TMm JEMERICMr* BEE JQJJRnmiL. 



the start, and if she finds empty combs 

 of the proper depth of cells for breed- 

 \ ing, she will commence business at 

 once, and you will see jour plan de- 

 feated. Unless you use perforated 

 zinc queen-excluders, you had better 

 defer putting on the surplus cases from 

 the old hive for 4 or 5 days, or until 

 the queen has commenced laying in 

 the newly-built combs below. After 

 that she is not liable to leave the 

 brood-nest with or without a honey- 

 bo.ird, as long as she finds room to 

 carry on house-work below. — G. W. 

 Demakee. 



If the supers are not put on for three 

 days after hiving, the queen is not apt 

 to go above the honey-board to lay 

 eggs in the sections. A great deal 

 depends upon the size of the brood- 

 chamber given. If it has a capacity 

 for less than 8(H) square inches of comb 

 surface, the honey-board should cer- 

 tainly be queen-excluding. Queens are 

 more apt to enter the sections just be- 

 fore than after swarming, if they have 

 access to them. — G. L. Tinker. j 



No ; it could not be depended upon 

 to keep the queen from laying in the 

 sections — that can be prevented by 

 using a zinc queen-exclnding honey- 

 board. Inch starters in the brood- 

 frames are too small to be satisfactory' 

 to the great majority of bee-keepers, 

 who iisuallj' prefer either much larger 

 pieces or full sheets. — The Editor. 



The Ne^v Year's Open Door. 



MBS. A. OIDDINOS PARK. 



Like one who turns some raa^lc key 



That holds from his wondering sight. 

 Id close shut casket, the choicest gifts 



Of gems and jewels bright,— 

 With eager hand on the portal key 



Of the unknown corridor. 

 And the song of hope in our hearts, we stand 



At the New Year's open door. 



And we say : " What hast thou in trust for us 



That we crave, O glad New Year ? 

 Will your white-robed Winter,your smiling Spring, 



Your rose-crowned Summer fair, 

 Your Autumn bright, bring Joy or grief ? 



Hope's fulfillment, or hope deferred ?" 

 And we eagerly listen, and anxiously seek 



For some token seeji nr heard. 



But silence alone rives answer. (Nay, 



We ever would have It so.) 

 And nought is beard in that corridor dim 



But the echoes of long-ago ! 

 It is well. It is well that each flitting day 



Reveals but its secrets alone. 

 And the future, though pleadingly importuned, 



Withholds from each heart its own. 



Ah, enough for us If duty be done 



With a brave and honest heart ; 

 Though adversity frown or prosperity smile. 



To nobly perform our part. 

 So keep your counsel, O glad New Year, 



Whether good or 111 be In store ; 

 May Heaven guide us and guard us e'er— 



This we ask and we crave no more. 



—The MVna. 



Report of llie Soutlieastern 

 micliiguii Annual ITIeeling;. 



Written for the American Bee Jnurnal 

 BY A. M. GANDER. 



The annual meeting of the South- 

 eastern Michigan Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation w.xs held in the Supervisor.s' 

 Room of the Court House at Adrian, 

 Mich., on Dec. lb. 1887. 



The meeting was called to order by 

 President Howes. The Secretary's re- 

 port was read and approved, as was 

 also that of the Treasurer. The report 

 of the .standing committee to confer 

 with the executive committee of the 

 County Agricultural Society was given 

 by Mr. D. G. Edmiston, who reported 

 that the Apiarian Department of the 

 premium list of the Agricultural So- 

 ciety had been placed in the control 

 of the Bee-Keepers' A.ssociation, and 

 that a fairly liberal amount had been 

 allowed the deiKirtment, which had 

 been arranged in a suitable list for 

 the department. 



Some discussions followed the re- 

 port relative to striking out the part 

 of the foot-note referring to bee-hives, 

 feeders, queen-cages, and to honey 

 being produced in the county, which 

 resulted in a motion for a committee 

 to be appointed to revise the premium 

 list of the department, and to make 

 necessary arrangements with the Fair 

 Society. • It was also voted that the 

 portion of the foot-note mentioned 

 above should be stricken out. 



The committee as above mentioned 

 is composed of the following : H. D. 

 Cutting, of Clinton ; A. M. Gander, of 

 Adrian ; and D. G. Edmiston, of 

 Adrian. 



The annual membership fees having 

 been raised from 25 cents to 50 cents, 

 at the last meeting, were voted back 

 to the former amount, and 15 members 

 then paid their dues. 



Only a partial statistical report for 

 1887 was secured, being as follows : 

 Number of colonies in the spring of 

 1887, 307 ; number of colonies in the 

 fall, 377 ; number of pounds of wax 

 produced, 173 ; number of pounds of 

 comb honey produced, 2,515 ; number 

 of pounds of extracted honey produced, 

 5,405 ; and the average price obtained 

 per pound, 14 cents. The average 

 yield per colony, sjiring count, was 25J 

 pounds, and the number of (pieens 

 sold was 91. 



A committee of three on exhibits 

 was then appointed, and the conven- 

 tion adjourned until 1 p.m. 



The convention was called to order 

 at 1 p.m., with President Howes in the 

 chair. There was consider.able dis- 



cu.ssion on the .subject of producing 

 both coml) and extracted honey in the 

 same apiary,it l)eing generally thought 

 that the extractor could be used to 

 good advantage in an apiary where 

 comb hon(!y was produced ; but not to 

 obtain Ijoth extracted and comb honey 

 from the same colony, at the same 

 time. 



Mr. Edmiston gave the method prac- 

 ticed by W. Z. Hutchinson, for getting 

 the bees to work in surplus sections, 

 and storing the honey in them. 



Mr. Cleghorn get.s the bees to enter 

 and work in the surplus chamber, by 

 raising a frame of brood to the sur- 

 plus chamber for a short time, till the 

 bees get well at work ; then he re- 

 moves the frame, extracts the honey, 

 and returns the frame to the brood- 

 chamber. 



The election of officers resulted as 

 follows : President, Dr. Samuel Stev- 

 enson, of Morenci ; Vice-President, one 

 for each county in the district of the 

 a.ssociation, as follows : Washtenaw 

 county. Dr. C. F. Ashley, of Ypsilanti ; 

 Jackson county, Mr. F. Wilcox, of 

 Jackson ; Livingston county, F. L. 

 Wright, of Plainfield ; Hillsdale county, 

 E. Goodrich, of Hudson ; Oakland 

 county, J. J. McWhorter, of South 

 Lyons ; Lenawee county, D. G. Edmis- 

 ton, of Adrian ; Wayne county, M. H. 

 Hunt, of Bell Branch ; and for Monroe 

 county, M. Fleming, of Dundee ; Secre- 

 tary, A. M. Gander, of Adrian ; and 

 Treasurer, D. G. Edmiston, of Adrian, 

 Mich. 



The place for holding the next meet- 

 ing was decided in favor of Jackson, 

 and it was voted to meet jointlj' with 

 the State Bee-Keepers' Society. The 

 time for meeting of that society is to 

 be fixed by the executive committee. 



Bee-Keeplng nrltb Otber Pnrsnlts. 



Mr. Deer combines poultry with bee- 

 keeping, and find that it works very 

 well. It keeps him busy, as there is 

 plenty of work to do, but he can man- 

 age them quite satisfactorily. Horti- 

 culture was found to work quite well 

 ill connection with bee-keeping, if 

 strawberries be excluded, as they ripen 

 at the busiest time with the bees. 



^Vinterlng Bees. 



Proper protection on the summer 

 stands seemed to be the preferable 

 way for wintering, but a proper cellar 

 was not without its advantages. 

 Changeable weather in the spring, 

 after the bees are put out, was the 

 main objection to cellar-wintering. If 

 wintered in a cellar, the bees should 

 be kept there as late as possible with- 

 out injury to them (or as long as they 

 can be kept quiet), to avoid chilling of 

 the brood by early spring changes. 

 All agreed that protection was neces- 

 sary. 



