Published by The A. I. Root Company, Medina, Ohio 



H. H. Root, Assistant Editor E. R. Root, Editor A. L. Boyden, Advertising Manager 



A. I. Root, Editor Home Department j. T. Calvert, Business Manager 



Entered at the Postofllce, Medina, Ohio, as Second-class Matter 



VOL. XL 



MARCH 1, 1912 



NO. 5 



c^D"S(i)[pnaiD 



Now is the time to write your senators 

 and representative, urging their support to 

 parcels post. Do it noiv. Parcels post will 

 mean much to the farmer, and to all, in 

 fact, except, perhaps, the proprietors of 

 ores and the biar express comnanies. 



sm 



:i/, exrepi, periia^js, me iHoprieiurs ui 

 all stores and the big express companies. 



Send postal-card reports on how the bees 

 are wintering. As this has a direct bearing 

 on the price of honey, we hope our friends 

 will respond at once. Confine your reports 

 to two or three sentences on a postal card. 

 Give probable winter losses, and state 

 whether the bees are in the cellar or out. If 

 outdoors, state whether packed or not. 



W^HEN TO SET BEES OUT OP THE CELLAR. 



Dr. E. F. Phillips, of the Bureau of En- 

 tomology, offers the excellent suggestion 

 that beekeepers consult the Weather Bureau 

 before setting their bees out of the cellar. It 

 is desirable to select a day in advance that 

 will warm up along about nine or ten o'clock, 

 so the bees can fly. It is never advisable 

 to wait until the air is warm and balmy, 

 and then set the bees out, because they will 

 fly out immediately in confusion. The 

 weaker colonies will combine with the flight 

 of the stronger, thus weakening their own 

 forces, and giving the stronger stock bees 

 that they do not need. 



The best time to set bees out is the night 

 before the selected day, or in the morning 

 of that day when the atmosphere is cool or 

 chilly. Usually we prefer to set them out 

 the night before, then they will quiet down 

 before morning. As it warms up gradually 

 they come out slowly — not in a great rush. 



As a general thing it is not best to set the 

 bees out in two lots on successive days, be- 

 cause the earlier lot is quite liable to rob the 

 ones just set out. 



THE OHIO AND INDIANA STATE BEEKEEP- 

 ERS' CONVENTION. 



The Ohio meeting was held on the 21st, 

 at Springfield, and Indiana on the 22d, at 

 Indianapolis. We managed to take both 

 in. The attendance at both meetings v.^as 

 somewhat small, doubtless owing to the 

 blizzard of bad weather at the time. Dr. E. 

 F. Phillips, of the Bureau of p]ntomology, 

 gave an illustrated address on bee diseases 

 at both conventions. He showed by colored 

 slides the difference between the larviae af- 



fected with American foul brood and those 

 affected with the European disease. He 

 then illustrated the successive steps in the 

 treatment by shaking or brushing on start- 

 ers of foundation. 



He made the statement that the inspec- 

 tion work, both in Ohio and Indiana, was ac- 

 complishing good results. Indeed, Indiana 

 especially, lie said, had reduced the amount 

 of disease through its scheme of inspection 

 to a third of what it had been before the law 

 went into effect. He said that there was a 

 similar reduction in the amount of disease 

 in other States where systematic inspection 

 work had been carried on. For example, in 

 New York, when the inspection law went 

 into effect 23 per cent of the colonies examin- 

 ed were affected. This percentage, when in- 

 spection was well under way, was reduced 

 to about two or three per cent. While there 

 has been a slight increase of late, the in- 

 spectors are holding the disease well in 

 check. Dr. Phillips made it very clear that 

 inspection would never totally eradicate dis- 

 ease, and the most we can do is to hold it 

 under control. 



State Entomologist Prof. Shaw, chief 

 foul-brood inspector for Ohio, gave a report 

 showing that foul brood was found in prac- 

 tically all the territory visited by the inspect- 

 ors. While he had not been able to cover 

 the entire State as yet, it is evident that the 

 inspectors were improving the conditions 

 very materially. Mr. Baldwin, State En- 

 tomologist, and chief foul-brood inspector of 

 Indiana, showed that good progress was be- 

 ing made. 



The general discussions at both conven- 

 tions revolved around wintering, and it w as 

 natural that it should, for fears were express- 

 ed on the part of beekeepers present at each 

 of the conventions that there w^ould be heavy 

 losses during the very severe winter we have 

 just had and are still having; but from gen- 

 eral reports that have been brought in, it is 

 apparent that losses will be mostly along 

 about the latitude of Springfield, Columbus, 

 and Indianapolis. In the northern parts of 

 both States the losses would not be as heavy, 

 because the bees were better protected. In 

 the southern parts the winter mortality 

 would be less severe for an entirely different 

 reason — because the climates are milder, 

 and the ordinarv single walls of the hives 

 would be sufficient protection. 



