8 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Dr. A. B. Mason: It is no longer a 

 "theory"' with me. I Ivnow that pollen is 

 the cause of bee-diarrhcea. I have ex- 

 perimented so many times by giving a 

 large quantity of pollen to some colonies, 

 thereby causing bee-diarrlife:i, and keep- 

 ing other colonies from having it, by tak- 

 ing away the pollen, that I know whereof 

 1 speak. If necessary, I give the bees 

 empty combs and feed them sugar. I do 

 not winter the bees in the cellar to prevent 

 their having bee-diarrhoea, but to save the 

 consumption of stores. 



W. Z. Hutchinson: I have had every 

 colony out-of-doors die of diarrhoea except 

 those'having sugar stores; in the cellar, 

 colonies with sugar stores have had 

 scarcely a handful of dead bees upon the 

 bottom-board, while those standing by 

 their sides with natural stores were dead 

 with diarrhoea. 



Mr. A. I. Root referred to his green- 

 house experiments of years ago. Bees 

 could not rear brood without pollen, and 

 when given pollen, not only brood but 

 diarrhoea was the result. 



W. Z. Hutchinson: Although the most 

 practical way, at present, of preventing 

 bee-diarrhoea, appears to be the removal 

 of the honey and pollen and the feeding 

 of sugar, there is one point which I do not 

 think should be lost sight of, viz: bees do 

 sometimes pass a long winter in a healthy 

 condition with an abundance of pollen in 

 the hive. It may be easier to teach the 

 bees to let the pollen alone than to re- 

 move it. 



Prof. Cook: I think that bees sink into 

 that quiet state more readily when placed 

 in a cellar, the temperature of which is 

 about 4.5' above zero. 



K.L.Taylor: I have tried leaving out 

 the pollen and feeding sugar, and I am 

 strongly in favor of it. I put my bees 

 upon empty combs, and then feed them 

 sugar syrup. To do this, I place a hive of 

 empty combs upon the stand occupied by 

 a colony, quickly remove the combs and 

 shake the bees in front of the hive of 

 einiity combs. A cloudy day, with the 

 thi'iiiiniiicter at about 60° above zero is the 

 best time for this work. To feed, I place 

 an ordinary tin pan in an upper story, fill 

 it with syrup and cover it with a cloth. 



Dr. Mason feeds bees by pouring the 

 feed into the hive. 



CELLAR vs. OPEX-AIR ^^^:NTEm^'Q. 



W. Z. Hutchinson: We often have to 

 take honey, in the spring, from colonies 

 wintered in the cellar and give to those 

 wintered out-of-doors. 



Dr. Mason: I always weigh my colonies 

 when I put them into the cellar, and 

 again when I take them out; and one win- 

 ter in Iowa, those in the cellar lost only 

 4}^ pounds in weight per colony, on an 

 average, while those in the open air con- 

 sumed 23 pounds, 



.1. H. Robertson: I weighed 100 colonies, 

 one spring, the next day after they were 

 set out, after being confined 1.51 days, and 

 tliey had lost on an average 7 pounds per 

 colony. 



A Member: The greatest loss, per col- 

 ony, in my cellar, is pounds, the smallest 

 3 pounds. 



James Ure: I winter my bees in chatT- 

 hives, and the loss in weight, in winter- 

 ing them, is about 8 pounds per colony. 



Sir. R. L. Hewitt, who is connected with 

 the Statistical Bureau, gave a talk upon 

 statistics. He saiil that bees, honey and 

 wax were not among the products re- 

 jiorted upon by the crop correspondents, 

 and legislation would be required to have 

 them placed u|joii the list, and it was de- 

 cided that the Executive Board of the 

 A.ssociation should act as a committee to 

 secure the proper legislatimi. 



Prof. Beal, ot tlie .Michigan Agricul- 

 tural College, gave an interesting talk 

 upon the agency of bees in fertilizing 

 blossoms, and then the meeting adjourned 

 until 1:3U p. m. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



The Convention was called to order at 

 1:30, with Vice-President Taylor in the 

 chair. The first query was, " What is the 

 best size of frame for queen-rearing ?" 



W. Z. Hutchinson: For queen-rearing 

 exclusively, 1 would use a small, square 

 frame, not more tlian 10 inches square, 

 possibly not more Uian 8 inches. 



"Is water in the cellar an advantage 

 where bees are wintered?" 



Prof. Cook: Yes, if it is not stagnant. 



"How tar apart shall hives be placed ?" 



R. L. Taylor: If they face in different 

 directions, or if there are other objects to 

 assist the bees in determining which hive 

 is which, they can be placed closer to- 

 gether than when in long rows. 



Jas. Ure would have tliem 9 feet apart. 



Dr. Slason: I prefer feet. 



Dr. Whiting: I have found no objection 

 to putting them 6 inches apart. 



Prof. Cook: When honey is exposed 

 upon our back porch, the bees are soon 

 swarming around the back porch of Prof. 

 Carpenter's house as well as out own, and 

 our houses are several rods apart, but they 

 are alike in appearance. 



W. Z. Hutchinson: I presume that the 

 bees find the way to their home much in 

 the same manner that we do to ours ; and 

 I would have the hives only so far apart 

 as to give us plenty of room for working 

 with the bees. 



CJETTING NICE nONBY, 



Upon request. Miss Wilkins told how 

 she and her sister managed to secure such 

 nice honey. They used the Doolittle sys- 

 tem and removed the honey as soon as 

 sealed. They use the nicest, white pop- 

 liir sections that they can procure, as they 

 thought that this made a great difference 

 in the appearance of the honey. The 

 propolis is not only scraped from the sec- 

 tions as soon as they are taken from the 

 hive, but all stains caused by the propolis 

 are carefully scraped away with glass. 

 Another and important reason for their 

 honey being so nice, is the source from 

 which it is gathered, viz: the willow-herb. 



"Shall colonies be placed upon the 

 same stand that they occupied the previous 

 season, when taken from the cellar ?" 



Messrs. R. L. Taylor and W. Z. Hutch- 

 inson said: "It is immaterial." 



ALSIKE CLOVER. 



W. Z. Hutchinson had tried cutting it 

 When it first began blossoming, in hopes 

 of bringing it into bloom again after the 

 basswood had blossomed, but it did not 

 start again. The season was very dry. 



HIVIXfi BEES. 



Dr. Whiting shakes the bees into a large 

 tin pan ; but few bees take wing, and the 

 sides are so slippery that tliey do not 

 crawl out. W. Z. Hutchinson uses, in- 

 stead of a pan, a large clothes-basket with 

 a cover of burlap sewed to one side. 



VENTHiATlON. 



Dr. Whiting said: Raise the hive from 

 the bottom-board. R. L. Taylor said: If 

 the bottom-board is fast, raise the cover. 

 Dr. Mason agreed. 



Prof. Cook read an interesting paper 

 entitled " Notes for the Year." 



REI'OKTS. 



.53 persons reported, spring count. 1,937 

 .53 persons reported, fall count. .'. . 3,884 



Bueswax ,.lbs.. 634X 



Comb honey lbs. 6.5,.5nc 



Extracted lbs. 33,893 



30 persons use the standard Langstroth 

 frame; 33 use odd size frames; the major- 

 ity use a frame very near 10x14; 11 winter 

 their bees ill cellars; 33 winter them on 

 summer stands; 3 in bee-houses; Hi have 

 all Italian bees; 3 have all black bees; .30 

 have all hybrids and Italians; and 3 have 

 all .Syrians'. 



Rogersville, Mich. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Reversible Frames. 



JAMES HEDDON (400 — 160). 



Since the subject of reversing brood- 

 cOmbs has been agitating the minds of 

 bee-keepers, numerous are tlie styles 

 of frames made and proposed for that 

 purpose. It is with these frames as 

 with hives, honey-extractors and 

 other implements, utterly impossible 

 to devise any one style of reversible 

 frame which will possess all the ad- 

 vantages of all other styles. 



About one year ago I devised the 

 style of reversible brood -frame, as 

 shown by the illustrations. I made 

 8,000 of them entirely for my own use, 

 and succeeded in getting about one- 

 half of them into use the first season. 

 I have tried them one year, and like 

 them sufficiently well that I now ex- 

 pect to continue their use exclusively 

 with all future frames. I fully appre- 

 ciate simplicity in every thing, and 

 frankly admit that a frame which 

 only needs to be turned over to re- 

 verse its comb, is better in respect to 

 the simplicity of the frame ; but the 

 adaptation of such frames to the hive, 

 and the way it must have its bearing, 

 does not suit me. 



I presume there are yet some of the 

 readers of the Bee Journal who are 

 not aware of the proposed advantages 

 of the reversing system. It is pro- 

 posed to give us combs all solid with 

 brood, thus securing the same amount 

 of brood with an onitlay of less capi- 

 tal. It is expected to become an aid 

 in supplying a brood-chamber for 

 breeding purposes only, and the sur- 

 plus arrangement above to possess 

 nearly all the honey. The field can 

 act as our reservoir or storage-place 

 tor pollen. 



Any system or combination of sys- 

 tems which will accomplish such a 

 condition at all times of the year, 

 either in its perfection, or nearly so, 

 will, in my estimation, revolutionize 

 bee-keeping. I do not say that my 

 experiments prove that the reversing 

 system will alone accomplish the re- 

 sults above mentioned, nor am I sure 

 that these grand results cannot be 

 attained without rev^ible frames ; 

 yet I have faith that reversing the 

 brood-combs may yet become a great 

 and practical help to their attainment. 

 I am ciuite sure of what I wish to at- 

 tain, and am also hopeful of accom- 

 plisliing what I desire. Most cer- 

 tainly the more plain, simple and 

 automatic the process, the better. 



After one season's experience with 

 reversible frames, I am strongly im- 

 pressed that we have not, as yet, 

 learned the proper and the best use of 

 them. It is with them as with the 

 advanced' step from box-hives to 

 movable-frame hives. One quickly 

 learns what he can mechanically do 

 with these frames ; learns how easily 

 he can remove the combs that they 

 contain ; but it requires years of ex- 

 perience to learn to move them at 

 such times, and only at sucli times as 

 will bring a blessing rather tlian a 

 damage as the result of such removal. 

 I have heard no one mention that if 



