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distant from 6 to 12 miles, and we can 

 see many snow-capped mountains, yet 

 I liare not seen a flake of snow, neither 

 have we liad eitlier thunder or light- 

 ning, though there have been several 

 heavy rains. 



This is literally a land flowing with 

 bees and honey. The bees occupy' 

 crevices in the rocks of the mountains, 

 the church spires, and chimneys of 

 houses in the town. I am told that 

 hundreds of swarms were caught as 

 they were going over the town last 

 season. What bees I have seen were 

 Italians, also a cross between Italians 

 and a brown bee. and are verj' mildly 

 disposed. All that is required in bee- 

 keeping here is, to provide hives or 

 boxes for the bees to occupj' , and room 

 for the storage of honey. No care or 

 preparation is required for the winter- 

 ing of bees. From what I can learn, 

 bee-keeping is done in a verj' slip-shod 

 manner, and generally a large and 

 cumbersome hive is used — a movable- 

 frame hive, but only a few steps re- 

 moved from the box-hive. 



The most of the honey taken here is 

 extracted. What comb honej- is taken, 

 is in the Harbison section, secured to- 

 gether with strips, and used as the 

 Hill sectional box is used. They are 

 put on the market, or in bulk, and the 

 combs cut out of the frames. The im- 

 proved one and two pound sections 

 are not used here, but they are being 

 introduced into the northern part of 

 this county, and in the counties north 

 of this. 



Improved methods and improved 

 hives are being introduced. What is 

 called the " Harbison hive " has been 

 extensively used. It is a large, cum- 

 bersome hive, and very unhandy to 

 manage. But a form of the Lang- 

 stroth hive is now being used, which 

 takes 9 Langstroth frames in the 

 brood-chamber, and 8 frames in the 

 supers. For e.xtracting they are tiered 

 up as liigh as required. 



I am told tliat the greatest difficulty 

 in bee-keeping is to prevent swarming. 

 Mr. Harbison, the great California 

 bee-keeper, lives in San Diego, four 

 miles from here. Honey is retailing 

 here at the following prices : Comb 

 honey 18 to 20 cents per pound ; ex- 

 tracted, 5 to 12 cents per pound, and 

 the quality is fine. 



The best honey season ever experi- 

 enced here is anticipated the coming 

 season. Bee-keeping is not profitable 

 on the low or mesa lands of the coast, 

 but on or near the hills and mountains 

 it is made very profitable, and honey 

 can be produced at one-fourth the ex- 

 pense tliat it costs in the East. 



National City, Calif. 



CONVENTION DIRECTORY. 



1888. Time and Place of Meeting. 



May 19.— Nashua, at Nashua, Iowa. 



H. L. House. Sec. Ionia, Iowa. 



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

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



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



Ferd. Zastrow, Sec., Millhome, Wis. 



Aug. 3.— Ionia County, at looia, Mich. 



H. Smith, Sec., Ionia, Mich. 



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



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



Aug. 27.— atark County, at Canton, o. 



Mark Thomson, Sec, Canton, O. 



B^" In order to have this table complete, Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place uf future meetings.— Ed. 



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An Early STvarm.— Henry Patter- 

 son, Humboldt, Nebr., on April 30, 1888, 

 writes : 



The weather is nice, with frequent 

 showers. Apple bloom is opening, and is 

 giving the bees the first nectar of the sea- 

 son. What bets survived the winter are 

 buildiug up very fast. We have better 

 prospects for a successful harvest than we 

 have had for two years. I hived a natural 

 Italian swarm on April 26. Who had an 

 earlier swarm in this latitude ? 



Scatter the l.,eafletM.— Look at the 



list (with prices) on the .second page. 



Honey from Hard Maple.— Geo. 



H. Kirkpatrick, New Paris, Ohio, on April 



30, 1888, writes : 



My bees are doing finely. I never have 

 seen bees breed as rapidly as mine are doing 

 this spring. I think that the majority of 

 bee-keepers will have no trouble to get 

 their colonies in proper condition for the 

 white clover honey-flow. The hard maple 

 trees are now in bloom, and the bees are 

 gathering honey from them. Some of my 

 most populous colonies are gathering sur- 

 plus. 1 find it necessary to remove some of 

 the filled combs and replace them with 

 empty one.s, to give room tor the queen to 

 lay. The peaches, pears, plums and cher- 

 ries are in bloom ; soon the apple trees will 

 be in blossom, and as the white clover is 

 looking fine, surely the prospects are good 

 for a bountiful crop of lioney. 



Heavy I^osses in W^intering.— 



Wm. Anderson, Sherman, Mo., on April 30, 



1888, writes : 



The outlook for honey this year is the 

 poorest that 1 have ever known. White 

 clover was killed by the drouth and the 

 winter, and red clover is ail dead. It looks 

 as though there will be nothing for the bees 

 to gather honey from. We liave had no 

 rain for lour weeks, and everything is dry- 

 ing up, but it looks as if it would rain to- 

 day. About 70 per cent, of the bees in this 

 part of tlie country have died from starva- 

 tion, and that dreadful scourge— toul brood. 

 My loss was very heavy, after trying many 

 of the so-called "foul brood cures. I had a 

 fine swarm on April 26, which is something 

 very uucoranion here. Everybody was sur- 

 prised, and I thought something was wrong, 

 but upon examining the colony I found 

 them all right, with a tine young queen ; 

 the old colony seems to be in splendid con- 

 dition, and will be ready to cast another 

 swarm in due time. 



Cool and Liate Spring:, etc.— G. 



M. Whitford, Arlington, Nebr., on April 23, 

 1888, writes : 



The spring is cool and late. Bees are 

 gathering some pollen, but it is nearly a 

 month later than they commenced storing 

 pollen last spring. As a general thing, bees 

 did not winter as well the past winter as 

 the winter before. I lost 3 colonies out of 

 13. I enclose my dollar for the 'TJnion." 

 It is the duty of each and every person in- 

 terested in bee-culture, to aid the Union in 

 its noble undertaking. I have received a 



Package of the Chapman lioneyplant seed 

 rom the Department of Agriculture. 



Cotton-Seed lor ^Vinter Pack- 

 ing.— G. W. Crowder, Kosciusko, Miss., 



on April 24, 1883, writes : 



I have 25 colonies of bees in the Simplicity 

 hive.s. which I work with single story and 

 super with 28 boxes on top. Bees are doing 

 finely here this season. The readers of the 

 Bee Jouknal should try eottoii-seed for 

 winter packing. 1 think it is excellent for 

 that purpose. Italian bees are far superior 

 to the blacks here. 



A <jrood Harvest Expected.— Mr. 



F. B. Reynolds, Rossburg, N. Y., on April 

 30, 1888, writes : 



Bees are doing well. We are having 

 some very hot weather here now— 86° in the 

 shade. The trees are all ready to burst 

 their buds, and we will soon have a harvest 

 for the bees. By the way they are carrying 

 in the pollen, it seems as if they would fill 

 the hives in a short time. I received two 

 packages of the Chapman honey-plant seed 

 m good time, from Che Commissioner of 

 Agriculture. 



■Wintered Well and W^orking 

 Hard.— S. Burton, Eureka, Ills., on April 



28, 1888, says : 



My bees have wintered well on the sum- 

 merstands. They were paclved the same as 

 last winter, which is described on page 684 

 of the American Bee .Iournai, for 1887. 

 I lost one colony by its being queenless. I 

 have 14 colouies, and tbey are building up 

 fast. They have been gathering natural 

 pollen for a week, and are working hard 

 now. 



I^oss in Wintering. — Jas. W. Mills, 



Melleray, Iowa, on April 22, 1888, writes : 



I Iost23-colonies out Jf 29 In the cellar, 

 where the two previous winters I had no 

 loss. Some of them starved, and the rest 

 had the diarrhea, or some other disease. I 

 had 28 colonics in the spring of 1887, some 

 of wliich were very goi>ri. and some very ■ 

 poor.- I doubled up the old ones that were ' 

 weak, and gained only one colony, witli 

 about 2 gallons of extracted honey that I 

 ought to have left. I bought 3 colonies 

 about April 1, and I would rather liave 

 those than all the rest. I am not the only 

 one to lose bees in this place. 



Higit Walei — Bringing Pollen. 



— C. Theilmann, Theilmanton, Minn., on 

 April 26, 188S, writes : 



I put out my 217 colonies of bees on April 

 21, all liavinu wintered in fine condition, 

 except one that starved. I had put them 

 into two caves on Nov. 17, 1887. Three 

 weeks ago we had about 3 feet of snow. 

 Yesterday and the day hetore the bees 

 brought in much poUeii. Soft maples are 



