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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



J\l'ov. 18, 



done well this season ; while they had uot swarmed much they 

 had gathered lots of honey, and are In good condition for 

 wintering. 3 



Mr. Barrows said the experience'of bee-men was much the 

 same ; that his best colony stored 264 pounds, while others 

 did not yield much. He also spoke of his experience in win- 

 tering, and that he kept his colonies strong by examining the 

 brood-chamber and supplying the queen with frames and 

 foundation. He reported that this had not been an average 

 year with him, his bees having averaged only 15(.) pounds, 

 which was only >bout half the amount they stored some 

 seasons. 



A letter was read from Jas. Hacking, saying that his 

 bees had done well this year. He had 180 colonies, old and 

 new, and his crop of honey was 27,500 pounds, an average 

 of nearly 153 pounds. He said that there were 2,950 colo- 

 nies of bees in the county, but while all of them had uot done 

 as well as his, many of them had, or very nearly so. 



Pres. Lovesy reviewed some of the remarks offered. He 

 spoke on the wintering problem, and said that it was one of 

 the most complicated problems of the Industry ; that a large 

 colony of bees generated considerable heat, for this reason the 

 bees must be kept dry, especially in winter; that while pro- 

 tection Is good, the bees must not be sealed up air-tight, for 

 In that condition they are liable to smother, or die from the 

 foul air. He advised bee-keepers to give the queens laylng- 

 room, see that the bees have an abundance of stores for win- 

 ter, and to keep all colonies strong at all times. If there Is 

 any secret to success. It Is always in having strong colonies. 

 Himself and Mr. Bouck had sent samples of honey to the 

 Nebraska State Fair, and had obtained first and second pre- 

 miums. Our Nebraska friends treated them very kindly, and 

 invited them to come again. 



On motion of Mr. Heywood, a committee of three were 

 appointed to represent Utah at the Trans-Mississippi Exposi- 

 tion at Omaha next year. The committee are E. S. Lovesy, 

 Joshua Terry, and Jno. B. Fagg. 



The meeting then adjourned till April, 1898. 



J. B. Fagg, Sec. 



BEEDDM BOILED DOWN- 



Bee-Lice. — In an aggravated case where the use of 

 tobacco-smoke failed to rout the bee-louse in two colonies, ex- 

 periments were made upon single bees, and naphthalin was 

 found the most efficient remedy, killing the lice in a short 

 time without Injuring the bees. — Pfaelz, Bzt. Fortunately 

 bee-lice do not seem to flourish In this coiinijry, but it may be 

 well to know how to meet them should they ever apply for 

 naturallzation]papers here. 



Scotch Heather.— The question having been raised 

 in Gleanings whether the heather plant had ever been grown 

 In this country, Mrs. Lambrigger avers that there is no mis- 

 take about it, quoting such good authorities as Peter Hender- 

 son and Gray's Manual to back up the assertion that it has 

 been naturalized at Tewkesbury, Mass., Cape Elizabeth, 

 Maine, and also in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. CiiUxma 

 vulrjarlx and Erica cinerca are both terms that do duty as 

 botanical -names for the common heather. 



Weight ol Sections.— "This :jyear 17,728 1% 

 sections averaged 14.41 oz. each, against an average last 



year of 15.088 oz The variation in the weight of finisht 



sections this year was very great. The lightest case of 12 

 sections was SX lbs., and the heaviest case 12?f lbs. Of 

 course, the lightest section of the lightest case and the heav- 

 iest section of the heaviest case were still farther apart. It 

 hardly seems right to sell such sections by the piece." — Stray 

 Straws, In Gleanings. The editor of Gleanings, however, 

 stoutly maintains that selling sections by the piece is all right, 

 at least " Insomo localities." 



'Winter.Passasres in Combs.— O. M. Doollttle 

 Is askt In Gleanings, page 774, whether it Is well to have holes 

 made In brood combs so the bees can readily pass through and 

 thus avoid being loft to chill In little clusters outside the 

 brood-nest. He refers to the fad for that sort of thing some 

 years ago, when among other things holes were bored through 

 the center of the combs by means of a square stick, a hole 

 being bored In the side of the hive to allow the stick to be 

 pusbt through, the last survivor of the fad beiug Hill's device, 



and says he thinks there Is no benefit in anything of the kind. 

 He found that bees would die within half an inch of the holes, 

 also that the little knots of dead bees found on the outer 

 combs were only after the first contraction of the main cluster 

 from the cold, subsequent expansions and contractions not re- 

 sulting in the death of fresh knots, so he concludes that these 

 bees die, not because they have been caught by the cold away 

 from the cluster, but because they are bees ready to die of 

 old age, instinctively leaving the cluster, and hindered from 

 leaving the hive by the cold, they do the next best thing, and 

 congregate in their dying hour on the outer combs. 



Spoiling the Market.- Dan White makes an 

 earnest plea in Gleanings against spoiling the market for ex- 

 tracted honey by throwing unripe stuff upon it. Even bee- 

 keepers with large apiaries are spoiling the market for them- 

 selves and others by selling unripe honey. Such being the 

 case, it Is little wonder we hear so much about poor markets, 

 especially for extracted honey. Those who care to establish 

 a permanent set of customers for their honey will do well to 

 pasteup on the looking-glass this sentence of Mr. White : 

 " Don't forget that very few people get tired of good, first- 

 class honey; and above all, remember that almost anyone 

 will tire of poor, thin, unripe honey." 



The ^cw-Old Section and Separator.— 



The senior Root has neglected his turnip patches and hot-beds 

 long enough to make one of his periodic excursions into the 

 region of beedom, lured thither by the sight of the new sec- 

 tion and separator. He gives to some extent the history of 

 the development of the section and separator, and declares 

 there Is not a new feature about the new section with Its four 

 plain sides of equal width throughout (how could there be in 

 a section as complicated as a dry-goods box ?), nor yet in the 

 fence-like separator, only that we have just awaked to the 

 proper appreciation of the combination, and he is enthusiastic 

 over Its simplicity and utility, believing it must rapidly super- 

 sede all other styles. 



Grading' Honey by Pictures.— A. I. Root is a 

 great man for pictures, and in bequeathing an assortment of 

 his various characteristics to his son, Ernest, the love of pic- 

 tures was not omitted. And now the said son proposes to use 

 pictures to aid in grading honey. Appoint a committee at the 

 next meeting of United States Bee-Keepers' Union to select 

 representative sections of the different grades, say four sec- 

 tions In each grade, the four ranging from the best to the 

 poorest admissible in that grade, photograph them, then print 

 half-tone pictures on cards, the four sections of one grade, 

 life-size, on each card with the proper name attacht. With a 

 card'of each grade before him, the grader would be to some 

 extent in the position of one who had the sections themselves 

 before him to compare with. The Idea Is well worth trying, 

 we think. 



Bees Oathering Wax.— A correspondent of Glean- 

 ings suggested the plan of furnishing beeswax to bees in the 

 form of small scraps, in order to save the time of the bees and 

 the honey used to secrete the wax. He was answered that 

 the most economical way was to furnish the wax In the form 

 of foundation. But the editor admitted that bees do gather 

 wax in dull seasons, evidently referring to the bits of wax 

 that bees scrape from old combs or the like, carrying it into 

 the hive on their legs. At this the " stray straw " man mixt 

 in, saying he had some evidence that not a particle of such 

 wax was ever used for comb building, but only as a substitute 

 for or in combination with propolis. The editor thinks he 

 has evidence to the contrary, aud as a last word cites the fact 

 that in dull seasons, or when the honey-flow is moderate, the 

 bees almost invariably build combs heavier than when honey 

 comes with a rush. 



A PJe'w Binder for holding a year's numbers of the 

 American Bee Journal, we propose to mall, postpaid, to every 

 subscriber who sends us 20 cents. It Is called " The Wood 

 Binder," Is patented, and is an entirely new and very simple 

 arrangement. Full printed directious accompany each Binder. 

 Every reader should got it, and preserve the copies of the Bee 

 Journal as fast as they are received. They are Invaluable for 

 reference, and at the low price of the Binder you can afford to 

 get It yearly. 



Every Present Sul»scriber of the Bee Journal 

 should bo an agent for it, and got all others possible to sub- 

 scribe for It. See offers on page 733. 



