Sept. 6. 1906 



American Itee Journal 



yourself; if you do, stay in; staying in 15 or 20 minutes 

 will do more towards curing catarrh or any bronchial trou- 

 ble that you have than all the doctor's medicine you can 

 take in a thousand years. 



Now you can cure your hens by treating them in that 

 way in two or three nights. If it has got so bad that it 

 doesn't disappear, the best thing to do is to cure them with 

 the hatchet; but don't eat them. When they die you throw 

 them over in the alley and then the rest of the hens go and 

 eat them and then you kill and eat the hens. You might as 

 well have eaten the other fellow at the start. Every one of 

 them ought to buried out of sight, so far under ground it 

 would not be possible for these diseased germs to be car- 

 ried to other chickens. 



A Member — How do you kill vermin? 



Mr. Abbott — In order to kill vermin, you must com- 

 mence in time. You must not let the vermin get there. 

 When you get a whole lot it is pretty hard to kill them; 

 it is a serious proposition. But in order to kill the vermin 

 you must put a little elbow-grease into your roosts; you 

 must have your roost smooth; you must have vour hen- 

 house clean. Vermin hatches in the filth; they don't hatch 

 on the hens: they hatch in the filth, and find their way to 

 the hens. Keep the filth out of your hen-house and "you 

 won't have any trouble with the vermin. 



On motion of Dr. Miller the convention adjourned. 



Third Day — Morning Session. 



At 9:30 p. m. Pres. Dadant called the convention to or- 

 der, and called lor reports of committees, but none being 

 ready to report, the question-box was taken up. 



GAR SYRUP FOR FALL FEEDING. 



"What proportion of shrinkage must be expected in food 

 made of sugar and water in equal parts for fall food?" 



Mr. Acklin — Why not say one-quarter? 



Dr. Phillips — I tried this and tested the syrup after it had 

 been put in the combs ; it had not been sealed, but it was in 

 condition for honey. When I got through and tested the 

 syrup it was 80 percent of it solid. 



Mr. Holtermann— Do I understand Dr. Phillips to mean 

 not a change in the specific gravity of the syrup, but there 

 is no loss in weight in storing? If you feed 10 pounds of 

 syrup the colony gains 10 pounds? 



Dr. Phillips — I don't mean that. There is a decided loss. 



Mr. Wilcox — According to his answer, isn't there a loss 

 of 20 percent, in addition to the water put in ? 



-Mr. Miller — You are taking half and half sugar, and 

 water. When we make syrup, I think it is supposed that about 

 2 pounds of water to 5 of sugar will make something of about 

 the consistency of honey. 



Dr. Phillips — Honey is about 75 or 80 per cent solid. 

 There is a little water of crystalization in sugar. 



Dr. Miller — If that should be straight, 2 pounds of water 

 and 5 of sugar, and if you have put in 5 of water and 5 of 

 sugar, when it is evaporated you have lost just 1-3. I am 

 not saying this is reliable. 



Mr. Taylor — I think that is not the question. As I un- 

 derstand the question, when you give the bees 10 pounds of 

 sugar and as much water as you please with it, how many 

 pounds of sugar are there when it is stored in the combs? 

 The bees consume some, and if there is any brood, they feed 

 some to the brood ; and my answer would be, it depends on 

 circumstances. If there is a large amount of young brood, 

 the loss will be greater. If it is fed slowly the loss will be 

 greater; if it is fed rapidly, and there is no brood, the loss 

 will not be very great. 



Mr. Baxter — I would say this is all guess-work. 



Mr. Kilgore — As I understand the question, if I have 

 a colony of bees that is almost entirely without honey at the 

 time of entering winter, how much syrup at half and half 

 will I have to give them? When they have manipulated it 

 properly, there will be the regulation quantity in there to win- 

 ter, that which we r'.nsidered to be about 24 pounds, and 

 according to Dr. Phillips' test the waste would be about 

 1-5. In order to have _'4 pounds in a colony to enter win- 

 ter we would have to feed them 30 pounds, half and half. 



Pres. Dadant— If they feed thin syrup it will still be 

 thinner when in the cells for winter than if it had been fed 

 thick. 



Mr. Kimmey — I am able to state I have tried with 2 



colonies, and I took 10 pounds of sugar and thoroughly mixed 

 it with 10 pounds of water, and placed it in a strong colony 

 to obtain capped stores for the winter colonies. With 20 

 pounds of syrup I got 14 pounds of capped stores. It was 

 done late in the fall after the honey-flow was stopped, as I 

 thought. That was a loss of about 335/2 percent. 



Dr. Miller — There are two questions: I got one, and 

 Brother Taylor got another. I suspect he has more nearly 

 the right one than I have, and, as he says, the thing will 

 vary very greatly. If you take into consideration the prac- 

 tical question, it was probably intended to ask, how much 

 will you have left for winter stores? It will vary accord- 

 ing to circumstances, all the way from a very little loss to an 

 entire loss of the whole business, if you feed it slowly enough. 

 If you say you are going to feed fast, and ask how much you 

 will have left, then you might get something with a definite 

 answer. You feed so much, and you will have so much left, 

 but be sure to put in a good deal more than you count on. 



Mr. Kimmey — This was fed to a strong colony and fed 

 all at once. 



Dr. Miller — I should expect in that case of Mr. Kim- 

 mey's the bees fooled him, and were doing something on the 

 sly, and got something elsewhere. 



Mr. Wheeler — A great deal depends on another point, 

 and that is, what time of the year you feed. If it is in a 

 warm part of the season, when a great deal of brood-rearing 

 is going on, a great deal more of the syrup will go into the 

 brood. 



Mr. Huffman — I can't just agree with that. As I under- 

 stand the question, it is, what percentage of shrinkage there 

 has to be when it is going to be sealed over. 



Mr. McEvoy — It depends a good deal on the conditions of 

 things. If there is a large quantity of food, and it is fed 

 slowly, it will be nearly consumed; but if you limit the num- 

 ber of colonies and feed with a rush it will not; but don't 

 have it too thin. It will be nearly a half. 



Pres. Dadant — This question is misunderstood by some 

 parties. Now, all that the gentleman wants to know in re- 

 gard to this is, what proportion of sweet there will be in the 

 feed, or in the cells, to what there was when he put it in? 

 I think Dr. Phillips has understood it rightly, and told us the 

 proportion that he found, 80 percent. 



Mr. Aspinwall — Certainly, if he found 20 percent less 

 there would be a loss that has gone into the cappings. If not 

 capped over there would be a difference also. 



Mr. Wilcox — The chemist has simply given us the per- 

 centage of sugar. 



Dr. Phillips — This was sugar-fed. absolutely no honey in 

 it, and 50 percent of water in the sugar when it was fed. 



Mr. Aspinwall — If there was 50 percent of sugar and SO 

 percent of water, there couldn't be 80 percent of sugar after- 

 wards. 



Dr. Phillips — When this sugar was fed it was half and 

 half sugar and water ; when we were through and extracted 

 the result, 80 percent of that was solid. 



Mr. Holtermann — I don't think this question is one which 

 should take up a great deal of time, because it is not a prac- 

 tical question. This syrup is too thin for practical purposes, 

 to begin with. If I understand the question, it is, what is left, 

 and if it is of any profit at all, that is the practical side of it. 



Mr. R. L,. Taylor read a paper on, 



THE HONEY-PRODUCERS' LEAGUE 



Fellow Bee-Keepers : — I say fellow bee-keepers, because 

 what I have to say is for bee-keepers, and not for our members 

 who belong to what some one has euphemistically called the 

 "allied interests" ; for, remember, that we have a strong ele- 

 ment in our Association, not directly interested, or, at least, 

 not primarily interested, in the production of honey. I refer 

 to manufacturers of supplies, dealers in supplies and in 

 honey, authors, publishers and editors of apicultural books 

 and journals. 



It is scarcely necessary to say that there are some 

 phases of some topics that are of great concern to honey- 

 producers, but of no special concern to the honey-dealers; and 

 so of the others. 



But I am compelled to go further and say that the busi- 

 ness concerns of the allied interests are hostile to those of 

 the honey-producers. Now. do not misunderstand me. I do 

 not say there is any hostility between you — the honey-pro- 

 ducers — and the representatives of the allied interests. Far 



