Jan. 31, 1907 



American l^ee Journal] 



lioiK'v. That from ihc L-lin;. was dark 

 amber, and strong-llavored. .\ notice- 

 able f.-iet was that, altliougb eertain 

 colonies wbieh were apparently ot the 

 same strength, and alike in oilier con- 

 ditions, they had different supers of 

 honey. While some of the supers were 

 Idled with nice, white combs through- 

 nut, others would be filled with combs 

 partly discolored by the dark elm hoiie.\ . 

 while still others would contain nearly 

 ;dl dark honey-combs. The product was 

 .ill bulk honey, but then supers with the 

 dark Iioiicv had to be extracted. 



Just why some colonies should have 

 stored much more of the dark honey 

 ih.in others, some of which stored none 

 of It at all, 1 can not say. It is an im- 

 portant question, however, tor the wdiite 

 comb-honey producer. 



Pure Food Law for Bee-Keepers 



A reputation for honest goods and 

 honest dealing is bound to bring success ; 

 especially since the Pure Food Law has 

 been set to work. The honest bee-keep- 

 er should now be able to make an 

 honest living, and he can do it if he 

 sells honest products, for, with the adul- 

 terated stuff out of the way, the pure 

 article will find ready sale at good 

 prices. This is as it should be. 



The bee-keeping fraternity has suf- 

 fered long enough — the industry has 

 been hampered. The honest bee-keeper 

 has been robbed of the profits he could 

 have made from his product, and the 

 consumers, of their money, wdiich they 

 paid for the stuff not worth it. by the 

 greedy "manufacturers" of the vile, adul- 

 treated goods, wdiich were forced upon 

 the innocent public under some catchy 

 name. Times have changed, and every- 

 thing must be wdiat it should be, and 

 I have no fear that the honest bee- 

 keepers will have any trouble to come 

 up to this. 



Weight of Eastern and South- 

 western Honey 



The Arizona Experiment Station, in 

 one of its circulars, "Practical Hints to 

 Farmers," says in comparing samples of 

 native honeys with those from the East : 



"The average moisture, 16.85 percent, 

 is seen to be markedly less than that 

 in Eastern honeys, averaging in two in- 

 stances ig.39 and 18.50 percent. This 

 results from the exposure of South- 

 western honeys before and during ex- 

 traction to the exceedingly dry air of 

 this region. With our excessive heat 

 and dryness, evaporation quickly con- 

 centrates the honeys to a condition of 

 ripeness which insures keeping, also con- 

 siderably increasing the weight per gal- 

 lon. Eastern honey usually weighs 

 about 58 pounds in a 5-gailon can; 

 while the Arizona article weighs ordi- 

 narily from 60 to 62 pounds." 



The San Antonio Convention Pic- 



tu "^ IS a KOuU ODc. It, shows over 100 of 

 tho-e in attendance. We are mailing them, 

 unmounted, fur only 60 cents. They can be 

 mounted by a local photographer for only 10 

 or lb cents more. We will mail one of these 

 pictures with the American Bee Journal one 

 year — both for only SI. 40. Send all orders to 

 the Bee .Journal office. 



.Convention 

 If Proceedings 



^AV^-«^ ^-^ - 



Report of the Michigan State 

 Convention 



REPORTED BY R. V. HoLTEKMANX 



The opening session of the above As- 

 sociation took place at 8 p. m., Dec. 25, 

 igo6, in the parlors of the Northern 

 Hotel, at Big Rapids, Mich., with Presi- 

 dent W. Z, Hutchinson in the chair. 



"HONEV PoSSlIllLITIES OF NORTHERN 



Michigan." 



This was by S. D, Chapman, Mance- 

 lona, and was the first topic on the pro- 

 gram. Mr. Chttpman is in a red-rasp- 

 berry section, and said there were more 

 bees there now than in any other part of 

 Michigan, He began bee-keeping up 

 there in iSSi, and had not known a 

 complete honey crop failure, raspberry 

 being his only source until the year 1895, 

 caused by 16 inches of snow on May 

 16 of that \'ear, the thermometer drop- 

 ping to II degrees above zero, and kill- 

 ing everything. They had been able to 

 haul saw-logs on the snow that fell 

 for 3 days after. During the past sea- 

 son (1906) the frost had also used them 

 up pretty badly, by a frost Ma}- 20 ; 

 however, they had secured a partial crop 

 of raspberry honey. He had nearly 400 

 colonies of bees, and, one year with an- 

 other, he could secure about 100 pounds 

 of surplus honey to the colony. The 

 honey-How generally began June I, and 

 closed from July 18 to July 20. The 

 bulk of the raspberry honey came in 

 during the afternoon from I to 4 o'clock. 

 During that time he had known a colony 

 in an 8-frame hive to gain 17 pounds, 

 or a total gain for that day being 21 

 pounds. 



When ]\Ir. Ch;ipman first began bee- 

 keeping in Northern Michigan, there was 

 no fall honey-riow whatever, but buck- 

 wdieat and goldenrod were now begin- 

 ning to give some surplus honey. Su- 

 mac was also coining in, and where it 

 existed in sufficient quantity, coming 

 in at the close of raspberry, it prolonged 

 the light-flow by a period of 10 days. 

 Both the raspberry and sumac honey 

 .gave a honey with good body, color and 

 flavor. K.aspberr>-, when it yielded well, 

 could beat basswood at its best, for 

 rapidity with which the bees could gath- 

 er it. He had experience in first-class 

 basswood localitie-. 



Mr. Chapman. 111 speaking of his ex- 

 perience with Carniolan bees as com- 

 pared with Italian for wintering, stated 

 that the Carniolan ^ were much better 

 winterers than the Italians. 



Wkdnesday Morning Session. 



The session opened with Association 

 business, a goodlv number being present. 



Elmore M. Hunt, the Secretary-Treas- 

 urer, showed a very satisfactory report. 

 From a cash deficit, with his energy he 

 had worked until this year there was a 

 balance on hand. 

 The National for Detroit in 1907. 



Upon resolution by Messrs. Geo. E. 

 Hilton, Vice-President, and L. A. Aspin- 

 wall, it was decided to join the National 

 Bee-Keepers' Association in a body, so 

 that during the present year everyone 

 becoming a member of the State Asso- 

 ciation will also be a member of the 

 National. 



The same gentlemen then brought for- 

 ward the matter of inviting the National 

 to have its next meeting in Detroit. It 

 was urged that a good turnout would be 

 assured in Detroit on account of rail- 

 way facilities from all points, includ- 

 ing Canada. R. F. Holtermann. of On- 

 tario, said he felt safe on behalf of 

 Canadians to add to the invitation lor 

 the convention to be held at Detroit. 

 The convention held so close to the 

 Canadian border would prove a strong 

 temptation to Canadians, and in all prob- 

 ability, a turnout of some 50 could be 

 depeiided on from that country. .\ 

 standing vote being taken, the invita- 

 tion to the National was unanimous. 



Publishing a Hoxev-Pamphlet. 



The matter of publishing a pamphlet 

 with a list of members of the Associa- 

 tion and the quantity of comb and e.x- 

 tracted honey they had for sale, also 

 pointing out the value of honey as a 

 food, and how to liquefy it, was dis- 

 cussed ; also the number to be published. 

 Some objected to distributing a pam- 

 phlet by themselves, wdiich would give 

 to prospective customers the name and 

 address of rival producers. It was sug- 

 gested by Mr. Holtermann that the Na- 

 tional Association could best get out a 

 pamphlet setting forth the value of 

 honey, how to judge the quality, how- 

 to store and liquefy it. That organiza- 

 tion could get out the largest number 

 and therefore supply it the cheapest, 

 and such a pamphlet should be supplied 

 at about cost price to other associations 

 in afiiliation, or to individuals wdio were 

 members, A leaflet with names and ad- 

 dresses giving amount of honey each 

 member had for sale could be sent out 

 and supplied by the State organization. 

 It was decided to issue a pamphlet simi- 

 lar to last year for the special benefit 

 of members. 



The election of officers resulted as fol- 

 lows : President, W. Z. Hutchinson ; 

 Vice-President, Geo. E, Hilton : Secre- 

 tary-Treasurer. Elmore M. Hunt — al! 

 officers being re-elected. They also re- 

 ceived a vote of thanks for the hard 

 work wdiich had been done. Mr. Hunt. 



