422 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



July 2, 1903. 



who does it, and according' to what time he gives to it pre- 

 vious to the honey-flow. 



Dr. Miller — Give him a chance to spend a year on it and 

 then report. 



^^Mr. Wheeler — I understand we were talking about Chi- 

 cago locality. I don't believe in over 100 colonies in Cook 

 County in one place. 



BLACK LIZARDS AND BEES. 



" Do black lizards, such as are carried in the cellar with 

 potatoes, eat or attack bees in the cellar or out-of-doors ?" 



Mr. Fluegge — I carried six or eight out of my bee-cellar. 

 I put them on the scoop-shovel and threw them out. I 

 think they eat insects. They are very common, and you 

 are sure to find them in potatoes. 



Mr. France — They are harmless as far as the bees are 

 concerned. 



SHALLOW OR DEEP BROOD-FRAMES. 



" Which is the better, a shallow brood- frame or a deep 

 frame?" 



Dr. Miller — Yes, sir. 



Pres. York — Dr. Miller says, "Yes, sir." Does any- 

 body disagree ? 



Mr. Wilcox — I think that question should be amended 

 so as to ask what depth of brood-frame is best. 



Pres. York — I don't think we have a right to amend it. 



Mr. Wilcox — We can not agree on what is shallow or 

 deep. 



HYBRID BEES OR ITALIANS. 



" Is there any advantage in hybrid bees over the pure- 

 blood Italians (hybrids meaning a cross between Italians 

 and black bees) ? 



Dr. Nussle — There is no advantage in hybrids over 

 Italians. 



Dr. Miller — Yes, sir, you are safer from the boys of the 

 neighborhood troubling your bees. 



Dr. Nussle — I never have any boys troubling mine. 



Mr. Clarke — There is an advantage, but lots of disad- 

 vantages. Undoubtedly for comb honey they do a little 

 whiter capping. They leave more of an air-space between 

 the honey and the capping, which causes the honey to look 

 whiter, but there are so many other qualities about them 

 that are objectionable that it is pretty hard to tell. 



Dr. Miller — That runs a good deal by standards. Take 

 a standard of hybrids and they will cap particularly white, 

 and there are many Italians that will cap whiter than the 

 others. I hardly think it fair to take them as a whole, and 

 say that hybrids will cap honey whiter than the others. 



Mr. Clarke— Isn't it a fact the lighter-colored the bee 

 the more the tendencj' to poor capping ? 



Dr. Miller — I should say hardly. 



Mr. Clarke — It has been my experience. I have tried a 

 great many breeds. For that reason, I must say five out of 

 six queens I had to kill. For extracting, some of them I 

 won't dispute but what they are good workers. As a gen- 

 eral thing they run to poor capping. That has been my 

 experience. 



Mr. Stanley — It is all in the strain of the bee. I have 

 had some of the yellow bees put up the whitest and some 

 put up some of the dark. It is all in the strain of the bee, 

 is my experience. 



Dr. Nussle— I understand that is brought about by the 

 capping being very close to the honey, making that appear- 

 ance. The Italians have more tendency to do that than the 

 Carniolans or black bees, or a cross between them. 



TAKING BEES OUT OF THE CELLAR FOR A FLIGHT. 



" Is it advisable to take bees out of the cellar for a flight 

 any time before taking them out for good ?" 



Mr. Baldridge — No. 



Dr. Miller— That is a rule that has been accepted, and 

 we have all given up and felt it was settled, but down at 

 Medina, Ohio, they have unsettled it. That is the trouble 

 with our settling down on something. I know for sure that 

 there is one of the things that can't be. If you take them 

 out and put them back there will be damage. In spite of 

 that Ihey did it at Medina and got along nicely. I am going 

 to try it and see whether they will be all dead the next 

 spring. I am of the opinion that we settled on it prema- 

 turely. Those Medinaites have done it all right. 



Mr. Whitney — Wasn't that an exception to the rule ? 



Dr. Miller— I don't know. 



Dr. Nussle — I don't think you could ever do that suc- 

 cessfully in Wisconsin. We have snow on the ground all 

 winter, and along until it goes off in March or April. It 

 would never do when it is ever so warm with snow on the 

 ground. 



Dr. Miller — Well, that might be true there. The condi- 

 tions here and as far south as Ohio will give you plenty of 

 times when there is no snow on the ground at all. This is 

 perhaps a very important thing to find out about. If it is 

 a fact that in the middle of winter they took them out and 

 let them take a flight, and they are not the worse for that, 

 then it is worth while for all to know it. It might be well 

 for a number of us to try that thing this winter, particu- 

 larly where the ground is not covered with snow. 



Dr. Nussle — Ought it to be warm, about 60 degrees ? 



Dr. Miller — A day when it is about 60, and dry, and see 

 whether they come out better or worse. Here is what we 

 have done. I don't know just how much was tried in the 

 first place, but it was given out as a law, and we all accepted 

 it, that we must not take out any bees until we took them 

 out for good, and for years we have acted upon it. Suppose 

 we try that, and see if they come out as they did at Medina. 



Mr. Horstmann — I moved out my bees early last spring, 

 and we had a cold-spell and I put them back and set them 

 out a second time, and it did them lots of good, and the small 

 colonies came out splendidly in the spring, and built up 

 good and strong. I believe the reason was that I put them 

 back and got them out again when the weather was more 

 settled. I think I have lost very few bees by doing that, 

 and I would have lost a good deal more on account of un- 

 easiness. They seemed to be very quiet, and they remained 

 quiet. 



Mr. Wilcox — I have too many bees myself to carry them 

 out and in. I have neighbors who, under my advice, have 

 done it with two or three colonies and succeeded. I advised 

 them not to carry them out until the first of March, but if 

 it comes warm enough for them to fly early in March be 

 sure and place on the stand early in the morning, and not 

 let them out more than one day, and the next time out place 

 again on the same stand, so as not to keep them continually 

 mixing up. As soon as they get a flight, bees commence 

 breeding. My own bees are not carried out until the first of 

 April. It is true of my bees, after they commence breeding, 

 I don't want them to remain in winter quarters for three or 

 four weeks. 



(Continued next week. } 





Contributed Articles 





Co-Operation Among Fruit-Growers, Etc. 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 



I HAVE kept the readers of the American Bee Journal in- 

 formed regarding combination among citrus fruit-grow- 

 ers of California. It will be remembered that in 1893, 

 with only a few thousand car-loads of fruit, the market had 

 become demoralized, so that many orchardists found at the 

 end of the season they had really lost on their fruit. 

 The amount actually received for the sale of fruits was less 

 than the expense of marketing. Many fruit-growers were 

 entirely discouraged, and all felt that something radical 

 must be done at once. This led to the organization of 

 Southern California Fruit Exchange. A large number of 

 the growers joined this Association, and I have previously 

 explained its workings. It really saved the fruit industry 

 of Southern California. 



Since that time the Exchange has done better for its 

 members than has any commission man or any other organ- 

 ization of citrus growers. Yet, strange as it may seem, 

 hardly half of the fruit has ever been marketed by the Ex- 

 change. Indeed, the commission men, in the aggregate, 

 have done just as much in the last few j'ears as the Ex- 

 change, each doing about 44 percent of the marketing. The 

 balance of the fruit was sold by individuals who were in no 

 organization. These latter were usually very largely pro- 

 ducers who had special advantage from a very wide busi- 

 ness acquaintance in the East. Often these men had pre- 

 viously done business either in New York or Chicago, and 

 thus had exceptional acquaintance and advantage. 



The present season has been an unfavorable one. The 

 weather has been very cool and thus the fruit was slow to 

 ripen, and has not had the sweetness for which California 

 fruit has previously been famed. The low prices and the 

 fact that there was no single selling agency has been a 



