ITALIANS VS. NATIVE BEES. 



Mr. Williams' success wltli tlie black 

 bees, working in boxes, was better than 

 with the Italians. The Italians appeared to 

 dwindle worse than the black bees in the 

 spriufi; but the Italians were easier ban- 

 died, and were not troubled so much with 

 moths as the l)lacks. On tlie whole, he pre- 

 ferred the Italians. 



H. W. Lee preferred tlie Italians. Their 

 queens are more prolific, easily overcoming 

 spring dwindling. 



Mr. Willikin prefers Italians, because 

 they work on red clover when the blacks 

 would not. 



T. E. Turner gave the preference to the 

 Italians over tiie blacks. Had seen them in 

 great abundance on the red clover, but had 

 never seen a black bee on it. Italians 

 seemed sometimes to prefer the red clover 

 to the white. Italians would stay on the 

 combs, when handling, while the blacks 

 would run to the sides of the liive. It took 

 much longer to find a black queen than it 

 did to find an Italian. They are proof 

 against moths. 



* Mr. Kiester thought Italians were much 

 better than the native bees. 



PKEPAKING BEES FOK WINTER. 



Mr. Lee had fed sugar syrup in Septem- 

 ber, when bees failed to store enough honey 

 for winter, and his bees wintered well on it. 

 Fed late in the evening, by pouring the 

 syrup right on the cluster in the hive. He 

 preferred summer honey, rather than fall 

 honey, bees wintered on it were less liable 

 to disease. He would feed honey after this 

 and not sugar, for those who did not under- 

 stand the matter thought he fed sugar syrnp 

 to be extracted and sold for Inniey. He 

 takes otf the lioney board and puts on old 

 sacks or cloth, to keep bees warm and to 

 absorb moisture. Had always wintered in 

 the cellar. 



Mr. Williams had kept bees in box hives 

 until recently, and had wintered out of 

 doors successfully. He now wintered his 

 bees in the cellar, giving ventilation through 

 wire cloth. 



T. E. Turner wintered bees in the cellar, 

 and this winter put on a piece of muslin in 

 place of a honey board. He preferred ripe 

 summer honey to fall honey or sugar syrup, 

 for winter feeding. 



COMB FOUNDATION. 



.1. Stewart considered comb foundation a 

 great success. It enabled the bee-keeper to 

 get all straight worker-combs. 



R. M. Millikin had used it for starters, 

 during two seasons, and liked it very much. 



J. Fehr tried It, but was not very success- 

 ful; expects to try it again next season. 



T. E. Turner considered it a success, if 

 used only for coud) guides; and, if used 

 more extensively, it would give all worker- 

 comb, which could not be got where bees 

 were allowed to build all the comb them- 

 selves. 



NATUKAI. AND AKTIFICIAL SAVARMING. 



Mr. Lee liked both natural and artificial 

 swarming, under some circumstances. He 

 liked the artificial method when he had 



plenty of empty combs to fill the hives, and 

 a fertile queen to introduce into the queen- 

 less pai't. But, if he had neither empty 

 combs nor fertile queens, he liked natural 

 swarming the best. Such swarms usually 

 build straight combs, and were not so apt to 

 cast second swarms. He thought cells- 

 from a hive that had cast a natural swarm 

 produced more prolific queens than those 

 produced by artificial swarming. 



Mr. Keister also thought forced queens- 

 were not so prolific as those produced by 

 natural swarming. 



Mr. Williams liked artificial swarming^ 

 but lets his bees do their own swarming^ 

 mostlv. 



T. E. Turner never practiced natural 

 swarming, because lie had no bees to spare- 

 to go off to the woods. He did not like the 

 artificial method of dividing, unless he had 

 a fertile queen for each part; still, be pre- 

 ferred it to natural swarming. He had tried 

 nucleus swarming and thought that the 

 best method of increasing stocks. 



FERTILE AVORKERS. 



Mr. Lee had got rid of a fertile worker by 

 caging a fertile queen in the hive 10 or 13^ 

 days before releasing her. He thought the 

 surest plan to get rid of fertile workers was- 

 to unite the bees with a hive near it that 

 had a fertile queen, and then in a few day& 

 divide the united stock, if thought best. — 

 He had not tried that plan, but could not 

 see why it would not work satisfactorily. 



Mr. Williams had a hive in which lie had 

 4 Italian queens killed, and he introduced 

 a black queen successfully. 



T. E. Turner had but little experience 

 with fertile workers. He had been told a 

 good plan to get rid of one was, taking the 

 bees 20 rods away and scattering then* 

 around on the ground, and then letting them 

 fly back to tlieir old stand. But he thought 

 uniting bees with some other colony, and 

 afterwards dividing again, would be the 

 most economical plan. 



BOBBING AND ITS CURE. 



Mr. Lee keeps the entrance contracted 

 and honey out of the way of bees, to pre- 

 vent robbing. When robbing was general, 

 all over the apiary, he had stopped it by 

 closing and opening the entrances of all the 

 hives alternately, for a few times in quick 

 succession. The bees became confused 

 and the robbing stopped. If but one hive 

 was robbing another, he had stopped it by 

 exchanging places of the two hives. 



T. E. Turner found robbing was like 

 many other things— more easily prevented 

 than cured. He had been told, a good way 

 to stop robbing was to put loose straw over 

 the entrance of the hive tliat was being 

 robbed. 



MARKETING HONEY. 



Mr. Williams has his honey stored in old- 

 fashioned boxes, and puts his extracted 

 honey in Mason jars, and sells it all at the 

 same iirice. 



Mr. Lee tinds that some customers want 

 honey in frames, and otiiers want it in 

 boxes; and to suit all customers, the pro- 

 ducer must have it iu the shape in which it 



