Feb. 1, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



69 



Mr. Rankin — I think full foundation is the best with 

 sections, and the double starter. For the latter I would use 

 a starter 's of an inch on the bottom of the section. Have 

 the foundation from the top of the section come down to 

 within U of an inch of the bottom starter. It is important 

 to leave this space of ]4 inch between the two starters to 

 pet the best results. I get better filled sections when I use 

 this style of starter than in any other way. I use extra- 

 thin foundation for sections. The new kind of foundation 

 has the base of the foundation so very thin that when the 

 bees draw it out they will not leave it so thick as to make 

 fishbone. 



Can we use thin foundation for brood-frames if we get 

 out of brood foundation ? 



Mr. Hilton — No, it is not best to use thin foundation in 

 brood-frames. When the bees commence to draw it out the 

 weight of the bees and the warmth will get it out of place. 



Mr. Calvert — The New York market wants a carton of 

 pasteboard around each section. These cartons are becom- 

 ing popular in other markets. Tliey should have the name 

 of the bee-keeper, but not his address ; if the address is put 

 on the merchant will erase it. 



Is there any danger when the combs are infected with 

 foul brood if afterwards it is made into foundation ? No, 

 the intense heat in melting the wax and making the foun- 

 dation will destroy all spores of foul brood. 



A vote was taken to see how many used 8 or 10 frame 

 hives. From the result of this vote it was found that the 8- 

 frame hive was used by a large majority, for both comb 

 and extracted honey. 



Mr. Woodman — The best way to render old comb is by 

 the steam extractor. I also use a press with the same. 



Mr. Calvert — For ordinary bee-keepers, or farmer bee- 

 keepers, the solar wax-extractor will do just as well; but 

 care should be taken to see that the glass on the extractor 

 fits tight, so as to confine the heat. 



Mr. Woodman — I use an uncapping-can with a screen 

 in tlie middle to catch the bits of comb. 



Mr. Beecham — I use an old extractor for an uncapping- 

 can. 



Mr. Hilton — I use a keg with a wire-cloth near the top. 



The meeting- then adjourned. Wm. G. Voorheis. 



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

 By E. E. HASTY, Richards, Ohio. 



BKGINNINGS OF FOUL BROOD. 



Mr. Lovesy, on page 819 (1899), gives us what is possi- 

 bly a very valuable observation atjout the first beginnings 

 of foul brood in a hive. The nearly-grown larvae are in 

 distress and discomfort before any of them are enough 

 affected to die. As one result of their writhings many 

 j-oung bees can be found with their heads toward the bot- 

 tom of the cell — a position from which, of course, they can 

 never get out. And this is the golden opportunity to go to 

 work and cure the disease, before any filth has accumulated 

 in the cells at all. I presume he would not claim that all 

 attacks began thus gradually, or that all cases of reverst 

 young bees indicate foul brood. 



BEES .4.ND POULTRY ON A CITY LOT. 



To carry on both the bee-business and the poultry busi- 

 ness on a city lot 50x90 — well, it shows that a fellow has 

 quite a bit of that turn that " laughs at impossibilities and 

 says. It shall be done." It so happens that both Apis melli- 

 fera and Henibus eggifera have special talents in the line 

 of getting the neighbors after them, with sharp sticks in 

 their hands, and the spirit of Judge Lynch in their hearts. 

 If Mr. Heim can keep bees, and hens, and the public peace, 

 all three, he must be a pretty good, and wise, and amiable 

 man. The picture he shows us, page 801 (1899), I judge to 

 be spring and fall arrangement. Or is he smart enough to 

 manipulate in a two-decker shed during the honey season ? 



OLD GRIMES AND HIVE-NAILING. 



Alarum! Enter "Old Grimes." We musically and 



long ago thought he was dead— that good old man. If he 

 isn't, of course we'll give him a reasonable chance to prove 

 it up on us ; but he mustn't expect this logical generation 

 to believe it just by his saying so. I see he wants a nice- 

 looking hive, and then to have it last a lifetime. And his 

 method is the same as that whereby he preserved his old 

 blue coat a lifetime; keep it every minute "all buttoned 

 down before." His direction to " toe " the nails if they are 

 required to hang on to wood lengthwise of the grain sounds 

 decidedly like a live carpenter's dictum (just the thing 

 bunglers like me would forget), and two nails close together, 

 and toed in opposite directions, is our mechanical " pretty- 

 est" in the nailing line. Page 801. 



EXPERIMENTS ON QUEEN-REARING. 



How much better it is to have our settled views on im- 

 portant points founded on careful experiment than on mere 

 impressions ! And how absurd it is to try to force our im- 

 pressional views on the bee-keeping public at large ! Thus 

 I meditated on Dr. Miller's experiment, page 803. But read- 

 ing that one just makes me the more hungry for another of 

 the same sort. Dr. Miller would be one of the first to ad- 

 mit that a different strain of bees, in a different locality, 

 and under different honey conditions, not only >«(^^/ show 

 points of divergence, but would be pretty sure to show some. 

 While on this matter we are not to lose sight of the fact 

 that it is not somebody's victory over somebody else that 

 we care for, but the practical work-a-day question : Is it 

 safe to let a queen less colony rear its own queen ? My im- 

 pressions agree with Dr. Miller's experiment, that it is. 

 But the bees in the experiment took older larvK than I 

 should have expected in advance — that is my chief surprise 

 — and my chief delight is to see them keep on starting more 

 for six days. I confess to feeling annoyed by what Mr. 

 Hutchinson said about that. 'Spects he not only followed 

 his impressions that time, but impressions wholly formed 

 from colonies that couldn't well start more, because they 

 were hard up to supply royal jelly to what princesses they 

 had already on their hands. 



OTHERS' EXPERIENCE MAY BE VALUABLE. 



" Nothing is done for the looks of it, or because others 

 do it that way." W. L. Coggshall on page 804. That's a 

 sentence that can't be let loose without having a great deal 

 of effect. Perhaps it ought to have a good deal of effect. 

 But lest our young men who are forming their life maxims 

 should throw themselves too completely into the arms of it, 

 I'll jostle against it a little. I once knew a young man, and 

 a very brainy, inventive young man, too, who started out 

 in farming on just about that principle. He's not a farmer 

 now — was an unusually conspicuous failure at farming. So 

 far as farming goes it's clear that the joint experience and 

 judgment of thousands and thousands of ordinary farmers 

 has simmered down to an unwritten volume of practical 

 wisdom ; and that no man, no matter how good a head he 

 has on him, can afford to throw it all away at once. Can 

 we be sure that the throwing-away course in apiculture 

 would always turn out well, even if Mr. C. does make things 

 hum ? But the convention essay in which the sentence 

 occurred is so good that I don't believe even the Progressive 

 Bee-Keeper would bark at it. 



SWEET CLOVER HONEY ATTACKT. 



Mr. Selser is a brave man ; about the first to make a 

 public attack on sweet clover from the apicultural side. 

 Plenty of outside attacks and charges of being a general 

 nuisance. We're up against the question now whether 

 sweet clover honey is really fit to eat or not. Several facts 

 will have to enter into the final decision. For one, 

 most honeys are unfit to eat in the unripe state. Don't 

 blame the 'tater for not being good, till it's done. For 

 another fact, it is quite common for sweet clover to keep 

 multitudes of bees busj' for weeks when not a pound of sur- 

 plus comes in. Likewise it is fearfully common for the 

 bee-man not to know whence a small run of surplus does 

 come — often credits it wrongly, oftener doesn't try to credit 

 it at all. Now about how often do these unrecognized runs 

 come in at the same time, when half the bees are playing 

 around the sweet clover like moths around a candle ? In 

 other words, are not most alleged samples of sweet clover 

 honey very largely mixt with something else ? On the main 

 question let us hear from Utah, which is supposed to har- 

 vest more sweet clover than any other region. Convention 

 debate, page 80S. 



HOW MANY HOURS A DAY DO BEES WORK? 



I wonder if Prof. Hodge realizes how big a job he is at 



