Tb 



e (i>ee- 



eepeps fvevieoLi 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 

 Devoted to tl^e Interests of Hoqey Producers. 



$1,00 A YEAR, 

 ¥. z. HUTCHINSON, Editor and Proprietor. 



VOL, VII 



FLINT, MiCHiGAN, JAN, 10. 1895. 



NO, 



Work at IVdIicliigan's 



Experimental 



Apiary. 



U. L. TAYLOR, APIARIST. 



[Read at the Michitran State Convention.] 



Q'INCE this As- 

 )■£) fiociationa 

 year ago saw fit 

 to aiipoint a com- 

 mittee to assist 

 in directing the 

 apicultnral work 

 of the station it 

 is fitting, if not 

 to be expected, 

 that I should 

 make at this an- 

 nual meeting 

 something of a report of the operations in 

 tliis line under my charge. 



It is with serious regret that I have to re- 

 port that the character of the sea-on has 

 been such as to greatly interfere with the 

 making of many of the experiments pro- 

 jected and in several cases prevented their 

 execution altogether. Of this latter class 

 were all those that depended upon a consid- 

 erable amount of swarming, such a-s the 

 comparison of the amount of work diiio by 

 natural swarms with that done by made 

 swarms, tlie co nparisou of the sidvantages 

 of comb fouaJdtioa aud starters in hives 



used for the reception of new swarms and 

 the trial of hivers and non-swarmers. The 

 experiment for the comparison of starters, 

 foundation and comb, was made in the sea- 

 son of 1893, but for several reasons besides 

 the one that no single experiment in such 

 matters should ever be taken as final, I 

 greatly desired to repeat it under a set of 

 circumstances that experience and further 

 thought have suggested, such as to give 

 promise of something more nearly approach- 

 ing a crucial test. The impossibility of 

 carrying out the intended comparison of 

 natural with made swarms, was a disap- 

 pointment, as the comparison seems to give 

 promise of sometliiug of much value to 

 many in the management of an apiary. 



There was some swarming in the apiary, 

 but not sufficient to furnish swarms that 

 could fairly be compared, since intelligent 

 work requires the issuing of several swarms 

 at or about the same time : besides this the 

 nectar was so exceedingly light that the ex- 

 periment, even if swarms could have been 

 had, would have been rendered abortive. 

 Some of the experiments which were actu- 

 ally carried out would no doubt have yielded 

 results of greater value had the season been 

 more favorable in the particulars here re- 

 ferred to. 



The first new work that engaged my at- 

 tention at the opening of spring was experi- 

 ments designed to test the value of stimula- 

 tive feeding aud the value of special protec- 

 tion iu spring. A most thorough and com- 

 prehensive experiment was planned and car 



