74 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Local Convention Directory. 



1887. 



Feb. 3. 



Time and place of Meeting. 

 -Wisconsin Stfite, at Madison, Wis. 



F. Wilcox, 8ec., Mauston, Wis. 



Feb. 4.— Fremont Proeressive, at Fremont, Mich. 

 Geo. E. Hilton, dec, Fremont, Mich. 



Feb. 12.— Hardin County, at Eldora. Iowa. 



J. W. Buchanan, Sec, Eldora, Iowa. 



^F" In order to have this table complete, Seore- 

 tarleeare requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetlHKs.— BD. 





Bees Flying.— Chas. Smith, Plum 

 Tiee.6 Ind., on Jan. 24, 1886, says : 



I have 10 colonies on the summer 

 stands, not packed, but with plenty 

 of honey. Bees have been flying tor 

 the last few days. I sold all my honey 

 at 15 cents per pound. 1 agree with 

 Mr. Joel Helser, as to price of comb 

 honey being 16 cents per pound. 



of the outcome, as I have never had 6 

 per cent, loss in any winter, except 3 

 years ago when I lost all, which was 

 caused by impure stores, and lack of 

 proper attention in the fall. I think 

 the usual way of reporting the honey 

 yields, as the average per colony 

 spring count, is wrong and mislead- 

 ing. My yield by that rule would be 

 an average of 127^^ pounds; whereas 

 I obtained mine from 15 colonies, and 

 I think that the highest and the 

 lowest amount should be given . This 

 is the only true way of reporting. 



Stormy Weather, etc. — David 

 Jantzi, Crosshill, Ont.,on Jan. 15,1887, 

 writes : 



We have had very stormy winter 

 ■weather so far, and the roads are all 

 blockaded with snow. Last season I 

 had 10 colonies to start with, and I 

 had during the season 27 good swarms, 

 making 37 colonies, of which I have 

 sold 7. The honey season was very 

 short, on account of the drouth; but 

 my bees gathered 850 pounds of honey, 

 750 pounds of it being extracted, 

 which I sold for 12% cents per pound 

 in my home market, and the balance 

 being comb honey I sold for 18 cents 

 per pound. Comb honey sells best in 

 this locality. I have packed my bees 

 on the summer stands with flax chaff, 

 and all are in fine condition now. 



Will Bee-Keepers Unite?— W. B. 



Thorne, Glenn,ot Kans., writes as 



follows : 



Honey producers are no easier to 

 induce to combine than are the 

 farmers who, from past experience, 

 have proven that any extensive or- 

 ganization for mutual protection is 

 very improbable. If the \morganized 

 producers determine on any one in- 

 dustry, supposing it to be profitable, 

 that industry is "fated." The rais- 

 ing of cattle, for instance, was sup- 

 posed to be among those industries 

 that could never be overdone ; yet the 

 past fall has witnessed a collapse of 

 that great industry at Kansas City. 

 Honey, or, in fact, any article of daily 

 consumption, is liable to share the 

 same fate when once it attracts the 

 attention of the masses. As honey 

 producers, can we unite with profit in 

 arresting the downward tendency of 

 the honey trade ? I say emphatically, 

 yes ! Will they unite V I say, no ! 



a great many causes, and we have no 

 right to lay the blame on any one 

 cause in particular. For instance, 

 the man that has a few bees in a 

 fence-corner is not to be blamed for 

 all this, by no means. For in this 

 town the cause is quite different. 

 There has been honey shipped here 

 that was said to be produced in the 

 East, but on a close examination it 

 was found to be the product of a large 

 honey-producer in the West, and 

 shipped to the commissioners of the 

 Eastern cities. He was no fence- 

 corner bee-keeper. How all this can 

 be done with a profit to the bee- 

 keeper is a mystery to me. The con- 

 veniences for producing honey in the 

 West must be a great deal better 

 than they are here in Indiana. I 

 would suggest that all the bee- keepers' 

 associations in the United States call 

 a meeting for the purpose of discuss- 

 ing this matter, and send delegates to 

 a national convention, at some central 

 point ; then they would be fully pre- 

 pared to organize a society, if need 

 be. I would further suggest that the 

 new organization be consolidated 

 with the Bee-Keepers' Union, if such 

 a thing could be done. Then the bee- 

 keepers would become a power, 

 ptherwise so many different organi- 

 zations for the same purpose would 

 amount'to nothing. 



Reporting Honey Yields, etc.— A. 

 D. Stocking, Almena,o..Mich.,on Jan. 

 24, 1887, writes : 



Last spring, at Ligonier, Ind., 

 where my bees are, I had 8 colonies 

 of bees in prime condition. They 

 were wintered on the summer stands, 

 with chaff" cushions 2 inches thick 

 over the brood, and the hives raised 

 from the bottom-boards by a rim 2 

 inches deep put under the hives; the 

 entrances were left open full width, 

 and protected from the storms by 

 leaving a board against the front of 

 the hive. I had no loss. I increased 

 them to 17 colonies; sold 1, and 2 ab- 

 sconded. I obtained 1,020 pounds of 

 honey in one-pound sections from 15 

 colonies, an average of 68 pounds per 

 colony. The largest amount from 

 any one colony was 121 pounds in one- 

 pound sections ; the smallest was 4 

 Eounds in one-pound sections. The 

 ives were heavy with spring stores 

 (I do not extract from the body of the 

 hives), and I prepared 16 colonies for 

 this winter the same as I did for the 

 winter previous, and I have no fears 



Price of Honey— Reversible Hives. 

 —Fayette Lee, Cokato,© Minn., on 

 Jan, 6, 1887, writes : 



I, for one, am not willing to pro- 

 duce honey and let commission men 

 set the price on it. I have produced 

 a great many thousands of pouuds of 

 it, and have always set my own price 

 on it. But it looks as if the large 

 producers were trying to drive all the 

 small producers out, and they will do 

 it it honey becomes any lower in price. 

 I say, let comb honey sell for 15 cents 

 a pound, and extracted for 9 cents a 

 pound. Tliis is my price. Every 

 bee-keeper in the United States ought 

 to know what the price of honey 

 should he, and I do not know of any 

 better way then to send extra copies 

 of bee-papers to every subscriber to 

 give to those who do not take them, 

 and let such copies contain the pro- 

 ceedings of the producers' association, 

 when it meets, and what the price of 

 honey shall be. I should like to hear 

 reports from those who have been 

 using reversible hives ; whether they 

 get any more honey or not. It is 30° 

 below zero this morning. 



Results of the Season.— Daniel 

 Whitmer, South Bend,*oInd., on Jan. 

 19, 1887, writes : 



On Nov. 20, 1885, I placed in the 

 cellar 118 colonies, leaving 62 on the 

 summer stands. All were in excel- 

 lent condition. I lost one in the 

 cellar, and 11 on the smmer stands, 

 principally by spring dwindling. By 

 uniting 1 had 160 colonies to begin the 

 season with. The spring was favor- 

 able, and they built up to fair work- 

 ing condition. On Monday, the flrst 

 week in June, 25 swarms issued. They 

 might have done better in surplus 

 gathering had I been at home. The 

 season was fair up to July 15. They 

 stored 53 pounds per colony, spring 

 count— or 7,000 pounds of comb and 

 1.000 pounds of extracted from un- 

 finished sections. I have now 207 

 colonies in the cellar in a tempera- 

 ture of 45° the most of the time, and 

 36 colonies on the summer stands, all 

 having an average of 40 pounds of 

 honey per colony. All are pure Ital- 

 ians except 36 colonies of hybrids. 

 About 10 swarms absconded. I sold 

 5, and gave 2 to friends. 



Organization for Bee-Keepers.— A. 



Cox, White Lick,0 Ind., writes : 



I am in favor of a honey-producers' 

 association, if gotten up in a proper 

 manner. But how to do this, is quite 

 an item. The low price of honey is 

 attributed to a great many causes by 

 different correspondents. There are 



Preparing Bees for Winter.— L. 



Eeed, Orono,© Mich., on Dec. 23, 

 1886, writes : 



It was so dry here the past season 

 that bees did but little from July 1 

 till Aug. 15. After the rains came we 

 had a good fall yield. Bees swarmed 

 but little, and they began the winter 

 in splendid condition, strong in bees, 

 and having plenty of honey. There 

 was no " bug juice " the past fall. The 

 colonies that I had expected to lose 

 last winter, came out all right, and 

 built up to strong colonies ; some of 



