THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



187 



Local Convention Directory. 



1887. Time and place of Meeting. 



Apr. 9.-Union. at Dexter, Iowa. 



J. E. Fryor, 8e<-., Deil4?r, Iowa. 



Apr. 12.— Stark County, at Canton. Ohio. 



Mark Thomson, Sec, Canton. O. 



Apr. 16.— MarsbiiU Coanty.at Marshalltowu, Iowa. 

 J. Vi\ Sunders, Sec. l,e(JranU, Iowa. 



fW In order to have this table compteie, Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward tull particulars of 

 time and place of future meetlRbie.— Ei>. 





Bees all Right.-F. W. Schafer, 

 Eddyville, 9 Iowa, on March 14, 1887, 

 says: 



Bees have wintered nicely so far ; 

 out of 22 colonies wintered on the 

 summer stands only one died, and 

 that dwindled on account of diarrhea, 

 I think. Thirty-six colonies in the 

 cellar have come through all right so 

 far. I put them out-doors on the 

 morning of March 12, and some were 

 at work in the afternoon. My father, 

 who has about the same number of 

 colonies, lost two. 



TTsing Foul Broody Combs.— One 

 of our Canadian subscribers writes as 

 follows : 



Suppose that foul brood makes its 

 appearance in an apiary that has been 

 run for extracted honey ; the combs 

 have been exchanged from one hive 

 to another during the honey-flow, and 

 a good many of them have been taken 

 from diseased colonies, and are at the 

 present time mixed up with combs 

 from healthy colonies. What is best 

 to do with them ? Would you melt 

 them all up, or will they be safe to 

 use again V 



[By all means melt up the combs — 

 it will not be safe to use them as they 

 are.— Ed.] 



Bees in Fine Condition.— A. J. & 

 E. Hatheld, South Bend, 5 Ind., on 

 March 1.5, 1887, write : 



Our 2:W colonies of bees are still in 

 the cellar, and to all appearances they 

 are in the finest possible conditon. 



Peach-Trees in Full Bloom.— J. W. 



Howell, Kenton, N3 Teun., on March 

 10, 1887, writes : 



My bees gathered their first natural 



Eollen on Jan. 2.5. The weather has 

 een tine eversince, and the bees have 

 been working lively. Peach-trees are 

 in full bloom, and bees are getting 

 the nectar from them. My colonies 

 are strong and healthy. I lost only 3 

 out of 12.5 colonies, in wintering, and 

 all wintered on the summer stands in 

 Langstroth hives. I ship no honey to 

 market. I have built up ^ home mar- 

 ket, and sell all I can produce. I get 

 12J^ cents for sections of 1-lb. each. 



Bees in Good Condition. — Otto 

 Kleinow, Detroit, o^ Mich., on March 

 11, 1887, writes : 



Bees are in very good condition ; I 

 expect to have early swarms, as most 

 of my colonies are very strong. I 

 have about liu colonies of Italian 

 bees ; some have Albino queens mated 

 with Italian drones. I also have a 

 few pure Albinos. I think the bees 

 of the queens that are crossed with 

 Albinos, or with Italian drones, are 

 very good honey gatherers— a little 

 better than light-colored Italians. 



Alsike Clover for Fodder.— Mr. 



Wm. M. Carr, Bradford,? N. H., on 

 Feb. 26, 1887, writes thus : 



Have you published a leaflet show- 

 ing the advantages of Alsike clover 

 for fodder ? If not, I should think a 

 circular for distribution among farm- 

 ers would find ready sale among bee- 

 keepers who wish to increase the cul- 

 tivation of Alsike among their neigh- 

 bora. 



[We have been requested several 

 times to publish a Leaflet on this sub- 

 ject, and will do so at once, as sug- 

 gested. Its title will be " Alsike 

 Clover for Hay and Pasturage." It 

 will be ready for delivery as soon as 

 this Journal is in the hands of its 

 readers. The prices will be 50 cents 

 per hundred ; 500 copies for $2.2.5, post- 

 paid. Order at once and scatter them 

 far and wide.— Ed.] 



Bees in the Cellar.— Jas. W. Mills, 

 Melleray,CM Iowa, on March 15, 1887, 

 writes : 



My bees are in the cellar yet. I 

 have lost one colony so far, and some 

 more of them have the diarrhea. I 

 would put some of them out for a 

 cleansing flight, but my cellar is so 

 small, and the hives are crowded in 

 so that I wovild disturb all the rest of 

 them. One man who had 5 colonies 

 in the cellar, lost all of them. I think 

 that extracting last fall was the cause. 

 Another man bad 27 colonies and lost 

 7. I believe they were on the summer 

 stands. 



Condition of Bees in Missouri.- 

 John Blodget, Empire, x) Mo., on 

 March 12, 1887, writes : 



My bees wintered well, and are 

 bringing in pollen from the maples. 

 I wintered them on the summer 

 stands packed in oat-chafl. Some of 

 my neighbors have lost very heavily, 

 even 70 per cent, of their bees. Clover 

 is all alive, and in all probability we 

 will have a good year for honey. Last 

 year the forepart of t>ie season was 

 good, and then it became so dry that I 

 had to feed some nuclei to keep the 

 queens laying until heart's-ease 

 bloomed ; but to the surprise of all 

 there was no honey from that worth 

 speaking of, so feeding was again the 

 order of the day, or lose the weak 

 nuclei, and they have wintered finely. 



Legislative Pretection. — Reuben 

 Havens, Onarga.o Ills., writes : 



As a bee-keeper I ask no special 

 legislative protection ; I expect suc- 

 cess only by hard work, strictly honest 

 dealing, and striving to meet the 

 wants of my customers in quality, 

 style, and price of product. I find 

 that pleasant words, kind acts, and 

 the free use of honey will do more in 

 controlling a "waspish" disposition 

 than law. When these fail, and " for- 

 bearance ceases to be a virtue," and 

 your pockets are large and full of 

 money, go to law ; not before. I fully 

 endorse the action of the officers of 

 the National Bee-Keepers' Union,and 

 think if 3,000 instead of 300 would 

 give their support to the Union it 

 would prove grandly successful iu 

 protecting tlie rights of bee-keepers, 

 and securing better prices for honey. 



Wages in an Apiary.— C. W. B., of 



New York, asks the following : 



What wages should an experienced 

 man have for taking care of 130 colo- 

 nies of bees, spring count, from the 

 time they are taken out of the cellar 

 until they are put back in the fall ? 

 The apiary is to be worked for comb 

 and extracted honey, and about 50 

 queens to be reared for the apiary. 



[Very much depends upon the 

 locality, how well the 130 colonies are 

 worked, etc. In general terms, I 

 think a modern practical apiarist who 

 is well up with the times, should com- 

 mand one-half more wages, to say the 

 least, than a common laborer. I con- 

 sider bee-keeping, in its true sense, 

 partly a prof ession.— J amesHeddon.] 



Wintering in a Damp Cellar, etc.— 

 Esau Russell, Tiffin,o Iowa, on Mar. 



14, 1887, writes : 



Last fall I moved my apiary of 70 

 colonies over three miles, and put 

 them into a cellar of a house where 

 nobody lived last summer, the be- 

 ginning of December. After they 

 were in 2 or 3 weeks water began to 

 come from the entrances of some of 

 the hives. I gave them more ventila- 

 tion, and it soon stopped, but the 

 cellar did not prove to be a good one, 

 for the hives became moldy, so I put 

 them all out, and the bees had a good 

 flight on March 1 and 2 ; it was none 

 too soon, as a great many of them had 

 the diarrhea. I lost 7 colonies out of 

 70. One colony is a puzzle to me. A 

 little while after I put them out I 

 noticed drones coming out of the 

 hive. A neighbor bee-keeper here 

 said the colony was queenless. I told 

 him that I did not think so, as it was 

 a strong colony of pure Syrians. I 

 examined them and found the queen 

 and capped brood. The drones are 

 fine ones ; there are about 70 of them, 

 I should think. 



Dr. Mlller'8 Book, "A Year Amoag- 

 the Bee8,"anri the Bee Jouknai. for one 

 year, we will club for $1.50. 



