;THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



747 



Dr. A. B. Mason— I use and prefer 

 the Given press. I once used lye as a 

 lubricator, but I now use the -washinfi; 

 fluid that I wrote about in Qleanings. 

 J. A. Green — I used 1,.5IX) sections 

 one year ; one-third were filled with 

 new foundation, one-third with old 

 foundation, and the remainder with 

 partly drawn comb. Those with the 

 new foundation were finished first, 

 and those with old foundation were 

 completed last. 



A. I. Koot— Has any one compared 

 " starters " with full sections of foun- 

 dation V 



R. R. Murphy— I have, and the ones 

 with starters only were last finished. 

 F. Wilcox— I use foundation in 

 sections, and I cannot understand 

 how Mr. Doolittle can secure and use 

 natural comb, as he advocates. 



H. R. Boardman— I wish those 

 gentlemen who have trouble in get- 

 ting nice honey when using old 

 combs, would tell us how they get 

 their old combs. 



J. A. Green— I take nice new 

 combs, and the white fins that the 

 bees build. 



R. R. Murphy — 1 put on an upper 

 story in the fall, and allow the bees 

 to build comb in the frames, then ex- 

 tract the honey, and use the comb the 

 next year. 



Joshua Bull — I have used combs of 

 the previous year's building, and the 

 bees commenced work in the sections 

 first, and no one could see any differ- 

 ence in their appearance, when fin- 

 ished, from new combs built from 

 foundation. 



Miss Bennett— I have tried filling 

 sections alternately with foundation 

 and with comb, and both were worked 

 out, filled and finished the same, and 

 there was no difference in appearance. 

 James Heddon— I prefer foundation 

 to drawn combs ; it is finished quicker 

 and looks better. 



President Miller— I have had bees 

 fill and finish sections of comb before 

 they even began work upon sections 

 of foundation ; but perhaps I ought to 

 explain that they did not begin work 

 at all that season upon foundation. 



H. R. Boardman— Much of this 

 confliction is the result of different 

 management. I would like to say, 

 however, that Mr. S. F. Newman, of 

 Norwalk, O., told me that, had it not 

 been for his stock of empty combs, he 

 would not have had a pound of honey; 

 while, as it is, he has two or three 

 thousand pounds of comb honey. 



T. F. Bingham— If I could get 

 plenty of nice, white combs I should 

 use them in the sections. 



A. "I. Root— In using combs, the 

 cells are deep, and the honey does not 

 ripen so quickly as when the cells are 

 filled as they are drawn. 



H. R. Boardman — I am not in favor 

 of using combs that are so old that 

 they are black or discolored, and the 

 sections soiled. But here is a point : 

 Some of us have been hiving swarms 

 upon empty frames; this hiving is 

 sometimes done when honey is com- 

 ing in at the rate of 10 or 15 pounds 

 per day ; now, if the sections are not 

 filled with combs, where is this honey 

 to be stored V Unless there is a place 

 to store it, there is a loss. 



AV. Z. Hutchinson— The honey-flow 

 is often slow at first, and the bees are 

 reluctant to begin in the supers. As 

 a consequence, the brood -nest is 

 crowded with honey. Were combs 

 used in the sections, the bees would 

 begin storing honey in the sections 

 sooner. This would relieve the pres- 

 sure upon the brood nest, and large 

 quantities of brood is the result. 

 With me, the bees not only commence 

 work in the supers when combs are 

 used, but they finish the honey 

 sooner, and it has an equally fine 

 appearance. I fail to comprehend 

 why some of these other gentlemen 

 cannot succeed with empty combs. 



James Heddon— There may be a 

 difference in the combs built in differ- 

 ent localities. 



The convention then adjourned un- 

 til Thursday at 9 a.m. 



( Continued next week.) 



For the Amextoan Bee Joomak 



The Honey Season of 1887. 



F. A. SNELL. 



As the honey season is now over, 1 

 will give my report. The season 

 opened very unfavorably, and so con- 

 tinued to the close. I have kept bees 

 for 29 years, and had thought that I 

 had seenjabout all kinds of seasons, 

 but I have seen something new this 

 year. Unwelcome as it has been— 

 a total failure of surplus honey— I 

 have never seen anything near like it. 

 The least average of surplus that I 

 have had previous to this year, was 

 25 pounds per colony. 



Not a single swarm has issued from 

 the 130 colonies that I had at the 

 opening of the honey season. During 

 soft maple, willow and fruit-bloom, 

 the weather was cold and very windy 

 most of the time. White clover opened 

 with very little bloom, as the plants 

 were few, owing to the drouth of 

 1886. The weather being very dry 

 this season, clover bloom amounted 

 to almost nothing. 



Basswood opened about two weeks 

 earlier than usual, from which the 

 bees gathered a very little for three 

 or four days. Sweet clover (Melilotus 

 alba) was almost parched— in fact all 

 plant bloom was affected in the same 

 way during June and July. Later 

 we had light showers which seemed 

 to evaporate from the thirsty earth 

 like a morning dew. 



The bees gathered some honey from 

 second bloom of red clover and buck- 

 wheat ; and later, a little honey was 

 gathered from heart's-ease, blue-ver- 

 vain and other wild flowers. A little 

 pu'.ch of giant white mignonette, 

 which I had, was covered with bees 

 "from early mom till dewy eve," as 

 has been the case while it was in 

 bloom for the past five or six years. 

 This plant comes into bloom about 

 July 10, and continues until we have 

 had frosts. 



My colonies were strong in numbers 

 during the season, and stored enough 

 for winter, with the exception of a 

 very few colonies, which were fed 

 with granulated sugar syrup, for 



which I used 100 pounds of sugar. In 

 this part of the State many bees will 

 starve long ere spring arrives. Black 

 bees starved out here in July and 

 August. 



This season has again demonstrated 

 the superiority of the Italian bees 

 oyer the blacks. I now have 120 colo- 

 nies in fair condition to put into win- 

 ter quarters. Comparing this year's 

 product with last year's, it is as fol- 

 lows : Surplus honey in 1886, 13,000 

 pounds ; in 1887, none ! 



I am not by any means discouraged, 

 but I think that the practical apiarist 

 will yet receive his reward. " It is 

 an ill wind that blows nobody any 

 good." 



Milledgeville,xi Ills., Nov. 8, 1887. 



Local Convention Directory. 



1887. Time and place of Meeting. 



Nov. 25. 26.-Pllie Co. & Ills. Cent., ot Plttsfleld. \\l. 

 W. T. V. Petty, Pres.. PltUHeld, Uli. 



Nov. 28.— Hardin Couoty, at Bldora. Iowa. 



J. W. Bucbanan, Sec., Eldora. Iowa. 



Dec. 7-9.— MichlKan State, at Bust Sacinaw, Mich. 

 H. D. Cutting, Sec, Clinton, Micb. 



Dec. 15.— Southeastern Michigan, at Adrian, Mich. 



A. M. (Jander, Sec, Adrian, Mich. 

 lfW8. 



Jan. 7.— Susquehanna County, at New Milford, Pa. 

 H. M. Seeley, Sec, Uurlord, Pa. 



Jan. 10. 11.— Ontario, at Woodstock. Ont. 



W. Couse, Sec. 



Jan. 11.— Nebrasita State, at Lincoln, Nebr. 



Henry Patterson, Sec, Uumboldt, Nebr. 



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



E. O. Campoeil, Sec, Cayuga. Ont. 



|y In order to have this table complete, Secre- 

 tarles are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.— Ed. 





Bees did Well.— A. V. Kouba, of 

 Crete, o^Xebr., onNov. ]2,1887,write8: 



I began the season with 8 colonies 

 of bees, and increased them to 26 col- 

 onies by dividing them before June ]. 

 I also took 1,0.50 pounds of extracted 

 honey. My bees did well for the 

 poor season, I think, and besides, they 

 have the hives full of honey to winter 

 on. The bees have been working on 

 the red clover this fall. I have fed 

 them to induce late brood-rearing, 

 and the result is that the hives are 

 full of young bees for winter. I use 

 good chaff hives. 



Good Weather for Bees, etc.— W. 



A. Shafnit, Brighton, o. Iowa, on Nov. 

 14, 1887, writes : 



I commenced the spring of 1887 

 with 13 colonies, increased them to 30 

 colonies during the swarming season, 

 and now have 24 colonies in good con- 

 dition for winter. The season has 

 been very dry. White clover was cut 

 short by drouth. Basswood bloomed 

 two weeks earlier than usual. I have 

 fed my bees to keep up brood-rearing. 



