JanuaiT, 1915. 



American Hee Journal 



plus honey. Here I add the third box 

 to the pile. 



.'\t this stage of the game the farmer 

 usually gets hold of the boxes and re- 

 peats the lesson to see if he has gotten 

 it right. Then I get his note book or 

 sheet of paper and write out for him a 

 calendar for a year's work in his api- 

 ary, cutting everything down to the 

 least possible effort. Here it is : 



About April 1, on a warm day, clean 

 the bottom-boards. 



May 1, put on a second brood-cham- 

 ber to ! ive the queen room. 



June 21, put on a super for the honey 

 flow. 



When needed, put on a super for the 

 honey flow. 



.August 1, in the clover district, ex- 

 tract. 



September 1, in the fireweed district, 

 extract. 



September 1, see that the bees have 

 six full combs of honey to winter on. 



My readers will notice that I do not 

 ask for an examination of frames, for 

 the cutting out of queen-cells or any- 

 thing of that nature, all of which are 

 supposed to be necessary for success- 

 ful beekeeping, and so frequently scare 



the beginner. I merely ask him to add 

 on and then take off. Now, luckily for 

 me, in my territory we have a long 

 building up season. The first pollen is 

 carried in about March 1(1, and not in- 

 frequently it is the beginning of July 

 before the honey flow starts, so we 

 have four months for the bees to get 

 strong in. The system I have planned 

 so far has worked admirably, and prac- 

 tically has stopped all swarming, also 

 it results in .50 or more pounds of 

 honey to the colony. Its simplicity 

 just suits the farmer who is working 

 hard long hours, and some day after 

 the midday meal he will put on the 

 needed story. 



Generally speaking, all he wants from 

 his half-dozen colonies is about 50 

 pounds of honey,justenoughfor family 

 consumption, so he is apt to be rather 

 startled when he gets the amount from 

 each hive. Somehow he does not rea- 

 lize that it is a farm product to be sold, 

 so he donates his surplus to his neigh- 

 bors, beaming all the while as he talks 

 of his good luck. It is all so delight- 

 fully primitive that I almost hate my- 

 self when I butt in and recommend 

 turning the crop into cash. 



Victoria, B. C. 



Convention ^ Proceedings 



The Iowa State Meeting 



The meeting at Ames was less nu- 

 merously attended than the meeting at 

 Des Moines last year, about To to 80 

 beekeepers being present. This is due 

 evidently to the short crop of 1914. 

 But it was very enthusiastic. 



This was my first visit at Ames. I 

 was very much impressed by the mag- 

 nitude of the institution and the thor- 

 oughness of the departments which I 

 visited. The botanist, Dr. Pammel, 

 now well-known to our readers. Prof. 

 Bartholomew and Prof. L. A. Kenoyer, 

 entomologist were all present at the 

 convention and gave conferences on 

 their respective branches. Dr. Pam- 

 mel is making a special study of the 

 honey-producing plants of Iowa, and 

 Prof. Kenoyer spoke of the ditTerent 

 pollen and honey-gathering insects, 

 illustrating his speech with samples of 

 some of the numerous hymenopters 

 that visit flowers. 



It is impossible to give mention of 

 all the addresses and discussions. 

 Professor Bartholomew gave a dem- 

 onstration of the bee, with enlarged 

 illustrations. But this was before my 

 arrival, and I regretted very much not 

 having been present. 



Dr. Phillips, of the Washington Bu- 

 reau of Entomology, spoke at length 

 on the temperature of the cluster in 

 winter and the effect of greater or less 

 moisture in cellar wintering. Pro- 

 fessor Gates, of Massachusetts, spoke 

 of the influence of bees on flower ferti- 

 lization. 



Practical demonstrations were made 

 of folding sections and inserting foun- 



dation in them. The first was by F. W. 

 Hall, who uses a contrivance of his 

 own somewhat similar to the Rauch- 

 fuss fastener. He did speedy work. 

 When Mr. L. D. Leonard, secretary of 

 the Minnesota Association came in his 

 turn to show how to use the split sec- 

 tions and insert the entire sheet of 

 foundation into four sections at once, 

 his method was thought the best. The 



use of split sections enables the bee- 

 keeper to secure the foundation on 

 three sides, and I know by experience 

 that sections filled in this manner are 

 always more compactly filled and less 

 liable to have the comb break out in 

 shipping than any others. This method 

 was originally devised in England. It 

 is used by some noted beekeepers in 

 America, among whom I will name 

 Aaron Coppin, of Illinois, who always 

 has the very finest honey on exhibit at 

 the State Fair. 



But when Mr. Pangburn came for- 

 ward with his method of fastening 

 foundation with a little hand tool, he 

 was thought to have perhaps the quick- 

 est way of all. 



The foulbrood question was dis- 

 cussed. It is more and more apparent 

 that European foulbrood can best be 

 overcome by the introduction of pure 

 Italian queens. 



On queen introduction, J. W. Snyder 

 stated that he was most successful by 

 the cage method. But he first catches 

 the old queen and places her within 

 the hive in the cage intended to be 

 used for the new queen. After a few 

 hours he removes her and puts the new 

 queen in her place, without any attend- 

 ants. His theory is that the odor of 

 the old queen being left in the cage, 

 the new queen is more likely to be 

 accepted by the mingling of their 

 odors. It is quite plausible. 



The election of officers resulted as 

 follows: President, C. E. Bartholo- 

 mew, of Ames; Vice-President, Mr. 

 Bleasdale ; Secretary-Treasurer, S. W. 

 Snyder, Center Point. Directors, W. 

 S. Pangburn, Center Junction ; J. W. 

 Stine, Salem ; A. P. Chamberlin, Des 

 Moines. 



There were present from Minneap- 

 olis, P. J. Doll, Dr. L. D. Leonard, al- 

 ready mentioned, and Prof. F. Jager, 

 Professor of Apiculture of the Univer- 

 sity of Minnesota, who gave very in- 

 teresting addresses. 



State meetings should be better at- 



MEMBERS IX ATTENDANCE AT THE IOWA MEETING A I AMES IN DECEMBER 



