164 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Another thing essential to a crop, is a 

 plenty of good empty combs, nice and 

 clean, ready to receive the honey as fast 

 as gathered. 



If we leave our bees to build their 

 combs, we are sure to loose the crop, as 

 it is estimated that from 15 to 20 pounds 

 of honey are consumed by bees in mak- 

 ing one pound of comb. These combs 

 are to be put on hives just as the flow of 

 honey begins ; this the apiarist must 

 learn from the flowers in his locality. 

 Keep all the colonies strong, is the 

 watchword, if you wish to gather honey; 

 and another thing is, to have a good 

 queen in the colony, laying the eggs by 

 thousands. A poor queen has a poor 

 colony of bees, and results in no honey 

 crop. 



Extracted-honey can only be obtained 

 from the combs by an extractor, of 

 which there are many kinds ; the object 

 of them all is to get the honey without 

 destroying the combs. By returning the 

 combs we save the bees a great amount 

 of labor, and as we stated before, con- 

 siderable honey, in the construction of 

 combs. The combs should be filled by 

 the bees and capped. If taken from the 

 combs before ripe, it may ferment and 

 become vinegar, instead of honey. 



Our faith in the future of extracted- 

 honey as a staple article, like butter, 

 eggs, or small fruits, is strong and invin- 

 cible. To this we have devoted our time, 

 energies and means, and we are fully 

 aware that all our "earnest work," as 

 well as that of our co-laborers, will be 

 rewarded. Let us all be wide-awake, for 

 the " day of prosperity," for our chosen 

 vocation, is just dawning. 



Before closing, I would say to the 

 members of this Association, we are 

 pursuing an honorable calling, one in 

 which I believe God will bless us, and 

 be a blessing to our neighbors. Surely the 

 blessed bees go and come from our fields 

 carrying the fertilizing pollen from blos- 

 som to blossom, doing the very thing the 

 Great Creator intended should be done, 

 hence you see we are blessed in two ways 

 at least, " pure sweets " and " bountiful 

 crops." Let each bee-keeper do all in 

 his power lawfully to increase the crops 

 that will yield the precious nectar, 

 clovers, peas and buckwheat ; also to 

 protect the forest that produces nectar — 

 poplar, persimmon and maple — of the 

 latter three the country is being stripped. 

 — Recid at the North Carolina State 

 Convention. 



C01»VE]VTI0I¥ DIRECTORY. 



Time and place of meetina. 



1891. 

 Jan. 30.— Whiteside Co. (Ills.) at Morrison. 



J. M. Burtch, Sec, Morrison, Ills. 



Feb. 10, 11.— Ohio State, at Toledo, O. 



Miss Dema Bennett, Sec, Bedford, O. 



Feb. 11, 12.— Eastern Iowa, at Maquoketa, Iowa. 



Frank Coverdale, Sec, Welton, Iowa. 



May 7.— Susquehanna County, at Montrose, Pa. 



H. M. Seeley, Sec, Harford, Pa. 



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. 



Clu1>s$ of 5 New Subscriptions for 14.00, 

 to any addresses. Ten for $7.50. 



National Bee-Keepers' Union. 



President— James Heddon ..Dowagiac, Mich. 

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



Bee ajid Hopey Gossip. 



Fastening Foundation in Frames. 



Did you ever use a little roller for 

 fastening foundation. I use a common 

 castor out of a table, and it works well 

 dipped in water, either hot or cold, be- 

 fore applying. I also use building- 

 paper and common newspapers for cov- 

 ering the top of the hives, both in Winter 

 and Summer, and find them to work well 

 both for wintering in the cellar and on 

 the Summer stands. I noticed that my 

 bees lose their stings when killing drones 

 in the Fall. Thomas Henderson. 



Edmonton, N. W. T., Jan. 3, 1891. 



Late Fertilization of Queens. 



Do queens become fertilized after lay- 

 ing drone eggs for some length of time ? 

 I believe I had one which did become so. 

 I had a colony which swarmed in June 

 and a good queen came out of it. Late 

 in the season, noticing a great many 

 dwarf drones flying about the old colony, 

 I got my drone trap and caught and 

 killed as many as I could. In November, 

 I looked at the colony, and found that 

 the drones were hatched in the worker- 

 comb. I thought there must be a drone- 

 laying queen, or a laying worker, but 

 after a thorough search, I could find no 



