THE AMEBIC Al^ BEE JOURNAL. 



631 



Mr. Mason : I am much interested 

 in tliis exliibit. I promised to fill one 

 wing of the building. We all ought 

 to exhibit and make this department 

 interesting. I hope that all will make 

 some kind of an exhibit. 



Mr. Fuller considered it a hard mat- 

 ter to arouse enthusiasm. It was not 

 the premium but the advertisement 

 that would be a bi netit to all pro- 

 ducers of honey. 



Mr. Mason : Several have pledged 

 themselves to make an exhibit. Last 

 year we liad a committee to confer 

 with the managers of the State Fair, 

 but as we could not promise exhibits, 

 we did not get an increase on the 

 premium list. We must promise to 

 exhibit, and turn out with our pro- 

 ducts, in order to increase an interest, 

 advertise our business, and benefit 

 both ourselves and the State. 



Mr. Wellcome : I think it a pity 

 that a pursuit like bee-keeping should 

 go unrepresented. It has been 

 greatly neglected at our Fairs, and it 

 is incumbent upon us to awaken an 

 interest. We should manifest the 

 same enthusiasm as is shown in other 

 departments of agriculture. 



The question, "How many bees is 

 it best to rear for a colony to be placed 

 in winter quarters," was next dis- 

 cussed. 



Mr. Mason : A colony might be too 

 large. I usually do not have so good 

 success with an unusually large col- 

 ony. In such cases I would divide it 

 or else take some of the surplus bees 

 to build up small colonies. The ques- 

 tion is whether an overcrowded col- 

 ony will do better than a medium six 

 or seven frame colony. I do not wish 

 to be understood as advocatinf^ small 

 colonies, but good, fair colonies in- 

 stead of overcrowded ones. 



Mr. Crawford : It is important to 

 know that we have a young, prolific 

 queen to get young bees for winter. 



" IIow much should a colony be fed 

 to properly stimulate breeding in the 

 spring V" 



Mr. Dunham : A colony ought to be 

 fed liberally. We miss it by feeding 

 too little. It is said an ounce a day is 

 as good as more. 



Mr. Mason : If stores are plenty in 

 a hive, I would feed both at morning 

 and evening, one ounce to keep the 

 queen laying. It would not be ad- 

 visable to feed in the morning if any 

 honey is coming in. 



Adjourned to meet at 9 a. m. on the 

 next day. 



SECOND DAY. 



The first in order was an essay by 

 Mr. L. F. Abbott, of the Lewiston 

 Journal^ on "Marketing Honey," 

 which was read by the President. 



Tfcis essay called out a lively dis- 

 cussion regarding the size of honey- 

 packages, especially extracted honey. 

 It seemed to be the prevailing idea 

 that honey should be put in such 

 shape that it could be retailed for 

 even change, many expressing their 

 belief that a 2.5-cent package was onn 

 best calculated to sell on the open 

 market. Nearly all who had used 

 fruit-jars find it difficult to get pay 

 for the jars also. 



Mr. Dunham believed in exact 

 pound packages, not counting the 

 weight or value of the glass or box 

 enclosing the same, and charging for 

 the boxing, glassing, etc., extra. He 

 would weigh each package of comb 

 honey and mark it accordingly. 



Mr. Mason : That might do to re- 

 tail to home customers, but the case 

 would be much different in the mar- 

 ket. 



In answer to the question of 

 how much honey should a colony have 

 to winter safely, Mr. Mason said, 

 " Twenty pounds, at least." 



" IIow shall weestimate the amount 

 of stores in a hive at the commence- 

 mentof winter V" 



Mr. Dunham : A full frame of honey 

 weighs about eight pounds. Taking 

 that as a basis, use judgment on the 

 amount in the hive, and feed addi- 

 tional syrup, enough to make sure of 

 plenty of stores. 



"Is it advisable to remove from the 

 hive those frames containing pollen, 

 (such as are nearly full), on putting 

 bees into winter quarters ?'' 



Mr. Mason : I remove all that are 

 full or nearly so. and return them in 

 the spring. If short of stores, a col- 

 ony might use too much pollen. I 

 would consider it safer to remove 

 such combs. I have found combs 

 partially filled with pollen, having 

 honey stored over the pollen, and 

 sealed. I would not consider this 

 good winter food. 



The habits of the colony during 

 winter were discussed at some length, 

 nearly all giving more or less ex- 

 perience in winter work. Many in- 

 teresting points were evolved during 

 visits to the extensive apiary of Mr. 

 Dunham. 



The following resolution was unani- 

 mously adopted : 



Eesolved, That the thanks of this 

 Association are due Mr. Dunham and 

 family for their generous hospitality. 



The convention then adjourned to 

 meet on the first Tuesday and Wed- 

 nesday in May, ISSti, at the residence 

 of Mr. J. B. Mason, Mechanic Falls, 

 Maine. 



For tlie American Bee JotiniBL 



Small Hives vs. Large Hives. 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



The following is a portion of an 

 article prepared by me for the Cultiva- 

 tor, giving my views on the topic of 

 " Large and Small Hives :" 



IIow persistently most bee-keepers 

 cling to the idea that their profits are 

 increased in proportion to the in- 

 creased yield per hive, or colony ! Suc- 

 cess does not depend on large yields 

 per colony, but on securing the largest 

 possible quantity of honey, in the 

 aggregate, with the least possible ex- 

 penditure of capital and lalior. The 

 question is something like this : Here 

 is an area covered with honey-produc- 

 ing plants — how shall we gather this 

 honey so as to exhaust the Held, with 

 the least expenditure of capital and 

 labor V It is not. how shall we secure 

 the most honey per hive V— as if we 

 were limited as to the number of hives 



we should use, for we can use as few, 

 or as many, as we like ; it is of no 

 prai^tical importance whether it is 

 stored in ten hives or a hundred. 



If queens cost a good round sum, 

 there would be some excuse for large 

 hives, or rather, large brood-nests; 

 and queens would, to a certain ex- 

 lent, be valuable in proportion to their 

 prolificacy. Of course when we rear 

 queens for the market they cost some- 

 thing, as colonies are employed in 

 building cells, others are broken up 

 into nuclei in which to keep the young 

 queens until they are fecundated and 

 begin to lay. Considerable time has 

 to be spent in attending to the busi^ 

 ness ; and there are expenses for ship- 

 ping-cages, postage, advertising, etc., 

 all of which make queens cost some- 

 thing when they are reared to sell. 

 But in an apiary run for honey, in 

 which the bees are allowed to swarm 

 and rear their own queens, the cost 

 of a queen is practically nothing ; 

 while hives, combs and fixtures do 

 cost something, and it is that they 

 maybe all employed, that we reduce 

 the size of the hives to such capacity 

 that the average queen will keep it 

 full of brood. 



Mr. Dadantsays, and truthfully too, 

 that when large hives are employed 

 the bees are less apt to swarm. But if 

 they do swarm, we hive them, and it 

 takes no more combs or hive-room, 

 to accommodate them, than it would 

 had they remained in the old hive, 

 and the bees will store just as much 

 lioney in the new hive as in the old. 

 In fact, many bee-keepers say that 

 more honey is secured when the bees 

 are allowed to swarm at least once. 

 When this idea was advanced— that 

 queens cost nothing — Mr. Dadant 

 said that they " cost the colony 30 

 days without breeding." Mr. Dadant 

 seems to forget that the old queen is 

 laying, and that breeding is going on 

 in the new colony, to an extent equal 

 to what would have been done in the 

 old colony had it not swarmed. He 

 has also exaggerated the time that a 

 colony is queenless, when it swarms. 

 It usually has a laying queen in 18 

 days after it swarms ; and, with the 

 Heddon method of preventing after- 

 swarming, all the laboring workers 

 are drawn froin the old hive to the 

 new at the seventh day after swarm- 

 ing ; hence, the bees are left so weak 

 in numbers as to be able to care for 

 but little brood if they had a gueen. 

 For a few days before a swarm issues, 

 the queen does not lay at her maxi- 

 mum rate, and it is possible that Mr. 

 Dadant Includes this time in making 

 up the " thirty days." 



Mr. Dadant also objects to reduc- 

 ing the brood-nest to five frames when 

 hiving swarms, saying : " Indeed, it 

 looks as if he (Mr. Heddon) thought 

 the less bees we have the better." He 

 seems to forget that we have eight 

 frames at the beginning of the honey 

 harvest, when the production of bees 

 is important. We need bees when 

 there is honey to gather ; after the 

 honey harvest is over we do not care 

 for tliem ; then they are consumers, 

 not producers. Having bees at the 

 right time is one grand secret of suc- 

 cess ; and. having gotten the bees. 



