THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



603 



have worked them repeatedly in a 

 yard of ten or a dozen colonies, open- 

 ing hives and handling all the combs 

 without smoker or veil, and the bees 

 have generally paid no more attention 

 to me than would flies on a window. 

 However, I must say that in such a 

 yard I have had even hybrids so 

 trained to slow handling that I could 

 do likewise. Among the bees in a 

 larger apiary I do not make it a point 

 to venture "without both a veil and 

 a smoker. 



I have for the past season been 

 handling Cyprians, both pure and 

 hybridized. Imbued as I had been 

 with impressions of their irritability 

 almost beyond the control of the 

 operator, the season's experience has 

 been a constant surprise. While hav- 

 ing my smoker ever ready, I have 

 seldom had occasion to use it. Even 

 in taking off the cover from a hive, I 

 seldom have to blow in any puffs of 

 smoke to control them. In taking 

 out combs I have found that the bees 

 remain evenly spread upon them, and 

 they fly but little. I have received 

 but very few stings from Cyprians, 

 except when I have accidentally 

 pinched them. 



The queens are easily found, al- 

 though they are more nervous than 

 Italian queens, as well as smaller, 

 and inclined to be striped. While 

 easily found, they seek the edges of 

 the comb more noticeably than do the 

 Italians. 



The crosses between the Cyprians 

 and the blacks are in no respect 

 worse than the Italian hydrids. They 

 vary much, however, in disposition. 

 I find some colonies that I can handle 

 easily, and others that I must subdue 

 with smoke. While in ordinary hand- 

 ling many of these hybrids as well as 

 pure-bloods will remain quietly on 

 the combs, yet a sudden jar is suffi- 

 cient to dislodge nearly all of them. 

 In handling both pure-bloods and 

 hybrids thus, I have noted that the 

 bees thus thrown into the air imme- 

 diately start for the entrance, instead 

 of seeking the vulnerable parts of my 

 person, as 1 expected. 



I will say that I have not extracted 

 this year, and this must have made 

 some difference. 1 have one colony 

 from a Syrian queen mated with a 

 Cyprian drone. Her bees are light 

 yellow, and bear handling much the 

 same as pure Cyprians. 



I have handled pure Holy Land 

 bees a little, and their crosses with 

 blacks much more, during former sea- 

 sons in Mr. K. Wilkins' apiaries in 

 Ventura county. There, in the height 

 of the extracting season, they bore a 

 good comparison with the Italian 

 hybrid bees that were in the same cir- 

 cumstances. 



Thus it will be seen that while some 

 find the new races intractable, others 

 find them easily managed. I only 

 add my experience as one in a large 

 column of figures, and I claim for it 

 only its own influence on the general 

 footing up. The Cyprians seem to be 

 very active and excellent honey-gath- 

 erers I do not believe that thev can 

 be surpassed. 



Gorya.ies. 9 Cal'f. 



Local Convention Directory. 



m87. Ttmt and vuut ot ttttWm. 



Sept. :;2.— ProRreseive, at Chester X Roads, O. 



Miss Detua Bennett, Sec, Bettford, Ohio. 



Oct. 18.— Kentucky State, at Falmouth, Ky. 



J. T. Connley, Sec, Napoleon, Ky. 



Not. 1«-18.— North American, at Chicago. Ills. 



W. Z. Hutchinson, Sec., RogerBville, Mich. 



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

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



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

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.— Ed. 





Cheering Time in Bee-Culture.— 



W. A. Whitney, Iroquois, Ont., on 

 Sept. 8, 1887, says : 



While bee-keepers of the West 

 seem to have had such a gloomy year 

 in bee-culture,here in eastern Ontario 

 we have had a cheering time. I be- 

 gan with 35 colonies, increased them 

 to 71, and returned a great many sec- 

 ond swarms. I have had about 1,200 

 pounds of honey, mostly clover. 



Poorest Season in 10 Years.— Chas. 

 Johnston, Sturgis, ? Mich., on Sept. 

 12, 1887, writes : 



This has been the poorest season 

 that I have experienced in my 10 

 years of beekeeping. From 21 

 colonies, spring count, I have taken 

 but 30 pounds of comb honey, and 

 not that much extracted. The white 

 clover was a failure, but the Alsike 

 yield was very good for a few days. 

 The bees swarmed, and began to 

 work in the sections, but I had to 

 take the sections off and give them 

 empty combs. I use the Heddon im- 

 proved-Langstroth hive, and his new 

 hive, and practice the contraction 

 method. I would not keep bees in 

 any other hives. We have had about 

 two weeks of good weather, and the 

 bees have enough to winter on, 

 from marsh flowers and buckwheat. 



Poor Season in Massachusetts.- 

 Wm. W. Gary, Coleraine, +o Mass., on 

 Sept. 12, 1887, writes : 



I reached home last week from the 

 West, and found my bees in nearly a 

 starving condition. The forepart of 

 the season was very good up to bass- 

 wood bloom, which was not more 

 than one-half of a crop. But I 

 thought my bees had honey enough 

 in the hives when I left home (.July 

 27) to winter on, with what they 

 would gather ; but it has rained here 

 nearly all the time for the past two 

 months, and the bees have not been 

 able to gather a particle of honey, 

 and the result is I have to feed them 

 all they will have to winter on. It is 

 now cold, cloudy weather, and it rains 

 about every other day, and no pros- 

 pect of any goldenrod honey, as it 

 will soon be gone. I had a fine visit 



in Chicago and Michigan, but I found 

 very little honey anywhere ; yet the 

 bees which I saw in Michigan and 

 New York State had a fair amount 

 of honey in their hives for winter. It 

 will cost about $200 to winter my 

 bees, but I do not complain, but hope 

 for a more even distribution of rain 

 next year, and a good bee-season. 



Make no Change.— S. J.Youngman, 

 Cato,0Mich., on Sept. 4, 1887, writes: 



Several times I have been on the 

 point of expressing my views on the 

 new name for extracted honey, and as 

 the theme seems to be now about ex- 

 hausted, and if not too late, I will 

 state that I think that as far as 

 Michigan is concerned, the present 

 name is a better one than can be 

 found ; as I think that there are but 

 few persons but what perfectly un- 

 derstand the word extracted. I have 

 sold honey to a great many persons, 

 and I have never seen but one person 

 that thought that extracted honey 

 meant an "extract of honey." I 

 think that as apiarian literature in- 

 creases, as it is fast doing, the people 

 will all be better posted, and no one 

 need think that extracted honey is 

 anything else than pure honey. Let 

 the term stand, by all means. 



Bees in Observatory Hives.— A. C. 



Waldron, Buffalo,© Minn., says : 



I want to make a hive for observa- 

 tion. Will bees work in the light, or 

 must I cover the glass ? 



[They will work in the light, but 

 prefer to work in the dark and un- 

 observed. — Ed.] 



Verbena. — H. T. Evans, Town- 

 shend,o. Vt., on Aug. 20, 1887, asks : 



Will you please give me the name 

 of the plant that 1 send V Bees work 

 on it well, and it keeps in bloom a 

 long time. 



[The plant is Verhena hastata, one 

 of the vervains that have long been 

 recognized as valuable for honey. — T. 



J. BURRILL.] 



The Drouth and Honey Crop.— R. 

 M. Osborn, Kane,*o Ills., on Sept. 10, 

 1887, writes : 



I had 12 strong colonies of bees that 

 wintered on the summer stands in 

 splendid condition. There was plenty 

 of bloom in the early part of the sea- 

 son, but there was but little nectar in 

 it. We had no honey-dew. My bees 

 are Syrio-Italians. The drouth com- 

 menced in June, and we in this 

 neighborhood have had only about 2}4 

 inches of rainfall since June 20. On 

 Aug. 25 the thoroughwort commenced 

 blooming, of which there is over 80 

 acres near my apiary. One of my 

 colonies at this time became queen- 

 less, and as there were no drones since 

 June, I united it with another colony. 

 My bees have lost no time in gather- 

 ing the sweet nectar and pollen from 

 the bloom of the thoroughwort, which 



