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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Local Convention Directory- 



1887. Time and place of Meetino. 



Aug. 9.— Stark County, at Caaton. O. 



Mark Thomson, 8ec.. Canton, O. 



Nov. 16-18.— North American, at Chicaco, Ills. 



W. Z. Hutchinson, Sec, Rogersville, Mich. 



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

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



^F" In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.— Ed. 





Honey as a Medicine for Lung 

 Diseases.— Geo. M. Thomson, Grand 

 Junction,© Iowa, on July 2-5, 1887, 

 writes : 



I enclose a prescription which I re- 

 ceived from Dr. J. D. Kirby, of Grand 

 Junction, Iowa. He uses it for lung 

 troubles, such as colds, and to give 

 relief to consumptives. I know it to 

 be valuable, and worthy of a place in 

 " Honey as Food and Medicine." It 

 is as follows : 



Extracted honey, 4 ounces; gin, 2 

 ounces ; chloroform, 1 drachm ; sul. 

 morphia, 1 grain. Mix, Dose for 

 adult, a tea-spoonful every 2 hours. 



Honey here is almost a total fail- 

 ure. With plenty of rain we will get 

 some fall honey. We have had but 

 little increase. Oats are a short 

 crop. Corn may be a good crop, but 

 it needs more rain. 



Very Poor Season.— Byron Benton, 

 Bronson,9 Mich., on July 25, 1887, 

 says: 



The season for honey has been very 

 poor. Bees swarmed fairly well up 

 to July ; since then they have stored 

 enough to live on. Some have stored 

 a little in sections. Many colonies, 

 to survive the winter, will have to be 

 fed. Bees now are about as quiet as 

 late in the fall. 



Honeyseim for Extracted, etc.— 

 L. Hammersmith, Middle Amana,o+ 

 Iowa, on July 16, 1887, writes : 



I notice that a better name for ex- 

 tracted honey is wanted. In German 

 we call it " lionigseim ;" but the trans- 

 lation thereof, as far as I can find, is 

 "drops of comb honey," which will 

 hardly answer, although it is nothing 

 else. Why not, if others can find no 

 better translation, adopt this name V 

 Every A merican knows what an ice- 

 berg (ice-mountain) is, also other 

 words taken from foreign languages ; 

 they will soon learn that honeyseim is 

 the finest of honey, as dark and infe- 

 rior honey cannot be called such, al- 

 though it may be extracted. 



We averaged, in 1886, in 3 apiaries, 

 230 lbs. per colony, spring count ; in 

 1885, 150 lbs.; this year we will not 

 have quarter of a crop. White clover 



was a total failure an account of the 

 drouth. The bees worked hard on 

 red clover, but that was cut for hay 

 after being a few days in bloom. The 

 man that cut it told me that he never 

 saw the like, for he could hardly take 

 his horses into the field, on account of 

 so many bees. Linden yielded noth- 

 ing, as the caterpillars had eaten the 

 leaves and blossoms. Now the sec- 

 ond blossoms of clover are opening, 

 and honey is coming in, which will 

 sell as honeyseim. 



Mr. G. Knipler, of Parnell, Iowa, 

 write this to me, of his Italian bees : 

 " Those 7 colonies into which you put 

 Italian queens for me last fall, are by 

 far the best of all my bees. I took off 

 one case of honey, and another one is 

 nearly full ; while the blacks have no 

 surplus. The Italians bring in honey 

 when blacks do nothing. 1 am very 

 thankful to you, as I could not have 

 introduced the queens myself." 



An Apiary Plundered, etc.— Mrs. 

 O. F. Jackson, Sigourney,Os Iowa, on 

 July 23, 1887, writes : 



Bees are doing poorly in this part 

 of Iowa. White clover yielded but 

 little honey, and we had very little 

 from basswood. It has been very dry 

 this summer, but we are having nice 

 rains now, and I hope to get some 

 honey from the buckwheat yet. On 

 July 9 I had 4 colonies taken out of 

 my apiary; the next morning we 

 found one hive in a neighbor's field ; 

 the hive broken and the bees scattered 

 in the grass and by the roadside. It 

 was anything but pleasant on that 

 bright Sabbath morning to see the 

 apiary fence down, the hives scat- 

 tered, and the air full of homeless 

 bees. I do not know what is best for 

 me to do in this case. 



[If there is any likelihood of a 

 repetition it might be well to keep a 

 watch over the apiary, or use an 

 electric alarm. If you find the des- 

 perado, prosecute him, and let him 

 have the full benefit of the penalty of 

 the law.— Ed.] 



Bees Dying, etc. — Wm. Robson, 

 Rolla,© Mo., on July 25, 1887, writes : 



Seventeen out of 33 colonies are 

 losing bees nightly in various quanti- 

 ties, as seen on the alighting-boards 

 in the morning. Four of the 17 colo- 

 nies are rapidly decreasing. The 

 first I noticed of the bees dying was 

 about eight days ago. The death- 

 rate is alarmingly on the increase. 

 The bees, as they crawl out of their 

 hives, appear in a trembling, jump- 

 ing agony, crawling a few feet from 

 the entrance of the hive, turn over on 

 their backs and die. What makes it 

 appear more strange to me is, the 

 dead and dying are all young bees, 

 such as nurses, comb-builders, and 

 those just emerging from their cells. 

 The season began m quite a promis- 

 ing manner, colonies building up 

 very fast on fruit-bloom, making 

 ready for white clover, but from 

 some cause (it might have been the 



cold last winter) there was but very 

 little nectar secreted in the blossoms. 

 We are now having very dry weather. 

 Buckwheat yields no honey. Bees 

 are gathering some pollen from the 

 corn, sumac and pleurisy-root ; the 

 last named is nearly done blooming. 

 The iron-weed has been in abund- 

 ance. I cannot think highly of iron- 

 weed as a honey-plant. The surplus 

 honey crop will be easily managed 

 this season here ; farmers will not be 

 peddling with buckets to get a buyer, 

 and I doubt if they get honey enough 

 to know how it will be relished on 

 warm bread. 



Honey Crop very Light.— H. D. 



Cutting, Clinton,OsMich., on July 25, 

 1887, says : 



Prof. Cook tells me that he cannot 

 attend the Chicago convention unless 

 it is held in November. He cannot 

 leave his classes before. The honey 

 crop in this locality is very light. The 

 Chapman honey-plant has done well 

 for the extremely dry weather. 



No Surplus Honey.— Geo. W.Riker, 

 Russell,? Iowa, on July 25, 1887,says: 



As yet I have taken no surplus 

 honey this season, on account of its 

 being too dry. Prospects are poor for 

 any honey this fall. I have 120 colo- 

 nies, and I hope to get as many 

 pounds of honey. 



No Honey and no Swarms.— G. W. 



Johnston, Holden,*o Mo., on July 21, 

 1887, says : 



I commenced in the spring with 50- 

 colonies of Italians bees, and I have 

 not taken any honey at all, and no 

 prospects for any. I have to feed 

 nuclei colonies. There have been na 

 swarms at all in this county, that I 

 have heard of. 



Better than an Average Year.— D. 

 L. Shapley, Randallsville,ON. ¥., on 

 July 25, 1887, says : 



I have not taken any honey from 

 the hives yet, but I am going to do 

 so as fast I can. Bees have not stored 

 any in the sections since July 20, and 

 will not gather any more than they 

 will consume the remainder of this 

 season. I think that it has been bet- 

 ter than an average year for bees in 

 this vicinity. I can make a fuller re- 

 port later in the season. 



Sure of Half a Crop.— Fayette Lee, 

 Cokato,OMinn., on July 24, 1887, 

 writes : 



I have taken 35 pounds of honey 

 per colony so far, and increased my 

 apiary from 75 to 96 colonies. There 

 is plenty of honey for winter in the 

 brood-chamber ; so I have half a crop 

 so far. The bees are getting a little 

 honey in the morning from melons 

 and corn blossoms. I got 50 pounds 

 of comb honey each from some new 

 colonies. 



