356 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL.. 



COWVEMTIOIV DIRECTORY. 



Time and place of meeting. 



1891. 

 March 25, 26.- S. W. "Wisr onsin, at Lancaster, Wis'. 

 Benjamin E. Rice, Sec, Boscobel, Wis. 



April 1, 2.— Texas State, at Greenville, Texas. 



J. N. Hunter, Sec. 



May 6.— Bee-Keepers' Af s'n. and Fair, at Ionia. Mich. 

 Open to all. Harmon Smith, Sec, Ionia, Mich. 



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



H. M. Seeley, Sec, Harlord, 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. 



» » # ♦ > 



National Bee-Keepers' Union. 



President— James Heddon ..Dowag-iac, Mich. 

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



Bee ajid tlojiei] Gossip. 



Bee-Keeping and Friiit Culture. 



Here, on the Cumberland Plateau, bee- 

 keeping, in connection with fruit culture, 

 is a profitable business, and the few who 

 are engaged in it are doing well. This 

 is a healthy region, being 2,000 feet 

 above sea level, with plenty of good 

 water, an abundance of blossoms in the 

 woods, and short, mild Winters. Fruit- 

 raising is profitable, because crops are 

 sure. If some of the Northern bee- 

 keepers who are desirous of seeking a 

 home in the South, would visit this re- 

 gion, I am satisfied that they would 

 locate here, and I will be glad to corres- 

 pond with any who desire Information 

 concerning soil, climate, etc. 



Pomona, Tenn. H. E. Paeteidge. 



Encourag-ing Outlook. 



Last Spring I had 43 colonies, almost 

 all of them in good condition. They 

 increased, by natural swarming, to 48 

 colonies, and gave me 3,000 pounds of 

 honey, about one-half comb and the 

 other half extracted, and 1 6 pounds of 

 beeswax. The month of June was as 

 good as any month I ever saw for honey 

 until the drouth began. We had no 

 Fall flow of honey, consequently, many 

 colonies of bees starved this Winter. 

 Everything is very encouraging for a 



big crop of honey this year. I never saw 

 clover looking finer at this time of the 

 year than it does now. I have 57 colo- 

 nies now, which are wintering finely on 

 the summer stands. The weather has 

 been very warm this Winter, and the 

 bees have taken a flight every few days. 

 I see, on page 265, that Mr. E, C. Eagles- 

 fijeld asks if anybody has a better way 

 of dampening sections than he suggests. 

 I prefer dampening them by grasping 

 20 or 30 of them (grooves all one way) 

 in both hands, hold tightly, and plunge 

 them under water. The water will go 

 through the grooves and dampen the 

 section where it bends, and the rest will 

 be dry, if properly held. 



Wm. O. Heivly. 

 Raymore, Mo., Feb. 20, 1891. 



Providing Water for Bees. 



My plan for providing bees with 

 water, which 1 prefer to any I have 

 seen published, is as follows : Take a 

 barrel that is water-tight, and sink it in 

 the ground up to the center, as this will 

 prevent it becoming dry, and falling to 

 pieces. Have the upper head of the 

 barrel perfectly level ; then take a nail 

 keg, that is perfectly tight (or anything 

 that will hold a pail or more of water), 

 bore one or two small gimlet holes near 

 the bottom, so that the water will drip 

 .out pretty fast, fill the vessel with water 

 and set it upon sticks laid across the 

 head of the barrel. Now, take corn 

 cobs and lay close together all over the 

 head of the barrel, as they afford a good 

 alighting place for the bees, and when 

 thoroughly soaked with water, the bees 

 can sip the water without being in dan- 

 ger of drowning. D. B. Cassady. 



Litchfield, Minn. 



Bees Starved. 



On page 165, Mr.Anderson asks: "In 

 preparing my bees for winter quarters, 

 I found one colony was dead, with plenty 

 of honey. They were crowded betM^een 

 a few empty frames. I noticed pools of 

 honey (or sweet water) under one full 

 frame at the opposite side of the cham- 

 ber from the dead bees." Now, what 

 killed those bees? Was it the "honey 

 or sweet water " that had dripped down 

 and was "noticed under one frame at 

 the opposite side of the " hive " from the 

 dead bees," or did the bees starve ? If 

 the bees "were crowded between" 

 "empty frames," that is something singu- 

 lar, as they are seldom found in that 

 position. If, however, they were clus- 

 tered between a few empty combs, that 



