556 



Tmm MMEKICSH MMM J©13?KHMI,. 



Some of my colonies have done so to 

 such an extent that I was led to think 

 that they were queenless. 2. Will some > 

 one who uses the Simplicity hive, give 

 some instruction in regard to the use 

 of wide-frames. I am using them this 

 year for the first time, without honey- 

 boards or separators. I fear I have 

 made a mistake. 



Bees came through the winterrather 

 weak, but have done well as far as 

 building up and increase is concerned ; 

 but we have failed so far to get much 

 surplus. We have good bee-pasturage 

 here, consisting of white clover, bass- 

 wood, and an abundance of wild 

 flowers. Our most critical point is the 

 wintering of bees. To any one who 

 may contemplate moving to the West, 

 I could offer some suggestions of value. 



Buffalo, Minn., Aug. 10, 1888. 



[1. Their nature and Instincts teach 

 them so to do ; they store above the 

 brood-nest when it is all full below, be- 

 cause they are obliged to do so, or not 

 store at all. 



2. The use of wide frames without 

 separators is one of the greatest " mis- 

 takes " that could be made. The comb 

 will be built so irregular that the sec- 

 tions cannot be crated for the market. 

 You should either put on the separa- 

 tors or use some other surplus arrange- 

 ment calculated for such non separat- 

 ing method.— Ed.] 



Miifli Rain. b«it I^ittle Honey.— 



N. Staininger, Tipton, Iowa, on Aug. U, 

 l.^SS, says : 



Bees have not done much here this sum- 

 mer. White clover yielded pretty well. 

 The colonies built up strong in bees, and 

 stored some honey in the sections ; then 

 came basswood, which yielded well for a 

 short time, and since then bees have hardly 

 made enough to live on. They swarmed 

 mostly before tlie basswood honey-tlow, 

 about 50 per cent, of mine swarming tliis 

 season. 



We are having a great deal of rain now, 

 and all kinds o( weeds are growing fast. 

 We may have some honey yet— enough for 

 the bees to winter on at least, if no surplus. 



I would say to the readers of the Bee 

 Journal, do not hold your breath till the 

 bees get done stinging. 1 was soon con- 

 vinced of this tact, tbe first trial 1 made, 

 and any one having any doubt, let him just 

 pull off a liive cover with a jerk, and not 

 use any smoke, and I think he will be con- 

 vinced. 



can keep up with her. This is the way to 

 produce honey-gatherers, and the only way. 

 When a good queen mates with a pigmy of 

 a drone, we get poor workers. '• Dollar 

 queens " are a detriment to any apiarist. 

 Tbe bee-keeper who makes an investment 

 for the purpose o( getting something for 

 notliiuL', generally succeeds in getting 

 something ii\ addition to "getting left ;" he 

 usually get a little experience. 



Fall Crop ot Honey.— T. F. Bing- 

 ham, Abronia, Mich., on Aug. 13, 18S8, 

 writes : 



Bees are doing better now than at any 

 time before this season. 



COIVVEXTIOK DIRECTORY. 



18S8 Time and Place of Meeting. 



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



Mark Tbomson, Sec, Canton, O. 



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



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



Oct. 3-5.— North American, at Columbus, O. 



W. Z. Uutchinson, Sec, Flint, Mich. 



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



H. 1). Cutting, Sec, Clinlun, Mich. 



Ey In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulara of 

 time and place of future meetings.— ED. 



lUiist ;>'ot be Discouraged. —H. 



M. Seeley, Harford, Pa., on Aug. 11, 18SS, 

 writes ; 



Bees in this vicinity have done poorly, as 

 it has been .so very dry. I have 2 colonies 

 which have given me 7.5 pounds of houey 

 each, from raspberry and white clover. 

 From the balance of my colonies (.5) I have 

 taken only about 10 pounds in all. The 

 first 3 colonies I did not let swarm, but each 

 of the others gave nie a good swarm. Tliey 

 are now storing honey from buckwheat 

 quite fast. Taken ail touether, we shall 

 have to count this as the third poor season 

 in succession, and yet it will not do to get 

 discouraged, at least it will not do for me. 





ReinoTing tiie Queen.— Gerd Wen- 

 delken. Marietta, Ohio, on Aug. 10, 1888, 

 writes : 



I believe that a removal of the queen 

 about 3 weeks before the close of the honey 

 harvest .secures more honey, because it pre- 

 vents increase, and lessens the number of 

 consumers; but will this gain of honey be 

 stored in the sections instead of in the 

 brood-nest, like the bees do after a swarm 

 has issued ? Besides this, 1 think that it 

 weakens the energies of the bees to woik, 

 after no brood is in the hive to work for. 

 Bees, 1 believe, work for the brood only, 

 not for them.selves, nor for any other pur- 

 pose. When a queen is taken from a col- 

 ony, the bees find plenty of empty cells to 

 store honey in, and will do it before filling 

 the sections. 



Well Pleai^ed Arthur F. Brown, of 



Huntington, Fla., on Aug. 3, 1888, writes 

 thus concerning our bee-book : 



The book, " Bees and Honey," is received, 

 and I am well pleased with it. 1 think it 

 should be in the hands of every bee-keeper. 



A Peculiar Colony.— C. Kellogg, 

 Hokah, Minn., on Aug. 10, 1888, says : 



I have only a few colonies, and one of 

 them has performed so strangely, that I 

 would like to have it explained. It casta 

 swarm on June 13, and just three weeks 

 afterward the queen left the hive, taking a 

 portion of the bees with her. On examina- 

 tion 1 could not find any sealed brood, and 

 but very few eggs— not even one queen- 

 cell ; but the remaining bees soon built 

 some, but failed to rear a queen from them, 

 and now they are queenless. I should like 

 to know the cause of it, and if it is a com- 

 mon occurrence. Tbe remaining bees ap- 

 pear to be ot inferior quality, but the 

 swarm that issued from it are nice bees, 

 and are doing finely. 



[It is evidently one of the perplexing 

 cases of " after swarming." In some of 

 such cases, the bees, especially Italians, do 

 many eccentric things, such as leaving 

 without constructing queen-cells, going off 

 without clustering, etc.— Ed.] 



Itliicli Bloom but ;\o Honey.— 



John B. Avery, Stittville, N. T., on Aug. 

 13, 1888, says : 



The honey crop in this locality is very 

 poor. There was plenty of white clover in 

 bloom, but it was too cold for it to secrete 

 much nectar. Basswood was loaded with 

 blossoms, but not much honey. Last year 

 I obtained 97.t pounds of honey from 13 

 colimies, and increased them to 26 colonies. 

 This year 1 obtained 600 pounds of houey 

 from 2.5 colonies, aud iucreased them to 38 

 colonies. 



Convention Notices. 



Rearing' Queens.— J. W. Tefft, 

 Collamer, N. T., writes as follows : 



As early as possible in the spring, I 

 select two ot the best queens tliat had the 

 best record the previous season ; one dark 

 and one lightcoloreil queen. I put both to 

 work for honey, and fnnn one 1 rear all the 

 drones tor the apiary, and push this drone 

 queen as fast as 1 can, to get the swarming 

 fever. I then remove the queen from the 

 drone hive, and in five days after I cut out 

 all the queen-cells, and again on the tenth 

 day, and then reverse all the brood-frames, 

 so as to make llieni hopelessly queenless. 

 On the twellth day 1 ^ive them a frame ot 

 fresh eags from tlie breeding queen ; seven 

 days after I cut out all the queen-Cells that 

 aie capped over, and four days after this 1 

 do the .^aine, and form a nucleus colony of 

 them, leaving but one in tlie parent or dione 

 colony. By this system I get strong, vigor- 

 ous queens and drones, that can fly several 

 miles if the queen can go so far; and we 

 have high authority from such as Huber, 

 Dzierzou, Langstrotli, Cook aud Chester, 

 that the queen mates with the drone that 



t^~ The Darke County Bee-Keepers" Soci- 

 ety will hold a basket meeting on the Green- 

 ville Fair Grouude, on Friday. Sept. 7, 1888.. 

 J. A. Roe, Sec. 



ir^~ The North American Bee-Keepers' Society 

 will meet at Columbus, O., on Wednesday, October 

 3, 1S8S, aud continue as usual in session for three 

 days. W. Z. Hutchinson, Sec. 



Bjg^ The Cortland Union Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion will hold their fourth annual picnic at the Flo- 

 ral Trout Ptjnds, in Cortland, N. Y.. on August 30, 

 18S8, Let all bee-keepers and their friends come 

 and hare a good time. W. U. Beach, Sec. 



S^~ The Susquehanna County Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation will meet in tlie Court House at Montrose. 

 Pa., on Saturday. Sept. 8. 1888, at 10 a.m., Sharp. 

 'J'he following subjei;l8 will be considered: Prepar- 

 ing Bees for winter ; Preparing for. and Marketing, 

 Surplus Honey : Does the K.iising of Small Fruit 

 Contlict with Bee-Keeping? AM bee-keepers are 

 cordially invited to attend. H. M. Seeley, Sec. 



Always jVIention your Post-Offlce, 

 County and State when writing to this 

 office. No matter where you may happen 

 to be for the hour when actually wilting- 

 never mention anything but your perma- 

 nent address. To do otherwise leads to 

 confusion, unless you desire your address 

 changed. In that case state the old as well 

 as the new address. 



