Mar. 7, 1907 



American Hee Journal 



but this alone does not account for 

 heavy waxy, or thin brittle combs. Many 

 times a colony may have in process ot 

 secretion nnich wax, and the flow 

 weaken.s so that there is not the demand 

 to have comb that would be with much 

 nectar coming in. Then, again, there 

 may be an out-of-balancc condition 

 caused by varying proportion of fielders 

 to nurses. It is perfectly foolish to 

 condemn a certain queen or colony be- 

 cause it has given different results from 

 its neighbor, without knowing and un- 

 derstanding its conditions — the relation 

 of factors. Relation and number of 

 factors make all the difference, and one 

 must decide intelligently or he may be- 

 head the best queen he has, and save the 

 poorest one. 



I have heard of a music teacher who 

 set his pupil to playing chords, and 

 kept him at it until he could strike any 

 possible chord or combination of chords, 

 instantly the eye caught sight of them 

 on the staff ; but all the time the teach- 

 er had strenuously kept the pupil from 

 attempting io play tunes. The pupil 

 kept insisting that he be allowed to play 

 some tunes. At last when the chords 

 were mastered the teacher said the 

 pupil might play a tune, but he said he 

 did not know how, as he had never 

 played one ; but he was told that tunes 

 were nothing but combinations of 

 chords and that he could play any pos- 

 sible tune that he might find. This 

 illustrates the bee-business. Once we 

 master and understand the factors and 

 their relation to each other, we can do 

 with the bees just as the music pupiil 

 — play any tune we wish. 



But it is not possible for man to 

 make all the factors nor dispose of their 

 arrangement or order; we are hampered 

 and hedged about as the bee, but we 

 can make the best of what we can con- 

 trol and adjust. When some one from 

 New Vork. or from Colorado, or in the 

 white clover regions where there is a 

 June flow, or in some place where the 

 crop is harvested from fall flowers, or 

 from any other of the multitude and 

 variation of localities and conditions, 

 writes and says thus and so is the way, 

 try to put yourself into that man's posi- 

 tion and view-point, and make an intel- 

 ligent analysis, and the disagreement 

 of doctors will vanish, and all will be 

 plain, Many times, when a writer tells 

 of certain experiences, but overlooks 

 some prime factor, I am at a loss to 

 explain his results; but in very many 

 instances, by reading between the lines, 

 the whole thing is as clear as day. Our 

 many differences are because we do 

 not understand one another, because of 

 lack of knowledge, and because of the 

 limitation or incapacity of the human 

 mind. 



Man in his actions, both physical and 

 mental, is a bundle of habits. We get 

 into the habit of doing things this way 

 or that way, and should it so happen 

 that the various factors were in favor- 

 able relation, a reasonable or even 

 splendid success comes to us, and we 

 are led to think we are "it," and know 

 just how. I know the reader will pard- 

 on a personal experience that illustrates 

 the point : 



The first lo to 12 years of my bee- 



keeping experience was spent in what 

 was then a new prairie country in south- 

 west Iowa. 1 In .)nly sources of nectar 

 that supplied boili winter stores and sur- 

 plus were fall flowers; sometimes it was 

 starvation even in July, but usually 

 enough spring and summer bloom to 

 supply present needs with a filling of 

 brood-combs in August with the main 

 flow between .Aug. 15, and Sept. 15. 

 You see how I had all summer to build 

 up strong colonies; could make early 

 nuclei, and make of them strong colo- 

 nies before the surplus flow. This re- 

 lation of factors caused very little 

 swarming at the usual time, or June and 

 July, and when the surplus season did 

 come it was fall, and the bees seemed 



little inclined to swarm so late, no mat- 

 ter how strong. 



All these years it was no trouble at 

 all to control swarming. In white 

 clover districts the brethren were writ- 

 ing and complaining of swarming, and 

 the awful times they told about was a 

 puzzle to me. At last I decided I would 

 write some, too, and tell of my non- 

 swarming strain of bees, and seriously 

 thought of going into the business of 

 selling such queens. Fortunately, be- 

 fore I got around to it white clover. 

 was plentiful, with May and June sur- 

 plus; my bees of years of non-swarm- 

 ing went crazy, and I imbibed a little 

 more sense. See? 



Loveland, Colo. 



iSPIf/vML 



onvention 

 Proceedings 



Convention of Bee- Keepers' 

 Associations at Brantford 



REPORTBD BY J. L. BYER. 



(Continued from page 171.) 



Tuesday Afternoon Session. 



"What is the best hive — the 8 or 12 

 frame Langstroth ?" 



The majority of the members favored 

 a hive larger than the 8-frame Langs- 

 troth. 



"Why do bees outside need a flight, 

 while those in the cellar do not?" 



Mr. Trinder stated that he wintered 

 his bees outside, packed them very 

 warinly, and they never offered to fly, 

 even if his neighbors' bees were flying 

 freely. 



"What is the use of putting honey in 

 60-pound tins, when they are not to be 

 the final packages?" 



Mr. Holtermann — Under certain con- 

 ditions, they are of considerable advan- 

 tage. There is no time to put into small 

 packages in the busy season. 



Mr. Shaver would not wash 60-pound 

 tins that are to be carried over, but 

 Messrs. Holtermann, Armstrong, Byer, 

 and others would, for fear the honey 

 left in would deteriorate and cause the 

 tins to rust. 



Building Up Colonies for the Honey- 

 Flow. 



Mr. House now gave his address on 

 the subject of "Building up Colonies for 

 the Honey-Flow." He stated that every 

 structure must hive a foundation. The 

 foundation of a crop of honey was a 

 good, prolific queen. In this, with him, 

 the Italians were a failure; his choice 

 being a cross of Carniolans and Italians. 

 Abundance of good stores, and protec- 

 tion outdoors or in a repository were 

 also essentials. In spring a thorough 



examination was made of each colony. 

 Enough stores should be present, but 

 not too much, and he wanted a good 

 telescoping cover packed with some 

 non-conducting material on each hive. 

 In about 2 weeks most of the colonies 

 should have all the brood the clusters 

 can cover. Normal respiration of the 

 bee is 3 or 4 times a minute; under ab- 

 normal conditions, as high as 124. The 

 greater the respiration, the greater the 

 activity and the higher the temperature. 

 Honey coming into the hive will bring 

 about all these factors. Hence the thing 

 necessary to increase brood-rearing is 

 "stimulative feeding." A small feeder 

 is used, and the stimulating is done in 

 the evening. Thus the temperature is 

 kept up through the cool night to where 

 it was during the day. If stimulative 

 feeding were started, it was very neces- 

 sary to keep it up till the honey-flow. 

 To feed a while and stop, was positively 

 harmful, as a great lot of brood was 

 started, and if feeding were stopped, 

 a large amount of this brood would 

 starve or chill to death. 



Notwithstanding all the speaker had 

 said, he was glad to know that by a 

 proper selection of the Carni-Italians, 

 queens could be had that would rush 

 brood-rearing in the spring to such an 

 extent that feeding could be dispensed 

 with. He used a sectional brood-cham- 

 ber, 2 cases 14 %x 18x6 inches, to each 

 colony for winter. By fruit-bloom to 

 each colony should be added a third 

 case of 10 Langstroth frames of brood, 

 and at this time he adds a third case to 

 give additional room. 



At the opening of the clover flow he 

 treats every colony by taking away the 

 2 sections of brood, and substituting a 

 case of new combs on which the old 

 queen is left with most of the bees. 

 The brood-chamber taken away can be 

 used as increase, or piled up indefi- 

 nitely and run for e.xtracted honey. The 



