1873.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



159 



Italians, would be published to the world, that 

 it should also be published, that, if they were 

 sprinkled with sweetened water, they would fill 

 themselves and become perfectly gentle. 



8. P. Shipley of Ohio. Said that the Italians 

 increase faster, and have many qualities supe- 

 rior to the black bees. 



Dr. Hamlin of Tennessee. Feared that his 

 opinion would be ruled out, by what Mr. Hoag- 

 land had said, as he was a queen raiser, but lie 

 agreed with Mrs. Tupper in what she had said 

 of the good qualities of the Italian bees. For 

 several years he had no others in his apiary, 

 and had almost come to the conclusion that 

 the moth was becoming extinct, as he had seen 

 but few of them. During the last year he had 

 been handling black bees in other apiaries, and 

 found it was not so. 



Mr. Allen, Kansas City, Mo. Thought there 

 was a necessity for a better stock than the black 

 bees, and that it was found in tlie Italians. 

 Did not think it possible that the black bee 

 could be bred up to the perfection of the 

 Italians. 



Mr. Pope, of 111., said the Italians were easy 

 to handle, and better in every respect. 



Mr. Shipley recommended chickens as a remedy 

 for the bee- moth. Said he set his hives low down, 

 and placed the coops of young chickens among 

 them, and they caught many moths. 



President Clarke. His experience with the 

 Italians was entirely satisfactory, and considered 

 that he had been well repaid for all the trouble 

 and expense he had been at to get them. He 

 disagreed with Mr. Dunlap in much he had said 

 about them, and had thought until now, that 

 intelligent beekeepers were unanimously agreed 

 as to the great value of the Italian bees. 



J. S. Merrill, of la., believed that the Italians 

 were superior, and desired an expression of the 

 opinion of the society to that effect. He there- 

 fore moved that the subject be referred back to 

 the committee, with instructions to report a reso- 

 lution to that effect. 



. Mr. Dunlap, of Illinois, moved to lay Mr. 

 Merrill's motion on the table, and advocated 

 this course on the ground that the expressions 

 of individual opinions here were sufficient to in- 

 form the people, and they were competent to 

 judge from what had been said whether they had 

 merit or not, and the passage of a resolution by 

 this society would have no force and would fall 

 dead. 



Mr. Dunlap' s motion was adopted, and Mr. 

 Merrill's motiou was tabled. 



Dr. Hamlin moved that it be decided by a 

 rising vote whether the society considers the 

 Italian superior to the black bee. The motion 

 prevailed, and on a vote being taken, it was 

 fuund to be unanimous in favor of the Italian bee. 



Dr. Lucas, of Illinois, moved to amend the 

 7th article of the constitution so as to read as 

 follows : 



"No member shall be entitled to the floor 

 more than five minutes in the discussion of any 

 motion, resolution or petition, without consent 

 of the society, nor a second time, unless by con- 

 sent of the President or a majority of members 

 present." 



Which was adopted by the requisite constitu- 

 tional vote. 



The topic laid over in the morning, was called 

 up, viz. : 



"What is the best method of increasing 

 stocks?" 



The President called on Mr. Hosmer to open 

 the discussion. 



Mr. Hosmer said he had no objection to state 

 his method. In the spring he gets the queen to 

 laying as soon as possible, by feeding the bees. 

 The bees when set out of the cellar, have given 

 to them only as many sheets of comb as they 

 can cover ; these are placed against one side of 

 the hive, and a sack of honey is hung on the op- 

 posite side as far from the bees as it can be got, 

 inside the hive. The sack is made by covering 

 a frame on each side with common "domestic' 

 The honey is poured in from the top. The bees 

 take the honey by sucking it through the cloth. 

 The queen will lay very rapidly, and soon fill 

 the framed with brood, when other frames of 

 empty comb are introduced, which is repeated 

 as often as necessary. 



A Member asked if it would not be better to 

 place the feeding sack alongside of the comb. 



Mr. Hosmer said, No. Place it as far off as 

 the size of the hive will admit, and the bees iu 

 carrying it over to the cluster will "fool" the 

 queen. She will think the honey harvest is going 

 on and lay accordingly. The brood comb should 

 be kept emptied of honey. When the lower 

 story is about filled with brood, he moves it to 

 the upper story, a frame or two at a time, and 

 continues to supply the queen with empty comb 

 below. 



A number of questions were at this time put 

 to Mr. Hosmer, in answer to which he stated, 

 that the quart of bees he put away in his cellar 

 did not increase while in the cellar, and were all 

 he had to commence with in the spring. He was 

 asked what he considered a quart of bees, and 

 how much comb could they cover so as to nurse 

 and take care of the brood. Mr. Hosmer said, 

 when he said a quart of bees, he meant a quart 

 of bees, which he estimated would consist of five 

 thousand bees. He did not mean a natural clus- 

 ter as big as a quart measure, for that was not a 

 quart. He said, " If you will take a quart mea- 

 sure perforated with holes and place it over a 

 cluster of bees and sprinkle them with cold 

 water so as to drive them into tlie measure, what 

 can crowd into it will be what I consider a 

 quart." 



He gives no ventilation whatever in summer ; 

 he even contracts the entrance in the spring, in 

 order to keep the hive as warm as possible. He 

 continues this shifting until he. has the whole 

 hive, which contains eighteen frames, filled with 

 brood. Thus he raises his bees. 



To increase them he first sets up a nucleus by 

 taking from a hive that contained a select queen, 

 one sheet of brood and adhering bees, and per- 

 mittee! them to form and perfect queen cells. 

 He then made as many equal colonies from the 

 original one as there were queen cells ; giving to 

 each a cell out of which to raise a queen . This 

 would be the management he would give one 

 swarm. He was asked how many colonies he 



