1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



333 



J. F. Collins, Louis Dietrich, Isaac 

 Benners and Heury Charles Bridley. 

 Topics discussed were "'J'he Fall 

 Flow," ''Poison in Honey," "Spray- 

 ing Fruit Trees" and "What to do 

 with Weak Colonies." 



Mr. W. A. Selser, of the Wood- 

 cliffs Apiaries, at Jenkiutown, just at 

 home from the West, in answer to 

 "the most interesting thing he saw 

 there," told of 24-frarae hives from 

 which the bees never swarm. Every 

 frame of this apiary is run through 

 the extractor once a week. The bees 

 are shaken off, and the frame, brood 

 and all, is put into the machine, its 

 honey whirled out and then put into 

 another hive than that from which it 

 was taken. The queen and bees have 

 the same frame only seven days, and 

 don't seem to mind the change. Jen- 

 kintown bees would never stand such 

 doings nor would any other he had 

 ever seen around Philadelphia, but 

 the Westerners worked right on as if 

 out on a wager, and never seemed to 

 mind at what or where it went to. 

 Four men and a big wheelbarrow did 

 all the work. The honey extracted 

 was not capped. The specific gravity 

 was very lovv. It was put into un- 

 covered tanks and let stand in a warm 

 room, and drawn from the bottom. It 

 actually evaporated itself. The honey 

 as it came from the extractor seemed 

 to be free from brood. That extracted 

 in the afternoon was lighter than that 

 of the morning. 



Of the present honey flow, Mr. 

 Hahman said his bees up in Frank- 

 ford were working very lively and 

 bringing in a beautiful light-colored 

 honey from the smartweed. There 

 was an abundance of white clover 

 everywhere, a third crop, but it had 



neither odor nor nectar. Others re- 

 ported the same. 



Mr. Mark Schofield reported his 

 bees, near by in Woodland avenue, 

 were working well. "The How in the 

 vicinity is tremendous," he said. 

 "The whole atmosphere being perme- 

 ated with the honey odor, all from the 

 wild asters and heartsease." A swarm 

 had gone out from his hives August 

 10. He had extracted nine gallons 

 from the ten hives in his back yard 

 for the spring flow. 



Mr. Moore, Germantown, reported 

 his honey as dark colored and rich, 

 averaging sixty pounds to the hive; 

 was extracting wholly. 



Mr. Hahman said the honey of the 

 spring was usually dark, but this year 

 has been light. Whether there was no 

 dark or whether the light was so at- 

 tractive the dark was not taken was a 

 question. The dark is from the 

 poplar. 



Mr. Flower reported Mr. Doolittle 

 as saving buckwheat yields honey 

 only once in five years, and Mr. 

 Hutchinson as saying a ten acre patch 

 of raspberries should give work to a 

 hundred colonies for six weeks. 



A gentleman claiming to be 82 years 

 old, a visitor, told of beekeeping as 

 practiced when he was a boy. He was 

 a beekeeper now because a swarm 

 came to him. He put it in an old box, 

 and this on a board with an opening, 

 so the bees could get it. By and by 

 he bored a little hole in the top and 

 put another box over it, and by and 

 by added another, so it is three stories 

 high now. The first swarm swarmed, 

 and ten days after swarmed again. 

 Altogether now he has five colonies 

 from the one that came. 



The apiary of Mr. E. G. Ludwick 

 swung Mr. Kugler's reputation for ex- 

 travagaut statements clear back to the 

 general assertion that he had not told 

 ihe half. 



This bee town is off Avenue F. be- 

 tween ISeveuty-uinth and Eightieth 



