1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



827 



them, explaining- why their experience with 

 beet sug-ar has not been satisfactory. 



SNAPSHOTS FKOM THE BUFFALO CONVEN- 

 TION. 



As I have already explained in our for- 

 mer issue, this was a very enjoyable and 

 pi-ofitable meeting- ; and, unlike any pre- 

 vious convention, there were no essaj's — no 

 papers of anj' kind. It was just simply 

 live discussion, offhand, bj^ plain practical 

 men who came on purpose to give to and 

 take from their fellow-craftsmen. The g-en- 

 eral subject matter had for its foundation 

 the question-box, and the questions them- 

 selves had been carefullj' prepared by sev- 

 eral prominent bee-keepers, all duplicates 

 being stricken out. Then the members of 

 the convention were invited to send in ques- 

 tions ; and so, taking it all in all, we had 

 plenty of live material froin which to draw. 

 As I was occupied with the duties of the 

 chair, and as I was called out at two of the 

 sessions on committee work, I was not in a 

 position to take notes ; but after the conven- 

 tion was all over I asked my brother Huber, 

 now 18 years old, and who has all at once 

 got the bee-fever, to give me some points 

 from memory. 



"Oh I" said he; "why didn't you tell me 

 that before, so I might have taken notes?" 



But I told him he might write down as 

 much as he could remember of the impor- 

 tant points brought out, and this he has 

 done, notwithstanding he was pressed for 

 time, as he had already entered on his col- 

 lege work for the year. 



HUBER'S REPORT. 



In discussing foul brood it was considered unneces- 

 sary to disinfect the hive-bodies. It was, however, 

 shown later, that, if any honey should be spilled on a 

 foul-broody hive, the disease would be almost sure to 

 break out in the colony whose oees took this spilled 

 honey ; therefore it seemed that it was far safer to 

 disinfect the bodies. A cheap and effective way was 

 spokev of. 1,'ght some coal-oil-soaked rags which 

 have been wound around a stick ; place the body 

 around the flame, and. by revolving it with the hands, 

 every pa- tide of wood can be thoroughly sc:)rched. 

 But Inspector McEvoy. of Canada, insisted that when 

 the hives weie not daubed with honey it was not nec- 

 essary to disinfect them. 



"Carbon bisulphide," the new moth destroyer, was 

 thought to b" much better than sulphur for getting 

 rid of bee-moths fiom old combs hives, supers, etc. 

 Instances were given where a strong and continued 

 application of sulphur utterly failed to kill the big 

 worms and the eegs. A sub.sequent treatment with 

 bisulphide had killed every thing absolutely It was 

 shown that, inasmuch as the fumes of the drug are 

 heavier that common air, the v ssel containing the 

 liquid should be put above the combs, not belo'v; that 

 it was sifer, owing to its expl "sive character, to put 

 the combs to be treated in a large tight box or. better, 

 a tight cupboird suitably constructed outdoors, and 

 then use a sufficient quan ily to do the work thor- 

 oughly. ,S ime of those who had not otitnined satis- 

 factory results had. no doubt, put the bisulphide un- 

 der the combs or had used too little of it 



A majoritv of bee-keepers agreed thit honey was 

 slight'y darkened when taken from old black combs, 

 as compar>d to that taken from n«-w white combs 

 from f^e same colony and in the same season 



On the question. "Are long tongued bees better 

 honey-yath* rers than bees of the ordinary length of 

 tongue ?" every speaker who had had experience 

 .•seemed to "-eel that th'=v were. It was suggested, 

 though, that there was the danger of breeding for 

 long tonjues regardless of any other pood qu^lit'es. 



Most of the speakers favored full sheets of founda- 

 tion in body and super, even for a new swarm. 



A large number of remedies were given for cases of 

 severe stinging. It was shown that, "to giin and 

 bear it" woud not do for some cases, especially chil- 

 dren as. a lemedy that would cure one. mav not 

 an.swer for another ; so a doctor was a good thitig to 

 have when serious Among the remedies suggested 

 was an outward applic<tion of c. al oil, or kerosene. 



In-breeding was thought to be unsafe for a begin- 

 ner ; but Prof Benton said that very good results 

 could be obtained, and that it was perfectly safe to do 

 so if care e taken. 



There was some argument as to whether or not a 

 queen is injured by confinement in the mails. Prof. 

 Benton .said no ; others said yes. It ended up with, 

 "That pr bably a queen will not have been injured 

 by the confinement if she can get through alive. 



Niver's plan for selling extracted honey was, to go 

 from house to house, giving a sample, explaining 

 how the bees make thf honey, wax, etc., showing 

 them a sample of foundation, and of comb. His cu.s- 

 tomers furnished their own fruit-jars, pails, pans, 

 etc., for the hiney he invariablv sold from his big can 

 in a push-cart at the door. Sotiie objected to this on 

 the ground that a busy bee-keeper has no time to go 

 from house to house posting people on the habits of 

 the bees. However that might be, Mr Niver said, 

 after he has once explained in this way he doesn't 

 have to do so again, and has an easy time selling 

 again at each trip to the same house. Some people, 

 he added, would be astonished at the way suppo'edly 

 intelligent pe. pie talk about bees. Show them some 

 things ; prove to them that comb honey can't be man- 

 ufactured : prove to them that your extracted honey 

 was not adulterated. 



The editor of the American Bee Journal 

 employed a stenographer at his own ex- 

 pense. There will be a verbatiin report in 

 the columns of our cotemporary ; and those 

 of our readers who would like to get the 

 full discussion, involving all the good 

 points, the flings and the digs, and the 

 good-natured banter, are referred to the 

 American Bee Journal, a most excellent 

 weekly bee-paper, by the way, and one 

 that Gleanings cheerfully recommends to 

 all — that \&, providing you can afford to 

 take another bee-journal. 



PRICE ON HONEY, AGAIN. 



Since our editorial in October 1st Glean- 

 ings, having the heading, "An Unmitigat- 

 ed Shame," we have received two letters — 

 one from R. A. Burnett & Co., of Chicago, 

 one of the most reliable commission houses 

 in the United States, and another from C. 

 H. Clayton, of Lang, California, producers' 

 agent for the Bee-keepers' Exchange of Cal- 

 ifornia. The first-named writes as follows: 



Mr Root : — -We are a little bit surprised to get a cir- 

 cular letter ftom you of date yesterday, with another 

 enclosure entitled "An Unmitigated Shame; more 

 Mon.strous Tales about the Prices on Honey." There 

 is nothing nowadays better understood than that the 

 newspaper reports, especially these made up from the 

 clippings of other newspapers, are very unreliible; 

 but judging from the information in our possession, 

 the reports that are sent to you by those whom you 

 are having investigate do not agree with those in our 

 possession, which we have reason to believe are ob- 

 tained from sources just as reliable. There have been 

 some veij' large yields per colony in different parts 

 of the country this season, while veiy close to those fa- 

 vored locations there have been some unusually light 

 j'ields ; but in nearly all locations there has been a 

 .••urplus over and above that required for the use of 

 the bees until another season. It is likely that South- 

 ern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois came as close to 

 a failurr as any one section, but up to this writing 

 none of our correspondents claim that thev will need 

 to feed the bees, so that they may have sufficitnt win- 

 ter stores. 



The Eastern States have produced more honey than 

 at any one time during the past five years This cuts 

 out the demand that has been coming from that sec- 

 tion for the -Western honey. There has been this sea- 



