E OLDEST BEL-PAPER 



F*ab7isZied Weekly, at ^1,00 per annum. 



Sanij>l0 Copy sent on Jlpplioation. 



36th Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., NOVEMBER 5, 1896. 



No. 45. 



ITU® MBIPPMT 



OF THE 



F13'I,I< 



Twenty-Seventh Annual Convention 



OF THE 



North American Bee-Keepers' Association, 



HELD AT 



LINCOLN, NEBR., October 7 and 8, 1896. 



BY DR. A. B. MASON, SECRETART. 



[Continued Irom pa^e 693.] 

 WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION — CONTINUED. 



After recess there was a discussion on the subject of 

 Honey Production and Plants. 



Mr. DeLoDg v^as asked how many colonies he has. 



Mr. DeLong — I have 20 colonies now. I took 450 pounds 

 of honey from each of two colonies this year. I had a number 

 from which I took 300 or 350 pounds each. 



Ques. — When did the honey-flow commence? 



Mr. DeLong — July 25. I live in Nuckolls county, Nebr., 

 between Edgar and Nelson. Let me say that I got S cents a 

 pound for most of this honey. 



A discussion arose as to which is the best honey-produc- 

 ing plant — the alfalfa or the white clover. The majority 

 agreed upon white clover. , 



R. C. Aikin, Loveland, Colo. — When I lived in eastern 

 Iowa we produced heart's-ease honey. In going from there 

 to Colorado I met a man who had hearfs-ease honey. I recog- 

 nized the old honey we produced in Page county, Iowa. This 

 man gave me a couple of sections, and when I took it and let 

 it run into the alfalfa honey it became very dark. Alfalfa 

 honey is white. Now, if I remember correctly, Mr. Wallen- 

 meyer, of Indiana, mixes heart's-ease and alfalfa honey 

 together, and then sells it. Heart's-ease honey is lighter- 

 colored in Iowa than in Kansas. 



The Secretary said alfalfa honey is the lightest colored 

 honey there is, and others said the same. 



Mr. DeLong — My experience has been that we always get 

 more honey when we have plenty of rain than during a dry 

 season. 



Mr. Stewart — One fall, I think in 1891, I took an average 

 of So pounds of comb houey per colony of white clover honey, 

 and it was the best in the market. 



Mr. DeLong — I claim that some of my hives have a bushel 

 of bees. 



Mr. Lang. — I had the pleasure yesterday of calling upon 



Mr. Davidson, at Omaha, and while there he said that his aver- 

 age one year with another was 50 pounds per colony. He 

 claimed that Nebraska was not as good as some other States 

 in the production of honey. I came from Ontario. I have a 

 cousin who has bees, and he took 400 pounds from a single 

 colony. My average has been 100 pounds per colony — 

 seventy-five pounds of extracted honey per colony. My cousin 

 started with 40 colonies, and he took 6,000 pounds of honey 

 from them. 



Mr. Stilson — I asked one of our bee-keepers in this State 

 what his average had been for 10 years past, and he said 125 

 pounds per colony. I don't know what increase he had, but I 

 know that he usually intends to a little more than double. 

 Bees sell for .SIO a colony here. I could sell every colony I ■ 

 have at that price. I can make more money from one colony 

 of bees than I can from my best dairy cow. 



L. M. Brown, Glen Ellen, Iowa — We have two kinds of 



Hon. Ewjcnc ^I'lor, turcsi L uy, u. 



-See poon on page 707. 



smartweed — one grows in marshy places, and it yields red 

 honey, while the other kind usually grows in cornfields, and 

 gives dark honey. We have another variety which yields a 

 great deal of honey. 



Mr. Whitcomb — In regard to heart's-ease honey, the color 

 depends entirely upon the time of the year that the honey is 

 produced. Hearfs-ease is like every other flower, the earlier 

 the honey is gathered the lighter the color, and the later, the 

 darker the color. Heart's-ease honey taken 15 days apart 



