;THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



683 



ganization and large conventions. 

 We also have much to learn from our 

 British brethren, as we shall show 

 hereafter, and we ought not to be 

 slow to appreciate our position and 

 the possibilities placed before us. 



We think that the installation of 

 oflScers should occur at the Ust ses- 

 sion, as it does in many other bodies. 

 Then the new oflScers are not taken 

 unprepared to assume unexpected re- 

 sponsibilities. To change Secretary 

 in the middle of the meeting is ex- 

 ceedingly detrimental, and should 

 never be tolerated. The report is 

 either spoiled by a conglomeration, or 

 else is never made in any creditable 

 manner. 



We have often heard it stated that 

 none but fools will exchange horses 

 while crossing a stream, and it is 

 equally unwise, we think, to exchange 

 officers while conducting a conven- 

 tion.— Ed.] 



Western Plowman. 



EmerimentSj Honey Markets, etc. 



C, H. DIBBEKN. 



October is the last month in which 

 much work can be done in the apiary. 

 If the bees have not yet been put in 

 proper condition for winter, it should 

 be attended to at once. The honey 

 season is now over, and all honey, 

 and all surplus arrangements should 

 be taken off and stored away. If any 

 colonies are still short of stores, they 

 should be fed till they contain at least 

 twenty pounds of honey or sugar 

 syrup. If there are any weak or 

 queenless colonies now, they had bet- 

 ter be doubled up with others, as it 

 will not pay to bother with them and 

 try to nurse them through the coming 

 winter. 



SOJfB EXPERIMENTS. 



I had planned a number of experi- 

 ments tor this season, but owing to 

 the failure of swarming and a loss of 

 the honey crop, the results obtained 

 were not conclusive. For instance, I 

 was experimenting with a non- 

 swarmer. It worked like a charm, 

 but as no other colonies swarmed, it 

 was not very satisfactory. 



Another was to try the certainty of 

 preventing swarming, in the new in- 

 vertible hives, by inverting once a 

 week during swarming time, and of 

 course this proved equally futile. I 

 also wished to give my new invertible 

 hive a thorough trial during a good 

 honey year, so I could carefully note 

 all its advantages, and that has also 

 proved disappointing. I have made 

 10 colonies by forced swarming, and 

 put them in my new hives, and by 

 feeding some, I now have them in fine 

 condition. 



Another point I wished to test more 

 fully, and that is the relative value of 

 the different races of bees. I now 



have blacks, browns, Germans, Ital- 

 ians, Albinos, and Carniolan bees. I 

 have watched ihem with considerable 

 interest, and so far I must give the 

 preference to the Albinos. I have 

 seen these bees at work early in the 

 morning, long before others, and 

 again in the evening after others had 

 stopped. I must say, however, I have 

 not had the colonies long enough to 

 give them a fair test. The colonies 

 containing Carniolan queens, are now 

 becoming quite populous, and I must 

 say I am much pleased with them. If 

 they will make whiter combs than 

 any others, and dispense with the use 

 of propolis, it is certainly a big point 

 in their favor. 



BEE-KEEPING IN SEVERAL STATES. 



I have just returned from a trip 

 through Iowa, North Missouri, and 

 into Kansas and Nebraska. As I am 

 a kind of bee-keeper by nature, I am 

 always alert on everything connected 

 with the pursuit. Below Muscatine 

 I saw a few small apiaries that ap- 

 peared to be run on modern princi- 

 ples ; but jiside from these, I saw only 

 a few scattered hives, and mostly old 

 patterns. I presume, however, that 

 there were some good apiaries away 

 from the railroad, as in some places 

 I could see great numbers of bees, as 

 they came sailing over the train, 

 going to some buckwheat field or 

 flower-covered creek-bottom. 



The country through Southern Iowa 

 seemed to have suffered the most 

 from the drouth, and in this section 

 bees will certainly have to be fed to 

 get them in condition for winter. In 

 North Missouri the prospects were 

 much better. Some of the bottom 

 lands, especially along the different 

 branches of the Grand river, were 

 immense, being covered with a sea of 

 yellow bloom. How I did wish I could 

 have my apiary there for a few weeks, 

 to let the bees loose and revel over 

 these rich bottoms. Those so fortu- 

 nate as to have bees so favorably 

 situated, will certainly have some 

 surplus honey. 



In Kansas and Nebraska the pros- 

 pects for a fall crop also seemed quite 

 good. Everywhere along the rail- 

 roads and creek-bottoms were masses 

 of rich honey-producing flowers. 

 Those most common were the golden- 

 rod, asters, heart's-ease,and yie many 

 wild fall flowers. 1 noticed a great 

 many wild sunflowers, peculiar to the 

 West, but I do not rank them very 

 highly as honey-producers. Here and 

 there I noticed patches of sweet 

 clover, which made me feel like meet- 

 ing an old friend, and I had a sus- 

 picion that some bee-keeper was not 

 far off. Some of the places in Kansas 

 where the train stopped, I noticed 

 many bees at work on the heart's- 

 ease along the track, and bees seemed 

 to be doing well. 



KEEPING HONEY FROM FLOWERS 

 SEPARATE. 



It has been asserted that bees will 

 visit only one kind of flower on the 

 same trip from the hive. I recently 

 watched some bees at work on sweet 

 clover and heart's-ease that was 

 about equally intermixed, and I no- 



ticed a number of bees flying from 

 one to the other, and again back to 

 the first kind of bloom. Like many 

 other general rules, it has its excep- 

 tions. 

 Milan,o Ills. 



Local Convention Directory. 



1887. Time and putce oj Meeting. 



Oct. 28.— Darke County, at Arcanum. O. 



J. A. Roe, Sec, Union City, Ind. 



Nov. 16.— Western, at Kansas City, Mo. 



J. A. Nelson, Sec, Muncie, Kans. 



Nov. 16-lR.— North American, at Chicago, Ills. 



W. Z. Hutchinson, Sec, Rogersvillc, MiCb. 



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



H. n. Cutting, Sec, Clinton, Mich. 

 1888. 

 Jan. 20.— Haldiraand. at Cayuga, Ontario. 



E. C. Campbell. Sec, Cayuga, Ont. 



%W In order to have this table complete, Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 lime and place of future meetings.— Ed. 



sBkSPM^ 



Comparing Samples of Honey. — 



Joshua Bull, Seymour,oWis., on Oct. 

 17, 1887, writes : 



Would it not stimulate an interest 

 in the approaching bee-keepers' con- 

 vention to be held in Chicago on Nov. 

 16, 17 and 18, 1887, if the American 

 Bee Journal should invite bee- 

 keepers, when coming to that conven- 

 tion from different parts of the United 

 States and Canada, to bring along 

 with them samples of their honey, m 

 order to compare the quality and ap- 

 pearance thereof, to demonstrate 

 whether there is really much differ- 

 ence in honey gathered from the same 

 kind of blossoms in different locali- 

 ties ? We also might gather thereby 

 some valuable ideas in regard to pul- 

 ing up honey, and preparing it for 

 market, etc. 



[Yes ; let each one bring such along^ 

 as may show their methods, and then 

 by comparison some may get better 

 ideas and act accordingly.— Ed.] 



Preparing Bees for Winter-- Rev. 



Stephen lioese, Maiden Rock,'o Wis., 

 on Oct. 16, 1887, writes : 



When extracting, nine weeks ago, 

 I averaged the brood-ch*mbers of my 

 hives, giving them below full and 

 good frames of honey. The upper 

 stories are on almost all of the hives- 

 yet. A few days ago I drove several 

 colonies down, took the frames out 

 from above, and found the lower 

 frames nearly empty of honey, and no 

 young brood ; besides, the bees are so 

 cross, and many perished on account 

 of the chilly weather, while I worked 

 at them. What can I do under the 

 circumstances V Will it answer to 

 leave the upper stories on, letting 

 them have the whole, and put them 

 into the bee-house as they are now i* 



