234 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



value of most of its suggestions, and 

 can recommend them to all. The bee- 

 keeper who does iK)t invest 25 cents 

 for this work, makes a mistake. 

 Agricultural College,? Mich. 



Apr. 



Local Convention Directory. 



1887. rime and place of Afeetin-o. 



Apr. 14.— Eastern Indiana, at Richmond. Ind. 



M. G. Reynolds, Sec, WiUiamsburn, Ind. 



Apr. 16.— Marsliyll County, at MarBhalltown, Iowa. 

 J. W. Sanders, Sec. lieGrand, Iowa. 



Apr. j(i.— Wabash County, at N. Manchester, Ind. 

 Aaron Singer, Sec, Wabash, Ind. 



20.— Southern Illinois, at Benton, Ills. 



F. 11. Kennedy, Sec, DuQuoin, Ills. 



Apr. :!6.— Central Michigan, at Lansing, Mich. 



J. Ashworth, Pres., Lansing, Mich. 



Apr. 26.— DesMoines Co., at Burlington, Iowa. 



John Nau, Sec. Middletown, Iowa. 



May 4, 5.— Texas State, at McKinney, Tex. 



B. If. Carroll, Sec, Dresden, Tex. 



May 5. -Sheboygan County, atHingham.Wis. 

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



May 24.-N. W. Ills. & 8. W. Wis., at Rockton, Ills. 

 D. A. tXiller, Sec. Cherry Valley, Ills. 



Dec. —.-Michigan State, at Bast Saginaw. Mich. 

 H. D. Cutting. Sec, Clinton, Mich. 



Kf In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested tn forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.- Bl>. 



loss of any account. Some of my 

 neighbors put their bees out on March 

 8 and March 9, and we have had some 

 very cold weather since. I visited 

 one apiary to-day where 10 colonies 

 were out, and they seemed as lively 

 as on a warm day in June. But the 

 bee-keeper said that they are much 

 lighter now than when he put them 

 out. A few of us bee-keepers here are 

 putting our bees into the cellar in a 

 diflerent manner or arrangement of 

 the hives, than I have yet seen de- 

 scribed. Our bees wintered nicely 

 one year ago, and if we all succeed 

 usually well this year, I shall be 

 tempted to give the plan in the Bee 

 Journal. I have handled bees more 

 or less for 10 years, and I have al- 

 ways made them profitable when I 

 attended to them. The winter here 

 has been good for clover, and if our 

 bees continue strong until May 1 , we 

 shall be prepared for a grand honey 

 season— our first. 



sti^^T^^ 



looked out the queen at first, and sup- 

 posed she was as dead as the rest. So 

 I thought I would experiment a little. 

 I took the hive into the house, put it 

 on the cook-stove, and put a slow fire 

 in it. I could see that they soon 

 moved more and more, and then be- 

 gan a hum. I have about two-thirds 

 of them now alive in the kitchen. I 

 will put them back on the stand as 

 it gets warm. I believe I could have 

 saved all of them had I not scattered 

 them around everywhere. They were 

 out of honey, and had destroyed all 

 their brood. Will this colony do any 

 good y I never heard of such a case, 

 except when Dr. Miller found the 

 ground squirrel. 



[Several of such cases have been re- 

 ported. If taken care of and fed they 

 will be all right.— Ed.] 



Welcome Change of Weather.— 



Geo. E. Hilton, rremont,K3 Mich., on 

 April 3, 1887, says : 



Last Monday morning the ground 

 was covered with snow to a depth of 

 8 inches, and at daylight the mercury 

 was just at zero. To-day at 3 p.m. it 

 is lip above zero, and the bees are 

 bringing in pollen, although there is 

 plenty of snow in places. My bees 

 never wintered better — in fact it 

 sounds more like June than April, in 

 the apiary to-day. 



Early Black Drones.— Mr. Gideon 

 Crews, Gray's Summit,o Mo., on 

 April 3, 1887, writes : 



On April 1 I noticed drones flying 

 from a colony of black bees. Is this 

 not rather early for them in this lati- 

 tude V Would it not be best to cut 

 out the drone-comb in this colony at 

 once, as I do not want any black 

 drones V 



[Yes ; destroy the drone-comb at 

 once, if black drones are not desired. 

 -Ed.1 



Feeding Maple Syrup.— Willis M. 

 Barnum, Angelica, ? N. Y., on April 



1, 1887, writes: 



So far bees seem to be wintering 

 well ; yesterday the air was full of 

 them. I am feeding maple syrup, 

 occasionally, to stimulate brood-rear- 

 ing. All bee keepers are happy 1 



Bough on Bees.— Jacob Oswalt, 

 Maximo, 6 on March 30, 1887, says : 



The month of March came in like a 

 lamb, but went out like a lion. On 

 March 29, we had a regular blizzard 

 from the northwest, with 2 or 3 inches 

 of snow. The temperature was down 

 to zero, and everything seemed to be 

 freezing after 6 weeks of pleasant 

 weather. Bees on the summer stands 

 suffered severely. 



Wintering Bees in the Cellar.— M. 

 O. Tuttle, Osage, 5 Iowa, on April 1 , 

 1887, writes : 



I put 80 colonies of bees into the 

 cellar last fall. A stove was kept in 

 the cellar, the chimney being built 

 from the bottom of it. The tempera- 

 ture has been kept at from 38° to 45° 

 until March 15, since which time it 

 has been kept at 48° to 50°, and some- 

 times even 55°. My bees are quiet, 

 and they seem as happy as they do on 

 an eve in June. 1 do not expect any 



Bees in Good Condition.— S. H. 



Mallory, Decatur, ? Mich., on April 6, 

 1887, writes : 



Bees seem to be in good condition 

 here in southern Michigan, this 

 spring. We have had several warm 

 days since March 1 , and the bees have 

 had a good flight, which- was badly 

 needed, as they had been confined 

 since November, although packed on 

 the summer stands. That is the way 

 I winter my bees, and I think it the 

 safest way in this latitude, if prop- 

 perly packed, as they can remain in 

 the packing until settled warm 

 weather. 



Wintered without Loss.— M. H. 

 Freeman, Olustee Creek,o, Ala., on 

 April 1, 1887, writes : 



My 100 colonies of bees have win- 

 tered finely without any loss, and on 

 the approach of spring they began 

 gathering pollen and rearing brood. 

 The earliest pollen gathered that I 

 observed was on Jan. 26, from the 

 arbor-vitse, an ornamental tree or 

 shrub that decks many Southern 

 yards. Since then fruit bloom and 

 many wild flowers, with whose names 

 I ani not familiar, have furnished the 

 bees with honey and pollen. On March 

 24 I hived a large swarm which issued 

 from a hybrid colony in a single story 

 Langstroth hive. This is quite early, 

 I think, as the usual time for swarm- 

 ing is in April. 



Very ftuiet Bees.— J. A. Reeds, 

 Hinesboro,o* Ills., on March 30,1887, 

 writes : 



Yesterday morning I was smoking 

 and overhauling my bees, and to my 

 surprise I found a case where one had 

 passed into the state of hibernation, 

 as I supposed ; for they were very 

 quiet, and on raising the lid I called 

 them dead. I took out the combs 

 where they were clustered, took some 

 of the bees in my hand, and still they 

 seemed to be dead ; I then threw them 

 on the ground. There were many 

 bees that had crawled into the combs. 

 I took all the combs to the room 

 where I keep them, and in an hour or 

 two I passed the hive ; the sun was 

 shining on the bees, and to my sur- 

 prise I could see them move. I had 



Do Bees Talk and Hear?— R. M. 



Osborn, Kane,o. Ills., writes : 



If bees do not have a language, and 

 cannot hear, then I do not see how 

 they manage to keep so well organized 

 as to appoint guards at the hive-en- 

 trance, comb-builders, workers, etc., 

 and committees to clean cells for the 

 queen to lay eggs in, and to attend to 

 her wants ; to attend and see after the 

 young larvse ; to cap brood and to 

 clean cells for storing honey ; to forage 

 for nectar and pollen ; to cap the 

 honey and bring in water for neces- 

 sary uses for the colonies ; to examine 

 and determine on the time necessary 

 to supersede the old queen ; to build 

 the required queen-cell to rear a queen 

 that may be the cause of the death of 

 the old queen, unless she escapes by 

 flight, and, after the cell is capped, a 

 special committee of braves is ap- 

 pointed to guard the cell and keep the 

 old queen from destroying it ; for she 

 is guarded by her loyal braves, and a 

 committee of her loyal braves is sent 



