THE AMERlCAl^ JJEE JUURNAL. 



743 



Dcavenport, viz., that of flower- farm- 

 ing. The bee-industry had peculiar 

 claims to their favor, since it would 

 give employment to ladies and to 

 men, and young people who could not 

 otherwise profitably occupy their 

 time ; or perliaps enable them to raise 

 money with which to enter upon other 

 pursuits. 



Mr. G. Taplin asked whether black 

 bees and Ligurians could be kept in 

 the same apiary without injury. 



Mr. Bonney replied that there 

 would be an almost certainty of rear- 

 ing hybrids, which was not desirable. 

 The two kinds ought not to be kept, 

 if possible, within three miles of 

 each other. 



In answer to a question, Mr. Cole- 

 man said that Mr. Dobbie's estimate 

 of the value of his honey harvest was 

 rather too high, but he had not yet 

 made out the balance-sheet. 



Mr. J. F. Conigrave mentioned that 

 Dr. B. Poulton had suggested that an 

 apiary should be established at the 

 Roseworthy Experimental Farm, and 

 that practical instruction should be 



fiven there in the management of 

 ees. Prof. Custance now had the 

 matter in contemplation. 



Mr. J. Robertson said that for 

 amateurs he would recommend the 

 black bees in preference to the Ligur- 

 ians, chiefly because of the great 

 expense of the queen of the latter, 

 and the risk of losing her. After they 

 had gotten experience in management 

 they could introduce a Ligurian 

 queen, and thus Ligurianize the 

 colony. Members could obtain every 

 information how to rear and multiply 

 these queens by attending the meet- 

 ings, and seei^ing information from 

 the experienced members. The prac- 

 tice was most interesting and instruc- 

 tive, as there were many facts in 

 relation to the natural history of the 

 queens which it was desirable to find 

 out. 



Dr. Cockburn had once thought 

 there was a lot of mystery in the man- 

 agement of bees, by the modern 

 system, bnt upon purchasing some 

 colonies, and getting a little instruc- 

 tion, lie found that it was remarkably 

 simple, and the people about James- 

 town and the Northern Areas were 

 becoming much interested in bees 

 since he had started his apiary on a 

 small scale. 



After some others had spoken, the 

 report of the committee was adopted. 



The officers for the ensuing year 

 were then appointed as follows : 



President, Hon. R. D. Ross. 



Vice-Presidents, Mr. S. Solomon 

 and Dr. B. Poulton. 



Committee, Messrs. R. Couch, E. A. 

 Coleman, J. H. Wiedenhofer, H. G. 

 James, A.W. Dobbie, J. Liddle, J. H. 

 Walters, S. Randell, H. H. Dollman, 

 J. Robertson, and A. Molineux. 



Treasurer, Mr. W. Stevens. 



Secretary, Mr. A. E. 15onney. 



A vote of thanks to the President 

 was passed. 



Mr. A. E. Bonney practically 

 showed how he would transfer a 

 colony of bees from an ordinary 

 kerosene-box into a bar-frame hive. 



Mr. J. Robertson explained what he 

 would do to restore a queen to a 



colony which had lost that important 

 member of the community. 



After several questions had been 

 asked and answered, the members 

 and friends examined a large number 

 of exhibits of bee-appliances, and 

 separated at a late hour. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Prevention of Swarming, etc. 



G. C. GREINEK. 



Mr. W. A. Shewman's article on 

 page 585, reminds me of the bee- 

 campaigns some 6 or 8 years ago. I 

 then believed that prevention of 

 swarming was the desideratum of 

 bee-keeping, and I used all the differ- 

 ent ways described to accomplish the 

 object. Looking back to that period, 

 I am now well satisded that a great 

 deal of time and labor was wasted in 

 trying to manage bees in that way, 

 not saying anything about working 

 against my own interest. 



Mr. Sliewman is entitled to great 

 credit for producing such a yield as 

 his report shows, taking into' consid- 

 eration the disadvantage of the 

 management under which he has been 

 laboring. A peep into our honey- 

 house would satisfy him that swarm- 

 ing (or even dividing) was a decided 

 advantage. My yield in honey, as 

 well as swarms, was about double 

 that which he reports on page 586. 



How Mr. S. succeeded in keeping 

 his bees from swarming, by simply 

 taking one comb of brood and giving 

 one frame of foundation in its place, 

 and repeating the operation a second 

 time, is a mystery to me ; unless his 

 bees were not given to swarming that 

 season without such treatment. Bees 

 under the same management, and 

 seemingly the same condition, are 

 more inclined to swarm in one season 

 than they are in another. 



Two years ago I had an apiary of 

 20 colonies about 4 miles from our 

 homestead, and being very anxious 

 that tliose bees should not swarm, I 

 tried the same plan as Mr. S. describes 

 as being successful,with the exception 

 that I used empty combs instead of 

 foundation, and that I repeated the 

 operation every week, and even 

 oftener with those colonies that 

 seemed the most persistent in their 

 swarming notions. I commenced 

 when the bees began to make prepara- 

 tions for swarming, about June 25, 

 and continued until basswood was in 

 its full bloom, about the middle of 

 July ; and to make it still more eftlca- 

 cious, I destroyed all queen-cells as 

 fast as they were started. The result 

 was, that before the basswood flow 

 was over, 13 swarms had issued. 



Another point I wish to speak of, 

 hoping that it may prevent less ex- 

 perienced bee-keepers from being 

 disappointed in their expectations : 

 Speaking of the way in which he 

 makes use of his combs of brood, 

 taken from the colonies, he says : 

 "But I never saw brood hatch better." 

 I believe I can safely say that, from 

 years of experience, Mr. S. is in some 

 way misled in his assertion. If he 

 could have such combs of brood tliat 



were uniform in their stage of de- 

 velopment, all hatching, and a few 

 days within maturity, they would 

 probably all, or nearly all, hatch, if 

 the weather was favorable. Such 

 combs, however, are very seldom 

 found, and a mixed lot of brood, even 

 if the largest part of it was near 

 hatching, would partly perish without 

 a sufficient number of old bees. It 

 would be an easy matter to start 

 nuclei if we did not have to make 

 provisions for the necessary supply of 

 old bees. This is just the point 

 which requires experience and careful 

 management. 



Last spring I again had occasion to 

 notice a case of this kind. Whilst 

 making preparations for rearing 

 queens, I took from a strong colony 

 a comb of brood, with the queen and 

 adhering bees, and placed them with 

 another comb in an empty hive. In 

 such cases many of the older bees will 

 generally return to the old stand, and 

 to counteract this desertion I took 

 the precaution to shake the bees from 

 another comb of this strong colony, in 

 front of the hive in which I had 

 placed the one comb of brood and 

 queen. This was done in the after- 

 noon, and upon examination the next 

 morning, I found that most of the 

 bees had left their queen, and it was 

 plain to be seen that the brood was 

 not in a prosperous condition. To 

 save the sound brood that was left, 

 and to guard against robbing and the 

 desire to build up this fragment to a 

 strong colony, induced me to exchange 

 the hive with that of a strong colony. 



Naples,K3 N. Y. 



For tlie American Bee JoumaL 



The Season, Making Increase, etc. 



W. MASON, (11—35). 



Bees in this locality have done 

 pretty well, everything considered, 

 especially as regards increase, having 

 fully trebled in number. The bee- 

 pasturage was fine, but the weather 

 was most too wet at times, although 

 a fair yield of honey was obtained 

 from the spring bloom. The fall crop 

 of bloom was immense, but owing to 

 frequent heavy rains, bees stored but 

 little surplus. They worked rapidly 

 between showers, but the honey was 

 used in rearing brood. I never saw 

 more brood during the montli of Sep- 

 tember. As a hile colonies have 

 plenty of winter stores, although a 

 few late colonies had to be fed, owing 

 to the amount of brood reared. 



A few apiaries were troubled with 

 some kind of a disease during August 

 and September. During the night 

 large numbers of bees would die, and 

 in the morning a great many bees 

 would come out of the hives in a 

 paralyzed condition, their wings 

 spread forward, and with their ao- 

 domens very much contracted and 

 coiled as if stung ; but there being 

 much brood on hand, the colonies 

 were not lost. It has all subsided 

 now, and the bees seem to be healthy. 

 Was it " dwindling," or was it the 

 effects of some poisonous matter 

 taken by the bees V 



