774 



AMERICAN BEE lOURNAL. 



Dec. 5, lyi 1. 



MATING ()1- yUEENS. 



" In queen-rearing-, are the evils of 

 in-breeding greater to mate father and 

 daughter, or sister and brother ?" 



Dr. Miller — You are asking a ques- 

 tion about which is the worse of two 

 things, either of which is impossible. 

 You cannot breed father and daughter, 

 because the father is dead before any 

 of his children are born. You can not 

 mate sister and brother, for the drone 

 has no sister except his mother. In 

 this matter of breeding it is a matter 

 of close blood you are considering, and 

 whatever you may call them the queen 

 is the daughter of her mother, and also 

 the daughter of the drone with which 

 the mother mated, but the drone is the 

 son of his inother. Now if you say he 

 has any father, it must be his grand- 

 father. He has precisely the same 

 blood as his mother. So when you are 

 considering breeding in cattle the 

 nearest that you can have is between 

 brother and sister : and that near 

 blood in this case is between the drone 

 and his mother, so that if j'ou take it 

 in the sense that you are talking about 

 other animals, the drone is the brother 

 of his mother. 



KED CLOVER QUEENS. 



" Are the progeny of what are adver- 

 tised as red clover queens better honey 

 producers than the progeny of queens 

 reared by other queen-breeders ?" 



Mr. Greiner — I notice that ail queen- 

 breeders today advertise the red clover 

 queens ; none have others. 



LONG-TONGUED- BEES. 



" Are long-tongued bees desirable ?" 

 Mr. Howe- As I sent Mr. Root a bee 

 a while ago, and he sent me back word 

 that she had as long a tongue as any 

 he had measured that year, I would like 

 to tell you the difference between that 

 colony and common colonies. These 

 bees with long tongues gathered honev 

 when my black bees were starving to 

 death. The black bees were really 

 starving, and these bees weren't rob- 

 bing. 



SPELLING REFORM. 



"Is reform spelling desirable in bee- 

 keeping ?" 



Dr. Mason — Yes. 

 Mr. Ahlers— No. 

 Dr. Mason — Desirable everywhere. 



SELECTING A HOME BEFORE SWARMING. 



" Do bees ever select a home before 

 swarming ?" 



Dr. Miller— Yes. 



Mr. Callbreath — Sometimes : not al- 

 ways. 



M.\TING WITH AN IMPURE DRONE. 



"Does a pure-blooded queen become 

 contaminated by mating with an im- 

 pure drone, so that her drone progeny 

 will be impure ?" 



Mr. Cook— No. 



Mr. Benton — I don't think she does, 

 practically. There are some very curi- 

 ous effects, but it seems to me that the 

 question is open to a slight dispute. 

 That is as far as I would go in it. 



Dr. Mason — Now, the queen mates 

 witli the drone and secures what semi- 

 nal fluid she wants for life, does she 

 not ? 



Mr. Benton — Supposed to. 



Dr. Mason — Can she keep up that 

 supply without renewing it in anj- way, 



so as to fertilize the thousands upon 

 thousands of eggs that she lays. 



Mr. Benton — I should suppose she 

 might keep up that supply during a 

 fairly long life, but, as we well know, 

 that supply is often exhausted, and the 

 queen is utterly exhausted and lays 

 drone-eggs. 



Dr. Mason-Then she doesn't in any 

 way add to the supply of that seminal 

 fluid from herself — no growth of it 

 at all? 



Mr. Benton— No, I don't think that 

 is possible. 



Dr. Mason — Then, if that is not pos- 

 sible, the progeny can not become con- 

 taminated in any way? 



Mr. Benton -Except by the possibil- 

 ity of her having mated the second 

 time. 



Dr. Mason — Mr. Doolittle thinks 

 that the queen does in some way add 

 to her supply of the seminal fluid, so 

 that she can keep that up ; if she does, 

 then may she not be making that im- 

 pure ? 



Mr. Benton — I don't think impurity 

 comes in that way. It is the presence 

 in the system of this foreign substance 

 — a substance derived from the male 

 bee — which contaminates the blood of 

 the queen-bee, and thereby the drones. 



Dr. Mason — Now, will it do it ? 



Mr. Benton — That is the question 

 that is unsettled. 



BEE SI'ACE OVER BROOD-FKAMES. 



" Why should the top-bar of the 

 brood-frame of the Langstroth hive be 

 below the top of the edge of the hive 

 instead of even with the top ? Is there 

 any advantage in having the bee-space 

 on top of the frames in the brood- 

 chamber, or under the frames, and 

 have the bee-space on the under side 

 of the super ?" 



D. H. Coggshall — In extracting 

 honey it is very essential to have a 

 beespace on top. 



Dr. Mason — There certainly is an 

 advantage in having the bee-space on 

 top instead of the bottom. If there is 

 no bee-space on the bottom, and you 

 set the hive down with bees on the bot- 

 tom of the frames, you are liable to 

 crush them. In my hives I have the 

 top of the frame even with the top of 

 the hive. 



John Fixter — We have both above 

 and below, and I wouldn't have a hive 

 in the yard that didn't have a bee- 

 space above. 



Mr. Betsinger — No hive is perfect 

 bj' omitting a bee-space on top of the 

 frames. If the space is omitted on top 

 of the frames, and the same is added 

 underneath the frames, where you use 

 the two in connection, and when the 

 season is good, and they are somewhat 

 crowded, they will place burr-combs 

 between the lower frames and the 

 frames above. Now, in removing those 

 frames, if the bee space is underneath 

 the hive — not on top — then these burr- 

 combs adhere to the ends. If the bee- 

 space is omitted on top of the brood- 

 chamber, and is put in the super, you 

 are living under the same disadvan- 

 tage — as 3'ou change supers from one 

 hive to another those burr-combs must 

 be removed. 



The convention then adjourned until 

 1:30 p. m. 



THURSDAY AFTERNOON. 



The convention was called to order 

 by Pres. Root. 



CHANGES IN THE CONSTITUTION. 



Mr. Abbott — I have a matter I would 

 like to present, and before I do that I 

 would like to tell the members of this 

 Association something that I think 

 they ought to know. This room is oc- 

 cupied by a great many societies, and 

 the janitor who looks after it said that 

 you had been the cleanest set of people 

 that he ever had anything to do with ; 

 that you didn't smoke, or chew, or 

 make the room dirty, and I thought 

 you ought to know it. You can see 

 that it pays to be decent. I have here 

 a recommendation of the Board of 

 Directors which I wish to read. The 

 directors present at this meeting rec- 

 ommend the following amendment to 

 the constitution : " Art. IV., Sec. 1, to 

 be changed to read as follows : " The 

 officers of this Association shall be a 

 General Manager, a President, a Vice- 

 President, a Secretary, and a Board of 

 twelve directors, whose term of office 

 shall be for four years, or until their 

 successors are elected and qualify, ex- 

 cept as provided in Sec. 2 of this Ar- 

 ticle.' " Now, the change in that Arti- 

 cle is this : The present Article says 

 the Board of Directors shall consist of 

 the General Manager and twelve direc- 

 tors, making the General Manager a 

 member of the Board of Directors. 

 Now, our reason for wanting to make 

 this change is that the General Mana- 

 ger is an employee of the Board of 

 Directors, and we want to make it so 

 that the Board of Directors will control 

 him, and he will not be a member of 

 the Board, and that gives the Board a 

 chance to do what they are empowered 

 to do in the next Article, which I will 

 read. 



Dr. Mason — That simply provides 

 for removing the General Manager 

 from the position of a Director. 



Mr. Abbott— That is all. He con- 

 tinues as secretary of the Board and as 

 General Manager. '• To Sec. 8. of Art. 

 v., add the following: 'And said 

 Board of Directors shall have power to 

 remove from office the General Mana- 

 ger for any cause they may deem suffi- 

 cient, and fill the vacancy' until the 

 next annual election.'" Now, this 

 amendment lias no reference to the 

 General Manager at present. It just 

 provides for a contingency that might 

 arise. It gives the Board power to say 

 to him. We don't like this waj' of do- 

 ing, and we will simply remove you 

 until the next election. And then the 

 members can elect a General Manager 

 just as you have been electing him. 



Moved by Dr. Mason, and seconded 

 by Mr. Benton, that the convention 

 endorse the recommendations made by 

 the Board of Directors. Carried. 



CARNIOL.iN HIVE-ENDS, ETC. 



Mr. Benton then exhibited some 

 front ends of Carniolan hives which 

 he stated had been in use many years, 

 one of them since 1838. He spoke of 

 the effect of the bees clustering in front 

 of them, they making no impression on 

 the board where it was painted, show- 

 ing that thev were unable to grasp 

 smooth surfaces, such as the smooth 

 surface of fruit. He further said : 

 These hives open at the rear end, and 

 in Carniola their plan is to feed highly 

 and stimulate until the time for swarm- 

 ing- comes, and get them in condition 

 for the buckwheat harvest. Probably 



