204 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Convention Notices. 



®" The Mahoning Valley bee-keep- 

 ers will hold their 13th meeting in the 

 Town Ilall, at Berlin Centre, Ohio, on 

 May 5. All bee-keepers, and the pub- 

 lic in general, are invited to attend. 

 Do not forget to bring your wives, 

 children, and a well-tilled lunch basket. 

 We expect a grand meeting. 



L. Carson, Pres. 



H. A. Simon, Sec. pro tern. 



1^" The serai-annual meeting of the 

 Western Bee-Keepers' Association 

 will be held at Independence, Jackson 

 County, Mo., on Saturday, April 28, 

 1883, at 10 a. m. Papers prepared for 

 the occasion by the president, sec- 

 retary and others will be read, and 

 matters of general interest to bee- 

 keepers discussed. A general attend- 

 ance of persons interested in bee- 

 culture is requested. The present 

 membership of this Association con- 

 trol 2,000 colonies of bees. 



S. W. Salisbury, Sec. 



Kansas City, Mo. 

 J. A. Nelson, Pres. Wyandotte, Kas. 



1^ Quite a number of the leading 

 bee-keepers of Missouri and Kansas 

 met at the Court House, in Independ- 

 ence, Mo., December 2.S, 1882, and or- 

 ganized a bee-keepers' convention, 

 which was named the " Western Bee- 

 Keepers' Association," by electing the 

 following officers for the ensuing year : 

 Jas. A. Kelson, of Wyandotte, Kans., 

 President; L. W. Baldwin, of Inde- 

 pendence, Mo., Vice-President; S.W. 

 Salsbury, Kansas City, Mo., Treasurer. 

 The Association passed a resolution 

 to invite all bee-keepers within a con- 

 venient distance, to meet with us at 

 •our next meeting and lend us tlieir 

 councils. Adjourned, to meet again 

 at Independence, on the last Saturday 

 in April next, at 10 o'clock, a. m. 

 J. D. Meador, P. Baldwin, C. M. 

 ■Crandall, Committee. 



®" The spring meeting of the 

 Western Michigan Bee-Keepers' As- 

 sociation will be held at Supervisor's 

 Hall, Grand Rapids, April 26, at 10 

 a. m. 



F. S. Covet, Sec. 



Coopersville, Mich. 



i^° The Union Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation will meet in Grange Hall, Em- 

 inence, Ky., on Thursday April 26, 

 1883. All bee-keepers, and the public 

 generally, are invited to be present. 

 G, W. Demaree, Sec. 



Christiansburg, Ky. 



^ The Iowa Central Bee-Keepers' 

 Association will hold their semi- 

 annual meeting at Winterset, Iowa, 

 on Friday, May 11, 1SS3. All inter- 

 ested in anything pertaining to bee- 

 culture are invited to attend, and 

 bring anything that will be of interest 

 to the bee fraternity. 



J. E. Pryor, Sec. 



A. J. Adkison, Pres. 



Bees in Fine Condition. 



I imagine all bee-keepers wish to 

 know how bees have endured the past 

 almost unparallel winter. My bees 

 are in flne condition, only two having 

 died, and only one weak. 



T. y. Bingham. 



Abronia, Mich., April 6, 1883. 



A Bee Hive (50 Years Old. 



I put into winter, last fall, 29 colo- 

 nies of bees ; and they are all right 

 yet, but March has been very hard on 

 bees in this part of the country. It 

 has been cold and freezing nearly all 

 the time. On June 14, 1881, 1 drove a 

 swarm, for a neighbor, out of a box 

 hive that was 60 years old; it had 

 been put in when the box was new ; 

 and when I drove the swarm, it was 

 so rotten I could hardly handle it; 

 there were cracks and holes from top 

 to bottom ; it stood the hard winter of 

 1880-81, without any protection, and 

 the bees were very strong in numbers 

 when I drove the swarm. I cut out a 

 lot of sealed comb out the bottom, and 

 nine days after I had taken the first 

 swarm, it cast a second, and on the 

 eleventh day, it cast a third ; tliis hive 

 had never been known to give a 

 swarm in all the 60 years before. 

 Now, if you have an older bee hive 

 than this one, I would like to hear 

 from it. That bee hive would hold 

 about 2 bushels. The bees are alive 

 and doing well yet, and, of course, 

 that colony will be 62 years old this 

 spring. Wm. Ashcom. 



Digonier, Pa. 



Working on Elder and Maple Blossoms. 



My bees had the dysentery this win- 

 ter, but we had a few very nice days 

 here, and they were all out, and it has 

 cured them. I had 12 colonies last 

 fall, bought 2, and I found 4 colonies 

 dead this spring. The bees are work- 

 ing on elder and maple blossoms. 



O. Parker Baker. 



Woodberry, Md., April 4, 1883. 



Bees in Florida. 



Bees are hard at work bringing in a 

 bountiful harvest of saw palmetto 

 honey. Tliis harvest will last for two 

 or three months yet; then comes an 

 even better flow from tlie cabbage 

 palmetto and mangroves, as fine honey 

 as was ever extracted. The prospects 

 are that we will have a very good sea- 

 son this year. I know one "bee-keeper 

 here who has extracted over 5 barrels 

 of 4.5 gallons each from only 23 colo- 

 nies of black bees, already this year. 

 How does that compare with what 

 bees have done so far this season up 

 North y I consider this region the 

 " Ne plus uUra " for bee-keepers. We 

 do not discuss " wintering," " dysen- 

 tery," etc., but " Where can I get bar- 

 rels to put my honey in." The Jour- 

 nal is a most welcome visitor here. 

 Harry G. Burnet. 



Myers, Fla., April 2, 1883. 



Bees Strong and Healthy. 



Bees, in this section, have wintered 

 very well, to this date, considering 

 the long confinement to their hives 

 (from Nov. 2.5 to March 1), and the 

 severe cold weather, 10° to 12^ below 

 zero occasionally. The loss of bees 

 on summer stands to April 1, will not 

 be over one-tenth per cent. On Satur- 

 day morning, March 31, there was 4 

 inches of snow, and it was 12^ above 

 zero. I have never before known 

 such cold weather on that date of 

 March. I think many bees will need 

 feeding, to save them till blossoms 

 open. They have carried no flour in, 

 to this date. Most of the colonies are 

 strong in bees. H. H. Brown. 



Light Street, Pa., April 2, 1883. 



Bees in the Woods. 



Again my bees are on scaffolds and 

 benches on account of the floods. 

 They seem to be in splendid condi- 

 tion, and are bringing in honey and 

 pollen Willi a rush. I expect soon to 

 have swarms coming out. I would 

 say a word about bees in the woods 

 in Arkansas. While in the woods, a 

 short while back, I found 4 bee trees 

 within .50 yards of one another, and 

 among them was a swarm of well- 

 marked hybrids. This was 12 or 14 

 miles from my own apiary. I am the 

 only one that has Italian bees in these 

 parts ; it would be surprising to any 

 one that has never been in the bot- 

 toms of Arkansas, to see the number 

 of bees in the woods. I have found as 

 high as 9 bee trees in a single day. 

 They are mostly yellow bees, with oc- 

 casionally some hybrids. I intended 

 to say that one of the 4 that I lately 

 found, had built outside of the hollow 

 2 feet long and about a half dozen 

 sheets, and the bees seemed to be 

 working in it, and also in a hole by 

 the side of the combs. 



W. G. McLendon, 



Lake Village, Ark., March 27, 1883. 



Bees in the CeUar All Right. 



I put 21 colonies in the cellar, last 

 fall, and they are all right, so far. I 

 gave them a flight in March, and then 

 carried them back to the cellar again, 

 where they are still, and will remain 

 for some time yet. I have practiced 

 the above plan for three winters, and 

 never lost any in wintering yet. All 

 my losses have been from robbing in 

 the fall. H. H. Hasijiond. 



Pre-emption, 111., April 9, 1883. 



Bee-Keeping in Tennessee. 



Scientific bee-culture is not known 

 in this country, but a considerable in- 

 terest is expressed by a few men here. 

 Mr. Wm. Anderson keeps 1-50 colo- 

 nies, David England has 24, Elija 

 England 1.50, Dr. O. G. Broyles 25, 

 Geo. Cole 30, Crocket Lowry 30, Frank 

 Cope 20, myself 16, Most of them in 

 some kind of movable frame hives, 

 but none of them are manipulated 

 very ranch. There are a great raany 

 others who keep bees in log gums. 

 No raore honey was gathered, last 

 season, than was consumed, and mine 

 consumed 120 lbs. of sugar, extra. 

 Our principal source of honey here. 



