July 21, 1904. 



THt AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



501 



hive on the new swarm, and practices tiering up. He puts 

 the empty super under the partly filled one during tlie 

 height of the honey-flow, but on top at the close of the flow. 



Mr. Smith produced comb honey last season from bees 

 he' bought, and secured the most honey with plain sections 

 and fence separators. 



Mr. Wood discarded everything three years ago for 

 plain sections and fences. He uses sections 4x5x1 '2, 3;'sx5, 

 and 4'4x4,'4Xl,'2. He prefers the fence lengthwise of the 

 hive. 



Mr. Hunt says t.hat trade has been growing very much 

 in favor of plain sections, but he now sells more of the 

 4'4x4'4sl"s slotted than the plain. 



C. M. Davenport finds it more profitable to produce 

 comb than extracted honey, and favors plain sections, as 

 he gets 16 cents for honey in plain to 13 for it in the bee- 

 way sections. 



Mr. Wood finds more finished sections with the fence 

 separator. 



Mr. Soper has customers complain of the posts coming 

 off of the fence separators, and asked if that is the rule. 



Mr. Griggs has no trouble if they are dry. He removes 

 the separator with a knife. 



Mr. Wilson has no trouble with the posts coming ofl^, 

 and prefers the 4'4 plain to the 4x5. He wouldn't use bee- 

 way sections. 



Mr. Woodman has sold more 4'4x4'4XlJs bee-way sec- 

 tions than any other kind, although the sale of plain sec- 

 tions is on the increase. He would prefer the 4 '4 bee-way. 

 He found more fancy honey in 4 '4 than in the plain. 



Mr. Hutchinson said a man in New York, in cleaning 

 sections, had some coarse wire-cloth stretched on 2x4 pieces, 

 and rubbed the sections on this cloth for cleaning. 



C. W. Dansforth asked why so many produce extracted 

 honey. He prefers comb honey. 



Mr. Black wanted to hear from those who produce both. 



Mr. Chapman started 20 years ago producing comb 

 honey, but soon found he could get in his locality 5 or 6 

 pounds of extracted to one of comb, because the nights are 

 so cold that bees can't work in the supers to advantage. 

 Location makes a big difference. 



Mr. Ludington has kept bees 30 years, and prefers ex- 

 tracted. His best yield of comb honey was 140 pounds, 

 while his best yield of extracted was 360 pounds from one 

 colony. His average yield per colony is ISO pounds of ex- 

 tracted. 



Mr. Leach thinks that location plays a big part. If 

 located near market, comb honey is preferable, while if it 

 must be shipped far extracted honey is more profitable. He 

 now prefers to extract what he has to ship. 



Mr. Wood prefers to produce extracted. He has pro- 

 duced both, but will run exclusively for extracted in the 

 future. He can sell extracted at 13 cents to comb at 16 

 cents. He prevents swarming by placing a frame of un- 

 sealed brood in a hive filled up with empty combs, then 

 puts on a hive of empty combs, and the hive of brood on 

 top. 



Mr. Chapman tried this way, but did not like it. He 

 kills the queens at the beginning of the basswood flow, and 

 the bees fill up the empty cells with honey, thus getting in 

 good condition for winter. 



Mr. Dansforth asked what time is best to put on supers. 



Mr. Griggs said any time the hive becomes crowded, 

 whether the honey-flow has started or not. 



USK OF OUBBN-EXCLUDKRS. 



Qdks. — " When and why would you use queen-excluder?" 



Mr. Chapman uses the queen-excluder for extracted 

 honey. He wants the queen confined to the lower story 

 during the honey-flow. He uses theS-frame hive. 



Mr. Griggs uses queen-excluders when hiving swarms, 

 if the swarm is large. He does not use them on old colo- 

 nies. He produces comb honey. 



Mr Smith said if you wait a short time after hiving a 

 swarm before putting on supers, it is not necessary to use 

 the excluder. 



Mr. Hutchinson said it isn't necessary to use a queen- 

 excluder on the old colony for comb honey, but does on the 

 new swarm. 



BLKCTION OF OFFICERS. 



The election of oSicers resulted in the following being 

 elected : 



President, W. Z. Hutchinson ; Vice-President. E. M. 

 Hunt; Secretary, E. B.Tyrrell, of Davison ; and Treasurer, 

 D . D. Wood. 



The time and place of holding the next meeting was 

 left to the Executive Committee. 



Friday morning there was held a joint session with the 

 fruit-growers. Pres. Hutchinson read the following paper 

 on 



SPECIALTY VS. MIXED BEE-KEEPINQ. 



Time was when many of the industries were represented 

 in one family. Flax and wool were grown, spun and made 

 into cloth and worked up into clothing. Cows were kept, 

 and cheese as well as butter made for home use. Poultry 

 and a few colonies of bees added to the comforts of the 

 household. But there is no need of going into detail ; every 

 one knows how people lived lOl) years ago. 



Cheap and rapid transportation has encouraged the in- 

 vention of machinery, the building of factories, and the 

 classification of labor. This has brought about specialty. 

 No one disputes that this condition of things is better. By 

 it our comforts are more than trebled. Some industries 

 branched out as specialties much sooner than others. Bee- 

 keeping was among the later ones. At least, however, it 

 has become recognized as an industry of itself. 



At present, however, there are farmers who are keeping 

 a few bees — perhaps a good many bees — and apiarists who 

 are managing small farms, perhaps large ones ; there are 

 men engaged in some other occupation who are thinking 

 of taking up bee-keeping, or may have already done so ; 

 and there are bee-keepers asking, " What will best mix 

 with bee-keeping?" 



I have little faith in that old saw about " not having all 

 of the eggs in one basket." / say, yes, have them all in 

 one basket, and then carry that basket so skillfully that 

 none are broken. I know there are trying seasons for spe- 

 cialties in any branch of business ; times when it might be 

 better, in that particular year, if there were more than one 

 egg-basket ; but the specialist does enough better, in the 

 good years, to bring specialty out at the head in the long 

 run. The specialist can have the best tools, appliances, 

 and labor-saving implements — things that the dabbler can't 

 afford. He can do and have many things in a wholesale 

 way that would be unprofitable upon a small scale. Upon 

 this point Mr. R. L. Taylor once wrote : 



" A multiplicity of occupations multiplies the burdens 

 of responsibility, induces unrest and embarrassment, and 

 our powers becoming overtaxed, carelessness, slovenliness, 

 unthrift and failure result. A ' Jack at all trades ' is almost 

 a synonym of a ne'er-do-well. What reason is there for 

 dulling the edge of skill, and sacrificing thoroughness, by 

 combining another business with that of bee-keeping ? Not 

 certainly to fill up time. Bee-keeping as a specialty is no 

 small business. It is capable of great expansion. It can 

 well furnish work for every day in the year, and the larger 

 the business the smaller the proportional expense of the 

 plant and the management, and, consequently, the larger 

 the profits. If bee-keeping is so unprofitable as a specialty 

 that the operator must pursue another business to eke out a 

 living, then it is too unprofitable to be pursued at all, and 

 should be abandoned altogether. If it can be made profit- 

 able as a specialty, with all the advantages that specialty 

 brings, then it can not be made profitable as a subsidiary 

 pursuit. We see this demonstrated in practice. It is not 

 the specialist, but the «o«-specialist, that fails." 



Many professional men take up bee-keeping as a pas- 

 time. With them I can not have any more argument than 

 with the bee-keeper who studies music for pleasure. But 

 upoc a money basis it is a far different thing. When a man 

 is engaged in some pursuit that is capable of absorbing all 

 of his energy and capital, I doubt if he can add to his pleas- 

 ure or his pocket-book by adding some other business to his 

 regular occupation. The bee-keeping specialist, with his 

 hundreds of colonies, his improved hives, appliances and 

 methods, can and does produce honey more cheaply than 

 the man with a few colonies. By specialty is not meant 

 that a man does nothing else, but that it is his main business. 



It is true that there are industries in which there is a 

 mutual advantage in their combination. The fattening of 

 hogs, and the running of a grist-mill, or of a slaughter- 

 house, is an example. The keeping of swine and the rais- 

 ing of apples also brings about a mutual advantage. The 

 swine enrich and " cultivate " the soil, and eat the wormy 

 apples that fall. This is good for the trees, and the apples 

 are good for the hogs. There is no business that can be 

 united with bee-keeping to liny great mutual advantage. 

 There is a slight mutual advantage in the keeping of bees 

 and the raising of fruit. Not small fruit that must be 

 picked when the bees are swarming. There is also some 

 advantage in the raising of alsike clover, or of buckwheat, 

 but not sufficient to warrant a bee-keeper in buying a farm, 

 or a fruit-grower to run an apiary. 



