THiE SMERicatp* mmm j&JjRumiL. 



121 



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that the small cells were apt to hatch 

 first; and the large ones produce the 

 best queens. This was why many de- 

 stroy the small cells. 



Another question brought up was, if 

 there really was such a thing as an 

 "eight-day queen." 0]>inions wore 

 divided on this subject ; the President 

 thought that a queen hatched in much 

 less than ten days, was the result of 

 bees consuming the oldest larva;. Bees 

 hatched from old larva; always give 

 much trouble. 



EVENING SESSION. 



The evening session was opened at 

 7 o'clock, with a discussion on the 

 question of how to best secure reduced 

 freight rates on honey. The one great 

 trouble in shipping honey, it was de- 

 veloped by the discussion, is the care- 

 lessness of the freight-handlers. Mr. 

 Dickinson thought that a shipper 

 should personally superintend his own 

 shipments. From the discussion, it 

 would seem that the Inter-State Com- 

 merce Commission is not veryjjopular 

 with the honey-producers. It is im- 

 possible to secure reduced rates. Mr. 

 Dickinson thought the Commission was 

 appointed in the interests of the rail- 

 ways, instead of the shippers. 



As a result of the discussion, a com- 

 mittee consisting of O. L. Hershiser, 

 C. G. Dickinson, and W. H. Dodge, of 

 Charlottle, Vt., was appointed to con- 

 fer with the Northwestern Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Society, in regard to taking steps 

 to secure reduced freight-rates. 



The question, "Has it paid honey- 

 producers to buy Italian and other im- 

 ported queens ?" was discussed in an 

 essay by Ira Barber. In the absence 

 of Mr. Barber, the essay was read by 

 the Secretar}'. Mr. Barber had a good 

 word for the Italian queen. He thought 

 that she had a good influence, and was 

 perfectly satisfactory. 



NEW RACES OF BEES. 



Secretary Knickerbocker next read 

 an essay on " The new races of bees." 

 The Syrians were the first dealt with. 

 While Mr. Knickerbocker had a good 

 word for the imported bees, he closed 

 with this bit of advice: "In these 

 times of close competition, low prices, 

 and uncertainty in the honey crop, my 

 advice" is, that if you have a good 

 working colony of bees, you should 

 not 'fool' away your money in secur- 

 ing fauc}', new and untried races of 

 bees." 



An interesting discussion followed 

 Mr. Knickerbocker's essay, " My opin- 

 ion is," said Chester Olmstead, " that 

 if we took as much pains with the 

 black bees, as with the Italians, they 

 would be more profitable. I find the 

 Italians altogether too liable to 

 swarm." 



Mr. Ashliy preferred the brown bee. 

 He did not lik(^ black ones. Italians, 

 h(! thought, iici'ded ,l(!ss food for wiut(;r 

 tlian the lilacks. The blacks' doing so 

 well in honey-gathering, hail myslilicd 

 him. 



Mr. Dickinson thought it was strange 

 that Italian bees had been cultivated 

 here for 28 j-ears successfully, and that 

 bee-keepers w(!re just coming to 

 think them worthless. " A cross is 

 better than a thoroughbred," said he, 

 "for practical i)urposes. One thing in 

 favor of the Italian queen is, that 3'ou 

 can find her when yon want hei'. A 

 black queen cannot be depended upon; 

 she does not stay at home and attend 

 to business. The Italian queen does 

 not wander more than half a mile 

 from home, and it does not take more 

 than an hour to find her." 



Mr. Hershiser said that he believed 

 a race of bees given to swarming, if 

 properly cared for, was more profit- 

 able as honey-producers. That was 

 why he liked the Italian bees. 



Mr. Cyrenus said that as far as 

 money was concerned, the Italians had 

 never helped him out. On the other 

 hand, if the blacks had been given the 

 same care, as to their fine points, as 

 the Italians have had, they would have 

 improved as much as the Italians 

 have. 



Speaking on the matter of improv- 

 ing bees, Mr. Betsinger said : " I do 

 not believe there has been, in the past 

 forty years, what can be called 'im- 

 provement' in either the Italian or the 

 black bees. It is the bee-keepers, and 

 not the bees, that have improved." 



President Elwood said that he be- 

 lieved there was as much difference 

 between various Italian bees, as be- 

 tween Italians and blacks. No one 

 race would succeed in all parts of the 

 country. In short yields of white 

 honey, the hybrids were superior ; for 

 gathering buckwheat honey, he thought 

 that the black bee was superior to the 

 Italian. 



An adjournment was taken at the 

 close of the discussion, to 9 o'clock the 

 next morning. 



HIVING- BEES. 



All Experience with a Swarm 

 on a Stump.Root. 



Written Jor the American Bee Journal 



BY D. CHALMERS. 



On the morning of Aug. 16, 1889, 

 about 9 a.m., I was busy in the har- 

 vest-field pulling peas, when a Mr. 

 Erb came to me, and after the ordi- 

 nary greetings, he informed me that 

 two days previous, he had found a 

 swarm of bees on a stump-root, which 

 he wished me to go and hive for him. 



I told him that I doul)ted very much 

 whether tlicre would be any bees by 

 this time, on the stump, but he as- 

 sured me that there were. 



He told me tliat he got a couple of 

 young lads (sons of an old fogy) to 

 try and hive them for him, on the day 

 he found them, but it balllcd their 

 skill. 



To understand the position of the 

 bees, the reader will have to imagine 

 a large pine stump, about 2J feet in 

 diameter, all charred, and left stand- 

 ing above ground Ijy forest fires ; one 

 of its largest roots shot out in a north- 

 erly direction for some distance, and 

 then formed two, each branch being 

 about 3 feet long, and their ends were 

 about 18 inches above terra firmn. On 

 the extremity of one of these roots the 

 bees are supposed to have clustered, 

 as that is where Mr. Erb found them, 

 and when he called in the lads, they 

 brought an old basket-hive with them, 

 which thej' tried to force the bees to 

 inhabit. 



The honey-gathering insects were 

 developed h}^ a kick on the root, and 

 took " the drop" all right, but would 

 not enter the basket " worth a cent," 

 but, instead, kept re-clustering, and 

 the would-be bee-men took them by 

 handfuls, and slammed them on the 

 ground in front of the basket hive, 

 killing raanj-, and irritating the sur- 

 vivors, as myriads betook themselves 

 to stinging both the operators and Mr. 

 Erb. 



All attempts to hive the bees proved 

 futile, and had just to leave the bees 

 where found, but charged Mr. Erb 50 

 cents, to purchase whisky to drive the 

 poison out ! So Mr. Erb came to me 

 two days later, very anxious that I 

 should try my skill, and was willing 

 to pay me for it. I thereupon tried to 

 scare him bj' refusing to leave the har- 

 vest-field for less than 50 cents (as the 

 bees were all of three miles away) ; but 

 he at once accepted my offer. 



Then I said to him that it was non- 

 sense, at that time of year, to think of 

 bees starting on nothing, and be able 

 to build enough comb and store suffi- 

 cient honey to winter on. Mr. E. said 

 that he could not afford to buy any- 

 thing to help them, and I then offered 

 to furnish a hive and enough combs, 

 from which I had recently been ex- 

 tracting, and if the bees lived until 

 next summer, be could pay me for 

 them ; but if, on the contrary, they 

 should succumb, I would take the arti- 

 cles back.. He considered my offer — 

 all that he could wish for — and off we 

 started for home, and collected (as I 

 thought) every requirement for the 

 occasion, and were soon at the stump, 

 where, sure enough, we found the bees 

 still clinging to the charred root 

 (strange to say, they had no comb 



