114 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL 



The questions submitted during the meeting 

 for discussion were as follows : 



1. What is the best way to market honey ? 

 What is machine honey ? How should it be put 

 up for market ? And at what price can it be 

 sohl ? 



2. Is Alsike clover a good honey plant ? Is it, 

 also, a good clover for hay and pasture? Does 

 it bear pasturing freely ? How much seed should 

 be sown on on acre ? Is it advisable to mix the 

 seed with other grasses ? 



3. Can bee-keeping be made a success, so as to 

 be profitable to bee-keepers ? 



4. What time in the season should bees be 

 swarmed ? 



5. What number of colonies can one bee- 

 keeper manage with success ? 



6. Has the bee malady, known as the cholera, 

 re-appeared this season ? If so, where, and to 

 what extent ? Is it contagious, and what is the 

 cause and cure ? 



7. Docs the disease, known as foulbrood, still 

 exist in the Northwest ? If so, where, and to 

 what extent ? Is the disease contagious and cur- 

 able ? Is it safe for western bee-keepers to ob- 

 tain queens or bees from infected districts ? 



8 Can bees be wintered safely in the shallow- 

 est hive in use ? 



9. How many pounds of honey can be extrac- 

 ted per hour with the centrifugal machine ? 

 What per centage of honey is thus removed ? 

 Can thick honey be readily removed without 

 special treatment ? If not, what special treat- 

 ment is necessary ? 



[Conclusion next month.] 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Bees in Tompkins County, New York. 



Mr. Editor : — As the honey season in this vi- 

 cinity, for the jDast summer, has closed, I propose 

 to report briefly the result of this season's ope- 

 rations with bees in this section. Scarcely any 

 surplus honey has been gathered by them, and 

 many of the few swarms that issued are in a 

 starving condition. Some hives are half filled 

 with comb for the most part empty, while others 

 have a few pounds of honey. Old stocks that 

 did not swarm are in a fair condition ; but tlie 

 young swarms, if not fed, will perish the coming 

 winter. I have not in twelve years known so 

 poor a season for bee^in this section. The cold 

 weather we had in June did the mischief, as all 

 strong stocks were then well filled with brood ; 

 but the scarcity of honey which occurred in con- 

 sequence of the protracted cold wet weather, 

 caused the bees to kill their drones, and the 

 queens ceased laying. Many strong colonies 

 starved at that period. 



Bee culture, in this vicinity, is still in a very 

 rude state. The old-fashioned box hives are still 

 most commonly used, with holes in the top, 

 where boxes are placed to receive tlie surplus 

 honey, if there chance to be any stored. In the 

 fall most of the best stocks are taken up. These 

 are what beekeepers here call old stocks, such as 

 swarmed in the spring ; and thus many are taken 

 up whose combs are only one or two years old. 



Now, stocks that have swarmed usually have 

 young and prolific queens, and are much better 

 than the swarms that went out accompanied by 

 the old queens. Stocks here are rarely spared 

 over three years, though occasionally you may 

 find one. You see that most beekeepers here 

 would be called old conservators. A patent hive 

 is at once pronounced a humbug^ by most of 

 them, simply because they have had a friend or 

 some relative who purchased such a hive years 

 ago, and jjrobably the bees did not do well in it, 

 and they of course laid all the blame on the hive. 

 I admit there are many hives now before the y 

 the public that are not worth the cost of the lum- 

 ber they are made of Improved hives, without 

 improved management, are no better than old 

 box hives, in the hands of a great many people. 



Bees in this vicinity are wintered out-doors, 

 and little attention is paid to them from Novem- 

 ber till April. Then, most of them being half 

 dead or in a starving condition, few stocks 

 swarm, and the cry consequently is, "My luck 

 with bees has vanished ! I will take them up, or 

 sell out, and quit the bee business!" Now I 

 think the bees and poor seasons are not near so 

 much to blame, as the careless and negligent 

 apiarian. Last winter a great many bees died 

 in this vicinity — not entire stocks, but perhaijs 

 two-thirds of a colony — leaving the survivors 

 weak and dispirited ; and by the time these had 

 regained strength and were in a condition to 

 swarm, the better part of the brief honey season 

 had passed away. As regards wintering bees 

 I out-doors, in frame hives, it Was a great mystery 

 i to me that mj'' bees in such hives, with honey 

 1 boards removed and a good layer of dry corn- 

 i cobs substituted, died out much faster than in old 

 box hives standing side by side. This mystery 

 was, however, exjilained* b_y Mr. Aaron Bene- 

 dict, in the August number of the Bee Journal, 

 (vol. V, page 28.) That one article alone is 

 worth to me the price of many years' subscrip- 

 tion to the Journal, and I thank friend Benedict 

 very kindly for the valuable information it con- 

 tains. 



I like the Bee Journal better and better, and 

 would not be without it for ten times its cost, 

 and sincerely hope it will be properly appreci- 

 ated by every cultivator of bees, and all give a 

 helping hand to its support. 



D. W. Fletcher. 



Lansingville, N. y. 



Bees in Cities. 



A gentleman in Chicago, whose name is well 

 known to the readers of a very well-edited re- 

 ligious journal, last spring became interested in 

 beekeeiDing. He procured a hive of Italian bees. 

 From this he had two swarms ; afterwards he 

 divided the original swarm, taking away a full 

 swarm and brood enough for half a swarm, tak- 

 ing with this four frames of honey. He has 

 taken forty pounds of suriilus honey, and has 

 now in the hive more than the bees Avill need. 

 Remarkably successful as he has been, we believe 

 he thinks himself best repaid in the interest he 

 has taken in studying the mysteries of beekeep- 

 ing. We commeud his example. 



