1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



805 



Dr. Miller— Now here is Mr. Schaper and Mr. West that 

 say the basswood is cut off. That makes it a clear case. Now, 

 has cultivation cut off anything else besides basswood ? 



Mr. West — I don't think it has. 



Dr. Miller — I think too much is made of that. I think 

 cultivation and civilization is bringing in about as many new 

 things as it is cutting off old ones. I don't see, In my place, 

 why I cannot see as many things growing for the bees to-day. 



Mr. McKenzie — 25 years ago we didn't have any Alsike 

 clover. 



Dr. Miller— Shall we take that, then, as pretty safe 

 ground ? None of you know exactly what the prospect will 

 be in the future, but that, excepting where basswood has been 

 cut off, in this region we may count about as safely on good 

 crops in the future as in the past. It may be that next year 

 will be a very poor year. We don't know, and we didn't know 

 in the past. It seems to me that from the reports this morn- 

 ing, so far as white clover is concerned, the prospects for next 

 year are good. In my place there is a mat of white clover on 

 the ground as thick as I ever saw it before. I noticed only 

 yesterday, out in the pasture where it is eaten down very 

 short, it is just a thick mat. I cannot tell where the white 

 clover came from this year ; it was poor last year, and when 

 it came time for blooming this year, there was plenty of it. 



Mr. Baldridge— There is another point to be considered. 

 Where the Doctor lives dairying has been on the increase for 

 several years, and there is more pasturage than there used to 

 be 10 years ago. I think that will be a good offset for any 

 loss of the basswood being cut off where we live. Let me add, 

 a great many of the farmers have discovered that Alsike is a 

 wonderful plant, not only for bees, but pasture, and they have 

 taken to sowing it without being coaxed to do so. One farmer 

 near me has nearly 200 acres sowed to Alsike. He was in- 

 duced to commence with Alsike by a seed firm here in Chicago. 

 They had a mixture of timothy seed and Alsike, and wanted 

 to try it, and he has been so pleased that he seeds every acre 

 of ground now with Alsike, in part. He mixes it. 



Dr. Miller— That suggests that one thing that we need to 

 do is not so much to talk about the value of Alsike and sweet 

 clover as honey-plants, as it is to talk about their value as 

 forago-plants. 



Mr. Schrier — The Alsike is the best clover to feed, because 

 the cattle know where it is, and they go right for it. 



HOFFMAN FRAME TONGUE VS. SAW-KEKF. 



Ques. 3. — What are the merits of the narrow tongue on 

 the underside of the Hoffman frame, over the saw-kerf ? 



Dr. Miller — The underside comes down like a tongue, and 

 the foundation is pressed on, or it comes perhaps to a point, 

 and the foundation is pressed hard against the side, and fast- 

 ened upon it, and now, the question, as I understand, is, what 

 are the merits of this system over the plan of having the bot- 

 tom of the top-bar flat with a saw-kerf in, for pushing the 

 foundation into it ? If some of you have had experience with 

 both of them, perhaps you will tell us about that. How many 

 nave used the saw-kerf to thrust in the foundation. 



Five hands. 



Dr. Miller -And how many have had experience with the 

 tongue? 



Four hands. 



Dr. Miller — Now, then, 'all those that have used both. 

 There are only a few who have used both. Briefly state to 

 us your preference and why. 



Mr. Baldridge — Yes, I have used botlj, and I won't use 

 either. 



Dr. Miller — Before you go to that, tell us which you would 

 prefer if you had to use either. 



Mr. Baldridge — I wouldn't have any objection to the 

 tongue, that I know of. It takes up room that is unnecessary. 

 I would rather have a flat top-bar. 



Mr. McKenzie — My objection to the tongue is, you cannot 

 make the wax stick on good without having a warm room to 

 put it in, or the warm time of the year or day. Now, all bee- 

 keepers are not multi-millionaires who can have a warm house. 

 I fix mine in the winter time, and I cannot manipulate the 

 wax in a cold room. 



Mr. Schrier — I find in the saw-kerf I can get it more satis- 

 factorily than in any other. If you don't work carefully you 

 have your points all one-sided. 



Dr. Miller — There are three points of advantage for the 

 saw-kerf. It saves room, it can be used in the cold as well as 

 in the heat, and the saw-kerf leaves the foundation exactly 

 in the middle. 



Mr. Baldridge — If you are going to use the saw-kerf you 

 are going to dispense with wires. 



Mr. McKenzie — No, sir ; I don't use wires. 



Dr. Miller — Your plan would be to use the wire, and 



simply have the flat top-bar '? You have to have a little more 

 foundation to use the saw-kerf. I think Mr. Baldridge's plan 

 is the way they recommend at Medina — simply have the wires, 

 and let the bees fasten to the top-bar. 



Mr. Baldridge — They use horizontal wire, but I wouldn't 

 use that. I use perpendicular wires. I don't fasten my foun- 

 dation at the top. It is not necessary if the wires are perpen- 

 dicular wires and cut true. The bees will fasten the top 

 first. I don't see why anybody, especially for brood-combs, 

 should advocate having them built without wires. A little 

 girl 12 years old can put in the foundation for 15 to 25 cents 

 a hundred, and they are there for years and years, no matter 

 what you want to do with them. No matter how hot it is in 

 the sun the combs don't melt down. 



Dr. Miller — I can give you a little objection to wires, and 

 that is, that when you have allowed a comb to be badly used, 

 when it gets old, and perhaps a piece taken out, there will be 

 a wire sticking out. Of course, you good bee-keepers would 

 not do that (!), but there are these wires sprawling around, 

 running into the next comb, and then there will sometimes be 

 a queen-cell that I will want to save, and that wire is in my 

 way. Of course I can cut through it, but I spoil my knife. 



Mr. Baldridge — With regard to the wire breaking loose 

 at the bottom, my combs are built as firmly to the bottom as 

 to the top, and I secure them by having them built " up-stairs." 



Dr. Miller — Still, if the mice gnaw them away at the bot- 

 tom sometimes they will be loose. 



The convention then adjourned to meet at 2 p.m. 



AFTERNOON SESSION— Nov. 18. 

 The first question read by Pres. Miller was the following : 



EEAKING QUEENS IN UPPER STORIES. 



Ques. 4. — Is it a general practice among bee-keepers to 

 rear queens in supers, as Doolittle teaches ? What objections 

 are there ? 



Dr. Miller — I suppose you understand that the practice 

 spoken of is rearing bees in upper stories, the idea being that 

 when bees are more distant, the distance itself from the brood- 

 nest will make bees incline to rear queens, and the question is. 

 Is it a general practice among bee-keepers ? 



For instance, here in the lower story is a queen laying, 

 and then you rear a queen in the upper story (either by a 

 queen-excluder or any other means), while the queen is still 

 laying in the lower story. Let me see the hands of those who 

 have practiced this ? Three who have practiced it. Then the 

 first answer (I take this to be a representative gathering of 

 bee-keepers) would be that it is not the general practice. Only 

 three I think out of the number here. The next question. 

 What objections are there to it? Those who have practiced 

 it, what are the objections ? Miss Candler, will you tell us ? 

 Miss Candler — I did it only one summer, as an experiment. 

 Dr. Miller — Did you find any objection to it then ? 

 Miss Candler — No, I did not. 



Mr. Green — My experience would come under the " more 

 or less," because I have reared only queen-cells. I reared 

 quite a number of queen-cells that way, and they are good 

 ones, but I consider it more trouble than other methods, so I 

 didn't practice it to any extent. 



Dr. Miller — I had a queen (I don't remember whether in 

 an 8 or 10 frame hive), and I had a number of combs that I 

 wanted taken care of to keep the worms out of them, and I 

 piled them up four or five stories high, so that the bees would 

 have a chance to take care of those combs above them. To go 

 back a little— in fact, back a good many years— two years that 

 I lived in Chicago and kept bees bo miles away. One time 

 when I was leaving home for about two weeks I piled up a 

 number of combs over the hives in that way to be taken care 

 of by the bees. When I got home most of these were a solid 

 mass of worms. I had only a small hole for the bees to go up, 

 and the tees just kept it comfortable for the moths. I thought 

 I would have the bees take care of the combs this time, 

 whether they would or not, so I put a frame of brood in the 

 upper story. I knew that the bees would not fail to go back 

 and forth and look over the whole ground then, and I left 

 them standing in that way, and if they wanted to put any 

 honey in there for extracting, all right; and possibly two 

 months later I looked in the upper story and I was surprised 

 to find that there were several frames of brood there ; there 

 was a leak in the upper story, and they had reared a young 

 queen, and there was a separate colony up there, no queen- 

 excluder or anything. I left it there until late in the season, 

 and I had my two colonies. Well, that is the beginning, so 

 far as I know, of any record made of that plan of rearing 

 queens. Then, afterward, I accidentally found queens rear- 



