248 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Mr. Mendleson figured that he lost 

 1,438 pounds on his crop of honey by 

 this unjnst tare. 



Mr. Levering then presented some 

 pertinent facts in relation to the utility 

 of the bee in fertilizing the orange blos- 

 soms. Specimen oranges were shown, 

 demonstrating that the navel and Malta 

 blood oranges were changed or mixed by 

 this Interchange of pollen. The same 

 effect is produced upon water-melons 

 and pumpkins. 



Mr. G. W. Brodbeck presented an essay 

 upon various subjects, reading his essay 

 as "A Medley." 



Mr. Corey discussed the cost of the 

 production of a ton of honey. Accord- 

 ing to his figures the cost was near 

 $250. 



HIVES AND BROOD-CHAMBERS. 



Mr. Corey vi^as called upon to describe 

 the hive used in Ventura county, and 

 which is a standard for that county. 

 This hive contained nine Langstroth 

 frames in the brood-chamber, and eight 

 in the super. 



Mr. Touchton said he brought this 

 hive into existence, and it is known as a 

 modified Langstroth. The frame of this 

 hive is of the following dimensions. Top 

 has 19k, bottom has 173^, end has 8}4 

 inches. 



Upon a rising vote for the adoption of 

 this hive by the bee-keepers of the State, 

 17 voted aye, with no opposing vote. 



Mr. Mercer advocated a shallow de- 

 visible brood-chamber hive for comb 

 honey, using a hanging frame 6 inches 

 deep. 



Mr. Woodbury claimed that he lost 

 many pounds of honey by using a large 

 brood-chamber. The bees are deter- 

 mined to fill the outside frames before 

 going into the super, while with a shal- 

 low hive the bees are compelled to go 

 into the super to store their honey. He 

 uses a hive 4% inches deep, or a frame 

 that will take a 4j4:-inch section. 



Mr. Hatch preferred a large brood- 

 chamber for comb honey. He inter- 

 changes frames and spreads brood until 

 he fills the hive with bees. 



Mr. Rowley spoke in favor of the Hed- 

 don hive for the production of comb 

 honey, for the reason that the bees 

 would put all the honey in the super. 



Mr. Woodbury uses two of these cham- 

 bers for brood, or even more, and thus 

 escaped the use of handling frames; in 

 fact, this system was called the handling 

 of hives instead of frames. 



Mr. Compton, foreman of Mr. Hed- 

 don's apiaries for several years, spoke in 



favor of the Heddon hive, and would use 

 it in preference to any other. 



Mr. Corey preferred the good old way 

 of examining frames, and he had no de- 

 sire for these new fangled methods. 



Mr. Barnett preferred to use dummies 

 to contract the brood-chamber of a large 

 hive. The shallow-chamb-^r aivocates 

 considered this plan as of too compli- 

 cated a nature. 



BEE-ESCAPES AND HONEY-BOARDS. 



A question-box feature was then in- 

 troduced, and the question, "Shall we 

 use bee-escapes and honey-boards?" 

 called out much discussion. 



Mr. Corey did not wish to use only 

 one, and thought they were of not much 

 use as labor-savers. He could brush 

 bees off the combs quite rapidly. 



The Secretary used the escape and 

 queen-excluder with success ; preferred 

 to use it on hives having two supers 

 above the brood-chamber. The escape 

 was put on the hive at night, and the 

 next morning the bees were usually all 

 out; the hive could then be readily re- 

 moved to the extracting-room, making 

 the work through the heat of the day in 

 the comfortable shade of the house. 



Mr. Barnett used a home-made escape, 

 and used no queen-excluder. He never 

 had queens get into his supers, but 

 thought the escape a good thing to clean 

 the supers of bees when working them 

 for comb honey — the bees were not so 

 liable to bite the caps of the cells. 



Mr. Powell believed that bees would 

 not bite the cappings if the bees were 

 driven out rapidly with smoke. His 

 plan was first to smoke them down, 

 placing an empty super under the one to 

 be removed. When ftie most of the bees 

 had gone down, the smoke was blown 

 into .the under side, and all of the bees 

 were driven out. He claimed that this 

 method was very expeditious. 



THE GOLDEN ITALIAN BEES. 



The question of the merits of golden 

 Italian bees was then taken up. 



Mr. Williamson called this strain of 

 bees "red devils." 



Mr. Rowley claimed that this strain 

 of bees capped their honey thinner than 

 the black bees. 



Mr. Powell said black bees capped 

 their honey so as to leave an air-space 

 under the cap, giving it a very white 

 appearance. 



President Mclntyre advocated breed- 

 ing a superior race of bees, and always 

 sought to find the best. He had ordered 

 queens from all the noted breeders, and 



