Jan. 18, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



37 



were dead. I have known bees to live all winter in a hive 

 lyinji on its side. 



Mr. Black — I think Spanish-needle honey is as good as 

 any for bees to winter on. 



Tl^e committee on premium list reported a revised list, 

 which was adopted. 



The election of officers for the ensuing- year resulted as 

 follows : 



President— J. Q. Smith ; vice-presidents — 1st, S. N. 

 Black ; 2nd, Geo. Poindexter ; 3rd, W. H. Hyde ; 4th, Miss 

 Bird C. Coulter; 5th, Miss L. C. Kennedy; secretary — Jas. 

 A. Stone, Bradfordton ; treasurer, Chas. Becker. 



A paper by Mr. G. M. Doolittle, of New York State, was 

 read, on 



. Burr-Combs or No Burr-Combs on Top-Bars. 



Your secretary has askt me for a paper to be read at 

 your meeting-. I don't believe in long, dry, exhaustive 

 papers to be read at a bee-keepers' convention. Do you ? 

 Right here is a chance for a discussion among your mem- 

 bers, and for them to let the bee-keeping world know what 

 they think in the matter. 



I believe that the paper to be read at a bee-convention 

 is not the one that thinks for you, but the one that makes 

 you think. Is my belief right ? If you have any lazy, go- 

 as-you-please members, here is a chance for them to show 

 that Doolittle's belief is wrong. 



But to bee-keeping more direct. We have been told of 

 late that burr-combs on top of the brood-frames are a thing 

 not to be tolerated, and thick top-bars for the frames are 

 made and advocated to-day. Is this a move in the right 

 direction ? I hope you will not all stampede en masse in 

 one direction, for if you done light will be obtained. Per- 

 haps Dr. Miller will suggest an "I don't know," if the rest 

 of you are sure. 



During the past poor season I had several colonies 

 which did not have a single burr-comb on the top-bars of 

 their frames — or " ladders," as I prefer to call such burr- 

 combs — while the majority of the colonies had all the way 

 from one to IS ladders on top of the frames, when the sur- 

 plus arrangement, filled with sections, was placed on the 

 hives. I always leave these ladders on the tops of the 

 frames to the amount above named (these ladders save using 

 a Hill's device or sticks over the frames in winter), but re- 

 move all from the bottoms of the supers when they are 

 taken from the hives. The result was that the colonies in 

 hives having no ladders gave an average result of nearly 10 

 sections less than did those haying them, and I have had 

 experience very similar before. Did the ladders, by induc- 

 ing the bees to enter the sections more quickly, cause the 

 result ? Here is a chance for some good, deep thinking and 

 experimenting. 



If the ladders were not the cause, are there any sugges- 

 tions to be made as to the same ? Suggestions in order. 



If the ladders were the cause, then they were to my 

 benefit of not far from SI. 20 per colony for those which had 

 them, as the 10 sections averaged me 12 cents each. Now, 

 which will pay the best, thick top-bars and no burr-combs 

 or ladders, or $1.20 per colony with the burr-comb " nui- 

 sance," as it is called ? 



Making my best bow, I retire. G. M. DoOLlTTLB. 



Mr. DeLong (of Nebraska) — If the space is made 

 smaller, there will be but little bridging. They need the 

 bridging to climb over the space ; take away the space and 

 the bridging will not occur. 



Mr. Becker — I think they make the most bridging when 

 they are gathering the most honey. 



Mr. Black — I have seen them, when they were getting 

 honey rapidly, wedge it in at the ends of the brood-frames, 

 and in every place where the least space occurred. 



The secretary askt the opinion of the convention as to 

 what they thought of tacking thin strips of wood on the 

 tops of the brood-frames to take up the space, the same as 

 we suppose the thick top-bars do it. He had thought of 

 trying it. But as none had tried it, there was no reply. 



A resolution of thanks to those who so kindly furnisht 

 valuable papers was read and adopted. 



Adjourned sine die. Jas. A. Stone, Sec. 



Queenie Jeanette is the title of a pretty song in sheet 

 music size, written by J. C. Wallenmeyer, a musical bee- 

 keeper. The regular price is 40 cents, but to close out the 

 copies we have left, we will mail them at 20 cents each, as 

 long as they last. Better order at once, if you want a^copy 

 of this song. 





<^ 



The "Old Reliable" seen thru New and Unreliable Qlasses. 

 By E. E. HASTY, Richards, Ohio. 



DISPOSING OF INFERIOR HONEY AT HOME. 



I wish to think out loud a little on one line of an edi- 

 torial note found on page 777 (1899). " Sell inferior kinds 

 at home, or give them away." 'Spects that depends upon 

 which market one leans most upon, and cares most about. 

 The home market is easier cultivated, and far easier to 

 hold against all comers, than the city market. A really 

 lively and first-class home trade can not be kept up perma- 

 nently if much poor honey is sold — not even if you tell them 

 it is poor, and only accept half price for it. No man hav- 

 ing drunk ripe old wine straightway desireth the raw, new 

 article. And no kids eating good syrup (such as mammy 

 makes on the stove, and perfumes the house with when she 

 boils it over, as she mostly does), no such happy kids straight- 

 way desire poor honey. Poor honey is a desperate problem. 

 Doubtful if it has any legitimate field, except to be given 

 back to the bees in warm spring weather. I have some- 

 times taken pains to give poor honey to families unlikelj' to 

 buy ; but something within me protested pretty loudly 

 against it. Training up some of the best men and women, 

 about to be, to consider honey rather poor stuff, and to be 

 poor honey customers. Of course, all this does not apply to 

 those samples of honey which are poor merely in looks. 



SMAI,!, TREES VS. BIG TREES IN THE APIARY. 



The apiary of Mr. Page, which opens out No. 49 (1899), is 

 a fair representative of a large class of nice-looking, well- 

 kept, well-painted apiaries with small trees sprinkled about 

 — makes those of us who are curst with lots of big trees feel 

 inclined to quarrel with our "lot." 



QUEENS CHEAPER NOW THAN SOME YEARS AGO. 



Twenty-five dollars for a queen, and $3.75 to the express 

 company for bringing her ! Surelj', we have made a trifle 

 of progress in cheapness since that day " some years ago " 

 which Mr. Didwell tells of on page 770. 



WHITE CLOVER HONEY BETTER FARTHER NORTH. 



Pres. Whitcomb is evidently on the track of the truth 

 in explaining that white clover honey is better the farther 

 North we go (provided we keep down in well-settled lati- 

 tudes, that is), while heartsease is rather inclined to be the 

 other way. As a general rule, I think we may expect every 

 plant to yield better, both in quality and quantity, where it 

 flourishes best. And most of the leading honey-plants will 

 grow, if a little pains is taken with them, where they will 

 scarcely yield nectar enough to attract a bee at all. For 

 instance, almost any reader of this journal can have a 

 patch of alfalfa in his garden, if he wants to ; but compara- 

 tively few of them would ever see it visited eagerly by beeSv 

 Page 771. 



HANDY RULE TO DETECT QUEHNLESSNESS. 



Handy rule from Mr. Coggshall. If there are queen- 

 cups in the super, and they are polisht out, the colony be- 

 low is queenless. Page 771. 



CURE FOR INKY DROPS FROM SMOKER. 



, The cure for inky drops has at last been hammered out 

 pretty nearly to perfection. ("Iron sharpeneth iron ; so a 

 man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.") But still 

 I'll mix in once more, as one important fact in the matter 

 has not been clearly mentioned, so far as I have noticed. 

 Sound wood, altho it will let much of its moisture go with- 

 out resistance, can not be made to part with all its moisture 

 — not even nearly all — by any process which the apiarist is 

 likely to use. I think (without having positive evidence at 

 hand) that rotten wood of the soft and whitish fiber sort is 

 readily dried to pretty nearly absolute dryness. Probably 

 few or no kinds of rotten wood hold onto moisture with the 

 desperate grip characteristic of sound wood. So the points 

 are, stop most of the condensation by a warm nozzle, cut off 

 the needless supply of watery vapor by using dry fuel, and 



