524 



THK MMERICSE* MBM J@lJRriMI,. 



No IVhite Clover to Bloom A. 



E. Simpson, of State Line, Ind., on July 24, 

 1888, writes : 



This is tlie poorest of poor bee-seasons 

 here. Tlie dry, hot weather of last year in- 

 jured the wliite clover so badly that there 

 was none to bloom this year ot any conse- 

 quence. It loolis now just lite it does early 

 in the sprine, when it is beginninj; to start 

 up nicely ; and as white clover is our main 

 honey source, the bees are not doui<; any- 

 thing, for there is no other bloom of any 

 consequence. The bees are not gathering 

 any more Iioney than is necessary to live on, 

 and we will have no surplus here, unless we 

 have rain sufficient for fall bloom. It this 

 fails, bees will have to be fed again for the 

 winter, or they will starve. The outlook is 

 gloomy indeed. 



Expecting: a Fall Yield Mr. Levi 



Reichard, of Ellison Bay, Wis., on July 27, 

 1888, writes : 



On Oct. 27, 1887, I put 6 colonies into the 

 cellar, and on April 25 I put them on the 

 summer stands again. One colony had lost 

 its queen, and one had the diarrhea pretty 

 badly, so I united the queenless and sick 

 ones, but they are weak yet ; the rest are 

 doing just fairly well, and now it is too dry 

 to do much. They have stored about 35 lbs. 

 of surplus honey all together, from raspber- 

 ry bloom. The basswood has no bloom, for 

 some reason, but I have 1}4 acres of buck- 

 wheat, and there will be plenty of golden- 

 rod and asters this fall. 



Bees Have Done but I^Ittle.— Dr. 



H. J. Scoles, Knoxville, Iowa, on July 25, 

 1888, writes : 



Bees have done but little here this sum- 

 mer. During fruit-bloom they could scarcely 

 get out of the hives, on account of the cold 

 and disagreeable weather. I had to feed 

 theuj up to white clover bloom, and that 

 yields but little nectar. We then hoped tor 

 the linden, but, alas, our hopes were vain ; 

 there was but little bloom, so that if we do 

 not get a fall flow (of which I do not see 

 much prospect), the bees will hardly have 

 enough stores to carry them through the 

 coming winter. 



Xliousaud!« IVanted for tlie 

 Union.— W. Addenbrook, North Prairie, 

 Wis., on July 28, 1888, writes : 



I send you my annual subscription for the 

 Bee-Keepers' Union. I should feel more 

 satished if we only had members amount- 

 ing to thousands instead of hundreds, as 1 

 think that if 1 could not spare a dollar to 

 defend any pursuit that I was engaged in, I 

 would quit the business, and let some one 

 with more brains attend to it. 



L<arg:e Fall IIoney-FIo\r Ex- 

 pected.— S. J. Toungman, Lakeview, 

 Mich., on July 24, 1888, writes : 



As I predicted in my letter of June 24, 

 there was but little basswood honey, con- 

 sequently we have had no honey from any 

 other source but the white and Alsike 

 clovers, and mostly from the latter. I built 

 up my bees to very large colonies, having 

 three hives, Langstroth size, one above the 

 other, and I have taken 4 gallons of ex- 

 tracted honey per colony, and have had but 

 2 swarms. I am expecting a large flow of 

 fall honey, as there is both early and late 

 sown buckwheat, and the bees have already 

 commenced to work from that source. In 



^^*^^^^^*^^-*-*-^^-^;^ ■^^j^^-^^-'*' . .... ^ *^*^. 



consequence of the extreme drouth, the 

 bees have bred but little, seeming to care 

 little about swarming, unless confined in 

 small quarters. Bees under such condi- 

 tions have swarmed considerably, but have 

 yielded no honey to their owners. Although 

 no large amount of rain has fallen, the at- 

 mospheric conditions seems to be right for a 

 honey-flow, and the bees are humming joy- 

 ously, and are working with great vigor. 

 But the season is too far advanced for a 

 successful year with bees. Honey will 

 again be scarce, and bring a good price. 



Sterile <tu«en8, etc.— Edward C. 

 Luce, Hillsboro, Oregon, July 23, 1888, 

 says : 



I noticed on page 452 an item from Mr. C. 

 A. Pardee, about a sterile queen. I re- 

 moved a queen on July 19, affected in a like 

 manner. Bees have stored some surplus 

 from white clover, when it did not rain, it 

 being the only good honey-plant that we 

 have. I have 8 colonies of bees in Sim- 

 plicity hives. I am 15 years of age, and I 

 have transferred 10 colonies of bees for 

 neighbors and my father, besides doing 

 other work. 



Rearing' Brood Rapidly, etc.— 



J. 0. Shearman, New Richmond, Mich., 

 on July 28, 1888, says : 



Bees have done but little with honey here. 

 Clover was a failure on account of unfavor- 

 able weather. Basswood was short and 

 sweet ; I got some, but no flnished sections. 

 The bees are getting some fall honey now. 

 Bees have reared brood at a tremendous 

 rate, as there is just about enough honey 

 coming in to breed fast, and not any to 

 store for surplus ; therefore my colonies 

 have increased more than usual. 



Preventing- Bee-Sting;s— Iioney 



Prospects.— Mr. Wm. Malone, Newbern, 

 Iowa, on July 26, 1888, writes : 



I have tried holding my breath to prevent 

 bee-stings while putting my hand between 

 two combs one cool morning. 1 did not 

 hold my breath very long, I can assure you. 

 The first conclusion I arrived at was, that 

 there was one fool that was not dead yet. If 

 any one thinks that the tools are all dead, 

 just try the experiment once, and I think 

 yon will be satisfied. 



There is not much honey yet. I have 

 taken only ,500 pounds from 4(5 colonies, 

 spring count, and 1 increased them to 75 

 colonies. If August does not give us any 

 honey, we will be "left" this year. The 

 prospects are gnod for August, and we will 

 live in hopes, even if we do not get the 

 honey. 



Ciood Report from Texas.- W. S. 

 Douglass, Lexington, Tex., on July 28, 1888, 

 says: 



Bees have done better in Texas this year 

 than they have for 5 or 6 years. Every bee- 

 keeper has some honey for sale. One 

 county alone produced 100,000 pounds of 

 honey; and one man in Williamson county 

 had 20,000 pounds. Comb honev is selling 

 for from 10 to 12' j' cents ; extracted from <; 

 to 8 cents per pound. I started in the spring 

 with 36 colonies, and increased them to 51, 

 by natural swarming. I have sold some 

 honey at 123< cents, and I have a great deal 

 more to take out of the hives. I have tried 

 several different kinds of hives, and I am 

 now going to adopt the Langstroth. I be- 

 lieve it is the best for producing eithercomb 

 or extracted honey. 



Iioney from Corn, etc. — William 

 Crouley, Redwood Falls, Minn., on July 28, 

 1888, writes : 



The linden yielded the first honey here 

 on July 15, and will close about Aug. 1. 1 

 expect to get about 1,800 pounds of linden 

 honey, nearly one-half of it in one-pound 

 sections, from 47 colonies, spring count, and 

 2 queenless ones, which were not much 

 better than nuclei. It took so long to get 

 my colonies queened. Bees did not build 

 up much here until the middle of June, on 

 account of the cold, wet spring. Part of 

 them were not in a condition to take advan- 

 tage of the honey-flow. 1 was obliged to do 

 some feeding, and pack them on the sum- 

 mer stands, in order to bring them through. 

 As near as I can learn, about three-fifths of 

 the bees in this region perished during the 

 winter and spring. My bees work very 

 diligently on corn; they did not desert it 

 for basswood. I have had only 4 natural 

 swarms this season. 1 expect a moderate 

 honey-flow from now until frost, as we are 

 having an abundance of rain, and all kinds 

 of vegetation has a rank growth. 



Full Treasury a Safe-Oiiard. — 



A. S. Goodricli, WortWngton, Ohio, on July 



30, 1888, writes : 



Here is my dollar and ray vote. 1 live in 

 a locality where 1 never will be troubled 

 by my neighbors or the public, therefore I 

 do not expect to be benefited by the Union, 

 but I feel it a duty to " cast in my mite " to 

 assist those who are not so favorably sit- 

 uated, and to sustain an honorable pursuit. 

 It is very strange that so few respond to the 

 call. If one-half of the bee-keepers in the 

 United States would join the Union, it 

 would fill our treasury so full that they 

 would never need another assessment, and 

 we would be able to kill all opposition " too 

 dead to skin." 



Bce-Cultore in Arizona. — Messrs. 

 Harmon & Skinner, Zenos, Arizona, on July 

 25, 1888, write : 



Bees are doing fairly well here. We have 

 taken .520 gallons of honey, and have about 

 60 gallons more ready to take off. Our first 

 extracting was entirely unfit for table use. 

 We began with 32 colonies in good condi- 

 tion, and about the same number that were 

 rather weak. We have purchased some, 

 increased some by dividing, and by natural 

 svcariuing, and now we have 120 colonies, 

 mostly in good condition. 



Iioney Coming; in Slo^vly. — M. L. 



Spencer, Little Genesee, N. T., on July 24, 



1888, says : 



Here we are having a very cold season, 

 especially the nights are cold. Bees have 

 been getting a little honey for some time, 

 but it comes in very slowly. Colonies are 

 very strong. 1 send .$100 for membership- 

 fee to the Union. It seems to me that the 

 bee-keepers o( the United States are not 

 looking to their own interests, in not join- 

 ing it. 



The Convention. — The pamphlet 

 containing the report of the proceedings of 

 the Union Convention in Chicago, Ills., is 

 published, and can be obtained at this office 

 for 25 cents. Or bound up with the history 

 of the International Society, and a full re- 

 port of the Detroit and Indianapolis conven- 

 tions, for 50 cents, postpaid. 



