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285 



CONVENTION DIRECTORY. 



1888. Time and Place of Meeting. 



Apr. 27.— Darke County, at Ansonia. O. 



J. A. Koe, Sec, Union City, Ind. 

 May J, 3.— Texas State, at GreenTllle. Tex. 



B. F. Carroll. Sec, Blooming Grove, Tex. 

 May 3.— ProgrcBslve, at Balnbrldge Center. Ohio. 



Miss Dema Bennett. Sec, Beilfonl. O. 

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

 H. M. Seeley. Sec, Harloril, I'a. 

 May 7.— Welland County, at Wellanrt, Ont. 



J. F. Dunn, Sec, Kidgeway, Ont. 

 May 8.— Keystone, at Scranton, Pa. 



Arthur A. Davis, Sec, Clark's Green, Fa. 

 May 8.— Cortland Union, at Cortland, N. Y. 



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

 May 19.— Nashua, at Nashua, Iowa. 



H. L. House, Bee. Ionia. Iowa. 

 May 22.— N. W. Ills. & S. W. Wis., at Rorkton. Ills. 



D. A. Fuller, Sec, tiherry Valley, Ills. 

 May 31.— Wli. Lake Shore Center, at Kiel, Wis. 



Ferd. Zastrow, Sec Millbome, Wis. 



Aug. 14.— Colorado State, at Denver, Colo. 



J. M. Clark. Sec, Denver, Colo. 



jy In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.— Bd. 



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fVorking: on tlie Forest Uloom. 



— T. M. Edwards, KerrviUe, Tenn., on April 

 16, 1888, writes : 



My bees are now booming on the great 

 variety of forest trees that are now in 

 bloom. The poplars will be in full bloom 

 in a few days. My bees wintered well ; out 

 of 120 colonies only one starved to death, 

 and i were queenless. There are no bees 

 diseased in this country, and the prospects 

 are tine. I had one swarm on April 14. 



Hig-h Water in Io\t'a. — John B. 

 Lindle, Muscatine, Iowa, on Apritl 16, 1888, 

 writes : 



I liave had my share of trouble with high 

 water. Over 100 head of cattle and horses, 

 and over 60 slieep, and a lot of hogs are all 

 on about 60 acres of dry land, the balance of 

 my farm (consisting of 400 acres in all) 

 being flooded with water. This changes all 

 of my farming calculations. There is water 

 in the cellar now. Cedar river is higher 

 than any time since 1860. I have feed enough 

 for my stock, but my poor bees suffer the 

 most, as they are flying to the timber 

 which is one-half mile distant, with one 

 sheet of water lor miles around on three 

 sides of my place. The trees are budding, 

 and also the willows. As the bees come in 

 on the "home stretch" with pollen, they 

 tire and chill with the cold wind, and drop 

 by the hundreds to rise no more, then swept 

 off by the current. It seems that one ex- 

 treme follows anotlier. 



Experimenting; Avitli Uees.— John 

 Boerstler, Vashon, Wash. Ter.,on April 6, 

 1888, writes : 



Yesterday morning, about 10 o'clock, I 

 noticed that the bees in hive No. 3, were not 

 flying. I rapped on the hive, but 1 could 

 not hear a sound ; so I opened the hive, and 

 there I found all the bees dead. I picked 

 up the queen and layed her on the ground, 

 and then I brushed all of tlie bees on the 

 ground, but not a bee moved. I studied for 

 five minutes what to do, and finallv put all 

 the bees and queen into a pail, and placed 

 them near the stove in the house. What do 

 you think they did ? They began to move, 



when I breathed on them, and aftfr an 

 hour's work they were all revived. I made 

 syrup, and fed it to tliein iu the combs, and 

 a great many of tliem are fl.\ing again. I 

 believe that I will yet save them from as 

 close a call as I ever have known bees to 

 have in rav 20 years of bee-keeping. The 

 bees are all riglit again to-day, and I tliink 

 that they will do well by feeding them as I 

 am doing. 



Condition of tlie White Clover. 



—Rev. M. Mahin, Bluffton, Ind., on April 4, 

 1888, says : 



My bees have wintered well. I lost 3 col- 

 onies out of 34. In this part of the country 

 I think that the white clover is badly dam- 

 aged. At New Castle, where ray bees are, 

 it does not seem to be much injured. 



W^intering Bees in Idaho. —F. H. 



McDonald, Star, Idaho, on April 10, 1888, 

 writes : 



The winters being usually mild here, bees, 

 as a rule, are wintered on the summer 

 stands, without any protection. The last 

 winter being colder than usual, a few colo- 

 nies froze to death, and others were made 

 weak by the cold. On their first flight they 

 daubed the hives considerably, but they 

 soon became all right. The first pollen was 

 gathered on Feb. 17. Colonies nave built 

 up fast, and are now strong. 



Bees Not in Ciood Condition.— 



Christian Weckesser, Marshallville, O., on 

 April 16, 1888, says : 



Bees are not in very good condition, gen- 

 erally, in this vicinity, and a very large per 

 cent, have died. Cool winds are prevailing, 

 and many bees will yet die, if not very well 

 cared for. I notice that those colonies that 

 were fed late in the fall, and "tinkered" 

 with, are the worse for it, apparently. Those 

 wintered iu the cellar are rather the best, 

 but most of them, though strong, had 

 little brood when placed on the summer 

 stands. 



-B. 



tiiood Ontlook tor the Bees. 



A. Mauley, Milo, Iowa, on April 11, 1888, 



says : 



Marcli is gone, and April brings a good 

 outlook for bees. My bees wintered in ex- 

 cellent condition. I packed them in corn- 

 corb cliafE from an elevator, which I will 

 describe at some future time. Sometime 

 ago it was thouglit tliat bees were wintering 

 well in this section, but April reveals the 

 tact that only tlie bees that were well cared 

 for in the fall were able to get througli. I 

 hearot some losing all, and some having a 

 small remnant left. But the thoughtful 

 ones have no reason to complain. My bees 

 are using this fine weather with all their 

 might. 1 saw them carry in natural pollen 

 on April 2. This is a good country for 

 white clover, and it is starting up nicely. 



Experience in JBee-Keeping-.— 



Jesse Willis & Son, St. Charles, Mich., on 

 April 10, 1888, write : 



Our experience with bees dates back 20 or 

 2.5 years, the first colony being taken from a 

 bee-tree ; since that time we have never 

 been without bees. We have tried almost 

 all kinds of hives— patented, motli-proof, 

 and non-swarming— as claimed by the mak- 

 ers, and many other kinds, and we have 

 come to the conclusion that the closed-end 

 Quinby is preferable fur our own use: but 

 we find them somewhat unhaiuly wl.en 



shipping bees. We now have 250 colonies 

 of hybrids. We winter them in chaff hives 

 with fair success, and worlc exclusively for 

 comb honey, which we find the most profit- 

 able. The most of our honey is shipped 

 north, to Bay City, Saginaw, and other 

 places, as our home market requires but 

 little. We generally aim to get our crates 

 and sections ready, and also the foundation 

 fastened in the sections, before the honey- 

 flow comes. Our greatest trouble has been 

 iu fastening foundation in sections, and we 

 have been helped out of that with one of the 

 latest foundation fasteners. Our best honey- 

 flow is from white clover and basswood. 

 The fall honey comes from wild rice and 

 button-balls. 



Colonies Need Building Up.— 



Rev. John Hunt, Plain City, O., on April 

 11, 1888, writes : 



Last fail I had 20 colonies of bees. Last 

 season was a very poor one for honey. The 

 white clover yielded nothing. I had no 

 swarms, and no surplus honey— not even a 

 supply for the bees themselves. Three col- 

 onies died during the winter, and the re- 

 mainder are weak in numbers, though ap- 

 parently in good condition, but will need 

 building up greatly, to take advantage of 

 the honey season, if it should be a good one. 

 1 have fed them on sugar syrup. 



Bees Booming- in Tennessee. — 



John H. Christie, Dyersburg, Tenn., on 

 April 9, 1888, says : 



Bees are fairly booming. I do not think 

 that I ever have seen them in as good con- 

 dition at this time of the year as they are 

 now. Some of my bees have begun work 

 in the sections. I had a swarm on April 6. 

 Peach and plum trees are through blooming, 

 and pear, apple and cherry are now in full 

 blast. Strawberry beds look white. I lost 

 but one colony out of about 100 in winter- 

 ing, and that starved to death for the want 

 of noney. 



Clamp tor W^intering Bees. — 



Justus Chapman, Woodville, Mich., on 

 April 14, 1888, writes : 



I started in the spring of 1887 with 2 colo- 

 nies, having lost tne balance of my bees 

 during the previous winter. I increased 

 them to 6 colonies, and took off 50 one- 

 pound sections of white clover honey. The 

 hives were heavy the last of October, when 

 they were put into a clamp, a la Hutchin- 

 son, without cushions or division-boards, or 

 other extras. They were taken out on April 

 9, and were all right excepting a slight 

 diarrhea. 



Heavy I>oss in Bees — Alfalta 



Seed.— E. Jarvis, Fairgrove, Mich., on 

 April 14, 1888, says : 



There is, I think, a heavy loss of bees in 

 this region, and many colonies have no 

 honey left. We could not well double up 

 colonies last fall, as there were many bees 

 in each hive. I have 4 colonies left from 

 2(j. Some were in a shed, and some out in 

 the wind. Two of those wintered outside 

 are alive. My bees three years ago were 

 hybrids, Cyprians and blacks. One queeu 

 mated witli a yellow drone in 1887. Where 

 can I get alfalfa or lucerne seed by the 

 pound ? 



[It is worth 40 cents per pound by mail. 

 It can be;obtained at this office.- Ed.] 



Scatter the t.eaflets.— Look at the 

 li.st {with prices) on the second page. 



