44 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



filled with comb, place it on the outside 

 and insert another empty frame. Con- 

 tinue the operation until the hive is full 

 of comb. By this plan combs are built 

 very rapidly, the queen will fill them with 

 eggs as fast as built, and you obviate the 

 building of drone-comb. Swarms thus 

 treated soon become as populous as they 

 were before any brood was removed. 



Pres. B.\LCH — What do you do with the 

 removed brood and combs ? 



Geo. Stray — Place them with a few ad- 

 hering bees in an empty hive, give them 

 a queen cell, and you havfe another swarm. 

 Last winter I lost all but one of 73 col- 

 onies. Purchased 12 in the spring — had 

 one stolen — so I commenced the season 

 with 12 stocks, not in good condition. 

 Have covered all my combs, had 272 

 combs built — all straight and no drone- 

 comb — have now 112 stocks in splendid 

 condition, and secured 400 lbs extracted 

 honey. I attribute my success to my 

 method of management. No other plan 

 I have ever tested would have give such 

 good results. I find that small hives, 

 1,200 to 1,500 cubic inches available comb 

 space in the brood chamber, are much 

 the most profitable. 



Pres. Balch — Stated that the Conven- 

 tion wonld proceed to the election of offi- 

 cers for the ensuing year, which resulted 

 as follows: 



President — Arad C. Balch, Kalamazoo. 



Vice-President — James Ileddon, Dow- 

 agiac. 



Secretary — Herbert A. Burch, South 

 Haven. 



Treasurer — Julius Tomlinson, Allegan. 



The first ballot for the office of Presi- 

 dent resulted in a tie between A. C. Balch 

 and James Heddon. The remaining bal- 

 lots were unanimous in favor of the per- 

 sons elected to fill the several positions. 

 The subject of adjournment was then con- 

 sidered. Considerable discussion ensued, 

 a large majority expressing the belief 

 that Kalamazoo was the most central 

 point of the bee-keeping interest, and 

 therefore the most eligible point for our 

 conventions. It was finally agreed upon 

 to hold a spring session in Kalamazoo on 

 the first Wednesday of May, 1876. The 

 Convention then adjourned until 9 o'clock 

 A. M. to-morrow. 



MORNING SESSION. 



The Convention was called to order at 

 9)-^ o'clock, with a good attendance. Presi- 

 dent Balch in the cliair. The programme 

 of the morning session was immediatel}" 

 taken up, by the Secretary's reading of a 

 paper on "Queen Rearing," from George 

 Thompson, Geneva, 111. The paper was a 

 valuable one, portraying the necessity of 

 more care and skill in breeding bees. 

 The conditions necessary to a successful 

 prosecution of the work were considered 

 with the conclusion that we are entering 

 upon a new era of progress in this de- 



partment of bee management. A brief 

 paper on the same subject was read by 

 the Secretary, from James M. Marvin, St. 

 Charles, 111. Considerable discussion en- 

 sued, an epitome of which we give as fol- 

 lows: 



Julius Tomlinson — Mr. Thompson ad- 

 vances many good ideas, but does not go 

 far enough. We should aim to breed up 

 a profitable race of bees, a race at once 

 prolific and industrious. Beauty is of 

 secondary importance. We do not need 

 to go to Italy for queens. Better queens 

 have been reared in this country than 

 were ever imported. 



Dr. Southard — Mr. Marvin speaks of 

 the size of bees. Does old comb effect 

 their size ? 



J. H. EvERARD — I once transferred a 

 swarm of bees from an old box-hive that 

 had been continuously occupied for over 

 40 years. The combs were so thick and 

 tough that a piece a foot square would 

 bear my weight (160 lbs), but the bees were 

 as large and as active as any, and such 

 bees to winter I have never seen before nor 

 since. I tried all sorts of experimenta 

 upon them, but they wouldn't die — always 

 wintered well. You might drum upon 

 the hive from January to June, but they 

 wouldn't show a single sign of dysentery. 

 The hive was finally burned accidentally. 



James Heddon — 'Twas time. 



13. A. Burch — Cremation. 



Julius Tomlinson — I find no percepti- 

 ble difterence in size of bees, whether 

 bred in old or new comb. 



Dr. Southard — I have brood combs 

 that are 12 years old. The cells are 

 smaller than the usual size and so are the 

 bees 



Pres. Balch — While it is true that a 

 hatching bee leaves a cocoon in the va- 

 cated cell, it is equally true that the bees 

 gnaw them out, thereby preserving about 

 the same relative size. 



J. H. EvERARD — As the septum of the 

 comb increases in thickness with age, the 

 bees lengthen out the cells, thereby main- 

 taining their uniform length. 



Pres. Balch — Bees will winter much 

 better in old combs out of doors than in 

 those more recently built. But we are 

 wandering from the subject under discus- 

 sion. Let's go back and canvass the queen 

 topic. 



James Heddon— Extra proliflcness in the 

 queen is not desirable. It is a universal 

 law of nature that that which yields the 

 most is of the poorest quality. The com- 

 mon grade cow that gives an enormous 

 amount of milk, will not produce the quali- 

 ty nor quantity of butter that the little Jer- 

 seys do. Pomologists have discovered 

 that thinning is indispensable to success 

 in raising well developed fruit of the finest 

 quality. So it is with bees. The strongest 

 stocks with their extra prolific queens are 

 by no means the most profitable. Quality, 



