168 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar 



the hooey by selling it at two cents less a pound by 

 weig-ht, and taking trade for it. 1 think they are 

 the ugliest bees I ever saw or had any thing to do 

 with, out of the honey season. You can not look at 

 their hive at that time but that they will come for 

 you. G.J. Bkoadbent. 



Factoryville, Pa., Feb. 15. 



Your experience tallies very closely with 

 a couple of queens we tested last season. 

 Still, the majority of the Carniolan queens 

 may be better. 



THE TVISCONSIN STATE BEE-KEEP- 

 ERS' ASSOCIATION. 



HELD IN MADISON, WIS., FEB. 5, 1890. 



It has been for some years the custom of 

 our Wisconsin friends to have a session of 

 only one day. Another year, however, they 

 propose to devote two days to it. Our 

 friends will recognize many of the officers, 

 from the mention I gave during my visit to 

 Wisconsin last July. The president, C. A. 

 Hatch, was unfortunately attacked by the 

 grippe just as he arrived at Madison the 

 evening before. He, however, stayed with 

 us most of the time, although he looked so 

 pale and sick that we all felt sorry for him. 

 The president's address covered quite thor- 

 oughly the whole ground of bee-keeping. 

 One especial point he brought out was, 



BEES DEAD AND DYING AROUND ON THE 

 GROUND DURING THE MONTH OF JUNE. 



Considerable discussion arose in regard to 

 the matter of dead and dying bees that were 

 found around the apiary during the opening 

 of the white-clover bloom last June. This 

 phenomenon seems to have appeared about 

 the same time in a great number of apiaries, 

 north, south, east, and west. Various sug- 

 gestions were offered as to the cause ; but 

 when we all got through, 1 believe the tes- 

 timony was the strongest in the line that 

 lack of food was the cause, and that they 

 either came so near starvation as to crawl 

 out of the hive in a helpless state, or that 

 the brood had lacked food in some stage of 

 its growth, so as to weaken the vitality of 

 the young bees. Several of the friends 

 thought this could not be possible ; but so 

 much testimony was given of finding hives 

 without a drop of honey, that it seemed to 

 be the most reasonable explanation. I re- 

 member that, some years ago, during the 

 month of June, when our bees were rearing 

 a tremendous sight of brood, I would often 

 find hives in the morning without a cellful 

 of honey to be found. Before night, how- 

 ever, the combs would be apparently pretty 

 well filled ; that is, more or less honey would 

 be seen sparkling in nearly every empty cell. 

 The quantity of brood was so large, howev- 

 er, that it "was all consumed during the 

 night ; and when morning came, again not a 

 cellful could be found. 



CARNIOLANS. 



Rev. T. E. Turner read quite a lengthy ar- 

 ticle in regard to the Carniolans. My im- 

 pression was, some time before he got 

 through, that he was giving them very much 

 more credit than they deserved. When he 

 wound up by claiming that they could be 



handled at all times and under all circum- 

 stances, without veil or smoker, I felt sure 

 that somebody would reply. The reply came 

 from the vice-president, Rev. Mr. Winters. 

 He narrated, in a comical way, the tremen- 

 dous amount of trouble in the way of sting- 

 ing he had with some Carniolans that came 

 from the writer of the above article. Mr. 

 Turner explained that the bees in question 

 were not full-blood Carniolans, but only hy- 

 brids. In reply to a question he said the 

 hybrid Carniolans were the worst bees to 

 sting we have. In his paper he admitted 

 that more or less yellow bands were found 

 among the Carniolans ; whereupon some- 

 body asked how he could tell by the mark- 

 ings which queens were pure and which 

 were hybrid. lie replied that nobody could 

 tell any thing about their purity by their 

 markings. This created considerable mer- 

 riment. On further questioning he said the 

 only test was their temper; and I believe 

 that this seems to be one of the most fatal 

 objections to the Carniolans. Unless we 

 import a queen for every hive in the apiary, 

 we can have no assurance that our bees are 

 pure. Our readers are perhaps aware that 

 we have been testing Carniolans ever since 

 they came to our country, and we never 

 have been sufficiently well satisfied with any 

 of them to think of offering them for sale. 

 The greatest fault we have with them, how- 

 ever, is that they are not good honey-gath- 

 erers. See the preceding article. 



We were all very sorry to find that Mrs. 

 W. J. Pickard, and also our good friend 

 E. France, were both unable to be present. 



S. I. Freeborn's excellent paper on over- 

 stocking will be found elsewhere in this 

 issue. 



In regard to the social and humorous part 

 of the convention, our friends in Wisconsin 

 are not one whit behind those in Michigan 

 and other States in good nature. Quite a 

 few of the bee-men of Wisconsin are old- 

 countrymen ; but their genial good nature 

 and readiness to joke with each other put 

 us all in the best of spirits very soon. Dr. 

 Miller said he was not feeling very well 

 when he came in ; but he laughed so hearti- 

 ly that it shook out the headache and every 

 thing else ; and even the parting twinges of 

 the grippe that still clung to him had to 

 give way and let go in the presence of so 

 much merriment. I laughed so much sev- 

 eral times that I really felt sore. 



It was certainly a pleasure to see and talk 

 with, face to face, the three Franks who 

 were judges of the honey-exhibit — Frank 

 McNay, Frank Wilcox, and Frank Minnick. 

 Our good friend Dr. J. W. Vance also, be- 

 sides being secretary, contributed largely to 

 the interest and profit of the occasion. F. L. 

 Snyder, whom I have mentioned several 

 times before, was also present ; but he did 

 not get over his bashfulness so as to talk 

 very much to us during the convention. Mr. 

 B. Taylor, of Forestville, Minn., contributed 

 a good deal to the meeting. He brought a 

 model of his bee-hive, which he has had in 

 use for 25 years or more. He calls it the 

 "Handy" hive. Fully 25 years ago he 

 formed the idea of having the surplus 

 apartment exactly like the brood-apartment 



