380 



T'HE; MBHERICMf* BB® JOURPCat,. 



^■^*-^*-^*— >*-*--^-*-*-^ ^^^■^^— .^^^^^.^^.^A^A^A^A^A^ 



complete failure, owing to the severe 

 drouth, and many colonies at present 

 have not a daj's ration ahead. Let 

 there be a long continued cold siorm, 

 and bees in this condition must starve. 

 Their owner must know their condi- 

 tion, and this is one of the good 

 things of the movable-frame hive. 

 Bees consume stores very fast in the 

 spring, because of their rearing so 

 much brood. Scientists tell us that an 

 insect in its larvie state consumes more 

 food than during the remainder of its 

 life. If a colony is short of honey, the 

 best way to supply it is to remove as 

 quietly as possible an emptj' frame, 

 and insert a full one in its place. 

 Where no frames of honey are obtain- 

 able, feed syrup made of any kind of 

 sugar when bees are flj'ing. Little 

 wooden butter dishes make good feed- 

 ers, as bees cling to their sides and 

 never drown as they do in glass or 

 earthenware, unless filled with cut 

 straw or shavings. This spring I fed 

 a lazy man's way — tied cheese cloth 

 over large pans of syrup, and fed in 

 the open air. When the syrup was 

 lowered so that the bees could not 

 reach it, I push the muslin down upon 

 the surface so they could. 

 Peoria, Ills. 



CONVENTION DIRECTORY. 



1888. Time and Place of MeeUna. 



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



H. Smith, Sec Ionia, Mich. 



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



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



Aug. 27.— Stark County, at Canton, O. 



Mark Thomson, Sec, Canton, O. 



Sept. 8.— Susquehanna County, at Montrose, Pa. 



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



|y In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.- Ed. 



sE!^J4°-^i 



SStsf-. 



Very Promising' Prospects. — E. 



Liston, ot Virgil City, Mo., on May 25, 1888, 

 writes : 



Bees are just booming from honey-dew. 

 The persimmons will be in bloom in a few 

 days. The weather is warm and showery. 

 The proiipects were never more promising. 

 It iiiHkes us all feel happy to hear the music 

 they make ; particularly so after having a 

 total failure last year. 



Bees tVorking' on Early Rasp- 

 berries.— Daniel Shank, Clayton, Ills., 

 on May 24, 1888, writes: 



While not extensively in bee-culture, yet 

 I make it a side-issue. "I have 16 colonies in 

 box hives. I have bought Langstrolh-Sim- 

 plicity hives for my swarms. I have read 

 the American Bee Joukxal for two 

 years, and I like it very much. I was on 

 my farm yesterday, aud found the rasp- 



berries blooming ; that is the early kind. 

 I have fruited the Shaffer colo.ssal for three 

 years, aud find tliem grand for fruit and 

 honey, as they bloom later than any other 

 raspberrj. Every bee-keeper should add 

 this berry to his stock. My bees are gather- 

 ing honey fast now. White clover is scarce, 

 owing to the drouth of last summer. 



Qnautities of Brood Chilled.— 



Leslie Stewart, of Jefferson, N. Y., on May 



25, 1888, writes : 



The weather here is fair at present, but 

 we have had about 3 weeks of wet and cold 

 weather, which has given bees a bad set- 

 back, especially the weak ones. It has 

 chilled quite a large quantity of brood, es- 

 pecially in colonies have young Italian 

 queens, as such had more brood than tliey 

 could cover. I do not think that more than 

 two-thirds of the bees in this section will be 

 able to store any surplus this season. Fruit 

 will be in full bloom in about one week. I 

 find that a colony having a young Italian 

 queen will build up one-third faster than 

 one of the same strength having a black one. 



<|iieen-Bees to Canada. — S. W. 



Morrison, M. D., of Oxford, Pa., on May 28, 

 1888, writes as follows : 



At the request of the Superintendent of 

 Foreign Mails I have sent two cages con- 

 taining queens and their attendants "for 

 transmission to the postal authorities of 

 Canada," that they may " see the method of 

 packing bees for transmission through their 

 mails." If satisfactory they will be for- 

 warded to Seaforth, Ont., and queens will 

 be again allowed in the mails. I am confi- 

 dent that the matter will be arranged with- 

 in the next week, so that queen-bees can 

 again cross the lines in the mails. 



Oiick -a - Dees Eating; Bees. — 



Martha Smith, of Monroe, Wis., writes as 

 follows on the above subject : 



In regard to the chick-a-dees eating bees I 

 will say that it is no uncommon thing here 

 for them to eat dead ones in the manner de- 

 scribed by Mr. Evans in this week's Bee 

 JouBNAL. They will eat all they can find 

 on the snow, and will alight on the porticos 

 of the hives rand get all at the entrances. 

 Starvation does not cause them to do it, for 

 they act just as bad when there is meat 

 hanging on a tree near the hives. I have 

 never seen them kill a bee, but they annoy 

 them in summer. A chick a-dee built her 

 nest near the hives, and the bees would 

 chase her from the hives to her nest. 



Prospects now CSood. — Mr. D. M. 



Stoler, Saxton, Pa., on May 28, 1888, writes : 



The last three weeks have been exceed- 

 ingly wet and cool, so that the bees could 

 not work half of the time. The prospects 

 are now good for a prosperous season. The 

 loss in this section during the wint-r, was 

 about 50 per cent. ; principally in old-style 

 hives. I wintered my bees on the summer 

 stands, with Hill's device over the frames, 

 with mats and loose wool packing. I put 

 supers on three days ago, when I found the 

 combs well filled with brood and honey. 



Bees in Malcota.— Andrew Craig, of 

 Empire, Dakota, on May 21, 1888, writes as 

 follows : 



The spring here is unufuaUy backward- 

 cool with too much wind for bees to do well. 

 They gathered no pollen fioni elms, as is 

 usual ; the weather being too cool and 



windy at the time of its bloom. Cottonwood 

 began to bloom, but was "nipped in the 

 bud " by frost. We liave had several frosts 

 in May. On May Ifi it snowed without freez- 

 ing, and on the 17th there was frost and ice 

 3s of an inch thick. It is warmer now, and 

 raining too much for farmers to get in their 

 corn. I put into winter quarters 3 colonies, 

 and all came through, but one was very 

 weak, and was robbed to death by one of 

 the others that was very populous. Had 

 the weather been warmer, so that there 

 would have been nectar to gather, no rob- 

 bing would have occurred. Mine are the 

 only bees I can hear of in this part of the 

 territory. 



Salt.— 0. B. Barrows, of Marsballtown, 

 Iowa, writes the following on the uses of 

 salt for bees and berries : 



Several years ago the Iowa State Horti- 

 cultural Society recommended the use of 

 salt for strawberries. I tried It once only. 

 i also tried N. W. McLain's receipt for the 

 stimulation of sprint; breeding, viz : " Half 

 aplnt of dairy salt to 10 pounds of sugar," 

 and 1 do not think I will ever try it again. 

 Who else has tried it ? How do they like 

 it ? My bees thought it a good thing to let 

 alone. 



Bandelions and Fruit Bloom. — 



Francis M. Merritt, Andrew, Iowa, on May 

 30, 1888, wrote thus : 



In my article on page 341, I am made to 

 say that the white clover was just blooming. 

 This is a mistake of the printer, for I wrote 

 it "booming" instead of blooming, as the 

 white clover is not in bloom yet. We are 

 passing through a grand harvest ot dande- 

 lion and fruit bloom. Bees are increasing 

 rapidly. 



CX,UBBIIV« I.IST. 



We Clnb the American Bee Jmvmal 



for a year, with any of the following papers 



or books, at the prices quoted in the IjASX 



column. The regular price of both is given 



in tlie first column. One year's subscription 



for the American Bee Journal must be sent 



with each order for another paper or book: 



Price o1 both. Olvb 

 The American Bee Journal .100... 



and Gleanings in Bee-Culture 2 00.,.. 1 75 



Bee-Keepers'Magazine .. . 150 140 



Bee-Keepers' Guide 1.50 140 



I$ee-Keeper8' Review 150... 140 



The Apiculturiat 175 — 160 



Canadian Bee Journal 200 ... 180 



Canadian Honey Producer...! 40 130 



The 8 abo%'e-tiained papers 5 65 — 5 00 



and Cook's Manui^ 225.... 2 00 



Bees and Honey (Newman)... 2 00 175 



Binder for Am. Boe Journal.. 1 60.. .. 1 50 

 Dzierzon's Bee- Book (cloth)... 3 00.... 2 00 

 Root's ABC (il Bee-Culture. .2 25. . . . 2 10 



Farmer's Account Book 4 00 2 20 



Western World Guide 1 50 1 30 



Heddon's hook. "Success,".. 1 50.. 1 40 



A Year Araons' the Bees . 1 75 — 1 .50 



Convention Hand-Book 150 130 



Weeklv Inter Ocean 2 00.... 175 



Iowa Homcetcad 2 00 ... 1 90 



Hnw to Prormg-ate Fruit 150... 125 



History of National Society..! 50 — 1 25 



co:\VE.^'rioi\ iwoxice. 



^sr The Hardin County Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion will meet at the Court Hnuse in Ki'lorii. Iowa, 

 on the second SMturrliiy in each month, at noon 

 (12 o'clock), until further notice. 



J. W. BPCHANAN, Sec. 



