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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Local Convention Directory. 



1887. Time and place of Meeting. 



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



J. W. Bucbanan, Sec, BIdora, Iowa. 



Mar. 3, 4.— Pan-Handle, at Wlieeling, W. Va. 



W. L. Kinsey, Sec, Blaine, O. 



^^ Id order to have this table complete, Secre- 

 tariea are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetluKs.— Ed. 





Uf 



Working up Home Markets.— J. 



H. Martin, Hait£ord,o+ N. Y., says : 



It seems to me that bee-keepers are 

 away behiud other trades in their 

 methods of pushing their products 

 upon the market. I£ honey goes beg- 

 ging for a market, it is because too 

 many adopt the sit-down-and-do- 

 nothing policy. If bee-keepers would 

 commence with their county fairs, 

 and work them up thoroughly, and 

 then after the fairs work up every 

 town near them, there would be but 

 little honey to be sent to commission 

 men. I think that I know about this, 

 for I speak from experience. 



Bees in Splendid Condition.— S. 



Valentine & Sons, HagerstowUj'oMd., 

 on Jan. 24, 18S7, write : 



It now has been nearly 3 months 

 that our bees have been without a 

 flight, but on Saturday, Jan. 23, the 

 weather was pleasant, and the bees 

 had a good flight. On Sunday morn- 

 ing it continued pleasant and they 

 were out early. Through the day the 

 mercury rose to &2P, and the bees had 

 a splendid opportunity to clean up 

 their hives ; they made good use of it, 

 and were ready for gathering before 

 the day was past. Bees have wintered 

 nicely so far ; in fact we never saw 

 them in better condition. Colonies 

 have lost very few bees since they 

 were prepared for winter, and the 

 hives seem as clean and sweet as they 

 were in the fall. We have lost 3 col- 

 onies out of 310, but in every case it 

 was our fault. We let them get out 

 of honey, and very naturally death 

 must be the result. We shall try to 

 be more kind hereafter. 



Superiority of Italian Bees, etc.— 

 15— L. G. Purvis, (48-75), Forest City, 

 «o Mo., on Jan. 24, 1887, writes : 



I commenced the season of 1886 

 with 48 colonies, some very weak, a 

 few very strong, and the rest of me- 

 dium strength. I obtained 5,450 

 pounds of extracted honey, and 1-50 

 pounds in sections, and increased my 

 apiary by natural swarming to 75 col- 

 onies, iloney sold at an average of 

 10 cents per pound for extracted, and 

 15 cents for comb honey. This is 

 rather a favorable location for the 

 bee-business in some respects. I am 

 28 miles northwest of St. Joseph, Mo. 

 We have an abundance of willow. 



soft maple, cotton- wood, elm, a great 

 deal of fruit bloom, and later, honey 

 locust ; then white clover and linden. 

 In the fall we have heart's-ease, 

 goldenrod and Spanish-needle, the 

 latter being the most important. We 

 also have a great variety of other 

 flowers that yield honey more or less. 

 Our market is handy. I sell ?i of my 

 honey from my wagon in Kansas and 

 Nebraska. From my experience of 

 15 years I am fully convinced of the 

 superiority of Italian bees. One cor- 

 respondent, I believe, said that the 

 Italians were more inclined to rob 

 than the blacks. His exijerience is 

 exactly the opposite of mine, for in 

 nearly every instance in my experi- 

 ence the black bees are the ones that 

 are thieving, or trying to. When 

 honey is abundant in the flowers, 

 there is not much difference in the 

 quantity of honey stored ; but when 

 honey is scarce, the Italians and hy- 

 brids will be gaining a little when the 

 blacks are at a stand-still or going 

 backwards. 



Not Overstocked with Bees.— An- 

 drew Craig, Empire,? Dak., on Jan. 

 17, 1887, says : 



The past summer was one of un- 

 usual drouth and heat, and unfavor- 

 able for bees, and so far the winter 

 has been unusually severe. I had one 

 colony last spring which cast a swarm 

 on June 15, and I had to feed both of 

 them for winter. They are packed 

 with prairie hay. I hope they will 

 winter, although I have some fears 

 for their safety. They have not had 

 a flight since Nov. 5. There is not a 

 bee-keeper within 30 miles of here ; 

 so I have to learn the business alone, 

 by reading and experimenting. I have 

 made some mistakes, one of which 

 was in the width of the top-bars of 

 the brood-frames, which I made too 

 wide ; but I intend to remedy it in the 

 spring. 



Bees Wintering Well. — Dr. H. 

 Besse, Delaware,© Ohio, on Jan. 31, 

 1887, writes : 



My bees are wintering well so far. 

 Last October I built a bee-house for 

 them ; it is 20x24 feet. On Nov. 18 I 

 put 161 colonies into it. I keep the 

 temperature at 44°, on an average ; 

 the lowest has been 38°, and the 

 highest 56°. I use no artificial heat, 

 but govern the temperature by venti- 

 lators. At some future time I may 

 give you a full account of my bee- 

 house. It is a " daisy." 



Selling Honey.— Daniel Whitmer, 

 South Bend,to Ind., writes : 



Were it not for some injudicious 

 beekeepers the market in this locality 

 would be much better than it is at 

 present. Two years ago I got 17 cents 

 for comb, and V2}4 cents per pound 

 for extracted honey. But suddenly 

 there appeared a man who was very 

 deficient in wisdom, from Michigan, 

 and sold his at 12>^ cents per pound, 

 and finally as low as 9 and 10 cents. 

 Now where is my profit ? The mar- 



ket is ruined in this place, and it has 

 been done by men that understand 

 the bee-business— men that produce 

 honey by the ton. In several instances 

 I have instructed men in apiculture, 

 and as a remuneration for the infor- 

 mation given, they have in every in- 

 stance undersold me in the disposi- 

 tion of their crop of honey. I do not 

 fear the slip-shod, and old-fashioned 

 honey-producers, but men that know 

 something ; some that even have 

 farms, and are dealers in live stock; 

 men who are making money out of 

 farm products. But what do they care 

 for the bee-specialist, or their own 

 honey crop, just so they get it dis- 

 posed of is what they are after. Some 

 may think that I am severe, but I 

 mean business ! I have become dis- 

 gusted at the movements of some 

 who ought to know better ! 



Only an Average Season.— I. N. 

 Rogers, Jackson, 9 Mich., on .Jan. 31, 

 1887, says : 



The past season was only an average 

 one in this county, although com- 

 mencing two weeks earlier than 

 usual. I never had bees build up to 

 overflowing so early since I have kept 

 them. One colony of hybrids cast a 

 large swarm on May 8, and another 

 on May 10. A colony of black bees 

 cast 2 swarms in May, and stored 48 

 pounds of comb honey in sections by 

 thamiddle of June, when the drouth 

 came and continued until the middle 

 of August. During this drouth bees 

 hardly held their own, some of them 

 having to be fed. Basswood was a 

 failure. Fall flowers yielded a good 

 harvest. 



Commission Men Ought to be Our 

 Friends,— Dr. C. C. Miller, Marengo, 

 5 Ills., on Jan. 29, 1887, writes thus : 



If I understand it correctly, what 

 is complained of on page 57, is the 

 remarks made about putting certain 

 lots of honey on the Kansas City mar- 

 ket. Now I can see nothing objec- 

 tionable in the matter of telling what 

 is put on the market and when ; in- 

 deed, what we want is the fullest in- 

 formation about everything pertain- 

 ing to the business. If there is any 

 thing stated that is not correct, of 

 course the correction should be made, 

 just as any incorrect statement in any 

 part of the columns of the Bee Jour- 

 nal should be corrected. What we 

 want is the full truth. Let us not be 

 unreasonable with the commission 

 men. They are our friends, or ought 

 to be. Simply let them know that if 

 incorrect reports are given they are 

 likely to be looked after. 



Bees in a Cave.etc— John Turnbull, 

 La Crescent,©. Minn., on Jan. 13,1887, 

 writes : 



I began with 19 colonies last spring, 

 and I now have 59, all by natural 

 swarming, except 5 nuclei. I had 2 

 colonies the combs of which melted 

 down on July 5. Bees did well dur- 

 ing white clover, but very little in the 

 fall. Some of my late swarms were 



