We intended to give a brief history of the opposition to the meeting of the National Convention of Bee-keepers at Indianapolis, showing when and where it originated, and what were the obvious motives and objects of those most active in the business. But as it appears to be a “fixed fact” now that the Convention will be held at the time and placed designated, we shall save ourselves the trouble of hunting up musty records in the limbs of things forgotten.
👉 Since the above was put in type we have learned incidentally that it was resolved at Utica by the N. E. Bee-keepers Association to hold another Convention elsewhere, though particulars have not reached us. We sincerely regret this proceeding on various accounts.
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE BEE JOURNAL.
Trenton, Ills., Sept. 12, 1870.—The forepart of this season I think was the poorest I ever saw in this neighborhood. Last winter was a very warm and open one, and the bees dwindled down very much, so that nearly all stocks were quite weak before spring. Then we had a severe snow storm on the 17th of April, with two or three freezing nights, that killed nearly all the peach blossoms; and this was followed by a period of cold high winds through May. The first two weeks of June there was cloudy, drizzling, chilly weather, so that bees could not fly more than about half the time. The consequence of all this was, late swarms and very few of them. Not more than one-sixth of the stocks swarmed, and many of the latest of them starved. It was very dry from the middle of June to the 13th of August. Then, for a week, it rained nearly every day; at the end of which some of my hives had not more than a pound of honey remaining. Since that time they have been doing very well. Most of my hives were filled up, so that they commenced working in the surplus boxes about the middle of last week, and some of them have now as much as fifteen pounds in the boxes.
I would like Novice to tell us how he gets his board and frame into the top of his hive, if his hives are all of one size. I have a few of the two-story hives made by the National Bee-hive Company at St. Charles, Illinois, and I cannot get a frame into the top story in any other way than perpendicular, as the top bar of the frame is longer than the inside of the hive. I have tried one to see how it would work.—C. T. Smith.
Dowagiac, Mich., Sept. 12—We have had just half a surplus honey harvest, here, this season. Since I have been in the bee business, I have learned that the surplus harvest depends entirely upon the clover and basswood blossoms, in this vicinity; which is probably the case all over the State. When we have a wet season clover fails, but basswood produces well; and when a dry season, vice versa. Reverses from abundance to starvation take place within a few miles of each other. I am located now in the midst of clover and basswood, together with the best spring and fall pasturage I have ever seen. After losing seven-eighths of my bees last winter, you can easily guess the condition of the remaining six colonies. Four of them were merely skeletons, and the other two very inferior stocks. Yet, with the aid of a three cent feeder of my own invention, (which works to perfection,) and one and a fourth dollar’s worth of sugar, I have succeeded in marketing five hundred and twenty-three (523) pounds of box honey; and with the aid of old combs have increased my stock to twenty-two (22) colonies, all strong and heavy—too heavy I fear, for their own good; and I have as yet no emptying machine. This, I think, is doing very well (see Langstroth’s “Hive and Honey Bee,” page 177) for a bee-keeper of only two years’ experience.—I came near forgetting to mention that I have Italianized all my new stocks. I use top-bar hives mostly. Am using four or five frame hives on the sly!—J. Heddon.
Winchester, Iowa, Sept. 13.—The season of 1870 has not been any of the best here, nor of the poorest either, as swarming and honey gathering has been moderately good. The American Bee Journal well deserves the support of bee-keepers.—I. N. Walter.
Rochelle, Ills., Sept. 17.—This has been the poorest season that we have had here for some years. I got only five new swarms from forty stands, and merely one hundred pounds of honey. Since the buckwheat came into blossom the bees have done well. They will average about fifty pounds to the stand; and that is doing very well, in such a year as this has been. Alsike clover is now in blossom, and the bees are working very busily on it.—R. Miller.