REPORTS OF BEE-KEEPERS.

C. P. Dadant, of Hamilton—Number of colonies, 350; increase, 30; honey produced, 400 pounds of honey-dew and 500 pounds of Spanish-needle honey. Bees in good condition for winter, packed out-of-doors.

Geo. Poindexter, of Kenney—Number of colonies, 90; increase, 3. Amount of honey obtained, 2,000 pounds of clover, and 800 pounds of extracted fall honey. Bees wintered in the cellar, and are in good condition now. He clips the queen’s wings to prevent swarming, and believes in ventilation to induce the bees to work in the supers.

A. N. Draper, of Upper Alton, had about 300 colonies in the spring, and sold 60 colonies, with no increase during the season. He had about enough honey to winter the bees out-of-doors, packed in forest leaves. His bees are kept in four apiaries. He says that white clover was a failure this year. He prevents swarming by having large hives, and plenty of ventilation. He harvested the most honey from asparagus, of which there are a hundred acres in the neighborhood. This honey is of poor quality.

Chas. Becker, of Pleasant Plains, had 53 colonies in the spring, and increased to 62. He took about 700 pounds of honey. The bees are in good condition for winter. He grows small fruit in connection with bee-keeping. For extracting he uses three sets of full frames—supers full of comb to each hive. Induces the bees to go into the supers by placing partly-filled sections in the middle of the supers. He raises the hives from the bottom-board during the swarming season, and thinks it prevents swarming, and induces the bees to work in the supers.

J. Q. Smith, of Lincoln, had 53 colonies in the Spring. Increase 23. He had no honey until August, except honey-dew, which he fed to the young swarms. In the latter part of August he got 1,800 pounds of fair fall honey, principally heart’s-ease and sweet clover, with Spanish-needle at the last. He wintered his bees on the summer stands, packing the top with leaves, and no protection on the sides.

Geo. F. Robbins, of Mechanicsburg, had 60 colonies, spring count, and increased to 80. He produced 1,100 pounds of honey, half comb and half extracted. There was some honey-dew, and the balance heart’s-ease and Spanish-needle. Bees are in good condition for wintering out-of-doors. He covers the brood-frames for winter with honey-boards made of cheap lumber and burlap, with chaff or leaves above. He covers some of the smaller hives with larger ones, and fills the space with leaves.

Mr. Black asked Mr. Dadant if spring stimulating paid. Answer—If properly done, it may pay. He used to practice it when they did their own work, but quit it when they began to hire. Mr. Dadant thought that bees wintered, and also went through the spring, better in the sun than in the shade. He thinks the chaff hive a failure.

C. M. Beall, of Clayton, had 10 colonies in the spring, and no increase. He had no honey except 150 pounds of honey-dew. The bees were in good condition for wintering in the cellar. He has no winter loss in the cellar.

J. M. Hambaugh, of Spring, had 115 colonies in the spring, and increased to 120. He produced 1,000 pounds of extracted—half honey-dew and clover mixed, the balance Spanish-needle of superior quality. His bees were in good condition for wintering, partly in the cellar and partly on the summer stands. He removes the honey-board for cellar wintering and replaces it with a ventilator, giving air at the top.

S. N. Black, of Clayton, had 37 colonies in the spring, and 44 now. He produced 150 pounds of mainly white clover, buckwheat and heart’s-ease honey. Bees were in fair condition for wintering. He has but little loss either in cellar or out-door wintering. He expected to put them into the cellar this winter.

On motion by A. N. Draper, Article 5 of the By-Laws was amended, changing the words “Upon the Executive Committee,” to “Upon an order signed by the President, and countersigned by the Secretary.” Carried by a two-thirds vote.

The convention then adjourned sine die.

Jas. A. Stone, Sec.

“A Modern Bee-Farm and Its Economic Management,” is the title of a splendid book on practical bee-culture, by Mr. S. Simmins, of England. It is 5¾ × 8½ inches in size, and contains 270 pages, nicely illustrated, and bound in cloth. It shows “how bees may be cultivated as a means of livelihood; as a health-giving pursuit; and as a source of recreation to the busy man.” It also illustrates how profits may be “made certain by growing crops yielding the most honey, having also other uses; and by judgment in breeding a good working strain of bees.” Price, postpaid, from this office, $1.00; or clubbed with the Bee Journal for one year, for $1.60.

RANDoM STINGS
From “The Stinger.”

Only a bee!
Only a bee, as it flew through the air,
And tried to hum the sweet elfin air.

Only a bee!
Only a bee, and yet when it stings,
The air with loud cries of pain loudly rings.

Only a boy!
Only a boy, on mischief bent,
Only a boy who was not content.

Only a grave!
Only a grave on yonder hill,
Contains a corpse both cold and still.

The man who wrote that “poem” must have thought himself funny; to The Stinger he was a—I don’t think I shall say fool this time, but I hope the next time he tries his hand at rhyming, he will give us something with more sense in it. No bee has yet driven a boy into an untimely grave; the boy of these times cannot be killed so easily as the writer of the above lines would seem to imply.

However, The Stinger would say to all boys bent on teasing the bees: Keep away from the dear little insects until after they are fed, or they might hurt you.

In casually looking through the November number of the Review, I saw the name of Mr. H. A. Burch mentioned along with that of James Heddon. I remember the time when the name of Mr. Burch figured quite prominently in the pages of our bee-papers. It was he, I believe, who used to furnish the delightful series of “Walks and Talks” for the earlier volumes of the old Bee-Keepers’ Magazine.

These “Walks and Talks,” with some other articles that appeared in the Magazine, gave it a tone that I do not find in any of the bee-publications of this later day, I am sorry to say. It seems, that although we have some very good writers on apiculture pure and simple, still we have none of those classic writers of a number of years ago. My taste may be somewhat vitiated, and I am unable to recognize the beauty of style of the leaders in apicultural literature of the present time.

If I remember correctly, it was the same James Heddon that I just referred to, that found fault with the writings of “those literary fellows.” Yet it is this same critic who has secured no less a writer than the Mr. Burch I have mentioned above, to as *sist him in building up his (Heddon’s) newspaper. While complimenting Mr. H. on his good taste in securing such an eminent writer as Mr. Burch, I must say that he was a little too severe on a class of writers who did much to make apiculture what it is to-day.

It was such “literary fellows” as Langstroth and others who did much to give us some books on bees that rank high as literary productions.

I am inclined to think that Mr. Heddon did not really intend to cast any reflection on writers like those I have been mentioning, but he wanted to head of such writers as the Rambler and the Somnambulist. It was these, and nothing more!

The Stinger is not very well disposed toward those people who have the running of the Agricultural Experiment Stations in the United States. He believes that these Stations are, in the majority of cases, managed by persons who are not in all cases fitted for the places they are assigned to. There is a good deal of humbuggery about these matters; it is too often that they are used to give some political fellow a berth where he can draw down a good salary.

What I would like to see, is some way of making these Stations more useful than they now are. Not all the men who are in charge of them are competent to fulfil the duties assigned them.

A correspondent writes saying he was in hopes The Stinger would be put into winter quarters and not taken out again until the spring. The Stinger thanks the aforesaid correspondent, and would say that he regrets that the witless correspondent did not sign his name to the letter, that I might pay my respects to him in a way that would make him sorry for his impertinence.

The Stinger is not the kind of a bear that has to seek some den during the winter months; nor is he exactly like the bee that has the misfortune of living in a cold clime. The Stinger is out every day in the year, and if he does not come your way often, do not feel you have escaped a pestilence. It is generally the man with a guilty conscience that fears to have his misdeeds ventilated.

A correspondent has written me to know what he should do with his surplus honey. The way I do when there is any surplus honey in our house, after we have brought home a jar of honey, and it is not all consumed at the first meal, is to put it aside until the next meal, when the surplus will surely disappear.

Never kick a hive of bees when you are down; wait until you are up and can run away.

Why is killing bees like a confession? Because you unbuzz ’em.—Ex.

OUR
Letter Box

REPORTS PROSPECTS &c.

☞ Do not write anything for publication on the same sheet of paper with business matters, unless it can be torn apart without interfering with either part of the letter.