Jan. 3, 1907 



American Hee Journal j^^^ ^ 



Conducted by Louis H. ScnoLL, New Braunsfels, Tex. 



Value of a Note-Book in Bee- 

 Keeping 



A small tablet, or note-book, carried 

 in the pocket daily is one of the most 

 important things with me in doing my 

 work. I prefer the small pencil tablets 

 about 3x0 inches, costing about a cent a 

 piece. From these the leaves are torn 

 oflf as soon as the matter noted on them 

 is of no more value. It is so much 

 easier to "jot down" or make a memo- 

 randum of anything that may come up 

 suddenly, but which would be forgotten 

 afterward. 



A wise practise, too, is to plan one's 

 work. The day's work is planned the 

 night before. When getting up the next 

 morning a glance at the notes tells just 

 what is to be done. Sometimes there 

 are a great many little things that have 

 to be attended to. These are all put 

 down just as they come to my mind. 

 In the evening I go over the list and 

 mark all those to be attended to on the 

 following day, and so on, day after day. 



Just try such a plan, and see if it does 

 not give more relaxation to an already 

 overloaded brain. It also allows a per- 

 son more free thought to devote to other 

 important matters. 



Buying- Bees in Box-Hives 



The question is often asked, "Does it 

 pay to buy box-hives of bees?" Yes, 

 and no. If it is intended toeoutinue 

 to keep them in this style of hive, yes — 

 in sections where the honey-crop is not 

 a failure and they receive g'ood atten- 

 tion, but this is hard to do, and often 

 we sustain losses. And right here is 

 where modern bee-keeping began, foi; it 

 is a fact that bees will store honey in 

 any sort of a hive if they are in a honey- 

 gathering condition. In modern bee- 

 keeping we can easily supply the needs 

 of the bees, but in the old way it is 

 nearly the reverse ; besides, the honey is 

 not in a marketable condition. 



The beginner is not always successful 

 in transferring his bees from old to mod- 

 ern hives. And right here is where many 

 bee-keepers turn back. It pays modern 

 bee-keepers to buy bees in box-hives, 

 but they should examine each hive well, 

 removing the top, also looking through 

 the hive from the bottom, and noting 

 the contents carefully. If the comb is 

 old and black it will not yield so much 

 wax as newer comb by the common ren- 

 dering process. The amount of stores 

 and the cluster of bees should be closely 

 estimated. The writer buys about lOO 



colonies of bees in box-hives each sea- 

 son, and his experience is that a lot of 

 valuable increase can be made with them 

 early in the spring. If no increase is 

 desired, they can be used to great ad- 

 vantage in building the apiary up to the 

 best honey-gathering condition. 



As soon as there is some honey com- 

 ing in, in early spring, these old hives 

 are split open with an ax, and if they 

 contain any combs of brood straight 

 enough to fill the frames, they are trans- 

 ferred, and the bees are used as seems 

 best — either united with other colonies 

 which may need strengthening, or 

 enough of them united together to make 

 booming colonies. As soon as the choice 

 comb has been taken from the bo.x-hive, 

 and the bees disposed of, it is thrown 

 to one side, and as soon as the bees clean 

 out what honey it tiiay contain, all the 

 comb is removed, scraping all interior 



jjarts of the hive well and rendering into 

 l)ceswax. An average of about 2 pounds 

 per hive is obtained. 



About the time the transferring i» 

 done there is abundance of pollen com- 

 ing in, and soon the honey is turned iiuo 

 young bees ; an<l by the time tne main 

 honey-flow comes on, the brood-nest is 

 full of young bees, and the supers full 

 of bees of tlie right age to gather honey, 

 besides storing a large pile of fuel for 

 winter. J. J. Wilder. 



Crisp Co., Ga. 



This is a novel idea, thro.wing aside 

 the box-hives with crooked combs and 

 honey after the good, straight brood- 

 combs have been taken from them, and 

 letting the bees clean them up, and turn- 

 ing the honey into young bees for the 

 honey-flow. In this way two purposes 

 are accomplished, the other being that it 

 saves the fussing with broken combs 

 of honey from which the honey has to 

 be pressed or strained. But is there not 

 danger of starting robbing from the 

 other bees in the apiary? It would 

 be a good plan, perhaps, to remove the 

 box-hives some distance from the apiary, 

 as the danger of robbing is not so bad 

 when the bees carry the stolen sweets 

 from some distance away. 



Another good idea is to sprinkle water 

 over the broken hives, which has a tend- 

 ency to extinguish the scent of open 

 honey, and partly dilutes the honey, so 

 much so that the bees engaged in the 

 fracas are less liable to go at it in a 

 helter-skelter manner. 



■^ 



tonventicHi 

 Proceed inds 



Report of the Ontario, Can- 

 ada, Convention 



RKPORTBD BY MORLEY PETTIT. 



The Ontario Bee-Keepers' Association 

 met in the York County Council Cham- 

 bers, Toronto, Nov. 7, 8, 9, 1906. Pres. 

 H. G. Sibbald occupied the chair. After 

 the reading of the minutes of the last 

 annual meeting, the President read his 

 opening address. He regretted the fail- 

 ure of the honey crop for 1906, but con- 

 gratulated the members on the advance 

 in prices. On account of the increased 

 population of the country, a large home 

 market for honey should be found. 



."Announcement was made from the 

 Department of Agriculture that the 

 grant for suppression of foul brood is 

 likely to be doubled, showing the in- 

 creased intrest taken in this by the 

 Minister of Agriculture. Hon. Nelson 

 Monteith, and Deputy Minister, C. C. 

 James. This along with the change in 

 regulation, taking the control of inspec- 

 tion entirely out of the hands of the 



Association, Mr. Sibbald considered 

 moves in the right direction. 



J. D. Evans spoke a few words wel- 

 coming the Association to the old his- 

 torical hall, the York County Council 

 Chambers. 



R. H. Smith opened the discussion 

 on the President's address. As one of 

 the members at the first meeting of the 

 Ontario .\ssociation in the old City Hall, 

 Mr. Smith saw many advances among 

 expert bee-keepers, but not so much 

 among farmer bee-keepers, as there 

 should be. He regretted the lack of 

 interest shown by farmers in the local 

 associations. The Executive had been 

 working out some of the suggestions 

 made by jNIr. Pettit last year, by putting 

 local associations iir federation with the 

 Ontario Association. 



Mr. Smith regretted the light crop of 

 honey — perhaps the lightest for 10 

 years; but the exhibit at the Fruit, 

 Flower, and Hone\' Show was one of 

 the best he has seen despite the light 

 crop. 



W. J. Brown suggested that in accord 



