190 



American ^cc Journal 



Mar. 7, 1907 



bees on the old stand are run for comb 

 honey. Supers are added as n-eeded, al- 

 ways at the top ; never more than 4 are 

 left on the hive at once. At the close 

 of the white honey-flow, these colonies 

 all having old queens, are doubled up 

 simply by putting one brood-chamber 

 on top of the other. As these colonies 

 are all to be re-queened during the 

 buckwheat f^ow, no attention is paid to 

 looking for queens at this time, and 

 they are left to fight it out. 



Mr. House considers it of great im- 

 portance to have )ii."i' combs under the 

 sections in order to produce a fancy 

 article. In fact, he would "throw the 

 old combs into the ditch" rather than 

 use them. 



Mr. Chrysler— With me, if I restrict 

 the bees to as small a brood-chamber 

 as Mr. House does, the bees will swarm 

 in about 3 weeks. 



Mr. Byer — Is there not a danger of 

 those brood-combs giving an inferior 

 quality of extracted honey? 



Mr.' House— Yes, there is that danger 

 to guard against, but I am more con- 

 cerned about the comb honey. 



Mr. House stated in regard to stimu- 

 tive feeding, that where it was prac- 

 ticable, outdoor feeding of honey in 

 small quantities every day was advisable, 

 and mentioned a Dr. Park who had 

 practised this system with immense suc- 

 cess. 



Mr. Holtermann said he never be- 

 fore fully understood why stimulative 

 feeding stopped suddenly was so harm- 

 ful. He would caution against feeding 

 honev from danger of foul brood. 



Mr. Miller also thought that it was 

 unwise to take the risk. 



Mr. Root said he had visited Mr. 

 House and found the quality of his 

 honey away above the ordinary. He 

 asked for a show of hands of those 

 who used divisible brood-chambers. 

 Three held up their hands. 



Mr. Hershiser was positive that old 

 brood-combs, even in the first extract- 

 ing, produced as white honey as would 

 new combs. 



Mr. Holtermann and a number of 

 others disagreed emphatically with Mr. 

 Hershiser, an-d the Chairman, asking 

 for a show of hands on the question, 

 found 20 to 2 in favor of new combs. 

 Mr. Hershiser asked Mr. Root to con- 

 duct experiments along this line and 

 show the people that the 2 were right 



Size of Zinc Perforations. 



"Are the perforations in this sample 

 of excluding zinc too small?" 



Mr. Root said he was glad this mat- 

 ter was brought up: the sample sub- 

 mitted was the Standard Root zinc 

 .162 to .163 of an inch perforations. 



On the advice of Capt. Hetherington 

 and some others, they had made the 

 perforations as thev are now, instead of 

 .168 to .1-0 as they were formerly. 

 Lately some evidence had come in that 

 had made him think that possibly the 

 holes were too small. It was no trifling 

 matter to his companj', as the dies cost 

 over $1,000 per set. Carniolans were 

 slightly larger than Italians and the 

 trouble reported was more with the 

 former race of bees. They wanted the 

 truth about the matter, no matter what 



it cost. If the zinc was not right it 

 would be remedied. 



Mr. Holtermann and a number of 

 others thought the zinc as at present 

 made is all right. 



Mr. Hershiser said he believed it 

 would be advisable to increase the per- 

 forations slightly. 



Mr. Chrysler had sold a larrge quan- 

 tity of old-style zinc without a single 

 complaint, but a lot of the new-style 

 zinc (Root) had been returned to him, 

 the bee-keepers claiming that the bees 

 could not get through them. 



Mr. House had 300 or 400 Root-zinc- 

 excluders and had no trouble. But with 

 100 old-style, too many queens got 

 through. 



Mr. Miller would not like to see any 

 change made. Attention was called to 

 the fact that it was necessary always to 

 put the rough or burr side of the metal 

 up so that the loaded bees came against 

 the metal on its smooth side. 



Mr. Root said it was very difiicult 

 to punch steel metal without leaving a 

 slight burr on one side. The burr was so 

 slight that no harm was done if the 

 zinc were put on right, as had been 

 mentioned. 



Rendering Old Combs. 



"What is the best method of getting 

 wax out of the old combs?" 



Mr. Coggshall— .^n important ques- 

 tion. Pulverize the combs thoroughly 

 and wet them. Then use a press, the 

 more powerful the better. From 20 bar- 

 rels of slumgum saved up the past 18 

 months, from which he thought he had 

 got most of the wax, with his kettle 

 and sack process, he had recently ex- 

 tracted 700 pounds of good wax with a 

 Hershiser press. .'MI agreed that in the 

 past thousands of pounds of wax had 

 been wasted. Slumgum from solar ex- 

 tractors invariably contained from 30 to 

 35 percent of wax, and from other 

 sources large varying amounts. 



Mr. Craig read a letter from Mr. 

 France, relative to the Ontario bee- 

 keepers joining the National Associa- 

 tion. It was moved by R. F. Holter- 

 mann and seconded by F. J. Miller that 

 we as a convention, represent to the 

 Ontario Bee-Keepers' Association the 

 advisability of our members joining the 

 National in a body. Carried. 



WEDNESDAY EVENING 

 SESSION. 



Feeding Honey-Dew fN Spring. 



"Will it be harmful to use honey- 

 dew for stimulating bees next spring?" 



Members differed in opinion. Some 

 intended to try it, while others would 

 not take the risk. 



Mr. House had used it once with dis- 

 astrous results. 



Mr. Root thought some honey-dew 

 would be all right, while other grades 

 were unfit for any purpose. 



K Member— How can we know when 

 honev-dew is being gathered? 



Mr. Shaver— Bv color, objectionable 

 flavor, and by tracing the bees in their 

 working, 



Reliquefying Buckwheat Honey, 



"Can buckwheat honey be liquefied 

 without injuring the flavor?" 



Mr. Holtermann— Yes, but it requires 

 to be done carefully. 



.At this time Mr. Laing asked leave 

 to present the following resolution: 



Resolved, That the Secretary of this 

 .Association be instructed to request the 

 officers of the National Association to 

 hold their next annual meeting in the 

 city of Detroit, where we believe a great 

 many of the Canadian bee-keepers will 

 attend." Carried unanimously. 



Mr. House was asked to explain the 

 general principles of the Betsinger sepa- 

 rators. He commented on recent arti- 

 cles criticizing this separator adversely, 

 and said he felt that if Mr. Root had 

 looked into the matter closely he would 

 have found some cause for the trouble 

 reported by Messrs. Burt and Dibbern. 

 Personally, he had used thousands of 

 them and never had the bees build 

 comb fast to the separators. Some of 

 their advantages over other separators 

 were free communication for the bees 

 and equalization of heat through the 

 super. The surface of the sections was 

 always smooth and not ridgj-, as was 

 the case when using fence-separators. 

 While the initial cost of them was high- 

 er than other kinds, yet he would use 

 them if they cost double. 



Mr. House also exhibited a sample of 

 the Betsinger Carton, and said that 

 honey in this carton always brought 2 

 cents per pound more than the market 

 price. Speaking of the care of comb 

 honey, Mr. House said that if honey 

 were "weeping," if the temperature of 

 the room were raised to 100 or no 

 degrees and kept there for 3 days, the 

 honey could be redeemed. 



Mr. Root— This is a valuable item 

 and worth coming to the convention for. 

 He wished to sav that he had seen some 

 wonderful results from the use of the 

 Betsinger separator, and was at a loss 

 to understand such a difference as re- 

 ported by Messrs, Burt and Dibbern. 



A number of samples of honey— good, 

 bad, and indifferent— had been collect- 

 ed. Grocers of the city were invited to 

 be present, and Mr. Smith was asked 

 to explain the difference in samples, 

 pointing out defects, etc. About 30 sam- 

 ples were on exhibition varying from 

 No. I clover honey to the vilest of 

 honey-dew. A sample of unusual inter- 

 est was 2 sections of fancy honey in 

 perfect con-dition, in a case; produced 

 by James Armstrong in 1896. Mr, Root 

 and others said they had never seen 

 anything like it before, .\nother sam- 

 ple' of extracted was from Vancouver, 

 B, C. It was also 10 years old and in 

 fair condition, a peculiar thing about it 

 being that the levulose and dextrose 

 had separated— half of the sample li- 

 quid and other half granulated. 



Regarding grain and flavor of granu- 

 lated extracted honey, Mr, Coggshall 

 and others said that stirring honey just 

 as it is about to granulate will im- 

 prove texture and flavor, and also 

 change color somewhat, .About 45 min- 

 utes 'vvas spent in an informal manner, 

 discussing the various samples; after 

 which the convention adjourned to meet 

 in the morning. 



CContiii led next week.) 



