AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



261 



Natural swarms hived on empty combs 

 about the middle of June did admirably. 

 They filled their hives with brood to an 

 unusual degree, but were minus all 

 honey at the latter part of October. All 

 such died of starvation before the Win- 

 ter commenced, if they were not fed in 

 due time. This is sufficient evidence of 

 the failure of Fall blossoms to yield any 

 nectar in our neighborhood, although 

 there was an abundance of asters in 

 bloom, golden-rod, smart-weed, heart's- 

 ease, etc., and sweet-scented clover had 

 been abounding as usual. 



The above teaches us that our bees 

 need the greatest care in March and 

 April, and from that time on. It gives 

 us ample time to bring the colonies up 

 to their proper strength by the beginning 

 of June. Earlier breeding is unneces- 

 sary, and undesirable in any part of the 

 country where white clover is the prin- 

 cipal source, and where the time of its 

 bloom is the month of June. 



Cincinnati, O., Feb. 11, 1891. 



COWVENTIOIV DIRECTORY. 



Time and place of meeting. 



1891. 

 Feb. 36. -Capital, at Springfield, Ills. 



C. E. Yocom, Sec, Bherman, Ills. 



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



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



I^* 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 Heddon ..Dowagiae, Mich. 

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



Bee ajid lioney Gossip. 



Report from a Lady Bee-Keeper. 



My bees did not do very well in 1890. 

 I had 25 colonies in the Spring, but 

 some of them had dwindled so much that 

 the Summer was passed in recuperating. 

 During the Summer 25 swarms were 

 cast, and in preparing for Winter, I 

 united them until they numbered but 34 



colonies, all strong and with plenty of 

 stores. I obtained 250 pounds of honey, 

 of which I have about 150 or 200 

 pounds yet unsold, not having put any 

 honey on the market, thinking that in 

 the Spring better prices would prevail. 

 We have moved into town, and I shall 

 have to go out to the farm to attend to 

 my bees. I love bee-keeping, and it is 

 my delight to watch the busy bees. 



Mrs. Martha Anderson. 

 Bushnell, Ills., Feb. 6, 1891. 



Alfalfa Honey. 



I have been handling bees for two 

 years only. One year on shares, but the 

 second year I bought the apiary, consist- 

 ing of 65 colonies, in Simplicity hives. 

 They increased last Summer to 83 colo- 

 nies, and produced 4,400 pounds of the 

 very whitest of comb-honey, mostly in 

 one-pound sections, made from alfalfa 

 bloom, exclusively. I have the advan- 

 tage of a range of 3,000 acres of alfalfa 

 meadow. How many colonies should it 

 support ? J. W. Carter. 



Wellington, Nevada, Feb. 5, 1891. 



[Such an amount of alfalfa would give 

 pasturage for almost an unlimited num- 

 ber of bees, we think. Will some of our 

 Colorado bee-keepers give us their opin- 

 ion on the question propounded? — Ed. J 



Bees Wintered in a Grist-Mill. 



Upon the topic of wintering bees, I 

 desire to state some of the points which 

 have come to my knowledge in Central 

 Nebraska. Bees have wintered well on 

 the summer stands, without any protec- 

 tion whatever, one of my neighbors hav- 

 ing kept bees for 12 years, and always 

 left them on the summer stands. He uses 

 the Langstroth hive, and has the upper 

 story ventilated. After taking the sur- 

 plus, he spreads a single thickness of 

 burlap over the brood-frames, and leaves 

 them without any other protection. 

 They always wintered well until last 

 Winter. In the Fall of 1889 he had 26 

 colonies, 7 of which came out alive in 

 the Spring, although the Winter was 

 very favorable for bees, the weather 

 being mild, and the bees had plenty of 

 stores left. They were black bees, and 

 they in-bred all the time. Last Spring I 

 saw 2 colonies of Italian bees that had 

 been wintered in Langstroth hives, and 

 one of them had nothing over the brood- 

 frames but a piece of cotton cloth, which 

 covered 8 of the frames, and the upper 

 story was empty. The hives were left 



