THl? fEMERICJlPi BEE JQURNSLr. 



265 



the honey was fed to the bees, and all 

 died. The See brothers, of Geneva, he 

 said, had good results in wintering bees 

 on lire-weed honey. 



Mr. Coon spoke of disastrous results 

 from too much extracting, and would 

 not extract any honey from the brood- 

 nest— mi fact he did liot use tlie extract- 

 or at all, only in extracting for others, 

 except to extract from unfilled sections. 

 He extracted for a neighbor who laid 

 his loss of bees to cellar-wintering ; but 

 he believed it to be caused from taking 

 all the good honey from the bees. He 

 would advise saving the good combs 

 for wintering. 



Mr. McLean and Mr. Sutton found 

 buckwheat honey very good for winter- 

 ing bees. 



-Vn expression was taken as to which 

 was best for wintering, an extra large 

 colony, or a medium one ; the vote was 

 unanimous in favor of the medium col- 

 ony for good results in wintering. 



Mr. Sutton said that feeding broken 

 combs to bees would start brood-rear- 

 ing, which, if late in the fall, would be 

 apt to bring on disaster, because the 

 young bees were too weak for winter- 

 ing. 



"How would you dispose of second 

 swarms ?" 



Mr. Sutton— Place a bush tied to a 

 pole near the cluster ; they will settle 

 on it, and you can lean it up against 

 something; then take the queencelJs 

 all out of the hive and put ihe swarm 

 back where it came from, unless more 

 colonies are wanted ; if so, hive it in a 

 new hive. 



Mr. Lefever said that if it was a 

 choice colony, crowd it by stimulation 

 so that it will swarm early. Old colo- 

 nies could be divided and queen- cells 

 inserted. 



'• How late did you ever have a swarm 

 issue and live V"' 



Mr. Green had one come on August 

 17. and it did well. 



Mr. Mason had one come on Septem- 

 ber 17, and it gathered honey enough to 

 live on until spring. 



The general opinion was that late and 

 second swarms were not desirable, be- 

 cause the clusters would be too small 

 to winter successfully. The conven- 

 tion then adjourned until evening. 



WEDNESDAY EVENING. 



The first question for the evening 

 was : " Is the catching of swarms in 

 traps, at the entrance of hives, as they 

 issue, a success V 



M. E. Mason said that it was a suc- 

 cess with him. The box is made of 

 thin stuflf and is 24 inches long, 14 

 inches wide, and 10 inches deep. The 

 top of the box is made of wire-cloth. 

 A contiection made of lip. extends from 

 the lower edge of the box, as wide as 

 the hive-entrance; the box is placed at 

 the hive just as the swarm commences 

 to come out. The swarm must be al- 

 lowed to remain in the box a short time, 

 — long enough to become quiet, or the 

 bees will take wing again when let out 

 of the box. The bees are emptied out 

 by a three-inch door, the length of the 

 box. 



A few present had used the Alley 

 queen and drone trap successfully. 



'■ Is it advisable to have hives stand 

 in the shade ':"' was next discussed. 



J. H. Haggertv. of Polk, Pa., likes 

 the shade from U o'clock to 3 p.m. He 

 will have grape-vines for shade in the 

 near future. 



Mr. Coon was troubled several times 

 by bees swarming out. Sometimes 

 several swarms were in the air at the 

 same lime. He shaded them with a 

 shade-board, and raised up the hives 

 about one-half inch, and had no more 

 trouble. He now ventilates the hives 

 by raising the cover a little. 



Mr. McLean would have temporary 

 shade. He had his bees in an orchard, 

 and noticed that those in the dense 

 shade did not do so well as those in the 

 sun. The bees need much sun when 

 working on white clover. 



" What is the best method of prepar- 

 ing bees for winter V" 



Mr. Haggerty Brst wintered his bees 

 on ten Langstroth frames, but he now 

 uses from six to seven, and has one on 

 but three frames. His bees are packed 

 tightly, with only a hole in the bottom- 

 board" covered with wire- cloth, for 

 ventilation ; he uses a few frames be- 

 cause he used too many at first,^and 

 there was too much honey. He has 

 chaff on top, too, and closes the en- 

 trances of his hives, but opens them 

 on warm days to give the bees a flight. 

 Too many bees are lost in the snow, if 

 the entrances are left open. 



Mr. Sutton said if success is desired 

 in wintering bees, they must be pre- 

 pared early in the fall. If they need 

 feeding, feed early. He prefers the 

 jelly-glass feeder— an atmospheric feed- 

 er, and makes a syrup of 2o pounds of 

 sugar and 10 pounds of water. Last 

 fall the buckwheat was cut off early, so 

 he had to feed ; he prefers feeding su- 

 gar to feeding good comb honey, be- 

 cause it is cheaper ; but best of all, 

 have frames filled with honey. 



Mr. Wilson had sugar to crystallize 

 for him ; but crystallization can be pre- 

 vented by using a little glycerine in the 

 syrup. 



Mr. Mason said that he had more 

 trouble in "springing" than in win- 

 tering bees. The first good day in 

 spring he lakes out all the frames that 

 the bees cannot cover, closes up the 

 frames with division-boards on each 

 side, and covers with oil-cloth so as to 

 economize heat, which assists in brood- 

 rearing. 



Mr. Sutton also uses oil-cloth over 

 his bees in summer. 



What must a person do, whose bees 

 need feeding in winter V If bees are 

 in the cellar they might be fed the 

 " Good " candy. If out-doors, let them 

 alone, or feed over the cluster. 



Is it advisable to raise the hives from 

 the bottom- boards? If so, how high V 

 Quite a number prefer a slight ventila- 

 tion at the top of the hive. 



iJoes it do anv harm to have the en- 

 trance of the hive covered with snow ? 

 No ; not with upward ventilation. 



Tlie convention adjourned until 0:30, 

 Thursday morning. 



SEOOISriD IDA-^Sr. 



MORNING SESSION. 



The convention was called to order 

 at 9:30 a.m.. by President Lefever. 



The first question : " Is it profitable to 

 use sections with full sheets of founda- 



tion, that were in the hive the previous 

 season, but not drawn out V" 



Mr. Sutton did not use full sheets of 

 foundation in the sections,— only start- 

 ers. He thought that he got a thinner 

 septum by using starters only. 



Mr. Mason said that it all depended 

 upon the appearance of the sections ; if 

 very badly spotted and covered with 

 propolis, he would not use them ; if the 

 sections are clean, and if the founda- 

 tion is badly eaten at the corners, as it 

 often is, he would cut out the old 

 foundation and put it on the wax-pile, 

 as it is impossible to get honey in nice 

 shape with foundation thus eaten. He 

 would advise all to use full sheets of 

 foundation in the sections, because then 

 you have all worker-comb. If only 

 starters are used in the sections, bees 

 are apt to build drone-comb at the bot- 

 tom of the starter, which, atswarming- 

 time or before, is very apt to tempt the 

 queen to go into the sections, especial- 

 ly if there is none, or but very little, 

 drone-comb in the brood-nest. 



Mr. Lefever referred to bee-keepers 

 who had lost bees in wintering, which 

 he attributed to excessive contraction 

 of the brood-nest at the time of the 

 white-honey harvest. He would not 

 have less than eight frames, so that the 

 bees would have good honey to winter 

 on. 



After a lively discussion it was found 

 that the majority rather favored not too 

 large a hive, yet more opposed too much 

 contraction at the time of the honey 

 harvest. The election of ollicers for the 

 ensuing year was the next business in 

 order, and resulted as follows : 



W. A. McLean, of Osborn, Pa., Pres- 

 ident : H. S Sutton, of Franklin, Pa., 

 first Vice President; George Spitler, 

 of :Mosiertown, Pa., Secretary, and R. 



D. Reynolds, of Cooperstown, Pa., 

 Treasurer. Executive Committee, M. 



E. Mason, D. II. Lefever, and C. H. 

 Coon. 



Cleveland, O., was chosen for the 

 next meeting, at the same date as the 

 meeting of the Ohio State Beekeepers' 

 Association. 



" What is the best method of extract- 

 ing wax from old combs?" was asked. 



Mr. Sutton puts broken-up combs into 

 burlap sacks, which are then put into 

 a wash-boiler, or large kettle ; when 

 melted, he presses it out as best he can 

 by using sticks to press it with. 



Some use the Swiss wax-extractor. 

 Different methods were given, but none 

 seemed to be perfectly satisfactory with 

 old combs. There was no trouble with 

 new combs. Be cautious, and do not 

 boil the wax. 



The convention then adjourned until 

 1 p.m. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



The first question was : " What other 

 business is best suited to go with bee- 

 keeping ?" 



Mr. McLean thought that fish-culture 

 would go well with beekeeping if a 

 person was rightly situated. 



Mr. Lake has fish, bees and chickens, 

 but they all need attending to at the 

 right time, if success is desired. 



Mr.Lefever said that poultry will help, 

 and he believes that winter dair}ing 

 will pay the best of anything in connec- 

 tion with bee keeping, if a person has 



