Tmm jimijricsjn: beb j@itjRNRiL. 



459 



learned how to run my bees the whole 

 season tlnough on sugar sjrup, and 

 report a success. 



I liope the above condition of affairs 

 is confined only to this part of the 

 State. The trouble is entirely climatic. 

 This country is (to look at) a perfect 

 garden ; clover blooms and corn grows 

 as it never grew before. We have had 

 plenty of rain — rather too much — and 

 everything is booming except bees. Is 

 it not s.trange ? 



Dunlap, Iowa, June 26, 1888. 



NEW YORK. 



Various Honey-Plants — Super- 

 seding Queens. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY LESLIE STEWART. 



We have had a veiy poor season 

 here. Every bee-keeper says that it 

 has been the worst season they have 

 known for many years. The weather 

 has been very cold and cloudy, with a 

 great deal of rain. The honey crop 

 lias been an entire failure so far. 

 Fruit bloom yielded but little, and that 

 was vei-j" thin. 



The ground is white with clover, 

 but not a bee can be seen on it. Rasp- 

 berries are in full bloom, and the bees 

 are getting a little honey from that 

 source, but hardly enough to keep up 

 brood-rearing. 



Basswood will be in bloom in about 

 one week, and there will be quite a 

 large amount of blossoms, but not 

 more than two-thirds of what we had 

 last year. I shall expect to get a good 

 amount of honey from that and buck- 

 wheat, as they are our only hope. 



In May, after doing the transferring, 

 I had a large amount of second quality 

 of honey, most of which was in combs; 

 shortly after fruit was through bloom- 

 ing, I put it at different places about 

 20 rods from my apiary, and allowed 

 the bees to take the honey, which 

 caused the queens to fill the hives with 

 eggs, and has added largely to the 

 strength of the colonies. After the 

 honey was all gone, they showed some 

 signs of being erosser, and were a little 

 inclined to rol) ; but there is no danger 

 if the bees are Italians, and the en- 

 trances are not too large. 



SupersediuK tbe Queen. 



The question of superseding queens 

 has for a long time been a perplexing 

 one to me, but after several years of 

 careful watching, I have come to the 

 conclusion that not more than half of 

 our <iueens should be kept longer than 

 two years. Of course I do not believe 

 in killing good queens because the}' 

 are two years old, but all that have not 

 proven themselves good laj'ers, pro- 



ducers of good workers, etc., should 

 be superseded. There certainly shouhl 

 bp but few kept that are over three 

 years of age, as prolific queens are the 

 making of our colonies. 



Jeflerson, N. Y.. July 1, 1888. 



NEBRASKA. 



Tlie Season and Blooming Plants 

 in Nebraska. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY K. R. RYAN. 



The past spring has been rather a 

 poor one for bees, as it was so cold and 

 windy that they were deprived of the 

 plum blossoms, excepting for two days. 

 They have not built up as strong as 

 last season up to this date, and I have 

 heard of onlj' two swarms. Bees are 

 now doing finely, and are building up 

 fast. They are getting considerable 

 honey from the red clover. The white 

 clover seems to have no honey in it, 

 and I seldom see a bee working on it. 

 We have just had a fine shower, that 

 will help the bees, or rather, produce 

 more nectar for them. 



I think that about 20 per cent, of 

 the bees were lost in winter and 

 spring, and a great many had to be 

 fed during the month of May. Since 

 then the}- have gathered enough to 

 keep up breeding. We do not expect 

 much honey in this locality until fall, 

 when we have always had a good 

 yield from buckwheat, heart's-ease, 

 golden-rod and other fall flowers. We 

 missed the raspberry bloom, as most 

 of them were winter-killed, like the 

 grapes. 



Considerable Alsike clover is being 

 sown now, and while clover is spread- 

 ing on the roadsides nicelj', and on 

 wild 'pastures, wherever the seed has 

 been sown or scattered. My Chapman 

 honej-plant was winter-killed. I had 

 some 25 stalks covered with straw or 

 light manure, the latter part of the 

 winter, and now I have two left, and 

 one is very weak, while the other is 

 looking very nice. It has several balls 

 nearly ready to burst open. I shall 

 try to give a report of the work of the 

 bees on it later. 



There is no sweet clover in this 

 locality, but there is considerable black 

 mustard in the ilax fields. Bees are 

 also very fond of working on rhubard 

 blossoms. They were very busy on 

 the strawberries, and are lovers of the 

 Russian mulberry blossoms, and of the 

 fruit of the white ones. I expect to 

 double my number of colonies, and 

 get at least 40 or 50 pounds of honey 

 per colony, which I have been able to 

 do the past two yeai-s. 



Bradshaw, Nebr., June 26, 1888. 



CONVENTION DIRECTOKY. 



1888. Time and Place of Meeting. 



Aug. s.— Ionia County, Ht Ionia. Mich. 



H. Smith, Sec, Ionia, Mich. 



Auk. 14.— Colorado Slnte, at Denver, Colo. 



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



Aug. 27.— atark Countv. at Canton, '). 



Mark Thomson, Sec, Canton, O. 



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



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



Dec. —.-Michigan State, at Jackson, Mich. 



H. D. Cutting, Sec, Clinton, Mich. 



IW In order to have this table complete, Secre. 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.- Ed. 



stiSM^^^ 



vEW. 



Poor Prospects for Bees.— Byron 

 Benton, Bronson, Mich., on June 28, 1888, 

 says : 



The season in this locality has been a 

 poor one for bees. It has beeii too cold and 

 wet the most of the time. They are up fair 

 with brood-rearing, but they have not done 

 much swarming or storing honey yet. They 

 have gathered barely enough to live on as 

 yet. They are much behind, as compared 

 with this date last year. The prospect is 

 very poor for the bees to .store enough to 

 last tiiem until another spring. 



Uees Selecting a, Home before 

 SAvarininfj.— Wm. Anderson, Sherman, 

 Mo., ou June 30, 1888, says : 



Do bees have a place to go to before leav- 

 ing the old home ? The other day while I 

 was out in the barn-yard, 1 heard a swarin 

 of bees coming. I ran and made a noise 

 until I could obtain a bell. I followed the 

 bees up a steep hill, ringing the bell, and 

 finally I got them to stop, as I thought. 

 They formed a funnel shape around a dead 

 hickory tree, beginning at the top and 

 lowering to the roots of the tree. Not 

 thinking of a hole being in the tree, but 

 thinking that I was going to have a good 

 time in getting the bees into a hive, and the 

 bunch of bees getting no larger than at 

 first, I went to see, and to my surprise I 

 saw a hole in the roots of the tree, and they 

 all went in it, and are now at work in the 

 hickory tree. 



My Experience ■with Bees.— W. 



J. Netherton, Kaglan, Ont., on June 28, 

 1888, writes : 



On June 20, 1886, I bought a colony of 

 bees, and I took 64 one pound sections of 

 honey that summer ; but I had no increase, 

 so I packed that colony in a box about Dec. 

 1 with chaff around it. They wintered all 

 right, and I put them out in the spring of 

 1887. I had 2 swarms, but no surplus honey 

 in 1887. Last tall 1 packed 2 colonies in 

 boxes the same as before, and the other 

 colony I sold ; one colony died about April 

 1 with about .3 frames of honey in the 

 hive. The other one appeared all right 

 then, but it has dwindled toamere handful. 

 They are in the Langstroth hive. It has 

 been a cold, backward spring, and very dry; 

 more rain has fallen to-day than for weeks 

 past. Bees in this locality are not doing 

 much. A great many died in the spring, 

 and many more dwindled down so that they 

 are not worth much. 



