Oct. 15, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



661 



On returning: to the home of luir cousin, Mrs. Otto Freeman, nftui- 

 the evening service, we were (iiiite ready to retire and gel a gooil rest 

 for the following day, which was to be the last of our stay in " Sunset 

 Land." 



Next week we will give the last installment of these rambling 

 notes. It will be Pasadena and homeward bound. Both delightful 

 to contemplate. 



Herbert CLrxs, a bee-keeper in Chippewa Co., Wis., reports a 

 crop of 37,000 pounds of extracted honey taken from 333 colonies the 

 past season. 



Herman L. Gloege, of Green Co., Wis., called on us last week. 

 He reported 112 colonies, and a harvest of about 4500 pounds of 

 honey, mostly comb. 



A " FowIj '' Bee-Man. — We notice that one of the foul-brood 

 inspector? has envelopes and letterheads with " Fowl Brood Inspector " 

 printed on them. That's pretty rich. First thing that inspector 

 knows he'll be taken for a " chicken-lifter."' 



Mr. Hasty has a very just complaint against the proof-reader. 

 On page 633, he wrote about the bee nourishing her liguhi, and we got 

 it, "flourish her liquid." He wants to know what we think about 

 that. Well, we think it was a bad break on the part of this paper. 

 The promise is to try to do better in the future — it forgiven this time ! 



General Manager N. E. France reports as follows on the 

 present membership of the National Bee-Keepers' Association: 



990 members enrolled when he took hold less than a year ago. 



569 new members enrolled during his term thus far, or an aver- 

 age increase of SI members per month. 



1559 was the total enrollment Oct. 5, 1903. 



irs memberships at that time had expired, and should be renewed 

 at once. 



We consider the foregoing an excellent membership report. The 

 increase has been very encouraging, indeed. But there should easily 

 be enrolled a membership of 2000 before the next annual meeting of 

 the National. Why not? 



N. E. France, the well-known inspector of apiaries for Wiscon- 

 sin, has lately been out on his inspection work, concerning which a 

 local newspaper in Clark County had this to say : 



N. E. France, who has been in this vicinity recently, reports that 

 honey-producers in this part of the State are selling their extracted 

 honey at a lower figure than they need to do, many of them letting it 

 go at 6 cents, when they might have at least 7 cents. The crop in 

 Wisconsin this year is estimated at 3,000,000 pounds, which would 

 take 150 freight-cars to move it. Mr. France was here the last of 

 •July and found foul brood prevalent to a considerable extent. He 

 gave instructions for treating these affected colonies, and in one in- 

 stance tried the experiment which has been widely recommended in 

 bee-papers, of using formalin' gas. He found on this last visit that 

 all colonies were free of disease except the ones treated with the for- 

 malin gas, some of the combs still being affected. This yard is quar- 

 antined until spring, when Mr. France will be back and personally 

 treat the disease. 



Mr. France writes us that the experiment mentioned above was 

 with 200 combs, all being fumigated with formalin gas, using double 

 Weber's amount of gas or formalin, Weber's lamp, etc. All were 

 afterward put in clean hives, and bees put on them. Every colony be- 

 came re-diseased. 



Wisconsin Bears still like honey, if we may judge from the fol 

 lowing taken from a recent copy of a Greenwood, Clark Co., news- 

 paper : 



Bears are getting rather numerous around bee-yards in this sec- 

 tion. Nearly a couple of weeks atro a bear visited M. H. Wright's api- 

 ary on the Eau Claire river three different times, and was shot at by 

 the owner without success, on account of the darkness. Finally, .VIr. 

 Wright got near enough to Mr. Bruin to see him cuff the lops from 

 the hives and take out a section of honey, and when he stood up to 

 eat it, he was enabled to get a line on him by lying on the ground, so 

 as to get the bear between himself and the sky line. 



At Severson's Popple river apiary a bear, or bears, have broken 

 into a dozen or more hives, and some of them have been cotnpleteiy 

 demolished. So far the mischief-makers are at large, they doing their 

 work at night when it is hard to see them to get a shot at them. 



So it seems that Wisconsin is still on the frontier, and wild game 

 abounds. We supposed that Sir Bruin had passed on from Wiscon- 

 sin, but he seems to get around in time to help unload the honey from 

 the hives. But Mr. Wright got some of Mr. Bear's tenderloin, all 

 right. L Wonder how it tastes when made out of honey: Ought to lie 

 doubly sweet and palatable. 



[ Convention Proceedings ) 



THE LOS ANGELES CONVENTION. 



Report of the Proceeding's of the 34th Annual 



Meeting- of the National Bee-Keepers' 



Association, Held at Los Angeles, 



Calif., Aug-. 18, 19 and 20, 



1903. 



Continued from page 648.) 



Dr. Miller — Before that question about the queens is 

 entirely passed, I would like to ask a question. Suppose, 

 Mr. Mclatyre, that you had a hybrid queen and the colony 

 gave you an exceptional yield, away beyond anything else 

 in your apiary and you never expected to sell a queen in your 

 life, would you breed from that queen ? 



Mr. Mclntyre — That is a pretty hard one, Doctor. I can 

 answer that in Dr. Miller's own language — " I don't know." 

 [Laughter.] 



Mr. Hyde — We have with us another extracted-honey 

 producer, Mr. Dadant, and I am sure we would all like to 

 hear from him. 



C. P. Dadant — I feel like saying something in regard 

 to the cold knife. We have tried both the cold and hot 

 knife, and have stayed by the cold knife. There are times, 

 however, when it is impossible to uncap honey with a cold 

 knife. In the fall of the year, in our neighborhood, it is 

 pretty cold at night, and after the honey is off the hive a 

 little while it gets cold and thick, and the knife, instead of 

 cutting, breaks the comb. Now, when it is fresh from the 

 hive and warm, the cold knife will do splendidly. I think 

 when combs are not off the hive too long, and are warm, 

 the cold knife is all right ; but you let them rest awhile, and 

 the honey gets thicker, you will have to use a warm knife. 

 I would not recommend extracting the honey when the 

 combs are cold. It is much more difficult to uncap it, and 

 much more difficult to extract the honey. We always ex- 

 tract the honey as soon as it is off the hive, for, when it 

 gets cold, it is much more difficult to handle, and, of course, 

 a man who extracts a good deal must consider all these 

 things. 



Prof. Cook — I would like to hear from Mr. Dadant on 

 the question of the hybrid queen for breeding purposes. 



Mr. Dadant — I think we have just as good queens among 

 the Italians as among the hybrids. 



Dr. Miller — But the condition is that you have one that 

 is superior to anything else in the apiary. 



Mr. Dadant — Well, in an impossible case we could have 

 impossible results. [Laughter.] 



Dr. Miller — More than once I have had hybrids that 

 were superior to any of the pure ones. 



Mr. Dadant — I have heard more comparison between 

 Italian and Cyprian. I have had Cyprians, quite a good 

 many. I have noticed one thing which perhaps some of 

 you may not have noticed. There are exceptions to all the 

 rules, however. The mating of a cross Cyprian queen with 

 a drone from the quiet Italian colony will produce a mild 

 and gentle type of bees, the moral qualities coming from 

 the male, while the other qualities come from the female. 

 These seem just as quiet to handle as pure Italians. But 

 take the Italian queen and cross her with a black drone, 

 and you have the Grossest bees, unless it is the Italian queen 

 crossed with the Cyprian drone. I think, as a rule, it will 

 prove to be so, that the mating of a quiet race on the drone 

 side will produce quiet bees. 



Albert B. Mellen— Will Dr. Miller please tell us what 

 he would do about breeding from a hybrid queen that excels 

 all others in fiis apiary ? 



Dr. Miller — To get even with Mr. Mclntyre, I would 

 better say, I won't tell. I will tell you what I have done. 

 The colony that produces the largest yield of honey this 

 year will be marked, and most likely be bred from next year 

 without any regard to stripes or color. 



Frank Benton — The question is. How to make money 

 producing extracted honey? Now, of course, all of these 

 points, as to the use of the hot or cold knife, the super with 

 shallow combs, or deep combs, and so on, all come into con- 

 sideration ; also the question of bee-escapes. All these are 



