THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



I think that queens lay eggs in 

 queen-cells after the cells are started, 

 but I do not know that any one ever 

 saw them in the act. To the last part 

 of the query I would say, yes, gen- 

 erally.— C. C. Miller. 



My opinion is that the queens lay 

 the eggs often found in queeu-cells 

 about swarming time; but I never 

 saw one laying in them. The queens 

 also lay the eggs that produce drones. 

 I have seen them in the act of laying 

 drone eggs.— G. L. Tinker. 



I never saw a queen laying in a 

 queen-cell. Honest men who have 

 produced far less honey than I have, 

 and claim to know, say that the 

 queen sometimes lays in the queen- 

 cells, and sometimes the workers 

 transfers eggs to them. Yes, queens 

 lay eggs that produce drones. The 

 best of fertile queens do that. I know 

 this by personal observation. — James 

 Heddon. 



I do not believe that they do, but I 

 do not positively know that they do 

 not. Certainly 1 never saw the like. 

 Queens lay eggs that do produce 

 drones, and so do laying workers. But 

 I have failed to see any evidence that 

 laying workers ever ply their occupa- 

 tion of egg-laying in a hive occupied 

 by a colony in normal conditions. I 

 have noticed that sometimes, when a 

 queen is introduced to a colony that 

 has laying workers, the latter will go 

 on laying for a short time after the 

 queen is received, but it is not long 

 till either the queen or the laying 

 workers disappear. Perhaps there 

 may be exceptions to this, as well as 

 to other rules.— G. W. Dejiaree. 



Yes, to all three questions. It is 

 true that laying workers lay eggs 

 which produce drones, but it is more 

 than probable that the drones are 

 worthless.— The Editor. 



Convention Notices. 



1^~ The Annual Convention of the Vermont 

 Bee-KeeperB' Aseociatlon will be held at the Van 

 Ness House. BurlinKton.Vt., on Janaary la and 14, 

 1887. K. H. Holmes, Sec, Shoreham. Vt. 



tW The next annual convention of the Cort- 

 land Union Bee Keepers' Association will be held 

 In Union Hall, at Cortland, N. Y.. on Jan. 12, 1887. 

 D. P. Shattuck, Sec. 



XF The eleventh annual meeUng of the N. W. 

 Ills. & S. W. Wis. Bee-Keepers' Association will be 

 held in the Grand Army Hall in itocbford. Ills 

 on the third Tuesday in January. 1887. There 

 will be a two days' session. J. Stewart, Stc. 



or The Northeastern OIilo, Northern Pa. and 

 Western New York Bee-Keepers' Association will 

 hold its Hth annual convention in Chapman's 

 Opera House, at Andover. o.. on Wednesday and 

 Thursday. Jan. la and -'0, 1887. First-class hotel 

 accommodations are offered at tl per day to those 

 attendinK tbe convention. A general invitation is 

 extended to all. M. E. Maso.v, sec. 



V^ The next annual meetInK of the Nebraslia 

 State Bee-Keepers' Association will be held in 

 Lincoln. Nebraslia. on Wednesday, Jan. 12. 1887. 

 at Red Ribbon Hall, commencing ":it 1 :3o p.m. and 

 contlnuInK for :s days. E. Kretchioer, of CoburK, 

 Iowa, will deliver an addresn on Modern Apicul- 

 ture. E. M. Hayhurst, of Kansas City, and many 

 others from abroad are expected. Members can 

 return on one-third fare over the B. & M., V. 1'. 

 and M. P. lines, by srcurinK a certldcate of pay- 

 ment of fare to Lincoln, from the Htrent of their sta- 

 tion. In order to secure the reduced rates on re- 

 turn trip members hoimiit; such certiflcates must 

 present them to the Secretary of the Bee-Keep- 

 ers Association for endorsement. 



H, N, Patterson, Sec. 



Explanatory.— The flgTires before the 

 Qames indicate the number of years that the 

 person has kept bees. Those aftpr, show 

 the number of colonies the writer had in the 

 previousspring and fall, or fall and spring, 

 as the time of the year may require. 



This mark © Indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near tne center of the State named; 

 5 north of the center; ? south; O* east; 

 *0 west; and thl8<5 northeast; ^3 northwest: 

 £>« southeast; and P southwest of the center 

 of the State mentioned. 



For the American Bee JouraaL 



BlE Crops of Honey— How to Secure. 



M. 31. IJALDRIDRE. 



There are two topics, just now, of 

 immense importance to bee-keepers 

 who make the production of- honey 

 their main support. One is how to 

 secure big crops of honey ; and the 

 other, how to sell them for the most 

 money. JJeing deeply interested in 

 both topics, I have given them much 

 thought and attention during the past 

 twenty years. In this article I will 

 try to show the reader how to secure 

 big crops of honey, and of the very 

 best quality. To do this we must 

 have bee-pasturage in abundance, and 

 of the very best kind, and a pastur- 

 age that we can rely upon every year. 



Desiring to be brief, I will at once 

 direct special attention to Alsike 

 clover as the honey plant for the 

 Northern States and Canada. At the 

 last meeting of the North American 

 Bee-Keepers' Society, Mr. A. I. Root 

 is reported as having said as follows : 

 " If possible those plants should be 

 raised for honey that have value aside 

 from honey-production." And again, 

 that " Alsike clover stands at the 

 head of the list." It does not appear 

 from the report of that meeting that 

 these statements were disputed. At 

 the Detroit meeting of the society, 

 W. Z. Hutchinson reports the sum- 

 ming up of what was said there about 

 Alsike clover, as follows : " Alsike 

 can be grown with profit, as a honey 

 plant, on land worth $50 per acre. It 

 has yielded more than $2-5 worth of 

 seed per acre." 



Hon. Matt. Anderson, of Dane 

 county, Wis., has 80 acres of Alsike 

 at this writing. He has 20 acres that 

 he harvested for seed and hay, the 

 past season, and from which he got 

 "110 bushels " of seed, and "at least 

 25 tons of good hay, after hulling, 

 worth enough to pay all expenses of 

 cutting and hulling." Some years 

 ago he sold his " whole crop on the 

 Board of Trade in Chicago for $11 per 

 bushel." 



I might go on and fill column after 

 colum of the Bee Journal with 

 similar quotations, but I forbear. 

 After a careful survey of the whole 

 question, I think I cannot do better, 

 at this time, than to quote the follow- 

 ing, prepared by myself, which ap- 



peared in the first issue of the Bee 

 Journal for 1881, and to direct 

 special attention to the plan of hav- 

 ing Alsike grown extensively by 

 farmers within range of one's apiary ; 

 also to the comparative value of 

 Alsike and the common red, as a 

 fertilizer, as indicated by the roots, so 

 accurately shown in the two en- 

 gravings presented : 



ALSIKE clover for bee-pasturage. 



Alsike or Swedish clover ( TnfoUum 

 hybridum], as its name indicates, is a 

 native of Sweden, where it grows 

 wild — being both hardy and produc- 

 tive. It is commonly known by the 

 name of Alsike, that being a parish in 

 Sweden where this clover originated. 

 It was brought into cultivation in 

 Sweden about the beginning of the 

 present century, was introduced into 

 England in 1834, and soon thereafter 

 found its way into the German 

 States and other parts of Europe, and 

 was finally brought into the United 

 States, through the Patent Office, 

 about the year 1853. 



Alsike Clover Plant in bloom. 



Alsike clover is regarded by botan- 

 ists as a hybrid between our common 

 red and white clovers. The stem and 

 branches are finer and less woody than 

 the common red, and when cut and 

 cured for hay, it is perfectly free from 

 fuzz or dust. It does not turn black, 

 but remains the color of well-cured 

 timothy. It has, as the following cut 

 shows, numerous branches and a 

 multitude of blossoms which are rich 

 in honey. The bees have no trouble 

 in finding the honey, as the blossoms 

 are short and the heads no larger 

 than white clover. The blossoms at 

 first are white, but soon change to a 

 beautiful pink, and emit considerable 

 fragrance. The leaves are oval, of a 

 pale green color, and may readily be 

 distinguished at any stage of their 

 growth from the white or red clover 

 by the total absence of a pale white 

 blossom on the upper surface of each 

 leaf, a peculiarity unnoticed by pre- 

 vious writers. 



