26 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Local Gonvention Directory. 



1887. Time and place of Meetino. 



Jan. 13.— Sheboygan County, at HinKbum, Wis. 

 Mattie B. Tbomas, Sec, Sheboygan Falls, Wis. 



Jan. 18.— N.W. Ilia. & 8. W.Wis., at Rockford, Ills. 

 J. Stewart, Sec., Rock City, Ills. 



Jan. 19, 20.— N. E. Ohio, N. Pa., &c.. at Andover, O. 

 M. E. Mason, Bee, Andover, O. 



Feb. 2.— N. E. Michigan, at Bay City, Mich. 



W. Z. Hutchinson, Sec, Rogersville, Mich. 



Feb. 3.— "WisconsiD State, at Madison, Wis. 



F. Wilcox, Sec, Maustoo, Wis. 



t^~ In order to have this table complete, Secre- 

 Uirles are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.— Bd. 



Stl^^Jl&^ 



Organization for Honey-Producers. 



— S. H. Mallory, Decatur, 9 Mich., on 

 Dec. 31, 1886, writes : 



I am heartily in favor of a honey 

 producers' association, but I am 

 doubtful about ever controlling the 

 honey market. There are too many 

 of the slip-shod class of beekeepers 

 to think of buying them out, as Mr. 

 Baldridge suggests. But there are 

 various ways in which such a society 

 might do good. But I think that bee- 

 keepers should be thoroughly or- 

 ganized ; and the sooner the better. 



.side with black, tarred roofing-paper. 

 Where the bees are, it is as dark as in 

 any dungeon— no ray of light can 

 penetrate it. It is entirely below 

 ground, but very dry, and the tem- 

 perature remains at about 60° all the 

 time. The bees are quiet at all times. 

 I have just been into see them. They 

 came out on the alighting-board to 

 see what I wanted, the same as they 

 do when approached on a summer 

 evening with a light. I have had bees 

 for about 10 years, but I never gave 

 them any attention until the past 

 summer. In December, 188.5, 1 found 

 that some of my colonies were almost 

 without food. I put up the partition 

 in the cellar, took in the light colonies 

 and fed them. The result was that 

 they came out very strong last spring, 

 while those that were left on the sum- 

 mer stands were very weak until 

 almost midsummer. 



The Market Reports.— John Con- 

 ser, Glenn, o Kans., says : 



In regard to excluding the market 

 reports of honey, given by the com- 

 mission men in bee-papers, I say yes, 

 so tar as commission men are con- 

 cerned. We have been damaged by 

 their reports, as I think they make 

 the prices to suit their business. I 

 think that a good way to get correct 

 reports, would be to let the secre- 

 taries of the bee-associations give the 

 monthly reports in the leading bee- 

 papers. 



A Little Bee-Man's Report— Vin- 

 cent Quinn,Penn Yan,*oN.Y., writes : 



I tliought I would send in my re- 

 port. Pa gave me one Italian colony 

 in May. I beat pa, for I picked out 

 his best colony in the yard. I got 60 

 pounds of honey, and it cast one 

 swarm. Pa helped me to rear three 

 queens to form nuclei, and I built 

 them up to strong colonies. I now 

 have 5 colonies in the cellar, and they 

 are doing well. 



Bees in a Green-House Cellar.— 

 Joseph Heacock, Jenkintown,o, Pa., 

 on Jan. 1, 1887, writes : 



I have my bees in one end of a 

 green-house cellar. In the otlier end 

 is a ]0-horse-power steam boiler. A 

 fire is kept up day and night from fall 

 to spring for heating the green-house. 

 A partition made of boards extends 

 across the cellar between the bees and 

 the boiler, and this is covered on one 



Bees in Good Condition.— John D. 



Abel, Porest City,-o Mo., on Dec. 30, 

 1886, writes : 



I have 21 colonies on the summer 

 stands, not packed, but with plenty 

 of food for winter. I got scarcely any 

 honey last summer. I intend to place 

 one and two pound sections on all the 

 hives in the spring. 1 place a thick 

 paper on the hive, then the top-board 

 upon the paper. My bees seem to 

 be in good condition now. 



swarm, which gave me .50 pounds of 

 extracted honey. Two other colonies 

 gave me over 200 pounds each, and a 

 fine swarm on July 4. From these 2 

 colonies I took 75 pounds of comb 

 honey, and each had at least 40 pounds 

 when i3ut into the cellar on Nov. \o. 

 I had some colonies that gave me no 

 surplus at all, and some but little, but 

 on the whole I think they did well, 

 considering the condition they were in 

 last spring. 



[The " photo " is a nice one, and is 

 placed in the Bee-Keepers' Album on 

 our desk. With your bright-looking 

 wife and three children, matronly 

 mother, nice home and bees, you 

 ought to be extremely happy.— Ed.] 



Bees in a Clamp. — A. Mclnnes, 

 London, Ont., on Jan. 3, 1887, says : 



I have 13 colonies in a clamp. The 

 clamp never needs to be disturbed in 

 winter or summer. It always has the 

 same appearance. I keep the tempera- 

 ture from 40° to 50°, Fahr. My damp 

 is more for spring, as I can keep the 

 temperature at 60° or 70°, or any de- 

 gree desired. I have 4 colonies that 

 are very weak ; there was only about 

 one-half of a pound of bees in some of 

 them. I am too near the city, and the 

 bees get into the candy shops in the 

 fall of the year and get lost. We are 

 having very cold weather and lots of 

 snow. My clamp is covered com- 

 pletely with snow. I can see the 

 temperature every morning. The 

 cold weather does not seem to lower 

 it more than 1 or 2 degrees a day. 



Excellent Results, etc.— Elias Fox, 

 Hillsborough ,*o Wis., on Dec. 28, 1886, 

 writes : 



I send you a photograph of my Ital- 

 ian apiary, consisting of 60 colonies ; 

 also of my mother, myself and family, 

 and my dwelling, work-shop and ice- 

 house. On April 15, 1886, 1 took from 

 my cellar 40 very weak colonies. On 

 April 25 I was called away for ten 

 days, and during the time it turned 

 cold, and my bees dwindled so that on 

 May 13 my 40 hives contained prob- 

 ably enough bees to make 5 good 

 colonies. I then bought 2 more, in- 

 creased the whole to 60, and took 3,400 

 pounds of honey, and my bees have 

 more honey than they will consume. 

 One colony gave me 130 pounds of 

 tine honey in sections, and a fine 



Fixed Price for Honey.— Joel 

 Helser, Huntington, d Ind., writes : 



In regard to a fixed price for honey 

 in the United States, I would say, 18 

 cents per pound for choice comb 

 honey, and 12 cents per pound for ex- 

 tracted. 



Farmer Bee-Keepers, etc.— Wm. 

 Rob^on, Rolla,0 Mo., on Jan. 1, 1887, 

 writes : 



For 20 years 1 have not known 

 honey so low in price as during the 

 past season. For the past 14 years I 

 have been handling bees here, and I 

 must say that I have never known 

 white clover to yield so much honey 

 as it did through June, and up to 

 July 15. The farmers who happened 

 to have a colony or two were very 

 much elated over their surplus honey; 

 some brought it to the stores in wash- 

 boilers, some in wash-tubs and pails, 

 utensils that looked as though they 

 were for other purposes than being 

 besmeared and daubed with such an 

 unsightly mass of comb and honey ; 

 for which they received in store pay 

 from 10 to 12J^ cents per pound. Con- 

 sequently the market was not as good 

 as in former years, for those who 

 have been trying to tempt the taste 

 with their one and two pound sec- 

 tions of honey. This question is 

 often asked of me : " Why do you 

 ask such a large price for your honey? 

 Three pounds for half a dollar is too 

 much. I can get it at the stores for a 

 bit," (meaning 12!^ cents). Some 

 people would try to make a person 

 believe that if it was honey that was 

 enougli ; but for my part, give me 

 something else besides wash-tub 

 honey. My bees have been put into 

 winter quarters with ample stores, 

 but not as strong in bees as I would 

 like. 



Splendid Season and Crop.— S. J. 



Church & Son, Cedar Rapids,©* Iowa, 

 on Dec. 30, 1886, write : 



From 93 colonies, spring count, we 

 obtained 11,000 pounds of honey, and 

 50 pounds of beeswax, and increased 

 them to 130 colonies. All are winter- 

 ing nicely in a cellar 12x12x7 feet, 

 with the temperature varying from 

 40° to 50° above zero, but the most of 



