THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



39 



of comb honey, mostly white, and 500 

 lbs. extracted. I worked my bees on 

 Mr. Doolittle's plan of spreading the 

 brood and stimulating with uncapped 

 honey in the spring. It was very late 

 in the season before I could safely dis- 

 turb the brood combs, but when rasp- 

 berries were in bloom, the hives were 

 crowded with brood and bees and they 

 went immediately into the crates. We 

 had no basswood and at no time dar- 

 ing this season has there been a flow 

 of honey, but they got enough from 

 clover to keep them at work in the 

 crates until the buckwheat bloomed ; 

 the fall run lasted about 10 days. Mrs. 

 Sanders has invented a bee-feeder 

 which met with favor by all present. 

 It is hoped that she will put it in use 

 and give us further reports. 



Mr. Goodno reported that he had 2-5 

 colonies in the yard in spring, in- 

 creased by early nuclei 13 ; natural 

 swarms 1; boughtlO colon iesin August, 

 set up 5 nuclei on Sept. 16, for exper- 

 iment, other parties added 2 colonies, 

 late in fall, to the yard, so there are 62 

 hives with bees in under my care, and 

 have secured 2,000 lbs. of honey, really 

 from the 2-5 colonies in the spring. 



Mr. Robertson gave his plan of 

 working bees in upper stories, by tak- 

 ing 2 cards from the lower story and 

 placing in the second story, tilling the 

 lower with foundation, and then ex- 

 tracting from upper story. lie strong- 

 ly advocated extracted, instead of 

 comb honey, which is demonstrated 

 by the fact that he has not secured a 

 single crate of comb honey this season. 



G. M. Barney reported his success, 

 starting with 34 colonies in the spring 

 and increased to 66 ; had many more 

 swarms but put them back ; he could 

 have had 100 colonies had he not put 

 the swarms back; had secured 30 crates 

 of comb honey, which would average 

 30 lbs. each and 2 bbls. of extracted 

 honey. 



The question drawer was then 

 opened. The first question was " The 

 Best Method of Rearing Queens," 

 asked by some one who was not pres- 

 ent at the time Mr. Robertson gave 

 his plan. As there miglit be others 

 present who did not hear liis explana- 

 tion, he gave it again, which was ap- 

 preciated by all present. 



Second question : " What Will be 

 the best Method of Marketing our Sur- 

 plus Honey in Future V" was replied 

 to by Mr. Goodno by referring to the 

 openings lately found and by exhaust- 

 ing our home market first, which is 

 yearly increasing. 



Third question : " Wintering Bees 

 by Burying in the Ground." Replied 

 to by Mr. Robertson, who had much 

 experience in that way, and considered 

 It more expensive than by preparing a 

 cellar, and not so safe a plan. 



The hour having nearly arrived at 

 which it was necessary to adjourn, the 

 secretary was requested to make a note 

 of such articles as were placed on ex- 

 hibition, which consisted of a smoker 

 from Scovell & Anderson, of Colum- 

 bus, Kas., one each of 3 sizes of T. F. 

 Bingham's smokers, and a fine collec- 

 tion of honey-producing plants exhib- 

 ited by J. H. Robertson and Isaac A. 

 Balch, including a fair specimen of 

 the noted Simson honey plant, and 



it was resolved that each member of 

 this society, at the next meeting, bring 

 something in the way of bee-keepers' 

 supplies, honey, honey-plants, wax or 

 fixtures, to place on exhibition. 



The convention was liberally at- 

 tended, there being from 25 to 60 per- 

 sons present at all its sessions, and 

 our roll gives upward of 20 active 

 members. 



Before adjournment it was unani- 

 imously resolved, that this convention 

 tender its thanks to Mr. and Mrs. J. 

 II. Robertson, Mr. and Mrs. Isaac A. 

 Balch and others, for their generous 

 hospitality. 



Resolved, That the thanks of this 

 convention be extended to Mr. J. II. 

 Robertson for the use of the hall for 

 this meeting. 



Adjourned to meet at Sheridan, 

 Montcalm Co., Mich., on the second 

 Tuesday and Wednesday of October, 

 1883. O. R. Goodno, ISec. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Prevention of After-Swarms. 



R. DART. 



To prevent my bees from casting 

 but one swarm each during the season, 

 has caused me to try about everything 

 recommended in this line of bee-keep- 

 ing. You advised me, Mr. Editor, 

 last summer, to change hives, giving 

 the old colony a new stand, leaving 

 the new one on the old stand. Out of 

 19 changed in this way, 4 cast second 

 swarms ; the next 10 that swarmed I 

 served in this way : I moved the old 

 colony a few feet from the stand and 

 placed a new hive on the old stand, 

 ran in my swarm, from the swarm- 

 catcher, then drew my frames from 

 the old swarm, shaking them iu front 

 of the new hive, thereby getting all 

 the young bees that could not fly out 

 with the swarm, leaving only bees 

 enough in the old colony (say one pint) 

 to protect tlie brood ; set the old hive 

 oft on a new stand. Out of ten served 

 in this way, not one cast a second 

 swarm, but became strong and did 

 fine work in the sections. 



I do not stop to clip queen-cells, 

 when the first queen is hatched ; in 8 

 days there is not bees enough to send 

 off a second swarm, the other cells are 

 destroyed, and the swarming is over. 



You may say this is too much work, 

 but it is only a few minutes' work, 

 and if your other work is driving you, 

 put the old hive to one side and shake 

 out tlie young bees any time of the 

 day, or next day ; it keeps allot the 

 colonies strong and does not reduce 

 them with after swarming, when the 

 young brood is all hatched out. 



Another experiment I have tried, 

 with perfect success in this line, is, if 

 you wish no further increase of colo- 

 nies, when you are shaking out the 

 young bees in front of the new colony, 

 shake them all out, cut out all of the 

 queen-cells, put on the sections, and 

 hive the next swarm in it, and keep 

 on in this way. 



I am using the Bailey swarm- 

 catcher. It is quickly placed in posi- 

 tion, in front of the hive, at the start- 

 ing out of the swarm ; and in a very 



few minutes the swarm is all in, ready 

 for hiving. By using the catcher, you 

 can keep your bees from acting cross, 

 through the swarming season. No 

 trees to climb and no limbs to cut off. 

 A swarm-catcher saves more than 

 one-half of the work, if you let bees 

 swarm naturally. We are expected to 

 give our bees care and attention 

 through the swarming season and 

 honey harvest. If we do not, we get 

 but little or nothing in return. 

 Ripon, Wis., Jan. 5, 1883. 



Scott Co., Iowa, Convention. 



The Davenport Deniocra^ of January 

 7th contains the following notice of 

 the meeting : 



The largest meeting of bee-keepers 

 ever known in this county, was held 

 at the Court House yesterday after- 

 noon. It occurred in pursuance of a 

 small meeting held a fortnight since. 

 Thirty-two persons who are interested 

 in the production of honey as a busi- 

 ness were present when the meeting 

 was called to order. After some dis- 

 cussion, it was decided to organize a 

 Society forthwith and elect permanent 

 officers, which the meeting proceeded 

 to do, as follows : President, I. V. 

 McCagg ; Vice President, George L. 

 Gast ; Secretary, J. J.Nagel; Treas- 

 urer, Israel Hall; Executive Commit- 

 tee, Enoch Mead, Ed. R. Wright and 

 Philip Earhart. 



A letter from B. F. Little, of Fayette 

 county, was read. In it the writer 

 gave his summer experience with bees, 

 and then strongly urged that the as- 

 sociation be organized so as to cover 

 Eastern Iowa, and that meetings be 

 held in different places for the conve- 

 nience and benefit of members. This 

 letter brought up the question as to 

 whether the society should be a local 

 one or a district one ; and at last it 

 was decided to make its jurisdiction 

 local, christen it the Scott County Bee- 

 Keepers' Association, and fix the 

 initiation fee at fifty cents per mem- 

 ber. Then the roll of membership was 

 signed by the following named apiar- 

 ists : I. V. McCagg, Israel Hall, J. 

 J. Nagel, E.R. Wriglit, John Madden, 

 Enoch Mead, P. Earhart, Geo. L. 

 Gast, Emil Magnus, H. O. Stacy, Wm. 

 Goos, Wm. Gromoll,C. Rock, John D. 

 Fish, Fred T. Fish, Phil. Osborne, R. 

 J. Osborne, N. C. Wilson, Wm. Rigg. 

 John L. Ciimeron, C. L. Newberry, C. 

 M. JImeis, Joseph W. Churchill, M. A. 

 Collins. 



Twenty-four members is a goodly 

 number for a beginning, especially as 

 about every section of the county is 

 represented in the muster-roll. An 

 experience meeting was then in order. 



Mr. Phil Osborne made a statement 

 concerning the apiary of Osborne 

 Brothers, at Le Claire. The spring 

 count was 73colonies, which produced 

 5,000 pounds of comb honey and 800 

 pounds of extracted honey. The bees 

 increased to 140 colonies. They win- 

 ter one-half in the cellar, and the rest 

 on the summer stands, protecting 

 them a little with straw. 



Mr. Earhart had 15 colonies in the 

 spring of 1882, and has 40 now. He 

 secured 1,600 pounds of honey. 



