Italians off the combs. There are advantages 

 and disadvantages in both kinds of bees. 

 I donbt if any bee ever gets honey from red 

 clover. " Bumble " bees get red clover 

 honey ; it has a very peculiar flavor, and 1 

 never once tasted it in the common bees' 

 honey, They get pollen only, I think. The 

 Italians are surely a longer-lived bee ; if 

 you change the queens in two hives, give 

 one an Italian and the other a black queen, 

 both young and vigorous, it will be found 

 that there are Italians in the black colony 

 longer than there are blacks in the Italian. 

 The weight of my hives tells the grade of 

 the bee, the heavier the hive the nearer pure 

 Italian. 



E. Child— We remember the taste of bum- 

 ble bee honey in our boyhood. My daugh- 

 ter asked me the trouble with some honey 

 we had on the table. It was very strongly 

 charged with red clover honey. 



L. C. Meadows— If one can judge from 

 the strong scent of a red clover field, if the 

 bees could reach the honey, a half section 

 set with red clover would supply all Chi- 

 cago. 



E. Child— I do not know that bees get 

 honey from red clover, but have seen them 

 at work on it. We get Spanish needle honey 

 and can not eat it ; it tastes just as Spanish 

 needle smells. Red clover the same. 



L. H. Scudder— As to flavor of honey, I 

 have put unfinished sections of white clover 

 honey on to the hives in the fall, and it was 

 taken off as golden rod honey. Had whole 

 sections flavored with the golden rod ; un- 

 cap it and the golden rod flavor was gone. 



C. P. Dadant— Comb honey that is white 

 in the spring becomes colored in the fall by 

 something the bees use. 



L. II. Scudder— I do not think the caps 

 are all wax. I had 60 lbs. of cappings, and 

 only got about 30 lbs. of wax from it. I 

 think it contains pollen. 



Jas. A. Simpson— Have observed the same 

 thing with heartsease ; as soon as buck- 

 wheat came in bloom the nicer article of 

 heartsease honey was changed to buck- 

 wheat. 



L. H. Scudder— With the experience I 

 have had I would prefer the hybrids to the 

 pure bees for comb honey. Pure Italians 

 are loth to go into the sections ; will build 

 from the bottom upwards. Never knew the 

 blacks to do it. 



Hoiv many bees may be kept with profit 

 in one apiary f 



C. P. Dadant— It depends altogether on 

 the location. In some not more than 50 col- 

 onies could be kept ; it will average from 

 100 to 150 colonies to an apiary. The bees 

 reach from 1% to 2 miles each way. Apia- 

 ries ought to be 4 miles apart. 



S. J. McKinney— A man below Burling- 

 ton has 300 or 300 colonies, has a large range, 

 gives them very little attention, has good 

 success, seldom loses any bees. 



C. P. Dadant— I do not want bees close to 

 a large sheet of water, so they have to cross 

 it to get their honey. 



Jas. A. Simpson— 1 think 60 to 100 colonies 

 will get all the honey in the range of their 

 flight in ordinary seasons. 



C. P. Dadant— We have to find how many 

 can make as much per colony as one can. 



L. H. Scudder— I think much more de- 

 pends on location than the season. Seasons 

 change and vary the yield in the same lo- 

 cality. 



_ What is the cause of bees leaving their 

 hives in the early spring, when the hive is in 

 good order and plenty of honey ? 



C. P. Dadant— I confess I can*ot answer 

 that. 



L. C. Meadows— I have been troubled very 

 much with this disease, if we may call it so, 

 and would be very much pleased to know 

 its cause. 



[Many cases of bees swarming out were 

 given, but no good cause assigned as a rea- 

 son for it.] 



What is the cause, prevention and cure 

 of spring dioindling t 



E. D. Godfrey— I got very tired of carry- 

 ing bees out and into a cellar. I have used 

 a chaff hive for 5 years. I begin feeding 

 my bees in September, after the frost kills 

 the bloom, to stimulate brood rearing, which 

 gives me a strong force of young bees to go 

 into winter quarters with. My bees are 

 always strong, and lam never troubled with 

 spring dwindling. Changing weather in 

 spring does not affect bees in this hive ; a 

 slightly warm day does not cause the bees 

 to come out and get lost in the cool winds, 

 as it does with the 1-inch hives. Colonies 

 in these hives never have dead bees under 

 outside combs. 



S. J. McKinney— 1 do not think thin hives 

 are so good for bees. Corn cobs are good to 

 ventilate the hive and absorb the moisture ; 

 the bees will take it out of the cobs and use 

 in place of water. 



E. D. Godfrey— I claim that one cause is 

 that bees are wintered in doors and have to 

 be taken out of the cellar at a time when 

 they need protection from the cold winds 

 the most of any. They are not used to nor 

 prepared to stand the changes in the weather 

 as those that have been out all the time. 



O. Clute— It is no matter how you protect 

 the bees ; if we keep them from the sudden 

 changes we will save them. 



Jas. A. Simpson— I think this wintering 

 bees has been overdone. Have had bees 

 winter with no bottom boards to the hive, 

 and bees all exposed to the full force of wind 

 and weather, and came through in tip-top 

 condition, while one in a house fixed for it 

 came through in bad shape. ' 



L. H. Scudder— I have been troubled with 

 this dwindling very much. I think the bal- 

 ance of expense in wintering out or indoors 

 is against outdoor wintering. Will not the 

 amount of honey saved by the cellar much 

 more than pay for taking the bees out and 

 in once or twice, even if we hire it done ? 

 I have less trouble with my hives faced 

 north every time, with a board up to keep 

 out the direct wind. When faced south 

 thousands get lost, while those facing north 

 had no bees flying at all. Those facing north 

 gather more honey for me than the others. 



C. P. Dadant— We had once 26 colonies 

 facing north, and very many died in the 

 spring. One apiary faces south on a warm 

 hillside, and winters best of any. Have had 



