834 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1. 



States nearest the place of meeting seemed to 

 have the least honey. This, doubtless, accounts 

 for the comparatively small local attendance. 

 There were not more than about seventy per- 

 sons present during the convention. 



Not the least profitable and enjoyable part of 

 the convention was spent between the sessions, 

 meeting face to face those whose names had 

 become familiar, renewing old acquaintance, 

 and making new ones. Right here let me say 

 that, if any one stays at home from these con- 

 ventions thinking he can get the full report in 

 print, he makes a great mistake. The personal 

 contact with other bee-keepers, and the inter- 

 change of thought and personality, face to 

 face, is worth vastly more than the mere re- 

 port of proceedings with full report of papers 

 read. 



Some practical and valuable suggestions 

 were brought out in a discussion of questions 

 from the question-box, which was taken up at 

 nearly every session. On the question of what 

 race or strain of bees were the most profitable 

 as honey -gatherers, the extra yellow (or five- 

 banded) bees were pretty generally scored. 

 They had very few advocates. There seemed 

 to be a marked difference between extra yellow 

 bees produced by crossing with Cyprian blood 

 and those reared from sports of the Italian 

 race. The former were better honey-gatherers, 

 and, as a rule, not so gentle; while the latter, 

 being a mere sport, were not stable in any 

 thing, and were not to be relied on. 



"The latest information on bee-paralysis" 

 called out various testimony. Different ones 

 had tried various remedies, with indifferent 

 success; the majority having had experience 

 with it, agreed that changing the queen was 

 the surest cure. From the testimony gathered, 

 there seems to be more than one malady with 

 somewhat similar symptoms, or more than one 

 phase of the same malady. It was generally 

 agreed that we don't know very much about 

 the disease and its proper treatment. 



How to feed bees which are found with in- 

 sufficient stores in winter, or too late to feed by 

 ordinary methods, called forth from Pres. Ab- 

 bott his method of feeding, which, he says, has 

 never failed with him. Simply make a cake of 

 sugar candy from granulated sugar, j«st as 

 you would make maple sugar, and place it over 

 the cluster on top of the frames, and under the 

 quilt and packing. It is the purest sweet in 

 the best form and the right place, and insures 

 a perfectly healthy feed in the most accessible 

 place. He said he had used this method every 

 year for many years, and never knew it to fail. 



How to winter bees to prevent spring dwin- 

 dling was answered by Pres. Abbott, by saying, 

 " Feed as I do, with sugar candy." E. Whit- 

 comb, of Friend, Neb., gave a cause and cure 

 for spring dwindling that may be new to many. 

 He said that, when brood-rearing begins early 

 in the spring, a great deal of water is needed to 



prepare the food for the larvie. The bees are 

 generally located in a warm nook where they 

 get the sun's rays, and, when the hives warm 

 up, the bees fiy out for water. If they have to 

 go and hunt for it wherever they can find it, 

 which is usually the case, they are likely to en- 

 counter cold winds which chill them so they 

 can not return to the hive, and they perish; or 

 the cold water they find may also chill them 

 and prevent their return. Flying bees at this 

 juncture are of the utmost importance, and 

 this heavy loss of flying bees from being chill- 

 ed in search of water is the prime cause of 

 spring dwindling. The remedy is, to provide 

 drinking-places for the bees, just as carefully as 

 you provide for other stock. It is just as need- 

 ful.. Take a board about six inches square; 

 cut grooves in the form of a cross, reaching* 

 nearly to each corner, and crossing in the cen- 

 ter. Prepare a level rest for this board in a 

 sunny place near or among the hives. Fill a 

 one or two quart Mason jar with water, a little 

 sweetened, for the first few days, till the bees 

 get used to coming to the place. With cap re- 

 moved, lay the board on the mouth of the jar 

 with grooves next the jar. Then invert the 

 whole quickly, and set the board on the rest 

 provided, with the jar upside down on top of 

 it. The bees sip the water from the grooves, 

 which will be kept supplied from the jar as 

 needpd. The sun will warm up the jar of 

 water as soon as the hives are warmed so the 

 bees can fly out. They haven't far to go for 

 their supply of water, and it is not cold enough 

 to chill them, so they can return to the hive, 

 and spring dwindling will be prevented. Mr. 

 Whitcomb said he had been using this plan for 

 several years, and has had no spring dwindling. 

 He has also stopped the ravages of that mala- 

 dy in other apiaries which were rapidly failing, 

 and they had had no trace of the trouble since. 

 You will be astonished, he says, to find how 

 much water the bees will use in a day. This 

 water should be given fresh at least every 

 other day. It is just as essential to provide 

 water for your bees as for your horses, cattle, 

 sheep, and other domestic animals. 



'■ The best honey-packages for retailing ex- 

 tracted honey" called forth various opinions 

 and preferences. What was liked best in one 

 place would not do at all in another. It was 

 largely a matter of education of the trade and 

 consumer. Many used the Mason jars, pints 

 and quarts; others, the Muth square jar; 

 others, tin pails. A package that has value 

 for other uses in the home, when emptied, 

 seemed to be the most popular in many places, 

 and the Mason jar rather took the lead on this 

 account. 



There were a number of valuable papers, 

 prepared at the request of Pres. Abbott and 

 Sec. Benton, on bee-keeping in various other 

 honey-producing countries, as Canada, trer- 

 many, France, Australia, Cuba, etc. Most of 



