806 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Dec. 17. 



ing when I had put a story of frames over a story of empty 

 frames with one of brood and a cloth between. Now, with a 

 queen-excluder they will sometimes rear as well as above and 

 sometimes they won't. I lately read of a man who found they 

 wouldn't rear queens with one excluder, but they did if he 

 used two. Sometimes they rear cells all right, and sometimes 

 they won't. When one is working for extracted,honey, I am 

 not sure but what it is a good plan. 



Mr. Green — You cannot be sure that you are getting a 

 batch of cells. 



Dr. Miller — If you have a pile of combs there, and don't 

 care very much whether they increase or not, it is a nice thing 

 to put a frame of brood there. It is that much better than 

 starting a new place. These bees are here in the upper 

 stories — they are working and doing just as much as if you 

 hadn't made them start cells, so, under certain circumstances, 

 I think it is a pretty good plan. I suppose that is the main 

 objection, you don't know what result you are going to have 

 of it. If you want to rear queens and be sure, you had better 

 take some other way. 



(To be continued.) 



Los Angeles County, Calif., Convention. 



By GEO. W. BRODBECK. 



The third annual session of the Los Angeles County Bee- 

 Keepers' Association was held in Los Angeles, Nov. 14, 1896. 

 The annual election of officers resulted in the unanimous 

 selection of the following: 



President, James Jaynes, of Fernando; 1st and 2nd Vice- 

 Presidents, G. S. Stubblefield and N. S. Levering, both of Los 

 Angeles; Treasurer, Chas. Bergk, of Santa Monica; and Sec- 

 retary, Geo. W. Brodbeck, of Los Angeles. The elective mem- 

 bers of the Executive Board were, Elon Hart, of Pasadena, 

 and J. H. Martin, of Los Angeles. 



Comb Honey. — The subject of comb honey, as presented 

 by Mr. Stubblefield, advocated the use of separators, zinc 

 honey-boards, scraping of sections, proper grading before 

 packing, I%x4!4x4>4 sections, 8-frame Langstroth hives; 

 and the best time to sell is just as soon as you can get your 

 honey in shape to do so. 



Moving Bees. — The Secretary gave a talk on moving 

 bees, advising proper packing of frames, plenty of surplus 

 room for the bees, wire screen on top and at the entrance, 

 moving at any time, day or night, during the fall and winter; 

 in the spring and summer, when there is much brood he pre- 

 fers to moving at night, and if necessary to move during the 

 day, he suggested protection from the sun, and a supply of 

 water by sprinkling ; the use of a wagon with springs, and 

 that would hold from 50 to 100 hives. After two years' trial, 

 he prefers the HofiFman frame. 



Small Packages. — Mr. J. H. Martin gave the various 

 improvements, beginning at the 12-pound boxes, next the 5 

 and S pound, with tin corners and glass sides, then the Har- 

 binsou 2-pound, resulting in such a furor for California 

 honey that it reigned supreme for many years, selling at 20 to 

 25 cents per pound. He believes the extractor has been of 

 more benefit to the glucose manufacturer than to the bee- 

 keepers, for in the absence of the extractor there would be 

 no glucosed honey ; production would also have been limited, 

 and as a result prices would have been better. The way out 

 of our present trouble is by legislation, co-operation and im- 

 provements in packages. He said that the bees will store 

 more honey in two-pound sections than in the one-pound, is 

 merely an opinion or prejudice ; but this we do know, that it 

 will not do to use a much smaller section, and as a result we 

 have reached perfection in the comb honey package. We 

 have no uniform or special package for extracted honey, but 

 he regards the Muth jar as the nearest, and that we need pop- 

 ular packages in connection with this product as much as for 

 comb honey. 



Planting for Bee- Forage.— Mr. N. Levering urged the 

 importance of paying more attention to planting for bee-for- 

 age, and to this end presented a resolution calling the atten- 

 tion of our State Association to this subject. 



Mr. Myers— one of the early pioneers in the bee-industry 

 of this State, and co-worker with Mr. Harbison— gave an in- 

 teresting talk on the early experiences and methods of bee- 

 keepers, which closed one of the most interesting sessions ever 

 held by this Association. Geo. W. Brodbeck, Sec. 



No-w is the Time to work for new subscribers. 

 Why not take advantage of the offer made on page 810 ? 



CONDUCTED BT 

 DR. C C. AUX^LER, AtAJSBJVGO, ILL, 



LQuestlona may be mailed to the Bee Journal, or to Dr. Miller direct.! 



Are Wild Parsnips Poisonous ': 

 Sections. 



Partlj-Fiiled 



1. S. B. Smith says on page 772, "The root of what is 

 known as ' wild parsnip ' is a deadly poison to man or beast." 

 Now, how long will tame parsnips have to run before they be- 

 come poisonous? Will it be safe to let hogs dig up the roots 

 where tame parsnips were four years ago ? 



2. Do you approve his plan of laying aside partly-filled 

 sections to be finished another season ? P. N. 



Answers. — 1. The wild parsnip is probably no more pois- 

 onous than the tame. I read lately of a physician who had 

 eaten a full meal of wild parsnips with no bad results. The 

 probability is that if any poisonous effects have come in Mr. 

 Smith's neighborhood, from eating the roots of "what is 

 known" as wild parsnip, there was no wild parsnip in ths 

 case, but another plant that resembles in appearance the wild 

 parsnip. 



2. The answers on page 783 will show you that most bee- 

 keepers do not make a success of using partly-finished sec- 

 tions the next year, even after the honey is emptied out. To 

 keep them with the honey in would result in a very poor lot 

 of sections when filled out another year. 



Starting a City Man in Bee-Keeping. 



I have lived in the city all my life, but have a little 10- 

 acre patch over in Jersey, which I will get possession of May 

 1, 1897. I want to keep a few bees as an experiment. The 

 country is simply suburban, and I am afraid there is not 

 enough natural forage to support any considerable number of 

 colonies, and it will take time to plant forage. There are a 

 number of small patches of woods witbiu a mile or two of my 

 place, but I have no idea what trees or plants they are com- 

 posed of. I have read the Bee Journal for a year, but as I 

 have never seen the inside of a hive, and wouldn't know a 

 queen from a worker if I were to see one, a good many of its 

 teachings have been the same as Greek to me. I wish you 

 would advise me how to make a start, with as little ca.=h out- 

 lay as possible. What style and how many hives shall I buy ? 

 How many colonies, and what kind — I suppose Italians or hy- 

 brids? What appliances? I want to start in such away 

 that if they can be made profitable I can keep on increasing 

 without any change in the outfit ; but if they cannot be, then 

 I want to drop it without the experiment having cost me too 

 much, as my dollars are very scarce. Please bear in mind 

 that I will come to town to work nearly every day. 



Brooklyn, N. Y. L. R. D. 



Answer. — One of the first questions to settle is whether 

 there is bee-pasturage in reach, and the surest way to find out 

 that is from the bees themselves. It is possible that a colony 

 couldn't get enough to live on, but the probability is greater 

 that 50 colonies would give you some surplus. I very much 

 doubt whether you could profitably plant anything for bee- 

 forage on valuable suburban land. 



You are wise in planning to start with such appliances as 

 you will be likely to continue, providing you increase in num- 

 bers. The main thing is the size of the frame. More frames 

 17?'8 by 9ij, outside measure, are in use to-day than any 

 other. As that comes nearest a standard size you are less 

 likely to change from it than from any other. It doesn't mat- 

 ter so much as to the exact style of the frame or the hive, just 

 so it conforms to the standard 17?^, for if your hive takes 

 that size of frame you can change to another kind of hive or 

 to another style of frame, but frames of different sizes cannot 

 well be used interchangeably. Just now the Dovetail hive is 

 the popular one, and you may safely start with that. 



If there are bees all around you, it isn't a matter of the 

 greatest importance what kind of bees you start with, for 



