THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



541 



For tlie American Bee JournaL 



My Report for 1883. 



G. M. DOOUTTLE. 



By turning to page 218, of the pres- 

 ent volume of the Bee JournaLj the 

 reader will there find in what condition 

 my bees were on May 2 of this year. 

 About this time the weather began to 

 warm up, and new flowers to produce 

 pollen, so that brood soon began to be 

 reared quite abundantly. About May 

 25, apple blossoms opened ; but, as it 

 rained the most of the time, little 

 honey was obtained, so that most of 

 the brood was reared from old honey 

 still left in the hive. White clover 

 bloomed very profusely, but as it was 

 cold and wet all the while, the bees 

 did not get a li^'^ng, and, to keep them 

 in good conditi<;in to gather honey 

 when it came, I fed them from 2U0 to 

 300 pounds of old honey, which I had 

 on hand. Whitewood, sumac and 

 wild mustard came and went, but 

 yielded no honey, and, although there 

 was a merry hum in the locust trees 

 while in bloom, when it did not rain, 

 still scarcely enough honey was ob- 

 tained to keep up brood-rearing, even 

 while the trees were white witri blos- 

 soms. It was rain, rain all the while, 

 till every one longed for a few days of 

 dry w'eather. 



On July It), the basswood blossoms 

 opened, and, although, it still rained 

 nearly every day, yet between the 

 showers the bees worked as I never 

 saw bees work before. While the 

 blossoms to most other flowers are so 

 formed as to catch the rain when it 

 falls, and thus dilute the nectar in 

 them, or wash it all away, the bass- 

 wood blossom stands like an inverted 

 dish, causing the rain drops to glide 

 off witliout touching the nectar, thus 

 allowing this flower to afford the bee 

 an opportimity to secure the coveted 

 sweet, even in a rainy time. To this 

 peculiarity of the basswood flowers I 

 owe most of my lionev crop, for it 

 rained nearly every day while the' 

 basswood was in bloom. 



On .July 2.3, it became cold, so that 

 for three days scarcely a bee left the 

 hives, and the bee yard was nearly as 

 silent as in winter. About noon on 

 the 27th, it warmed up enough so that 

 the bees again went to woi-k, and for 

 the next week they labored assiduously 

 when it did not rain. At this time 

 the bloom was gone near the apiary, 

 but on the hills, some si.x miles dis- 

 tant, it was still in its prime. As no 

 long rainy spell had made a " gap " 

 in tlie flowers, the bees followed up, 

 as the flowers receded, till this dis- 

 tance was reached, while a long rain 

 of three days would have allowed the 

 bloom to have failed at a point two 

 miles or so from home, for a mile or 

 so in width, over which the liees would 

 not have passed to find the flowers 

 which were in bloom beyond. Thus 



fortunate, the bees still labored five 

 or six days on the hill tops which 

 helped them to finish up many sec- 

 tions which would otherwise have 

 been left unfinished. 



Many claim that bees do not work 

 so far from home, or if they do, it is 

 of little or no advantage, but I could 

 see but little if any difference as to 

 the gain made at this time, when 

 compared with the week previous. 



But, to return, with Aug. 13, the 

 supply on the hills seemed to fail, and 

 when I opened the hive on the 14th, 

 I soon saw that the honey harvest was 

 over, as robber* began to appear. For 

 the sixth time, in succession, buck- 

 wheat failed to give any honey, and 

 the season of 18SS passed without a 

 single pound of surplus except from 

 basswood. 



By loss in wintering, as given on 

 page 2tS, and sale of bees and early 

 queens, my stock was reduced to 5.5 

 colonies, 40 of which were fairly good 

 and the remaining 15 were from weak 

 to very weak. I decided to work the 

 40 good ones for honey, and the 15 

 weak ones were to be devoted to 

 queen-rearing. By footing up the re- 

 sult, I find that the 40 worked for 

 honey, gave a surplus in comb honey 

 of 2^388 pounds, and of extractecl 

 honey 1,922 pounds, making 4,310 

 pounds in all, or \01% pounds, as the 

 average yield per colony, spring count. 



Aly comb honey was sold at 16 cents 

 per pound, delivered at our nearest 

 railroad station to a buyer for the 

 Boston market, and my extracted is 

 selling readily at 10 cents. By adding 

 the sales of bees and queens to the 

 product of the honey, and deducting 

 expenses, I find I have $1,021.30 left 

 as the net proceeds from the bees. 



As I have 80 colonies of bees at the 

 time of the writing, in as good condi- 

 tion as were the 80 a year ago, this 

 gives me a salary of SI ,021 .30 for 

 caring for 80 colonies of bees one year, 

 during which there was no honey 

 yield, except from basswood. 



I am frequently asked why I do not 

 keep more bees, and why I do not at- 

 tend conventions, etc. I wish here 

 to reply to all, that I have a beloved 

 father who is entirely helpless, from 

 " creeping palsy," who depends upon 

 me (an only son) to lift and care for 

 him. So long as he lives my duty is 

 plainly at home, which reason is suf- 

 ficient excuse tor a small number of 

 bees kept, and a close confinement at 

 home. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Northern Michigan Convention. 



The Xorthern Michigan Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association met at Sheridan, 

 ]Mich., at 10 a. m. Called to order by 

 the President t4eo. W. Stanton. The 

 proceedings of tlie last meeting were 

 read and approved. The roll of mem- 

 bers was called, and a fair number 

 found to be present. The meeting 

 adjourned until 1 p. in. 



At 1 p. m. the meeting was called 

 to order by the President. The Secre- 

 tary's and Treasurer's reports were 

 read and approved. The enrollment 



of members was then made, which 

 numbered 29. 



The reports of the standing com- 

 mittees were then in order. The First 

 Vice-President, F. A. Palmer, re- 

 ported his success in bee-keeping as 

 follows : In 1880, I bought 2 colonies, 

 and, in Itlay, I brought them home, 

 and that season doubled them in niun- 

 ber and took 135 pounds of honey, .35 

 of which was comb, and the lialance 

 extracted. I wintered them in Roop's 

 winter hive, packed in sawdust, suc- 

 cessfully. In 1881, 1 increased to 12 

 colonies, and took 775 pounds of 

 honey, mostly extracted, which I sold 

 for $99.27. I" wintered again success- 

 fully as before, on the summer stands, 

 and' in 18.82, I increased to 30 colonies, 

 and took out one ton of honey, 100 

 pounds of which was comb, and the 

 balance extracted. In the fall, owing 

 to a pressure of oflTicial duties, I neg- 

 lected to prepare my bees for winter, 

 and lost all but one colony ; I have 

 increased to two, this summer, and 

 shall buy more in the spring.'' 



Our Fifth Vice-President, Miss F. 

 A. Bellamy, of Ionia, makes the fol- 

 lowing report : "I received notice 

 from our Secretary, as I was one of 

 the ofllcers, that I should make a re- 

 port of my work this season. This is 

 my third year in the apiary. I con- 

 sider myself a novice. I have learned 

 much, but I think I have very much 

 more yet to learn. We began this 

 spring with 13 colonies ; now we have 

 40 strong colonies in good condition 

 for winter, and have secured 2,4.50 

 pounds of honey, besides what our 

 family have used on the table ; that I 

 have no account of. We have some 

 neighbors that keep a few colonies, 

 but with a few exceptions they are 

 doing but very little with them. I 

 have solicited their attendance at this 

 meeting." 



No other Vice-Presidents being 

 present, we listened to the President's 

 address, giving an account of his 

 summer's w(n-k in the bee yard. Not 

 meeting with the best success, he did 

 not care to have it appear in print, 

 lie has 48 colonies, mostly strong; 8 

 or 10 may need help ; his bees were 

 not yet prepared for winter. 



The following subjects were then 

 discussed : " The cause and disposal 

 of fertile workers;" and "The in- 

 troduction of fertile queens to colo- 

 nies that have just swarmed." Thirty- 

 six bee-keepers were then present. 

 The subject of "Foul Brood" was 

 brought up, and enlisted a lively in- 

 terest, as two or more cases were re- 

 ported as existing in the county, hav- 

 ing been brought here from Ilowell, 

 JNIich. ; the facts of vyhich were well 

 known to Mr. S. J. Youngman, of 

 Lake View, and W. W. Trussel, of 

 Colby. A committee of three were 

 appointed to investigate the same, 

 and if it be found that foul brood ex- 

 isted ill our county, to take the neces- 

 sary steps to 'destroy the same. The 

 Pre'sident appointed the following 

 members as a committee : S. J. 

 Youngman, Lake View ; W. W. Trus- 

 sel, Colby ; 11. M. Hoop. Carson (Mty. 



The subject of "Comb Foundation " 

 was then taken u)), and the different 

 makes and (jiialities discussed ; each 

 giving their preference to some par- 



