380 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



brood-rearing, as gathered. If the brood- 

 nest is small, feed regularly until you 

 get tired of it ; then get large hives ajid 

 give them a». trial. 

 Upper Alton, Ills., Dec. 27, 1890. 



Eastern Iowa Bee-Keepers' ConTention. 



FRANK COVEEDALE. 



The second annual convention of the 

 Eastern Iowa bee-keepers met in Maquo- 

 keta, Feb. 11 and 12, 1891, and was 

 called to order by President Kimble, at 

 1 o'clock p.m. 



C. M. Dunbar, of Maquoketa, In the 

 absence of the Mayor, welcomed the 

 bee-keepers to the city. 



He stated that if there was any one 

 branch of agriculture that he knew ab- 

 solutely nothing about, it was that of 

 bee-keeping, though he was very fond of 

 their product. 



In the absence of L. M. Stewart, of 

 Monmouth, President Kimble called on 

 Frank Coverdale, of Welton, to respond 

 to the welcome, which he did as follows : 

 Mr. President and Fellow Bee-Men : 

 We can well afford to plant ourselves in 

 this fair city and spend two days, and 

 hold counsel and discussion on this im- 

 portant branch of agriculture. Maquo- 

 keta may well feel proud, not only of her 

 grandeur in architecture, her wide 

 spread system of water works, electric 

 lights, stone pavements, but of her ener- 

 getic citizens and surrounding country- 

 men. She has been favored on the north 

 with a widespread belt of timber and 

 waterpower to run her mills. We gladly 

 welcome all to come and share our jom- 

 forts, and thank you for your liberal 

 welcome. 



After which the roll was called, and 

 the reception of members took place. 



The Secretary's report was read and 

 approved. 



The election of officers was by ballot 

 as follows : 



President, Wm. Kimble, of De Witt ; 

 Vice-Presiden^t, H. S. Bowman, of Ma- 

 quoketa ; Secretary, Frank Coverdale, 

 of Welton ; Treasurer, L. J. Pearce, of 

 De Witt. 



In the absence of A. T. Wheeler, of 

 Roseville, an essay by N. S. Samenger, 

 on "Which is the Best Race of Bees," 

 was read, followed by a discussion. 



Wm. Kimble said Syrian bees were 

 irritable, prolific ; good to rear queens 

 from. Carniolans no better for honey ; 

 not so good for rearing brood. Italians 

 rear brood just when wanted, and are 

 not so cross. 



Henry Stewart, of Prophetstown, Ills., 

 wanted Italians, but in good seasons 

 black bees were just as good. 



Wm. Kimble stated that he had work- 

 ed ten years with the black German bee; 

 made no success of bee-keeping until he 

 got the Italian bee. 



Next was an address by J. M. Jacobs, 

 which was of vital importance to all 

 present, on Marketing Honey, in which 

 he stated that bee-keeping was just in 

 its infancy, and we have the best honey 

 gathering vicinity except that of Califor- 

 nia ; that extracted-honey was as good 

 as gold in the bank, for it would keep 

 year after year ; that honey must be put 

 up in fancy shape for the city market ; 

 that some man of the association should 

 handle all the honey ; would not put One 

 pound of honey in the hands of commis- 

 sion men. 



Henry Stewart, of Illinois, had no 

 trouble in disposing of honey with a 

 good salesman ; combined and shipped 

 by carloads ; put end of sections to end 

 of car, it will ride all right ; he had small 

 lots smashed to pieces. 



H. S. Bowman had more honey than 

 he could dispose of on the home market ; 

 in one instance he shipped 34 boxes of 

 honey, and 11 were reported smashed ; 

 on correspondence he found that the 

 railroad company was all right, and 

 made complaint to the commission men, 

 and got full pay for all. Small quanti- 

 ties of honey get broken more ; he 

 brands all his honey ; has a good trade. 



Mr. Kimble had large experience 

 in shipping honey from one Fair to 

 another ; had vary little broken. 



Discussion of hives next came up be- 

 fore the meeting. H. Stewart uses 9 

 frames in 12}^ inch, inside measure; 

 does not want closed-end frames ; has 

 tried them ; they handle bad in cool 

 weather ; where one keeps out-apiaries, 

 and roads are rough, he thinks closed- 

 ends would be good ; does not use porti- 

 cos on his hives, they will be in the way ; 

 when using self-hivers, wants loose bot- 

 tom-boards; when he wants tight bottom- 

 boards, uses butter-tub hoops ; wants 

 shallow frames for extracting. 



A. C. Lias wants all his frames of one 

 size, so if he has any drone-comb it can 

 be taken from the brood-nest and placed 

 in an upper story to be filled with honey 

 to be extracted. 



J. M. Jacobs would not put his honey 

 in any can or barrel that had contained 

 foreign substances. 



A. C. Lias uses 60 pound tin cans for 

 honey ; sells his honey to a cracker 

 factory. 



Adjourned until 6:30 p.m. 



