156 



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COXVEIVTIOX DIRECTORY. 



1888. Time ond Place oj Meeting. 



Apr. 11.— Stark County, at Canton. O. 



Mark Thomson, Sec, Canton, O. 



Apr. 24.— Des Moines County, at Burlington. Iowa. 

 John Nau. Sec, Middletown, Iowa. 



May 5.— Susquehanna County, at New Milford, Pa. 

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



May a— Cortland Union, at Cortland. N. Y. 



W. H. Beach, Sec, Cortland, N. Y. 



^W In order to have this table complete, Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.- Ed. 



Anticipating Pavora.l>le Re- 



snlts.— Eugene Secor, Forest City, Iowa, 

 on Feb. 37, 1888, says : 



I have not "disturbed" my bees since 

 they were put into tlie cellar, some in Octo- 

 fter, iind otliers early in November. They 

 have been so quiet, with the cellar tempera- 

 ture at 3.5° to .50' (generally between 40° and 

 4.5°), that I have not thought it necessary to 

 overliaul them. There are but few dead 

 bees on the floor. I anticipate favorable 

 results. 



Cellar- W^intering — Bnck-Busli. 



— G. S. Prime, Arapahoe, Nebr., on Feb. 18, 

 1888, says : 



I am much interested in the question of 

 light in winter for bees in tlie cellar. lam 

 favorably impressed with the idea. 



This is the best bee and honey country 

 that 1 am acquainted with. I have kept 

 bees in Indiana and Iowa, but this is the 

 best for good, pure honey, the season 

 through. We had a good yield here the last 

 sea-ion, and the five years previous. Those 

 who have eaten our honey want no other. It 

 is largely from what is known here as 

 "buck-bush," and it is much like the 

 "snow-drop" that we had in our gardens 

 and lawns in the East. It is very abuhdant 

 In the low grounds on all streams where I 

 hav.^ ever been, that have their source in 

 the Rocky Mountains. I never see it on any 

 other places. It blooms profusely for about 

 three months. 



I have wintered bees in the cellar for 

 about twenty years, and I have had no loss 

 ■except from mice or queenle.ssness. I try 

 to keep the temperature down near the 

 freezing-point. 1 think that nearly all the 

 trouble in wintering bees in cellars, is in 

 letting them get too warm. 



Cleansing' FligUts — Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Union.— H. M. Gates, Shideler, Ind., 

 on Feb. 37, 1888, writes as follows : 



Bees for the last three days have had a 

 grand flight. This winter has been a fine 

 one for bees, and in this locality there has 

 been no snow of any consequence, and a 

 ■very even temperature. It has been mostly 

 dark days, so that bees wintered on the 

 suniu^er stands have had, on an average, 

 one or two cleansing flights per month ; this 

 has kept them healthy. 1 have lost no bees 

 •worth mentioning, and to-day they seemed 

 as strong as they were last September. 



For want of a cellar to winter my bees in, 

 I packed them, by making large boxes 13 

 feet long and 3 feet wide, which would hold 

 6 colonies to the box ; I then packed clover 

 ch itf in between and back of I lie hives. I 



have saved all except 3 nuclei that had 

 nothing to live on when put in. So far the 

 prospect for a honey crop here is good, as 

 the wliite and Alsike clovers are not injured 

 by the winter. 



I have just read the editorial about the 

 Bee-Keepers' Union, on page 115. You will 

 find my membership fee enclosed with this 

 letter, as I feel that I would not be doing 

 my part. If I did not join the Union now. I 

 think that all bee-keepers should encourage 

 Mr. Z. A. Clark to press the battle to the 

 very gates, for if we do not stand by each 

 other in our rights, the day will soon come 

 when bee-keepers will have to advertise 

 that "I, or we, on a certain day, will apply 

 to the County Commissioners for a license 

 to keep bees." It appears that some people 

 would like to have it just about that way. 



Bees are all Riglit.— Col. R. Wal- 

 ton, Industry, Pa., on Feb. 37, 1888, writes : 



Thus far my bees are all right, except 

 very late swarms that issued about the latter 

 part of September. I had about 6 or 7 

 swarms in that month ; we had a nice flow 

 of honey about that time, my colonies were 

 strong in bees, and they began to swarm. I 

 secured only about 300 pounds of honey 

 from about 60 colonies of bees. I am ex- 

 perimenting some this winter with my bees. 

 None of them are packed this -.vinter, and 

 all are on the winter stands, with a big box 

 placed over them. Tlie bees flew nicely 

 last week, and they are all right except 3 

 small colonies. 



Bee-Keepers are Happy. — Jacob 

 Oswalt, Maximo, O., on Feb. 33, 1888, writes: 



I am wintering my bees in the " Falcon " 

 ohatf hive on tlie summer stands, and they 

 now seem to be in fine condition. Thev 

 had a grand flight today, and on examina"- 

 tion I find that they have all pulled through 

 the winter nicely, excepting two colonies. 

 Bees in this section of the country, as far as 

 heard from, are doing well, and bee-keepers 

 are feeling good. 



Bees Mostly in Oood Condition. 



— B. W. Peck, Richmond Centre, O., on 

 Feb. 30, 1888, writes : 



I have been out in tlie apiary examining 

 my bees, and so far they are mostly in 

 good condition ; only 3 or 4 colonies having 

 the diarrhea. I had 8 or 10 colonies that 

 had only 13 to 15 pounds of honey ; I ex- 

 amined them to see If they need any more, 

 and I found they had enough to last until 

 April, at least, having consumed but little 

 iKiney. I do not believe that my loss will 

 exceed 10 per cent. I have just purchased 

 3 more colonies from a neighbor, so I now 

 have 47 colonies. Iwill report again in the 

 spring. 



Disposing of Snrplns Honey. — 



B. E. Foster, Utica, N. T., writes : 



What Shalt we do with our surplus honey? 

 This is often asked, not so much this year, 

 as honey has been scarce in some States, 

 but not in New York. Comb honey can be 

 bought at 13 cents to-day, and extracted at 

 8 to 10 cents. Now how is it that honey is 

 as cheap as it was last year in New York ? 

 Below is one of the reasons, I think : 



Every year the bee-men feed so much 

 sugar for winter stores for the bees. Now, 

 if honey was used instead, how much would 

 there be left? I would say none. But it 

 seems as if the bee-men had got to feed 

 sugar in order to keep their bees alive. This 

 is not true, it we do as we ought, namely, 

 feed nothing but honey, the loss of bees 

 would be very small, if this is all that makes 



the bees die. I would like to ask how much 

 is made by extracting all the honey and 

 feeding back sugar syrup, it their time is 

 worth anything ? I think that if we want 

 to teed.honey, we can always get it, if we 

 have none. But the best way is to keep 

 from 100 to 300 pounds of honey over for 

 this purpose, and not sell the last drop. 



I was pleased to read Mr. Lindle's article 

 on page .55, where he says that he never fed 

 .50 cents worth of sugar in 31 years, and for 

 15 years he had made bee-keeping his busi- 

 ness. This shows that honey is as good as 

 sugar. If you are afraid the honey is not 

 all right, just bring it to a boil, and this will 

 make it all right, if it came from colonies af- 

 fected with foul brood. Let us feed no more 

 sugar, but honey. 



Colonies Strong and C'arrying 



Pollen.— Albert Newman, Rolla, Mo., on 

 Feb. 33, 1888, says : 



My bees carried in pollen on Feb. 30, 

 which is much earlier than usual. They 

 are as strong now as they were last fall, 

 notwithstanding we have had weather from 

 6° to 13° below zero. They are on the sum- 

 mer stands, protected on the east, north and 

 west by a bank of straw. Those, however, 

 who do not believe in book-learning, and 

 read no bee-paper, will lose heavily, not 

 knowing that all the bees had to be fed last 

 fall in this part of tlie country. I fed about 

 170 pounds of granulated sugar to 17 colo- 

 nies, and by the way they are breeding now, 

 I will have to feed them some more before 

 the honey-flow comes. 



Liiglit in Bee-Cellars, etc. — S. J. 



Youngman, Lakeview, Mich., on Feb. 23, 

 1888, writes : 



I think that the article on page 106, by T. 

 F. Bingham, giving his experience with 

 wintering bees, is the most intensely inter- 

 esting article published in the Bee Jour- 

 nal since I have been one of its readers. 

 Has it ever been given to the public before? 

 I, for one, would like to know more of the 

 details, especially of the transferring by 

 lamp-light in midwinter. If those bees 

 winter well, surely disturbance in winter is 

 not disastrous to bees. 



According to Mr. B's article on page 117, 

 the Southern wintering question was surely 

 given a good trial ; but could not the un- 

 sealed brood have been saved by giving 

 water to the bees, while en route ? Or could 

 not the transit have been hastened by send- 

 ing the bees by express ? Cannot Mr. 

 Bingham be prevailed upon to give us 

 another article on these subjects ? 



Carrying in Pollen — Honey- 



Plants— W.M. Hess, Conway, Ark., on 



Feb. 15, 1888, says : 



My 10 colonies of bees are wintering well. 

 Yesterday they carried in pollen tor the 

 first time this year. In 1887 they carried in 

 the first pollen on Feb. 7, and the last on 

 Oct. 16, and just got enough for a living. I 

 had but one natural swarm, and it issued 

 on July 13. Our bees generally swarm in 

 May, but sometimes in April. 



Our main honey-plants are sumac, rag- 

 weed, black-gum, cotton, hore-hound, wil- 

 low, persimmon, and boneset. There is not 

 much buckwheat sown, and no clover. 

 Clover thrives well here, but the trouble is 

 to get it started on account of the grip- 

 grass, but if once started, it will remain 

 until it is killed out. Sumac is a good 

 honey-producer, and of good flavor, but it 

 gets sour before it is ripe. My bees nearly 

 filled all the section-cases, and before they 

 had it half capped over, it turned sour and 

 run down through the brood-frames, so that 

 t'le bees all left the inside and hung around 



