THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



283 



Local ConTention Directory. 



1884. Time and place ol Meeting. 



May 3.-Plke Co.. at I'lttsfleld. III. 



T. C. Bunker. Sec. 



Mbt 3.- Progressive, at Bedford, O. 



J. R. Reed, See. 



May 6.-Tlppecanoe Co., at Lafayette. Ind. 



Mrs. Jas. 1,. Havens, Sec. 



May (i.-l'attaintigus Co. N.Y., at Randolph. N.Y. 

 W. A. Shewman. 



May fi.- Southern Wisconsin, at Janesvllle. 



J. T. Pomeroy, Sec. 



May 13.— Cortland Union, at Cortland, N. Y. 



M. B. Darby, Sec. 



May 15.— Tuscarawas Co. O., at Port Washlncton.O. 

 A. A. Kradenburg. 



May 10.— N. E. Kansas, at Ulawatha. Kiins. 



L. C. Clark. Sec. 



May ai.-N. W. Ills., andS.W.Wls-.at Roekton, 111. 

 Jonathan Stewart, Sec. 



May 2B.— Will County, atMonee,Ill. 



P. P. Nelson, Sec. 



Oct. 11, 12. —Northern Mich., at Alma, Mich. 



F. A. Palmer, Sec, McBride. Mich. 



Oct. l.-i. 16.— Northwestern, at Chicngo. III. 



W. Z. Hutchinson. Sec. 



Dec. 10, 1 1.— Michigan State, at Lansing. 



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



ty In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars ?f 

 time and place of future meetings.— Ed. 





%UJtl.£7r 



wliile all that died had unsealed sour 

 honey. I think sonr honey is the 

 cause of all the trouhle about bee- 

 diarrhcva ; and bees will eat it even 

 though they have plenty of capped 

 honev. Bees are doing very well, con- 

 sidering the cold, wet weather we 

 have been having. I tried feeding rye 

 and Graham Hour, but the bees would 

 not touch it. They gathered plenty 

 of pollen from elm trees during the 

 past few weeks. Fruit bloom opened 

 up on the isth, but it was too cold for 

 the bees to improve it, the tempera- 

 ture being as low as 4i2° above zero all 

 day. Richard Grinsell. 



Baden, Mo., April L'l, 1884. 



A Visitor from England. 



I hope to have the pleasure of a 

 visit to ^Montreal, in August next, 

 when the British Association meets ; 

 and after the work of the society is 

 over, I should much enjoy a visit to 

 some large apiaries. As I do not 

 happen to know any one interested in 

 bees in America, might I ask some 

 one to send me a list of apiaries which 

 are worth seeing ; indeed, any infor- 

 mation on this subject will be thank- 

 fully accepted by 



C. P. Ogilvie, r. L. S., 



Size well House, Leiston, Suffolk, 

 England. 



Wintering without Loss. 



On April 17, 1 took my 20 colonies 

 of bees out of the cellar, in excellent 

 condition, without a loss of more than 

 4 quarts of dead bees. Every colony 

 lived through the winter all right. 

 A. L. P. LooMis. 



Rosendale, Wis., April 21, 1884. 



Unsealed Sour Honey. 



1 removed my bees from the cellar 

 during the latter part of March. Out 

 of 29 colonies put into it, I have left 

 20 strong ones, 4 weak, and 1 bushel 

 of dead bees. I wintered one on its 

 summer stand without any protection 

 save an enameled sheet over the 

 frames, and during the extreme cold 

 weather, shoveled snow over the hive. 

 This colony is the only one free from 

 diarrhoea. I removed as much pollen 

 as possible in the fall. There was no 

 signs of brood in any of those which 

 died, but there was some brood-rear- 

 ing going on in those which came 

 through all right. Those having the 

 most capped honey fared the best, 



Aged dueens. 



On page 104, 1 see a statement about 

 a queen being 11 years old. This re- 

 minds me of an old man in this coun- 

 ty who has kept bees all his life, and 

 who had a queen 16 years old. While 

 exhibiting an Italian queen at our 

 County Fairs, in 1864 and 186.5, he 

 wanted to see the new kind of bees 

 and queen. I had heard of him be- 

 fore, so I told him to go to the obser- 

 vation hive and see if he could find 

 the queen. He did so, and soon 

 found her. lie then told those stand- 

 ing around, that he had kept a queen 

 until she was 16 years old ; that he had 

 kept track of her from the time she 

 came off with a second swarm ; and 

 the 16th year she began to fail so 

 much that he killed the bees with 

 brimstone, and hunted out the old 

 queen to see what she looked like ; 

 and he said that she was so old she 

 was as black as his hat ; and that she 

 was the blackest queen he had ever 

 seen. R. R. Murphy. 



Garden Plains, 111. 



Bees in Good Condition. 



:Mv 27 colonies of bees came out in 

 good condition. Three are queenless, 

 but full of bees. I wintered 14 colo- 

 nies out-of-doors in chaff hives, and 

 13 colonies in the cellar. The 14 con- 

 sumed from 30 to 40 pounds of honey 

 per colony ; and the 13 from 10 to 1-5 

 pounds per colony. 



C. W. Johnson. 



Norwood, Mich., April 17, 1884. 



Those outside had a flight Feb. 2. 

 Our cellar has ranged in temperature 

 from 34° to 3!P ; the bees are very 

 quiet, and but few dead ones are 

 found on the floor. The entrances 

 are open full width ; no cover except 

 quilts, and they are so arranged that 

 tfiere is 14 inch opening at the back 

 of each hive. The hives are tiered 

 up 4 high, with strips of wood be- 

 tween at each end for ventilation. 

 One year ago we wintered our bees in 

 the same manner, without loss, though 

 a few old queens died after they were 

 taken out of the cellar April 10. Many 

 of our colonies had quite an amount 

 of unsealed honey in the hives when 

 put awav, (Hviiig to the cool weather 

 preventing the bees from evaporating 

 and sealing it after breeding ; but so 

 far no bad effects are apparent from 

 it. In preparing our bees for winterj 

 combs with a very large proportion of 

 pollen were removed, and replaced by 

 others with little or none in them. 

 A. J. Hatfield. 

 Xew Carlisle, Ind., Feb. 7, 1884. 



Wintering on Unsealed Honey. 



Myself and son began 'the season of 

 1883 with 80 colonies in fair condition; 

 and by feeding honey in combs saved 

 from the previous season, they be- 

 came very strong by the time of white 

 clover bloom, which was quite abund- 

 ant ; but tlie weather was too cold for 

 the secretion of honey in quantity, 

 and as basswood was nearly a failure, 

 and fall flowers withered on account 

 of dry weather and early frosts, we 

 got but 2,.500 pounds of extracted 

 honey, .and 1,000 pounds of comb 

 honey ; having to feed back .500 pounds 

 for winter stores ; so that our average 

 per colony, spring count, was but 

 about .373^ pounds. In 1882, our aver- 

 age yield, "per colony, was 120 pounds, 

 spring count. Dec. 3, we put into the 

 cellar 133 colonies, and packed 9 in 

 sawdust on the summer stands out- 

 side; so far all are doing nicely. 



No Diarrhcea. 



On April 16, after a confinement of 

 1.56 days, I placed my bees on the 

 summer stands. All the colonies are 

 strong, and no signs of diarrhcea. 

 The spring bids fair to be an early- 

 one, and every thing is looking well 

 for this time of the year. 



F. M. Taintor. 



Elm Grove, Mass., April 17, 1884. 



Testing Thermometers. 



Thermometers are extensively used 

 to indicate the state of the tempera- 

 ture in bee-repositories, cellars, etc. 

 Are thermometers correct instruments 

 with which to test an element so- 

 changeable as air ? When the weight 

 and measure inspector tests scales, 

 some draw quicker and sharper than 

 others, and do not weigh alike. I think 

 the thermometer, to a certain extent, 

 resembles the scales in correctness. 

 On Niagara Peninsula are vast varia- 

 tions in the temperature as shown by 

 different thermometers; so much so, 

 that at times it is difticult to ascertain 

 which one is correct. On Sept. 1.5 and 

 16, 1882, at one time, thermometers in- 

 dicated all the way from 90'^ to 104O 

 above zero. On .Jan. 22, 1884, within 

 a radius of 16 miles, thermometers in- 

 dicated from 14- to 42° below zero. 

 Why this variation V Suppose a poul- 

 try-keeper hatching eggs in an incuba- 

 tor, wasdependiiig-on his thermometer 

 to indicate 103" above zero (the proper 

 temperature at which to hatch eggs), 

 and it happened to be 8° too low, 

 making the real temperature 111° 

 above zero, the eggs in the incubator 

 would be scalded, and thus worthless. 

 Will some one who thoroughly under- 

 stands thermometers, explain how we 

 can know when they are correct ? 



Joseph M. Wisjier. 



Jordan Station, Out. 



1^ For 12.7.5 we will supply the 

 Weekly Bee Journal one year, and 

 Dzierzon's Rational Bee-Keeping, in 

 paper covers; or the Monthly Bee 

 Journal and the book for $1.75. 



