AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



601 



COWVEWTION DIRECTORY. 



Time and place of meeting. 



1891. 



Nov. 19, 20.— Northwestern, at Chicago, Ills. 

 . W. Z. Hutcliinsou, Sec, Flint, Mich. 



Dec. 31.— Michigan State, at Grand Kapids. 

 Geo. E. Hilton, Sec, Fremont, Mich. 



Dec. 8, 11.— North American, at Albany, N. Y. 

 C. P. Dadant, Sec, Hamilton, Ills. 



In order to have this table complete, 

 Secretaries are requested to forward full 

 particulars of the time and the place of 

 each future meeting. — The Editor. 



North American Bee-Keepers' Association 



President— P. H. Elwood Starkville, N. Y 



Secretary— C. P. Dadant Hamilton, Ills. 



• » # ♦ > 



National Bee-Keepers' Union. 



President— James Heddou ..Dowagiac, Mich. 

 Sec'y and Manager— T. G. Newman, Chicago. 



Bge aiid tloney Gossip. 



Do not write anything for publication 

 on the same sheet of paper with business 

 matters, unless it can be torn apart without 

 interfering with either part of the letter. 



Excellent Fall Crop. 



Bees in this vicinity have done excel- 

 lently this season. Especially is this 

 true as regards the honey crop from Fall 

 flowers. W. H. Hepler. 



Manhattan, Kans. 



Owing to the Drouth. 



Bees are not getting any honey now, 

 on account of the drouth. Old colonies 

 will have enough stores for Winter, but 

 young ones will have to be fed. I have 

 used several smokers, but like the Bing- 

 ham best of all — especially the " Doctor.'.' 

 I can smoke bees to death with it. The 

 dovetailed hive, with Hoffman frames, 

 % inch top-bar, is my favorite — no more 

 burr-combs now. Edw. Smith. 



Carpenter, Ills., Oct. 5, 1891. 



Bees Short of Stores. 



This has been a poor season for the 

 apiarist in this portion of the country. 

 The best of them are just about making 

 expenses. Colonies are light in stores ; 

 averaging about one-half enough for 

 safe wintering. I commenced in the 

 Spring with 112 colonies, increased to 

 155 ; and book 2,000 pounds of comb- 



honey in 1-pound sections, and 500 

 pounds of extracted. We are hoping for 

 and expecting a better season next year. 

 A. A. Baldwin. 

 Independence, Mo. 



Best Bees for the Locality. 



I am familiar with but two races of 

 bees, and their crosses, viz. : the Ger- 

 man, or black bee, and the Italian. A 

 prominent apiarist has said that the 

 "relative merits of the two races have 

 been discussed and settled 20 years 

 ago, yet occasionally partisans revise 

 and often reverse the judgment then 

 arrived at. Unfortunately for the 

 cause of truth, these discussions are not 

 always for the sake of truth. Partiality, 

 or what is worse, selfishness, will obscure 

 a fact, and the diseased moral condition 

 which hides a fact will substitute a false- 

 hood." There is another class, who, 

 although less reprehensible, are yet un- 

 worthy of credence. With them, a single 

 swallow makes the Summer, and this is 

 about all the fault I can find with these 

 men. Conditions alter cases, and it is 

 possible that what is best for me might 

 not be best for some one else. One man 

 may live where honey comes like Sum- 

 mer rain, and in such a locality, who 

 can doubt but that the German bee will 

 get her share of it ; but with me it is 

 sip, drip ; sip drip ; and the unbounded 

 energy of the Italians is needed to 

 gather it. James Hamilton. 



Beason, Ills. 



Peculiarities of an Old Q,ueen. 



A number of years ago I procured an 

 Italian queen, and her bees were all 

 right — all had three yellow bands — but 

 after she had been in the hive about 4 

 years, the bees began to be dark, and 

 unevenly marked, and some were nearly 

 black. I thought, of course, that the 

 old queen had been superseded, but on 

 examination I found that same old 

 clipped queen in the hive, and still lay- 

 ing, but seeming to be much smaller and 

 weaker than formerly. In the Fall, I 

 discovered a single queen-cell in the 

 hive. I removed this, and was surprised, 

 a few days later, to find another cell 

 started. This one was not distured, and 

 in due time a queen came out, and I saw 

 her depositing eggs on one side of a 

 comb, and the old queen on the other 

 side. After destroying the old queen, 

 the bees again became all alike — that is, 

 the diversity of color disappeared with 

 the removal of the old queen. I wish to 



