THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



347 



To improve our bees we breed our 

 queens from the queen or mother-bee 

 whose worker bees produce the most 

 honey. AVe also breed from queens 

 whose workers are docile and easily 

 handled; by thus breeding we have 

 improved our bees much. We have 

 now imported to this country all races 

 of bees : Italians, Cyprians, Gyrenes, 

 Egyptians, Holy-Lands, etc. Those 

 bees are in the bauds of experienced 

 bee-keepers, being tested as to their 

 honey-gathering qualities. I know of 

 no other industry that has improved 

 as much in the past 2.5 years as has 

 apiculture. The wool-grower of 25 

 years ago has gained from 2}4 to 6}^ 

 pounds per fleece; while the honey 

 product has increased from 8 to 60 

 pounds per colony. 



Bennington,© Ohio. 



Local Convention Directory. 



1687. Time and place of Meeting. 



Nov. North American, at Cbicago, Ills. 



W. Z. Hutchinson, Sed., Rogersville, Mich. 



Dec. 7-9.— Michigan State, at Bast Saginaw. Mich. 

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



tM~ In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.— Ed. 





No Roaring— Liquid Honey.— Jos. 

 A. Hawn, Farmington,oMo.,on May 

 21, 1887, says : 



I have never been able to detect any 

 "roaring" in my bee-yard in cold 

 weather, that could be heard one foot 

 away. Part of my bees were in single- 

 walled hives. I would suggest to Mr. 

 Demaree that his term ' ' liquid honey" 

 would apply equally well to honey in 

 the comb, that is not candied. 



Very Dry Weather.— Jos. Mason, 

 Wallace, 6 Ills., May 21, 1887, says : 



The weather is very dry in this 

 vicinity, and unless we get rain soon 

 the bees will suffer. The pastures 

 are drying up fast. The mercury, the 

 the last few days, was as high as 92^ 

 in the shade. 



Good Honey Season Expected.— P. 

 L. Gibson, MuscatiDe,o+Iowa, on May 

 16, 1887, writes : 



I wintered my bees in a cave. I put 

 in -40 colonies on Dec. 8, and took 

 them out on March 8, all in good con- 

 dition. Drones have been Hying for 

 several days, and swarms are expected 

 soon. White clover began to bloom 

 one week ago, and with the heavy 

 rains of last week, it bids fair for a 

 good honey season. One of my neigh- 

 bors has bees in the second story of 

 an old house ; there are bees flying to 

 and fro through the windows, and are 

 doing nicely. Another neighbor has 



a half-gallon glass-jar filled with nice 

 comb honey, put there by the bees 

 last year. No bee-legislation or taxa- 

 tion for me, please, but let them go 

 free with the pigs and poultry, and if 

 they root up, scratch up, or sip up 

 your neighljor's vegetables, pay all 

 damages cheerfully. 



Bees do Roar in Winter.— W. C. 



Steddom, Oregonia, P O., on May 20, 

 1887, says : 



Bees in this locality, when the mer- 

 cury falls too near zero, can be 

 heard distinctly several feet distant; 

 Until the late controversy, I supposed 

 every bee-keeper to be familiar with 

 the fact. I was surprised when Mr. 

 Demaree said his say about the bees 

 being quiet when the mercury sud- 

 denly falls too near or below zero. 



Terrible Drouth.-10-B. H. Stan- 

 dish, (200), Evansville,? Wis., on May 

 23, 1887, writes : 



We have not had a good rain this 

 spring, and but one or two light ones. 

 This following the severe drouth of 

 last season, makes the outlook very 

 poor for bee-keepers. W bite clover is 

 not to be found, except on low land 

 and in protected places, and even this 

 is now stunted and withering. It will 

 scarcely keep brpeding up unless we 

 soon have rain and favorable weather. 



[The refreshing showers which have 

 been so general all over the North- 

 west, we hope have found Evansville 

 before now, and made amends for 

 past neglect.— Ed.] 



Bees Roar in Winter Confinement, 



—J. W. Bayard, Athens, ? O., says : 



Do bees " roar " in winter confine- 

 ment ? This is hardly a mooted 

 question among intelligent bee-keep- 

 ers at the North. Of course as one 

 goes South the cause entirely dis- 

 appears. In this latitude — a trifle 

 north of Cincinnati — when the tem- 

 perature reaches zero, it becomes a 

 disturbing cause, and the roaring 

 process begins, and the lower the 

 temperature the louder the " roar." 

 This is a provision in nature, I pre- 

 sume, that is eternal. I winter my 

 bees without protection on the sum- 

 mer stands. 



Loud Roaring of Bees.- G. A. 

 Brunson, Plymouth,tx Mich., on May 

 19, 1887, writes : 



In regard to roaring, I would say 

 that one morning during the coldest 

 spell of the winter of 1884-85, 1 heard 

 loud roaring of the bees in my chaff 

 and sawdust packed hives, which 

 proved to be too light or thin-walled 

 ror the occasion. They had .S-inch 

 walls, and it was 34^ below zero. I 

 afterwards found plenty of ice and 

 frost inside the hives, and together 

 with the large quantity of foul stores 

 or honey-dew they had gathered the 

 fall before, caused the death of 23 out 

 of my 25 colonies. My theory of the 



roaring is this : As 

 the hive was chilly, 

 sumption of food was 

 in order to get at the 

 heat was necessary to 

 to leave the cluster to 

 required to maintain 

 hence their roaring. 



the interior of 

 a greater con- 

 necessary, and 

 food a greater 

 allow the bees 

 gather the fuel 

 life and heat ; 



No Sound in Winter Detected.— A. 



B. Gregory, Lansing,? Mich., says: 



I have wintered from 10 to 30 colo- 

 nies of bees out-doors for the past 8 

 years, and I have never been able to 

 detect any sound from them when 

 standing by the hive in cold weather. 

 In fact, no sound was audible with 

 the ear close to the hive when the 

 temperature was below zero. 



But Little Humming in Winter.— 

 Randolph Graden, Taylor Centre, o- 

 Mich., writes : 



I would say in reply to Mr. Dem- 

 aree's request, that I have walked 

 among my hives on the summer 

 stands in the winter almost daily, and 

 I have always noticed if all was in 

 good condition, that the bees made 

 very little noise or hum when the 

 temperature was at zero or below ; 

 but as it moderated,the hum increased 

 to the natural hum that may be heard 

 almost any time in the spring or 

 autumn. 



Roaring Bees in Winter.— Wm 



Irwin, Columbus Grove,-o O., on May 

 19, 1887, says : 



I wintered my bees on the summer 

 stands in single-walled hives, and I 

 could hear them sounding from 9 to 

 13 feet away, with a temperature 

 ranging from zero to 15° below. 



Bees Roaring in Winter.- H. N. 



Patterson, Humboldt, txNebr., writes: 



I winter my bees on the summer 

 stands, protected. At a temperature 

 of zero and below the bees can be 

 heard roaring. I examine them once 

 every week in the winter ; when the 

 temperature is above zero, I blow my 

 breath in the entrance to see if there 

 is life. When colder, I know from the 

 hum at a distance, for the colder the 

 louder it is. 



Waiting for Honey to Gather.- M. 



O. Tuttle, Osage,6 Iowa, on May 23, 

 1887, writes : 



I reported in March that I had 80 

 colonies of bees in the cellar. I took 

 them out on April 11, after a confine- 

 ment of 155 days, I think. I lost none 

 from the effects of wintering. Two 

 starved from the effects of robbing 

 last fall. Seven more have gone one 

 way and another since being taken 

 out. This has been the worst spring 

 for robbing that I have ever experi- 

 enced. I now have 71 colonies, and 

 50 of them are very strong. They are 

 in surplus cases now, waiting for 

 honey to gather. 1 have several hives 

 tiered up— one hive on top of the 

 other— with both hives full- of bees 



