AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



183 



fronting the fnture Success of bee-keep- 

 ing. 



One more point, and I will leave all 

 the rest to my able peers. With ours, 

 like all other pursuits, the price of our 

 product will be a medium between the 

 maximum and minimum cost of produc- 

 tion with a reasonable margin added. It 

 follows that whoever produces honey at 

 maximum cost will fall, while those who 

 produce at an average and minimum 

 cost will succeed. With our pursuit, as 

 with ail others, whether producing or 

 manufacturing, nothing is so helpful as 

 the best Implements and fixtures — those 

 which will turn out the best products in 

 the shortest time, and with the least 

 labor. America is noted for possessing 

 these, and more noted for inventing 

 them for others. The nations of the 

 earth do much copying from us ; one of 

 the causes of our superiority in this line, 

 is the extra inducement held out by 

 our beneficent patent system. Every 

 bee-keeper who opposes that system, as 

 connected with our pursuit, is a mal- 

 efactor, whether he knows it or not. 



The bee-keeper of the future must em- 

 ploy such implements, fixtures and 

 methods as will enable him to secure his 

 product with much less labor than 

 formerly, or he will fall by the wayside 

 in the race. 



This subject is too broad" to admit of 

 going into details in this already long 

 essay. I look for very much in this line 

 to come from the experimental work of 

 our most valued contemporary, Hon. R. 

 L. Taylor. 



I regret that I cannot be with you as 

 I had intended, and wish you all pros- 

 perity in our chosen pursuit. 



James Heddon. 



Wm. Anderson — I do not "expect that 

 honey will ever become the staple that 

 butter is, but by producing it more 

 cheaply it will become less of a luxury. 

 I will admit that in some cases too much 

 has been said about adulteration, but 

 there is no doubt that it exists, and it 

 does not seem to me that we as bee-keep- 

 ers can afford to ignore it. 



Chas. Koeppen— I think that something 

 might be done by having a detective to 

 trace out cases of adulteration, secure 

 proof, and place it before the guilty 

 parties, and -threaten to prosecute unless 

 the practice is stopped. I would have 

 the Union do this; it could be done 

 quietly. 



W. Z. Hutchinson — Have their been 

 no calls for the Union to prosecute? 



Pres. Taylor — Yes, there have been 



complaints, but no prosecutions, because 

 there has been a lack of proof. 



Next came an essay by Mr. R. F. Hol- 

 termann, editor of the Canadian Bee 

 Journal, upon 



Preparing- the Apiary for Winter. 



There is no question in bee-keeping 

 at the present day which can be dis- 

 cussed before bee-geepers generally with 

 as great profit as " Preparing the Api- 

 ary for Winter." Many of us are satis- 

 fied with our methods, simply because 

 we are not educated to something better. 

 We winter bees and bring out the hive 

 with life in it, and are satisfied. If the 

 hairs of the bees would only turn grey 

 with age, they would tell a different 

 story ; however, there is another index, 

 and that is to compare our honey crops 

 from year to year with that of our 

 neighbor — herein the grey hairs are 

 manifest; better preparation for winter, 

 and better wintering would very much 

 increase the net profits to be derived 

 from bee-keeping. 



Preparation for winter begins very 

 early in the season. Our aim should be 

 to have strong colonies for winter, with 

 bees in the full vigor of life ; that is, 

 bees not old and yet fully matured. The 

 queen should also be perfect, and in the 

 full vigor of life, and plenty of whole- 

 some stores for winter. The careful and 

 successful bee-keeper must, after he has 

 increased his colonies sufiBciently, have 

 more bees than he cares to handle the 

 following spring. It then becomes a 

 question of wintering and selling, or de- 

 stroying the bees. At the present price 

 of bees in the spring, there is no money 

 in selling bees at that season. The 

 hives, the honey they consume, the 

 room they occupy in winter, and the 

 work connected therewith, to say noth- 

 ing about percentage of mortality, make 

 it undesirable (unless in exceptional 

 cases) to winter bees for the purpose of 

 sale. 



There is another important advantage 

 to be derived from destroying a number 

 of colonies each fall — we are able to se- 

 lect the very best for wintering, and by 

 such a selection much can be accom- 

 plished towards successful wintering. 

 Other things being equal, colonies hived 

 in supers will not be as strong as those 

 hived on full sheets of foundation or 

 combs ; these hives are also likely to 

 contain the old queen. 



In selecting the colonies which are to 

 be wintered, we should look as much as 

 possible for young queens from colonies 

 which have shown desirable character- 



