AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



621 



A committee was then appointed to 

 select questions for discussion, composed 

 of I. H. Hightower, A. M. Tuttle, and J. 

 L. Wooldridge. 



NATURAL SWARMINa OK DIVIDING. 



The first question was : In operating 

 an apiary for honey, which is the better 

 method of increase, by division or nat- 

 ural swarming ? 



The President was of the opinion that 

 it was the more profitable to allow the 

 bees to follow their own instinct — nat- 

 ural swarming. 



Mr. Tuttle favored prime swarms, as 

 he could have his bees to swarm at the 

 proper time by feeding ; he controlled 

 after-swarming, and generally had little 

 trouble with swarms the iirst heavy 

 honey-flow. 



H. L. Bolton preferred division, as his 

 bees would not swarm enough if left to 

 natural swarming. He had always been 

 successful with division. 



Mr. Wooldridge had always preferred 

 division heretofore, but as division in- 

 vited robbing he would hereafter prac- 

 tice natural swarming. He wanted to 

 get some bees which would not swarm. 

 He had a swarm to come out a few days 

 ago, before starting on queen-cells. 



The unanimous voice of the conven- 

 tion was in favor of natural swarms. 



COMB HONEY OR EXTRACTED ? 



The next question : Which is the 

 more profitable, to produce comb honey 

 at 15 cents, or extracted at 10 cents 

 per pound ? 



Mr. Wooldridge could make more 

 money by producing extracted honey. 



F. S. Brantigam could make comb 

 honey pay 30 per cent, more than ex- 

 tracted. 



Mr. Tuttle could produce twice as 

 much extracted honey, and would not 

 have the trouble of handling sections, 

 crates, etc. 



Mr. Bolton coincided with the views 

 of Mr. Tuttle. 



Dr. Marshall had always produced 

 comb honey, and could not speak on the 

 relative amounts. 



Dr. Howard had not handled bees 

 lately, except to supply his own table, 

 but several years ago produced mostly 

 extracted honey, and believed that more 

 than twice as much extracted honey 

 could be produced ; by his management 

 no combs were built during the surplus 

 honey-flow, the combs being closer, heat 

 was more easily maintained, and honey 

 could be stored when the temperature 

 of the hive was too cool to manipulate 



the wax in comb-building ; fewer bees 

 were required to maintain the heat. In 

 producing comb honey, the combs were 

 so far apart in the supers that more bees 

 congregated there than could work in 

 order to raise the temperature so the 

 wax could be worked and cbmb-building 

 carried on. 



RE-QUEENING AN APIARY. 



The third question discussed was : 

 When is the best time to re-queen an 

 apiary to change from black to Italian, 

 without interfering with honey-gath- 

 ering ? 



Mr. Tuttle thought it would depend 

 upon the time the surplus honey-flow 

 came on ; he would re-queen late in the 

 honey-flow. 



W. H. White would change in the 

 spring, and know what kind of queens 

 he used. In localities where there was 

 a horse-mint flow, followed by a good 

 fall honey-flow, he would make the 

 change in the fall. 



Mr. Wooldridge would re-queen any 

 time that he had the queens, and would 

 always supersede a poor queen. 



Dr. Howard would always re-queen in 

 the fall after the horsemint flow, at the 

 beginning of the flaxweed honey-flow, as 

 this honey was only fit for wintering. 

 He would thus avoid the loss of the 

 work of a colony that might by chance 

 be given a poor queen in the spring, and 

 would have ample opportunity to judge 

 the quality of the queen during the fall 

 flow, and supersede any poor queen be- 

 fore the end of the season. 



P. F. Gassaway would re-queen after 

 the surplus honey-flow in the fall. 

 (To be continued.) 



'*Foiil ISrood ; Its Natural History 

 and Rational Treatment," is the title of an 

 interesting booklet by Dr. Wm. R. Howard, 

 of Texas. It also contains a review of the 

 work of others on the same subject. It is 

 being sold at the ofHce of the Bee Jour- 

 nal. Price, postpaid, 25 cents; or clubbed 

 with the Bee Journal for one year — both 

 together for $1.15. Orders received now. 



Capons and Caponi^ing-, by 



Edward Warren Sawyer, M. D., Fanny 

 Field, and others. It shows in clear 

 language and illustrations all about 

 caponizing fowls ; and thus how to 

 make the most money in poultry-raising. 

 Every poultry-keeper should have it. 

 Price, postpaid, 30 cents ; or clubbed 

 with Bee Journal one year, for $1.10. 



