68 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAE. 



our bees. If they are weak we can by 

 cxchangiug a card of emply comb from 

 the weak colony for a card of comb with 

 capped brood in it from a strong colony 

 strengthen them in winter. Or if queen- 

 less, we can f urnisli a queen, or give them 

 eggs from whicli they can raise a queen. 

 Second, if the moths are about to destroy 

 our bees can remove every frame — comb, 

 bees and all — from the liive and destroy 

 the last moth; and if we find them short 

 of stores we can feed them and give them 

 a card of sealed honey from a ricli hive, 

 and thereby save our bees from death. 

 We can also Italianize our bees and culti- 

 vate a much better bee for honey gather- 

 ing. It gives us the advantages of the 

 honey extractor, enabling us to extract 

 the honey and return the comb to be filled 

 again, and we can realize a much larger 

 yield of surplus honey. 



Mr. Mumford said the moveable frame 

 hive also enabled us to clean our hives of 

 all accumulations of wax and other mat- 

 ter, by removing the combs and bees into 

 a clean hive, an-l we could make any re- 

 pairs the hive might need. We could di- 

 vide our bees and insure increase of 

 stocks without danger of loss by swarms 

 decamping, as w^as often the case with 

 box hives; and that we could improve 

 our bees in size, and in many respects 

 make them more valuable. 



The President said that during rich 

 yields of honey the bees would store it in 

 the brood nest, and by the use of the 

 movable frame we could extract it and 

 make our colonies much stronger in num- 

 bers; and that we could insert empty 

 cards of comb in the center of broods, en- 

 larging the brood nest and raising double 

 the amount of bees that would be raised 

 in the box hive. That with the frame 

 hive we had as much control of our bees 

 as we have of our domestic animals. 



The second question was then taken up. 

 Mr. Mumford said that the Italian bee was 

 larger, hardier and more prolific than the 

 black bee, and a much better honey gath- 

 erer. He had seen them gathering honey 

 from the red clover and from the sapling 

 clover, and that they would gathey honey 

 when the black bees were idle; would go 

 farther for it, would defend themselves 

 against the moth better, and that they 

 were more pleasant to handle. He said 

 he had a large gray bee that could gather 

 honey from red clover. 



The President said he had never seen 

 the Italian bee gather honey from the red 

 clover excci)t wlien the blossom was short 

 from the effects of drouth. 



Mr. Smith asked what flowers the Ital- 

 ian bees gathered honey from that black 

 bees did not V 



Mr. Mumford — "From the red clover 

 and various other flowers." 



Mr. Smith — "I understood the gentle- 

 man to say he had a large black bee that 

 gathered honey from red clover." 



Mr. Mumford — ''I said I had a large 

 gray bee that gathered honey from red 

 clover. It is an improved variety of the 

 common bee, as Igrge as the Italian." 



Mr. Smith said he had never seen any 

 bee but the bumble bee gathering honey 

 from the red clover, unless he mistook 

 the Italian for the bumble bee. [Laugh- 

 ter.] 



Mr. Alexander said in his experience 

 with the Italian bee they were much su- 

 perior to the black bee as honey gather- 

 ers. 



The President said that the Italian bee 

 was acknowledged by the great mass of 

 apiarians to be much superior to the black 

 bee and in no respect inferior. 



The third question was then taken up. 

 The President said by feeding early and 

 getting the bees strong by the time the 

 honey harvest opened ; then give them 

 empty comb in top of hive and as fast as 

 it is filled and before it is capped over 

 throw it out with the extractor. By that 

 management he had the past season taken 

 from one hive 423| pounds of honey. 



The fourth question then came up for 

 discussion. Mr. Mumford thought it was 

 not perfect honey until capped over by 

 the bees. 



Prof. Wheeler asked if the fact that 

 honey was taken before it was capped 

 was not the cause of the difterence in the 

 flavor of honey. 



Mr. W. G. Allen said he got some hon- 

 ey from the President of this Society last 

 season that had been extracted before it 

 was capped over. It was so thin he fear- 

 ed it would sour; he put it in his cellar 

 and now it was candied so solid that he 

 could slice it like butter, and richer, bet- 

 ter honey he never saw. 



The President said the differcice in col- 

 or and flavor of honey was on account of 

 the diflerent sources from which it was 

 gathered; that honey taken before it is 

 capped over by the bees is pure honey, 

 but was not thick and rich like capped 

 honey until all the moisture it contained 

 was evaporated, which coukl be done by 

 heating it or allowing the vessels contain- 

 ing it to remain open, so that moisture 

 could escape. 



The fifth question was then taken up. 

 Mr. Arnold said he found his bees tamed 

 by handling; that when he visited them 

 often they seemed less spiteful. 



The President said there was more in 

 our getting used to the bees than in their 

 getting used to us. 



