THE AMERICA2J BEE JOURNAL. 



379 



Local Convention Directory. 



1887. Time and place 0/ Meftinn. 



Nov. 9-1 1.— North American, at Clilcogo. Ills. 



W. Z. UutchinBoii, Sec. RogersviUe. Mich. 



Dec. T-9.- 



■Mk-higan State, at East Saeinaw. Mich. 

 U. D. CuttlDg, Sec. Clintun, Mich. 



^~ In order to have this table complete, Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meeting's.— Ed. 



Paradise for Bee-Hunters.— A. P. 



Robson. Italy,? N. Y., writes: 



I have read with interest the article 

 on page 361, quoted from the New 

 York Medical Journal of May 14, en- 

 titled " The Black Bees of Tasmania 

 and their Medicinal Honey." That 

 article predicts that honey is destined 

 to play a great part in the treatment 

 of certain diseases, etc. It seems to 

 me that, considering the high author- 

 ity of this article, it will retire (at 

 least temporarily) the fabulous stories 

 of "Western bee-trees, California 

 honey-caves, etc., of which we have 

 heard so much ; and that Tasmania 

 will, in the future, be a "Mecca" 

 towards which all bee-hunters will 

 travel. 



Perfectly Quiet in Winter.— P. L. 



Gibson, Miiscatine,o Iowa, says : 



My experience and observation in 

 wintering bees " out-doors " is, that 

 in zero weather, or colder, bees are 

 perfectly quiet until disturbed. 



Bountiful Rains and Flattering 

 Prospects.— Geo. E. Hilton, Fremont, 

 ♦o Mich., on .June 4, 1887, says : 



We have had bountiful rains, and 

 honey is coming in splendidly, with 

 very flattering prospects for the sea- 

 son. My bees are in the best possible 

 condition, and are storing in the sur- 

 plus cases. 



Stores over the Bees in Winter.— 

 M. L. Barney & Bro., Hartford, o 

 Wis., on June 6, 1887, write : 



Our colonies are in good condition, 

 increasing Hnely in bees, and some 

 are swarming naturally. We use the 

 Badger State hive, and winter our 

 bees with the supers on. We do not 

 believe in feeding syrup for stimulat- 

 ing colonies In the spring. Our aim 

 is to have colonies go into winter 

 quarters with queens not more than 

 one year old, with an abundance of 



food honey, and good ventilation. 

 ,et the bees use their own economy 

 in rearing brood, and do not put 

 combs in between sheets of brood, as 

 we used to do, and never make up 

 colonies until about the beginning of 

 white clover bloom. We do not ex- 

 tract until about July 10, when we 

 outract only part of the honey in the 



supers. As the season comes to a 

 close, we liave every frame in the 

 supers full of sealed honey; the frames 

 being deep, the bees always have 

 plenty of honey directly over the 

 cluster, where they can get it at all 

 times. The honey never becomes 

 soiir when over tha bees, on account 

 of the heat from the colony. In the 

 flat frame, it will be noticed that the 

 honey in the centre of the hive will 

 be gone, while there will be sufficient 

 honey in the ends of the frames, the 

 honey being so far from the cluster 

 that it is very often sour ; while if 

 directly over the bees it is sweet and 

 good. If we had an apiary in a mild 

 climate, we would prefer a shallow 

 frame, but in Wisconsin no one could 

 induce us to use one, judging by past 

 and present experience. 



Fruit and Bees.— Z. A. Clark, Ark- 

 adelphia, ? Ark., on June 6, 1887, 

 writes thus : 



The time expires to-day for all bee- 

 keepers to leave town and take their 

 bees with them. The City Council is 

 in session now. I can prove by a 

 majority of my neighbors that bees 

 are not a nuisance, and are not de- 

 structive to fruit. We have made 

 some close tests to demonstrate the 

 destruction of fruit by bees. What 

 the result will be we shall soon lind 

 out by the action of the City Council. 



In our next issue we shall publish 

 a report of some more experiments 

 made by Mr. N. W. McLain, reported 

 olCcially to the United States Ento- 

 mologist, and just published among 

 the " Reports of observations and ex- 

 periments in the practical work of the 

 Division made under the direction of 

 the entomologist." This will throw 

 some further light on the senseless 

 war of the fruit culturists against the 

 bees.— Ed.] 



Inverting Brood-Frames.— lo—H. 

 S. Ball, (43), of Granby, Quebec, on 

 Junes, 1887, says: 



I have found by experiment, that to 

 empty combs in the end of a hive, and 

 invert the frames with brood and 

 honey, bees will carryall of the honey 

 out of the brood-frames into the 

 empty ones, when they are very easily 

 taken out and extracted without dis- 

 turbing the brood ; and by so doing 

 there is more space for the queen to 

 deposit eggs. This is something new 

 to me, and it miiy be new to others. 



Bees in Cities.— Frank A. Eaton, 

 Bluffton,-o O., on June 3, 1887, says : 



I notice that there is a craze or war 

 against bees in corporations. I learned 

 yesterday that the Town Council of 

 Ada, O., has prohibited the keeping 

 of more than 2 colonies by one person 

 within the city limits. One man had 

 over 100 colonies, which he has sold. 

 Ada is a town of about 2,000 inhabi- 

 tants, only 12 miles from here. 



ftueenless Colonies Gathering Pol- 

 len.— T. F. Kinsel, Shiloh,5 Ohio, 

 writes : 



I notice an inquiry by some one 

 desiring to know if bees will carry in 

 pollen if queenless. They will. I 

 made colonies according to " Sim- 

 mins," and the queenless parts carry 

 in pollen as well as the parts having 

 the queens. So the pollen carrying 

 by the field workers is no guide in 

 May and June. It might be imme- 

 diately upon removal from the cellar, 

 or upon the first flight when pollen 

 comes in the spring, when bees were 

 wintered out-of-doors. A better guide 

 would be to look over the combs for 

 queen or eggs. 



Clover Bloom, but no Honey.— J .^ 

 Nebel & Son, High Hill,o.Mo., on 

 June 1, 1887, write : 



White clover is in full bloom, and 

 our bees are not gathering any surplus 

 honey from it. Some colonies have 

 gathered hardly enough honey this 

 spring to keep them alive, and keep 

 up brood-rearing. Colonies that have 

 drones are killing them. We have to 

 feed to keep them from killing all. 



Specimen Bees, etc.— M. G. Mad- 

 dock, Marion,ot Iowa, writes thus on 

 May 30, 1887 : 



What kind of a bee is the enclosed ? 

 Our raspberries are swarming with 

 them. It is rather too dry and cool 

 in this locality for bees. I had one 

 swarm on May 26. 



[The small black bee sent by Mr 

 Maddock is too crushed for a com- 

 plete identification. It is a species of 

 Andrena. Bees of this genus are 

 often taken in hives while stealing 

 the honey. They look some like the 

 common black bee in a general way, 

 but are smaller, and when closely ex- 

 amined they are seen to be quite 

 different. 



Let me urge all who send insects, 

 to put them into a close, strong tin- 

 box. Simply placed in a letter they 

 are so crushed as to be beyond identi- 

 fication, and are rendered useless as- 

 specimens.— A. J. Cook.] 



ftueen Mated within a Hive, etc. — 

 J. W. Tefft, Collamer.OX. Y., on 

 June 7, 1887, writes : 



About April 1 Mr. Wilenan, of this 

 place, noticed that his best colony of 

 Italian bees superseded their queen, 

 and started queen-cells. I inquired 

 as to the drones, and learned that 

 there were none. But in one colony 

 there was some sealed drone- brood. I 

 suggested to him to put that frame 

 of drone-brood in the hive containing 

 the queen-cells. This queen-cell was 

 not capped over, but the drone-brood 

 was. The following 16 days the 

 weather was cool, and no bees were 

 on the wing, and no drones or bees 



