American l^ee Journal 



Feb. 28, 1907 



-^ 



f Convention 1^ 

 ^ Proceedings 





Convention of Bee-Keepers' 

 Associations at Brantford 



REPORTED BV J. L- BYER- 



•■ (Continned from page 150 } 



WEDNESDAY MORNING SES- 

 SION. 

 Comb or Extracted Honey — Which? 



"Which is the most profitable for a 

 beginner to produce — comb or extracted 

 hone\- ?" 



Mr. House — Extracted. 



Mr. Hershiser — A difficult question to 

 answer. Depends upon the beginner. 

 Probably comb, if but a few colonies are 

 kept. More care is necessary to pro- 

 duce good extracted honey than comb. 



Mr. Holtermann agreed with Mr. 

 House. He had seen beginners put 

 honey-boards on upside down, and put 

 sections together inside out. Sections 

 produced by beginners are never well- 

 filled, and are put on the market in bad 

 shape. 



Mr. Byer — Small producers are not 

 the guilty ones in putting unripe ex- 

 tracted honey on the market. 



Mr. Chrysler — A beginner that will 

 put sections together wrong side out 

 will not be apt to produce good ex- 

 tracted honey. 



Mr. Edmondson and Mr. Shaver both 

 thought beginners would better start 

 with comb honey. One reason was that 

 they would not be so apt to have their 

 bees starve to death. 



A vote showed the members to be 

 about evenly divided on their opinions 

 on the question. 



At this point the following resolu- 

 tion was presented, which, after dis- 

 cussion, was passed unanimously: 



"While we would encourage people 

 to go into bee-keeping who are prepared 

 to give it the same attention and study 

 that they would give to any other call- 

 ing, we would strongly advise any who 

 are not so prepared, not to invest in the 

 business, as results are sure to be un- 

 satisfactory to the investor as well as to 

 the industry at large." 



Mr. House said certain periodicals 

 were booming bee-keeping as a fortune- 

 maker. Many were being deceived. He 

 would heartily endorse the resolution. 



Mr. Chrysler and several others stated 

 that in their locality of all who had 

 started bee-keeping, nine out of ten had 

 made a failure of it. 



Mr. Laing — People are influenced a 

 great deal by bee-keepers' conventions 

 and conversation. He heartily support- 

 ed the resolution. 



Mr. Miller then read his paper as fol- 

 lows: 



SHORT CUTS IN THE APIARY 



Being at a loss where to start, I may 

 say that I am probably what might be 

 called a crank on short-cut methods, 

 having studied them and fitted in ideas 

 from various systems until they are now 

 saving me the expense of a man's help 

 during the busy working season. 



First, the Heddon hive gives me many 

 short cuts in work all through the sea- 

 son. Commencing with queen-clipping, 

 the queens are smoked to the queen- 

 e.xcluder, and there caught without the 

 trouble of removing frames. As swarm- 

 ing-time approaches, a hive-lifting de- 

 vice enables me to diagnose and suppress 

 swarming perfectly, and thus at each 

 stage of the work short cuts follow. 

 During the time of extracting, no brush- 

 ing of combs is tolerated, the supers are 

 set on and beside the hive, and after 

 setting off a certain number, they are 

 placed on a large special wheelbarrow, 

 with a 30-inch wheel, and taken to the 

 house, and from here they are loaded 

 and drawn home from the outyards. 

 Here the extracting is done by a 2-horse 

 power, vertical gasoline engine, the 

 honey running to barrels in the cellar. 

 In packing the bees for winter, another 

 specially-constructed 'barrow together 

 with two 3-bushe! baskets, and a very 

 large, short-handled fork, enable me to 

 pack as many colonies as two men for- 

 merly did. 



Now a word for my "ready helper" 

 who smokes : This is a sturdy little 

 fellow with a copper fire-box, 4^^x85^ 

 inches, and lung capacity of 8J4xiiJ4 

 inches. The cap is hinged on the left 

 side, and to prevent it from flying open 

 under any and all circumstances while 

 in use, it is held securely by a short 

 piece of chain composed of very short 

 links, one end being riveted to the cap, 

 while the other end is drawn down and 

 into a groove filed in a piece of gal- 

 vanized iron, which is bent at right 

 angles and riveted to the barrel. This 

 gives an expansive fastening, thus al- 

 lowing for coking, which takes place 

 at the edges, and yet gives a secure fas- 

 tening. 



Another very useful feature which 

 prevents the grass from falling out of 

 the cap and into the fire, is a piece of 

 metal bent at right angles and riveted 

 just above the lower edge on the inside 

 of cap, projecting in one-half inch. This 

 effectually holds the grass where it is 

 placed, and prevents the necessity of 

 frequently refilling. F. J. Miller, 



Mr. Hershiser — How do you prevent 

 swarming with the Heddon hive? 



Mr. Miller — Pry apart the 2 sections 

 of the brood-chamber and diagnose the 

 condition of the colony. Cells will al- 



ways be built between the 2 divisions. 

 If cells are present, simply carry one 

 section of the brood-chamber to another 

 stand. In 4 days examine to see on 

 which stand the queen is, and if not on 

 the old stand, return her there. 



Mr. Hershiser — No doubt the division 

 space is a handy place for the bees to 

 construct cells, but on Langstroth 

 frames they sometimes construct them 

 along the end-bars. 



Mr. Miller^My frames are closed- 

 end, so that is impossible with me. I 

 never look for number of cells, but 

 simply find out if there are any present; 

 that's all I want to know. 



Mr. Chrysler— The Heddon is too 

 small for me. I use a hive equal to a 

 8-frame Langstroth. 



Mr. Miller had tried using 6 frames 

 in the Heddon hive for extracting pur- 

 poses, instead of 8 frames, and was well 

 pleased with results. 



Messrs. Chrysler, Edmondson, Shaver, 

 and others, favored shallow extracting 

 supers, Mr. Chrysler declaring jocularly 

 that any one who didn't use them wai 

 behind the times. 



Mr. Holtermann favored the full- 

 depth Langstroth frame, but admitted 

 that Mr. Miller puts up strong argu- 

 ments in favor of the Heddon hive. 

 Years ago he had tried them and didn't 

 know how to use them. However, he 

 was not in sjTOpathy with Mr. Miller's 

 plan of hauling the combs of honey 

 home for extracting. 



Mr. Byer — Heddon hives are a nui- 

 sance if an apiary gets infected with 

 foul brood. 



Mr. Miller— They need to be made 

 very accurate, and frames wired per- 

 fectly to prevent sagging. 



Mr. House used super foundation and 

 only one wire in frames the same depth 

 as Mr. Miller's, top-bars H^-Vs inches. 

 Yet he had no sagging. 



Mr. Coggshall— End-bars on manu- 

 factured frames are made too light. 

 Basswood is better material than pine 

 for top-bars. 



Mr. Holtermann catches hold of end- 

 bars when shaking frames, yet he had 

 broken many ends of top-bars off. 



Bee-Keeping Far North. 



"Can bee-keeping be carried on suc- 

 cessfully in Alberta and Saskatchewan? 



Mr. Craig said he had no personal 

 knowledge, but they were shipping a lot 

 of supplies out there. 



Mr. Smith— Only where shelter is at- 

 tainable, bumble-bees are present _ all 

 through the West. Last season the yield 

 was light, but a year ago a number of 

 bee-keepers had averaged 100 poun-di 

 per colony. 



Mr. Holtermann said he knew of one 

 man in Alberta who had sold $600 worth 

 of honey in one season : as more irriga- 

 tion was used, quite likely the more 

 honey would be produced, as alfalfa 

 was grown and local conditions were 

 quite similar to Colorado. 



Condition of Combs for Extracting. 



"What state should combs be in before 

 extracting?" 



Mr. Coggshall— In New York State! 

 [Laughter.] 



Members agreed that we should err 



