©autfjeutious. 



Lancaster Co., Pa., Convention. 



This Convention was held at Lan- 

 caster, on Aug. 9, 1880. 



After the usual preliminary business, 

 the following was given in as the re- 

 ports of the present season : 



President Hershey started in the 

 spring with 60 colonies, of which he 

 sold 8. He has at the present time 108 

 colonies. He also got 250 lbs. of honey, 

 and reared 250 queens. Mr. Hershey pays 

 more attention to rearing bees than to 

 honey. He also has Mr. Detweiler's 

 colonies under charge. There are 65 

 colonies ; he got 787 lbs. of comb honey 

 SO lbs. of extracted, and 3 swarms. They 

 are now gathering honey fast. This is a 

 small yield— too many old queens. 

 There are 250 colonies within the radius 

 of a mile of his place. 



A. B. Herr began the season with 5 

 colonies, and now has 12. He tried to 

 make swarms, not honey. 



L. Fleckenstein began with 9 colonies. 

 He got 215 lbs. of honey, and expects a 

 good deal more. His bees cross the 

 Susquehanna into York county, and 

 bring over buckwheat honey. He has 

 13 colonies now, although he tried to 

 get honey rather than new colonies. 



John Eitermiller started with 19 colo- 

 nies, now has 22, and got 400 lbs. of 

 honey. 



J. H. Mellinger began with 12 colo- 

 nies and increased them to 16; he got 

 about 275 lbs. of honey. 



I. G. Martin started 30 colonies and 

 increased them to 32. He has also 

 received 760 lbs. of honey up to the 

 present time. 



Elias Hershey began the season with 

 24 colonies ; increased them to 29 and 

 has taken about 750 lbs. of honey. 



T. Thurlow started with 9 colonies* 

 increased to 14, and has so far obtained 

 225 lbs. of honey. 



J. B. Eshleman wintered 25 colonies ; 

 he now has 30 ; his yield of honey is 400 

 lbs. The hives are well filled with 

 honey and are ready to go into winter 

 quarters. He introduced new queens 

 into a good many of his colonies, which 

 was a drawback. 

 Do Italians Gather Honey from Red Clover 1 



The above question was proposed by 

 I. G. Martin, who asserted the 

 affirmative. 



J. H. Mellinger also advocated the 

 affirmative side of the question. He 

 believed much of the honey gathered 

 by Italians is derived from red clover. 



J. B. Eshleman followed with the 

 same views. Go into any clover field 

 and you will find it covered with 

 Italians. If they do not get honey 

 there, what are they there for? 



I. G. Martin placed on exhibition a 

 case of red clover honey, which was 

 very beautiful. Also some "honey 

 dew " in boxes that was fine. 



J. F. Hershey believed we get more 

 honey out of the red clover than the 

 white. He can see the clover fields in 

 his vicinity fairly swarming with bees. 

 Perhaps the western apiarists have 

 clover that grows more rank than ours, 

 so that the bees cannot reach it. 



L. Fleckenstien asked why more 

 honey is stored in the spring than after- 

 wards, when the red clover blooms ? 



A Bee Feeder. 



J. F. Hershey had on exhibition a 

 bee feeder which he believed to possess 

 many advantages. It introduces the 

 food just where the bees are, prevents 

 robbing, creates no excitement and 

 allows but few to get at it at one time. 

 He explained the manner of its use and 

 it met with the approval of the society. 

 He also said his colonies last winter did 

 well. They began rearing brood rapidly 

 and he has not lost a single colony in 3 

 years. He wintered 60 colonies. 



"Dew Honey." 

 The "dew honey" was tested and 

 found to be far inferior to clover honey. 

 It was also asked whether this honey 

 was good to winter bees on. The gen- 

 eral opinion was that it would do for 

 that purpose, especially in mild winters. 



Grape Sugar as Bee Food. 



The value of grape sugar ws also dis- 

 cussed. The feeling was against its 

 use to feed bees. There is not enough 

 sweetening in it. Good cane sugar is 

 cheaper at double the price of grape 

 sugar for this purpose. 



A Bad Season. 



The season on the whole has been a 



poor one for honey. Too much rain is 



the cause. It has been more profitable 



to rear queens this season than honey. 



The Best Plan to Bear Queen-Cells'? 



J. F. Hershey asked the above ques- 

 tion and called* for the members 1 views. 



T. Thurlow gave the methods of Mr. 

 H. Alley, of Mass., at some length. 



J. F' Hershey detailed his own 

 method and said 'he had no trouble in 

 rearing fine queens. 



Transferring. 



J. H. Millinger asked whether it was 

 too late to transfer ? 



