THE A3IERICAN APICULTURIST. 



21 



and our beehives and system of man- 

 agement should be judiciously adapted 

 tojtlie wants of the bees during this 

 time. 



4. Early spreading of the brood in 

 the spring, wlien judiciously managed 

 and the brood cliamber kept warm by 

 giving the beesjust the amount of brood 

 room that they need and no more, is 

 productive of much good. At this 

 point Mr. L. C. Root referred to the 

 great importance of using a correct 

 size of brood frame stating that there 

 was a great disadvantage in the long, 

 shallow frame and that the frame must 

 allow the bees to arrange the brood 

 within a spherical cluster. 



5. A circulation of air around or be- 

 tween the combs is detrimental to the 

 bees and should be prevented by using 

 tight-titting cloth covers and division 

 boards. 



6. Honey should be kept in combs to 

 feed to the bees in the spring. When 

 feeding in this way break the cappings 

 and place the comb containing honey 

 between frames of brood. 



7. It does not pay to feed back honey 

 for surplus. 



8. Glucose or grape sugar should 

 not be used as a food for bees or in 

 any other way by beekeepers. 



9. Giving every colony a good pro- 

 lific queen kills natural swarming. 



10. Bees gather honey and do not 

 make it; hence any sweet fed to the 

 bees is placed unchanged into the 

 combs. 



11. Honey just gathered contains 70 

 per cent of water and if it is evaporated 

 artificially the honey is just the same 

 as when evaporated by the bees in the 

 hives. Mr. L. C. Hoot spoke of the 

 experiments that Mr. Quiuby and he 

 had tried, to test this matter; stating 

 that when Mr. Quinby first learned of 

 centrifugal force being applied to hon- 

 ey combs, he improvised an extractor 

 from the parts of a fanning mill and 

 began experimenting with extracting 

 honey both belore and after it had 

 been sealed by the bees, which resulted 

 in proving that honey evaporated by 

 artificial heat was just the same as that 

 evaporated in the hive Jby the bees. 

 Mr. Boot also described his honey 



evaporator of which we hope soon to 

 liave an engraving made for the Api- 



CUL'rURIST. 



12. The desire for natural swarming 

 can be easily controlled where the hon'^ 

 ey extractor is used. 



13. No system of practice in taking 

 box honey will prevent swarming. 



14. Mrs. Thomas of Philadelphia. Pa., 

 never puts on surplus boxes until the 

 hives are filled with honey. 



15. Colonies should not be examined 

 in cold or disagreeable weather, as dis- 

 turl)ing the bees at such times often 

 causes the loss of queens. 



IG. "When bees are not gathering 

 honey rapidly they should not be opened 

 in the middle of the day, as robbers 

 are about and may cause trouble, but 

 during such times the bees should be 

 handled early in the morning as there 

 are few mornings when the bees can- 

 not find honey enough to keep them 

 busy while the beekeeper is doing what 

 he cannot do in the evenings. 



17. All nece.ssary handling of the 

 bees must be done with the utmost 

 rapidity and with just as little disturb- 

 ance of the arrangements of the bees 

 as possible. 



18. It pays well to transfer bees from 

 box hives if for no other reason than 

 to get rid of the parasites and other 

 injurious insects that secrete them- 

 selves in the cracks of the old hives. 



19. No harm comes to bees from the 

 judicious use of the honey extractor. 



20. The usual methods of introduc- 

 ing queens were discussed and as usual 

 there was a great diversity of opinion ; 

 but they admitted that the bees must 

 realize the loss of the mother bee and 

 be in some way or other prepared to 

 receive the new queen which must be 

 introduced quietly. 



21. Bees winter well in single walled 

 hives on summer stands when a larger 

 box is placed around the hives and the 

 space filled with leaves. After usual 

 business routine the Convention ad- 

 journed to meet again on the second 

 Wednesday and Thursday of Maich 

 next. 



