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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. 10, 



that the bees had Riiawcd the comb away and released her. I 

 found pges in all llio drone-comb, and, as I thoiiRht, all the 

 queen-cells torn down on the comb of brood I gave them, and 

 thouRht all was well — ami possibly would have been, had I not 

 disturbed them. But on opening the nucleus I took her from, 

 the next day, to remove a batch of choice colls I put in it three 

 days after removing the iiueon, I found this same queen in it 

 laying, but no tiueeu-cells. It was hard to believe, but on ex- 

 amining the full colony I found that the bees stopped her after 

 she had destroyed all the cells but one, and had eggs in all the 

 drone-comb and none in the worker-comb. In the nucleus 

 she only laid in worker-comb before and after her removal. I 

 destroyed the cell left, and gave them to another queen which 

 gave satisfaction. 



Don't you suppose that the workers, being dissatisfied 

 with the queen they balled, " willed" thatshe lay drone-eggs? 



I also learned not to risk a lot of cells where I remove a 

 ymmri queen to introduce to another colony in my own apiary, 

 without clipping her wings ; for if they are not received kindly 

 they will return, but after getting old they may not be able to 

 locate their former home. 



The case mentioned above is not the only one I have 

 known. The first of August a large swarm issued (from another 

 hive), the queen got lost, and the bees returned. Seven days 

 later I removed all queen-cells, and wishing to try a queen 

 from a noted Northern breeder, I ordered one, and prepared a 

 lot of cell-cups for them to complete while waiting for the 

 queen. At the expiration of ten days I removed the cells, and 

 as the queen had not arrived, I gave them a comb containing 

 eggs to keep them quiet. On Aug. 23 the queen arrived ; I 

 destroyed the cells on the comb given them, and introduced 

 her. On the 2(ith they swarmed out with my new queen, and 

 thinking that I must have overlooked a cell, I examined again, 

 and found no cell, but an egg in every queen-cup I saw, and 

 but few anywhere else. I returned the bees and queen, and 

 the cells were not completed. Do you suppose the " will " of 

 the workers had anything to do with that ? 



Right here I want to say to Mrs. Atchley that they just 

 did have sealed brood enough to count, for it was a piece not 

 larger than my hand. 



The honey-flow from sourwood the first of July (from 

 which I got about 25 pounds per colony, and my only surplus) 

 gave my bees the swarming fever, and I resorted to caging 

 some of the queens to prevent it, and they would often swarm 

 again in two days after being released, with only eggs in the 

 queen-cups. 



To combine the hatching-brood and candy plans of intro- 

 ducing, make a hole near one corner of the cage, which stop 

 with a cork until you think the queen would be received. 

 Then lemove the cork and fill the hole with candy, and let the 

 bees release her. Creek, N. C. 



The Season of 1894— HoHey-Plants. 



BY E. 8. LOVESY. 



I have watched the reports of the honey-flow this season 

 with much interest. They form a conundrum which seems 

 hard to solve. They include reports of enormous yields of 

 honey down to almost nothing, and from some localities we 

 hear that the bees are starving, and what is annoying is, that 

 these various reports come from ths same localities. We can 

 understand why there has been little or no honey-flow in the 

 drouth-strick(Mi districts, but when we see bee-keepers living 

 in the same neighborhood, and some report a large yield of 

 honey while their neighbors report that their bees have gath- 

 ered no surplus, we are inclined to think there must bo other 

 causes than the lack of honey-producing plants. 



In some localities honey-producing plants are very scarce. 

 When this is the case bee-keepers should try to supply the de- 

 ficiency, or move to some more favored locality. H(U'e, in 

 Utah, we always have from a moderate to a good honey-flow, 

 and as our lucerne fields increase in size and number, so do 

 our honey-flows increase. For hay and honey combined, I do 

 not know of any plant that will equal it; a plant that will 

 grow from five to seven tons of hay to the acre, and often give 

 a good honey-flow — what more could we ask ? If any of our 

 bee-keeping friends wish to try it, they should get the soil 

 ready in the fall (also the seed, while it is cheap), and sow 

 early in the spring. A large portion of our honey-flow hero, 

 this year, came from lucerne and sweet clover. While some 

 complain that the season of 1894 was a poor one, others re- 

 port large yields of honey. Some report 200 and 800 pounds 

 to the colony. My bees, the past season, averaged a little 

 over 130 pounds to the colony, the non-swarmers doing much 

 the best. 



I traveled through five counties the past season, and with 

 one exception where I found strong colonies, they have done 

 well. The one instance I found six strong colonies in dry- 

 goods boxes of various sizes and shapes, with cracks cut on 

 the top of the boxes, and other loose boxes laid over them, the 

 object being to have the bees crawl through those cracks and 

 fill the top boxes, but the bees did not seem to see it that way, 

 for I found lO pounds of honey in one box large enough to 

 hold 200 pounds, all the rest being e-npty. 



Now, if our bee-keepers would adopt some good hive- 

 something simple and easy to handle — and keep their colonies 

 always strong, as far as tltah is concerned I do not think 

 there would be much complaint of a poor honey-flow. 



I read the statistics on page 802 of Gleanings for 1894, 

 and I notice that Utah is put down as very unfavorable. To 

 this I protest. Besides the five counties that I visited, we re- 

 ceived some excellent reports at our convention held in this 

 city Oct. -1, from southern counties, some going so far as to 

 say that it has been the best season they have seen for years. 

 I do not think there ever was, or ever will be, a season in 

 which everybody will succeed, but much of it is due to man- 

 agement. Some assert that they have never had a failure, or 

 what could be called an unprofitable season. Let us hope that 

 this class may increase. Salt Lake City, Utah. 



Report of the Illinois State Convention. 



BY J AS. A. STONE. # 



The fourth annual meeting of the Illinois State Bee- Keep- 

 ers' Association was held at Springfield, on Nov. 13 and 14, 

 1894. It was regretted very much that Pres. J. M. Ham- 

 baugh was just about to leave the State for California, and 

 could not be present. The meeting was called to order by the 

 Secretary, and the Rev. Thos. D. Logan offered prayer. He 

 thanked the Lord that among His manifold works He had 

 made even the little bee to do service for man, and prayed 

 that we might ever be ready to see His hand in all His bounti- 

 ful gifts to us. 



W. J. Finch, Jr., of .Springfield, was elected temporary 

 chairman. The minutes of the last meeting were read and 

 approved. A recess was taken that members might have an 

 opportunity to pay their fees. 



The Secretary adopted Mr. Benton's plan of " numbering" 

 the members, which was a great saving of time in writing, for 

 the Secretary. The numbers were pasted on the back of the 

 badges, and could be turned either side out, as needed. 



The Secretary's Report. 



The Secretary's report was read as follows, and then dis- 

 cussed : 



At our last meeting, nearly one year ago, our membership 

 was not very large, and as the Chicago meeting was postponed 

 on account of the North American meeting at that place, our 

 only means for increasing the membership of the Association 

 was by some way to be managed through correspondence. 

 Acting upon the method the Secretary thought best, 300 pos- 

 tal cards were sent out to those most likely to become mem- 

 bers, informing them that members would be entitled to cloth- 

 bound copies of the report that would soon issue — beside other 

 benefits that only members would participate in. 



Like notices were sent out through the bee-papers. For 

 awhile after these notices were sent out, as many as three 

 persons sent in their fees for membership by one mail. After 

 a short time it was forgotten, and they only came in very 

 scattering. 



When our report came out it proved to be so many pages 

 more than we first calculated on, that the cost was in conse- 

 quence greater, and therefore not as much left to pay postage 

 as we had hoped ; so we gave notice through the bee-papers 

 that any one desiring the Second Annual Report could have it 

 by forwarding 8 cents in stamps to pay for postage and wrap- 

 ping. For a few days a rush was made for them at the rate 

 of three or four by each mail ; but as the notice was lost sight 

 of, the desire for the reports went out of mind, as the old 

 proverb runs — "Out of sight, out of mind." 



A few weeks ago I asked Mr. York, editor of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, to continue the notice for a few weeks. 

 Since which time requests are being sent in (accompanied by 

 the stamps) at the rate of half a dozen or more a week. 



In compliance with the resolution of our last meeting in- 

 structing the Secretary to send out reply postals — requesting 

 answers to the prescribed questions^relating to the honey 

 crop, all the readers of the bee-papers are familiar with the 

 result. As the honey crop was about gathered before the 



