648 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOJRNAL. 



principally for comb honey, increased 

 his apiary to 200 colonies, and in 

 August doubled them back to 220. 

 He thinlis that they are lighter in 

 stores at this date than they were 

 when he united them in August. Mr. 

 D. C. Smoke, of Poweshiek county, 

 put 17 colonies into the cellar last fall, 

 carried out 17 colonies in the spring, 

 and on June 1 had but 2 left. He then 

 bought 20, and increased all to 44 col- 

 onies. His crop for the season of 

 1885 was 200 pounds of comb honey 

 and 900 pounds of extracted. He kept 

 his cellar at an even temperature of 

 32P. The yield of honey was fair in 

 the first part of the season, but there 

 had been no honev for the last five or 

 six weeks. Mr. .1. L. Edwards, of 

 Johnston county, had 2 colonies last 

 spring, and now he has 14, strong in 

 bees but light in honey. 



Mr. Frank Curl, of Des Moines, 

 gave his experience with foul brood. 

 He thinks that the starvation plan is 

 the best way to handle it. When it 

 gets into a 'locality in the South it is 

 there to slay, and continues to spread, 

 the winters not being cold enough to 

 freeze out the wild bees which are 

 very numerous in that climate. Mr. 

 Geo. M. Thompson, of Greene county, 

 put away 4 colonies last fall, and all 

 were wintered, but he lost some by 

 spring dwindling. Mr. Wm. Kimball, 

 of Clinton county, put 160 colonies 

 into a bee-house last fall, lost one in 

 the winter, and three after putting 

 them out. His bee-house was partly 

 under ground. He has increased his 

 apiary to 200 colonies in good condi- 

 tion, and worked them for comb 

 honey. Mr. O. O. Poppleton, of 

 Chickasaw county, had 236 colonies 

 packed out-of-doors last fall, and 110 

 of them came through the winter in 

 good condition. He increased them 

 to 200 colonies. 



The general report as to the loss of 

 bees last winter was, "very heavy;" 

 and as to the honey crop this season, 

 " only fair," or " below the average." 



Dr. Oren asked, " Will the age of 

 bees affect the wintering of coloniesV" 

 He gave some of his experience with 

 old bees, and thinks that there is not 

 much difference. Mr. Poppleton 

 thought it only affected them in the 

 spring, after being taken out, when 

 the weather is cold enough to retard 

 the rearing of brood. ^Ir. Tracey 

 thought when the queen stopped lay- 

 ing early, the bees would come out 

 in the spring in a poorer condition 

 than when she keeps up her share of 

 the work until October. 



The convention then adjourned to 

 meet at 2 p.m. 



APTERNOON SESSIOX. 



The report of the Treasurer was 

 read, showing a balance of §36.74 on 

 hand, and also accepted. The annual 

 election of ofiicers resulted as follows: 

 President. O. O. Poppleton ; Vice- 

 President, i). C. Smoke; Secretary, 

 A. J. Xorris ; and the Treasurer, 

 Mr. Sorrick, was re-elected. 



The executive committee were in- 

 structed to purchase a tent for next 

 season's meeting. Rev. O. Clute, 

 AVm. Kimball, and A. J. Norris were 



made a committee to arrange a stan- 

 dard of excellence for honey and bees, 

 and to bring the same before the 

 State Board of Agriculture at their 

 annual meeting this winter. 



The old problem of " Shallow vs. 

 deep frames" was then discussed. 



Mr. Tracey uses a frame 8 inches 

 deep; Mr. Kimball uses frames 11 

 inches deep, and 9 in a hive. He pre- 

 fers to have more honey in the brood- 

 nest. Mr. C. P. Hunt said that he 

 had used the American and Lang- 

 stroth frames, but preferred a frame 

 10 inches deep, and 10 in a hive, both 

 for comb and extracted honey. Mr. 

 Rittenbender thinks that there should 

 be a standard frame for extracted 

 honey, and also one for comb honey. 

 Mr. P. G. McGau, from Illinois, a 

 former student of Rev. L. L. Lang- 

 stroth. said that undoubtedly the deep 

 frame was the best to winter bees on, 

 but one deeper than the Langstroth 

 frame would be detrimental to the 

 production of comb honey. He ad- 

 vised all to use the Langstroth hive 

 only, for it was taking the place of all 

 others. He said that a hive holding 

 63,000 cells was just right ; a prolific 

 queen would lay 3,000 eggs in 24 hours, 

 and that would keep each hive full. 



Dr. Oren explained his method of 

 wintering bees. He places his (Lang- 

 stroth) hives at an angle of 45°, in 

 rows along the cellar, and puts on 

 planks; then another row, and so on 

 until the cellar is full. He said that 

 the advantages were that it made a 

 deep frame out of a shallow one, and 

 when a bee died it would roll out in- 

 stead of being carried out by a live, 

 healthy bee, to perish on the cellar 

 bottom with her dead sister. 



It was finally decided that a shallow 

 frame was best for all purposes, when 

 wintering bees in the cellar. 



" Does it pay to unite weak colonies 

 in the spring V" 



Mr. Smoke thought it not best 

 when there was a good queen to be 

 sacrificed. Mr. Tracey and others 

 thougiit that it did not pay. 



" Does the use of foundation in the 

 sections injure the sale of comb 

 honey V" 



Some thought that in the future, 

 when people became betteracquainted 

 with comb foundation, it would not 

 be objectionable. Mr. Rittenbender 

 thought that good, new foundation 

 would be drawn out as thin as natural 

 comb. 



The convention then adjourned to 

 meet on the following day at 9 a.m. 

 An invitation was given to meet in 

 the evening at Mr, J. M. Shuck's of- 

 fice, in Des Moines. 



The failure to have a tent this sea- 

 son was unavoidable, but next year it 

 will be a sure thing. Some of the 

 members present offo-red to make tlie 

 amount sutficient to purchase a tent 

 large enough to accommodate the 

 convention in its more prosperous 

 days. 



On Thursday forenoon the Associa- 

 tion extended their thanks for the 

 Homestead Tent, and adjourned until 

 some time next season, notice of time 

 and place of meeting to be given here- 

 after. 



A. J. NORiiis, Sec. 



Connecticut Farmer. 



Feeding Bees for Winter Stores. 



H. L. JEFFREY. 



This month and the forepart of next 

 is the time bees should be closed up 

 in the hives for winter, and those 

 without enough stores for wintering 

 should be fed immediately, if they are 

 intended to be wintered. 



Those in box-hives that have a box- 

 chamber should have the boxes taken 

 out and the chamber filled with fine 

 hay, grain chaff, or dry cobs to absorb 

 tlie escaping moisture, and it often 

 prevents the combs from being frost, 

 broken ; those without a chamber 

 should have a piece of board laid on 

 the top to prevent the freezing and 

 thawing of the top edges of the combs. 

 Those having scanty stores can be fed 

 with the fruit-jar feeder in the cham- 

 ber, or with a pan filled with syrup, 

 and placed under the hive. 



To make the food to rise in either 

 the fruit-jar or pan, take two quarts 

 of either coffee A or C sugar and one 

 quart of boiling water, to which add 

 a small pinch of salt and a half tea- 

 spoonful of cream tartar. These pro- 

 portions make a very safe feed, and if 

 properly attended to it is even better 

 than honey in a great many cases. 



Movable-comb hives should be 

 looked over and examined closely. 

 The combs of colonies of medium 

 strength should be reduced to about 

 5, if they contain about 20 pounds of 

 honey, the amount usually consumed 

 from October till May ; and if they 

 are snugly tucked up it will last longer 

 than if allowed to winter carelessly. 



A colony may be considered safe to 

 put up for winter if it has 15 pounds 

 of honey and a division-board placed 

 snugly on each side and fastened 

 firmly in place. The vacant space 

 may be packed with dry apple-tree 

 leaves, chaff or fine hay, and a piece 

 of coarse cloth placed over the top of 

 the frames with a quantity of the 

 same material above the frames ; and 

 when bees are thus provided for they 

 can be called in fair condition to win- 

 ter. All colonies that are given what 

 combs they can conveniently cover, 

 and shut down with tight division- 

 boards, being well packed in the 

 spaces and above the frames, will in 

 every case, if they contain a good 

 queen, come out one-third better than 

 the same colony that is left, alone. 

 They do not feel the variable cold and 

 warm weather in the fall ; then when 

 spring comes they do not fly out on 

 the first warm day that comes, but 

 when they do begin to stir they will 

 get along a great deal faster than 

 others not packed; and will, in most 

 every case, show a very marked differ- 

 ence when the time comes to either 

 swarm or take surplus from them. In 

 nine cases out of ten, of colonies 

 taken care of as directed, 12 will do 

 better than 18 if left without care, 

 besides the difference in the amount 

 of honey consumed in the 2 methods. 



If it is feared that a colony has not 

 honey enough in thenumber of combs 

 best adapted to its strength, take as 

 many pounds of sugar as will make 



