•THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



523 



Local Convention Directory. 



1887. Time and pla« 0/ Meeting- 



Aug. 18.-N. W. Ills. * 8. W. Wis., at Guilford. III. 

 D. A. Fuller, Sec, Cherry Valley, 111. 



Sept. 6. 7.— Cedar Valley, at Waterloo. Iowa. 



H. E. Hubbard, Sec La Pnrie City, Iowa. 



Nov. IB-IS.— North American, at Chicago. Ills. 



"W. Z. Uutchinson, Sec, Rogersville, Mich. 



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

 n. I>. 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. 





Large Yield of Honey.— J. Van 

 Deusen & Sons, Sprout Brook, tx N. 

 Y., on Aug. 3, 1887, write : 



We have a large yield of the nicest 

 white honey ever gathered, and the 

 bees have made a nice start on buck- 

 wheat, which is very promising. 



Terrible Drouth.— F. L. Merrick, 

 Waldrou,o Ills., on Aug. 8, 1887,says: 



Bees are as still as in winter. We 

 have had very little surplus, with 

 poor prospects for fall flowers at pres- 

 ent. There is scarcely a flower or 

 clover blossom in this section of the 

 country. Cisterns are all dry, and wells 

 are drying up fast. Pastures are 

 brown, and as dry as a powder house. 



Bee- Work has Ceased.- E. Jarvis, 

 Fair Grove,o Mich., on Aug. 6, 1887, 

 says : 



Work with the bees ceased grad- 

 ually in this vicinity from the middle 

 of July until now. It is extremely 

 diy here. Boneset and buckwheat 

 yield scarcely anything. Bumble- 

 bees die on the boneset. Nothing but 

 robber bees carry honey upstairs now. 



Oval-Leaved Privet.— Rev. A. Ab- 

 bott, of Ryde,Isleof Wight, England, 

 writes on July 2-5, 1887 : 



I send you a specimen of a tree 

 called here the "Privet" tree. I 

 think it is found in some parts of 

 America, where it generally, I hear, 

 is kept so closely trimmed that it is 

 seldom seen in blossom. Here in the 

 Isle of Wight it grows and blossoms, 

 and is full of honey-bees all day. It 

 blossoms about July 1, and is still in 

 flower, but the petals are fast falling 

 off. It is not what some call " privet " 

 in Nebraska— a bush about 3 feet 

 high with red berries. This I send 

 you is the lAymtrum ovdlifolium. I 

 think it would be very valuable for 

 honey in America, and so I direct 

 attention to it, and you can doubtless 

 tell if it is used for the bees in that 

 country. I came from St. Joseph, 



Mo., to Ryde, a town in the Isle of 

 Wight, June last, on account of my 

 own health and that of my family, 

 and I expect to live here permanently 

 with my daughter, 



[The specimen sent by the Rev. A. 

 Abbott, is of the genus Ligustrum,ani 

 there are 21 varieties, of which these 

 are the common names : barren, box- 

 leaved, Chinese, Chinese dwarf, 

 Chinese wax, common, Egyptian, 

 fortune, gold blotched, hairy, Japa- 

 nese, mock, oval-leaved, pipe, shin- 

 ing-leaved, spike-flowered, Syrian, 

 variegated-leaved, white-berried and 

 yellow-berried. The specimen sent 

 is Ligustrwnoiali folium, smd its com- 

 mon name is " oval-leaved privet." 



The Japanese privet (Japonicum) is 

 found in the Southern States, and 

 blooiris in May and June ; but al- 

 though its honey-producing qualities 

 are good, it is not enumerated among 

 the first-class honey-producers. 



The " privet '' is found here in the 

 North and West, but is not considered 

 worth mentioning as a honey-pro- 

 ducer.— Ed.] 



No Sv^arms— Honey-Dew.— J. H. 



Blanchard, Boise City,? Idaho, on 

 July 30, 1887, writes : 



Not a single colony of my bees has 

 swarmed this year. Frosty nights in 

 May and June killed all the fruit- 

 bloom, and feeding had to be resorted 

 to. White clover is nearly gone, and 

 about all they have to gather at pres- 

 ent is " honey-dew," peppermint, and 

 buckwheat. The surplus crop outside 

 of " honey-dew " this fall, will be very 

 slim. 



One Pound Per Colony, etc.— Jacob 

 Copeland, Allendale,o. Ills., on Aug. 

 8, 1887, writes : 



If " Misery loves company," I ought 

 to be happy— but I'm not. From 55 

 colonies of bees, spring count, I have 

 obtained 7 good swarms and 55 pounds 

 of honey stored in empty combs in 

 one-pound sections, that I had left 

 from last fall. According to the as- 

 sessor's report, there are 5.50 colonies 

 in this township, divided perhaps 

 among more than one hundred per- 

 sons, and I have not heard of any one 

 that has done any better than I, but 

 1 know of several that have not done 

 so well. 



Small Average Per Colony.— H. A. 

 Paxson, Spring Brook,*o N. Y., on 



Aug. 2, 1887, writes : 



As far as I am able to learn, the 

 bee-keeping in this locality has been 

 nearly a failure this year. My apiary 

 will hardly average 6 pounds of comb 

 honey to the colony, spring count, and 

 the surrounding apiaries will average 

 about the same. About three-fourths 



of the bees swarmed, but the honey- 

 flow was too short for them. Many 

 colonies have not as yet more than 

 half filled their brood-chambers. We 

 have had comparatively few second 

 swarms. There will probably be 

 taken about 8 pounds of extracted 

 from each colony, by those who pro- 

 duce that kind of honey; but very 

 few of those who do not keep more 

 than 10 or 12 colonies, use the ex- 

 tractor. 



Sugar Stores Uncapped.— Julius O. 

 Jaehne, Western Springs, d Ills., on 

 Aug. 3, 1887, writes : 



For some time I have been feeding 

 my bees granulated sugar, dissolved. 

 They have stored considerable of it, 

 but not a cell is capped. What is the 

 cause ? 



[Without knowing more of the con- 

 ditions, I cannot tell why your bees 

 fail to seal over the stored syrup. If 

 you made it very thin,and the weather 

 is cool or wet, or both, that would 

 account for the facts you state. I 

 have received so many questions of 

 late, relative to feeding bees, that I 

 will at once prepare an article upon 

 the subject— one that I have had 

 much experience with.— James Hjed- 



DON.] 



Bees still Swarming.— L. Reed, 

 Orono,© Mich., on Aug. 9, 1887, 

 writes : 



My bees are swarming yet. I win- 

 tered .54 colonies, all coming through 

 in good condition. I sold 12, and 

 commenced the season with 42 colo- 

 nies. The spring opened early, and 

 I obtained some surplus from hard 

 maple, the first I ever had from that 

 source. They commenced swarming 

 on June 7. I had from 3 to 7 swarms 

 per day. I hived all Brist swarms, cut 

 out queen-cells, and put back all sec- 

 ond swarms. About July 1, the first 

 swarms commenced sending out 

 swarms. I took the old queen away 

 from them, or killed her, and put 

 them back; then when the young 

 queens hatched out, they came again 

 as I knew they would. Then it was 

 cut out cells and put them back. 

 They have superseded about two- 

 thirds of the old queens in my apiary, 

 which is something uncommon with 

 me. I had one colony that cast a 

 swarm on June 7, and another on 

 June 17 ; I put them back on July 30, 

 and they cast a prime swarm, the 

 same as a first swarm. That was the 

 second case of the kind I ever had. I 

 have had 7 swarms in the last three 

 days ; I have put back over 50 swarms, 

 and still they keep it up. I had a 

 large swarm this morning. I will get 

 about one-third of a crop of honey. It 

 is very dry here ; we have had no rain 

 since July 4. Bees are bringing in 

 some honey, as dry as it is. I shall 

 have to feed all young colonies, unless 

 it rains soon to bring on the fall 

 crop. 



