Shoreham, Vt. 



16— N. W. ni. and S. W.Wis., at Rock City, 111. 

 Jonatliuu Stewart, Sec, Rock City, 111. 



2.5— Iowa Central, at Winterset. Iowa. 



Henry Wallace, Sec. 



B^~ In order to have tbia table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetinas.- Ed. 



Saimders Coiintj', Neb., CouTeiition. 



The Saimders County Bee-Keepers' 

 Association held their semi-annual 

 meeting at VVahoo, Neb., April 1, 

 1882. 



After the usual business had been 

 transacted, the following subjects 

 were discussed : 



What is comb foundation, and how 

 made V Can bees be fed too much 

 early in the spring ? 



Spring dwindling, and how pre- 

 vented. 



Extracting honey and extractors. 



What plants to raise tor bees to 

 work on. 



The Association decided to hold a 

 special meeting about the middle of 

 June, at some one of the apiaries near 

 by. Considered a better place to dis- 

 cuss the subject of bees than in town. 



The report given sliovved that of 82 

 colonies put in winter quarters, only 

 8 were lost, and only 5 by wintering. 



The meeting then adjourned. 



Mrs. C. L,. Stocking, Sec. 



Michigan Farmer. 



Eastern Michigan Convention. 



The Eastern Michigan Bee-Keepers' 

 Association held its second annual 

 meeting in Detroit, April 11, Presi- 

 dent Pierce in the chair. 



He delivered a brief congratulatory 

 address, in which he commented upon 

 the grovvtli of the Society. One year 

 ago it had been formed under dis- 

 couraging circumstances ; an unusu- 

 ally hard winter had just been passed 

 tlirough, and a majority of the bees in 

 the country had been killed. This 

 spring our bees are all in good condi- 

 tion, and the prospect good. The 

 Society has increased in membership, 

 having drawn to itself apiarists from 

 distant parts of the State, and from 

 Canada. 



The subject of raising queens occu- 

 pied a good deal of attention. 



Messrs. W. Z Ilntchinson and J. H. 

 Robeitson, botli extensive breeders, 

 detailed tlieir experience, and gave 

 many valuable liints. The fact was 

 brought out that as good queens can 

 be produced by artificial stimulation, 

 as those reared during a honey yield ; 

 also that the color of queens is in a 

 measure decided by that of the honey 

 upon which they are fed. Tlie detiiii- 

 tion of a tested queen is one that pio- 

 duces three-banded worker^. Mr. 

 Robertson said that lie is using some 

 combs which are 25 years old, and 

 liiids them good still. For jiastiirage 

 lie prefers alsike clover and ligwort. 

 He purifies wax with salt or vinegar. 

 Both these gentlemen use queen 

 nurseries. 



There was much interest taken in 

 the honey market. Mr. Robertson 

 sells his own honey, and last year he 

 disposed of 20,000 I'lounds. lie strongly 

 advocated that lioney producers deal 

 as directly as possible with consumers. 

 None of those present had ever known 

 of honey being adulterated, and it 

 was agreed that bee-keepers have no 

 use for glucose. Mr. llutcliinson had 

 tried feeding it to weak nuclei in 

 summer, and lie now believed that 

 pure cane sugar is cheaper even at 

 three times the price. Several mem- 

 bers stored extracted honey in stone 

 crocks and large tin cans, and kept 

 them in a warm, dry place. 



The following is from the question 

 box: Which is the best sized frame 

 for wintering ? 



Mr. Robertson believed that more 

 depended on the bee-keeper than the 

 frame ; he commenced to prepare his 

 bees for winter in the preceding June, 

 and had them prepared for winter be- 

 fore it came. This season he had 

 wintered 509 colonies out of 511, and 

 had noticed that bees cannot go from 

 one comb to another as easily as along 

 the length of a comb. 



What kind of bees are the best V 



Most of those present believed that 

 we would obtain the best results by 

 careful breeding. 



One member had tried the Syrians ; 

 he found them very good workers, 

 also very cross. 



It was agreed that Italians would 

 protect themselves much better 

 against motiis than the blacks. 



For winter packing, inside of the 

 hive, the following substances were 

 recommended in the order mentioned, 

 fine, dry sawdust, planer shavings 

 and oat chaff. 



The meeting adjourned, to meet at 

 the call of the Secretary, some time 

 next October. A. B. Weed, Sec. 



1^" The Mahoning Valley Bee- 

 Keepers' Association will meet at 

 Town Hall in Berlin Center, Mahon- 

 ing Co., Ohio, on Saturday, April 29th, 

 1882, at 1 p. m., sharp. All interested 

 in the busy bee are invited. 



Leonidas Cakson, Sec. ^ 



i^The Bee-Keepers of Virginia 

 and Maryland are invited to meet at 

 the Court House in llagerstown, Md., 

 on April 20, at 11 a. m., to organize an 

 association. D. A. Piive. 





Cool Yet.— The weather is cool here 

 yet; I took my bees out of the cellar 

 two weeks ago to-day ; put in 15 last 

 November, and took out 42 colonies 

 alive, with about one-half in very fine 

 condition, the balance thinly settled. 

 ]. The three lost had no bees either 

 dead or alive, can you assign a cause ? 

 They also had consumed more honey 

 than those coming through all right. 

 Nearly every colony has three to four 

 frames of sealed and candied honey 

 to spare. 2. How can 1 get it out. 

 D. H. Hopkins. 



Bear Lake, Mich., April 15, 1882. 



[1. The three colonies mentioned 

 were probably queenless, and the 

 bees deserted and doubled in with 

 other colonies. Sometimes when 

 stronger colonies rob weaker ones, 

 the bees being robbed go out with the 

 robbers, or force an entrance to other 

 colonies. 



2. We would recommend to shave 

 off tlie cappings and put the combs 

 one at a time in the center of the 

 brood nest. The bees will take out 

 tlie honey, and liquefy and replace it 

 in other combs. The following method 

 is that adopted by Mrs. Harrison : 



The honey was mashed up in a pan, 

 and set over a kettle of boiling water, 

 and stirred frequently. Before the 

 lioney was very hot, the wax had 

 risen to the surface, and being set out 

 in the cold, quickly congealed, so that 

 the warm honey could be poured from 

 under it. through a coffee strainer 

 into another vessel, leaving tlie wax 

 in the pan. After the honey was 

 melted, the wax was all melted up to- 

 gether, and considerable honey of in- 

 ferior quality was under it, which 

 can be liept separate and be used for 

 cooking, making gingerbread, etc. 

 The rinsings of vessels used^ in ma- 



