June 20, 1907 



549 



American Hee Journal 



^^^^ I 



iug tu the newspapers. For preparing 

 material it would be different. 



Mr. Iliitcliinson — Speaking of writing 

 some articles to do some good to sell 

 honey, I have some honey of my own 

 this year and I wrote an advertisement 

 advertising tliat honey. I tried to write 

 it in such a way that a man reading that 

 advertisement would want some of that 

 honey. A man wrote me, "I have been 

 tasting that honey ever since I read that 

 advertisement." That is the kind of 

 an article we want to write for the 

 papers ; when a man reads the article 

 he wants to go right out and get some 

 honey and try it. 



Jlr. Taylor — There is a distinction 

 I think we ought to make in this mat- 

 ter of advertising. That is, the ditTer- 

 ence between advertising a person and 

 advertising a product. Now Mr. 

 Hutchinson sold his honey because he 

 advertised himself; he advertised the 

 fact that he had honey to sell. It was 

 not because he gave any new informa- 

 tion about honey that enabled him to 

 sell. It was because he advertised him- 

 self. 



Pres. York — Mr. Hutchinson said the 

 man was tasting the honey all the time, 

 and not tasting Mr. Hutchinson! 



Mr. Taylor — Because he had a good 

 deal of faith in Mr. Hutchinson, and 

 knew any honey he e.xtracted of course 

 would be extra-good. 



Mr. Chapman — I would like to call 

 attention to a fact that is really before 

 the meeting here. I see b\' the news- 

 papers that one of the women's clubs 

 here is discussing the reading of Dick- 

 ens' works because he always refers to 

 •eating and drinking, claiming that the 

 references to eating and drinking cause 

 a great many people to go out and over- 

 eat and drink. It is along this line 

 that our friends refer to — discussing 

 honey, referring to the fact that it is 

 one of the oldest foods known in the 

 world, that it has come down through 

 the ages to be a blessing to the people, 

 that people with delicate stomachs who 

 can not eat sugar or syrup can still eat 

 honey ; such statements will set a per- 

 son thinking that he hasn't had any 

 honey for a good while, that he would 

 like some now, and he goes out and 

 buys it. 



Mr.Arnd — I was a contributor orig- 

 inally to the fund for advertising. I 

 move that the Chicago Northwestern 

 Bee-Keepers' Association recommend to 

 the National that they use the fund 

 mentioned by Mr. France, in just such 

 advertising as we have spoken of today. 



The motion was seconded. 



Pres. York — I ought to sa\-, perhaps, 

 before we take a vote on this, that the 

 experiment will not cost over about 

 $300 to make the first engagement. It 

 is moved and seconded that we recom- 

 mend to the National, or to the Direc- 

 tors, that the money in their hands from 

 the Honey-Producers' League be used 

 in such work as has been outlined here. 

 Of course there may be other methods, 

 used also. 



The motion was put and carried. 



Fovl-Broody Colony Defending Itself. 



"Is it a fact that a foul-broody colony 

 ■defends itself against robbers with less 



vigor that a healthy one of correspond- 

 ing strength." 



Mr. Taylor— Yes, I think so. It 

 makes them h;ive less heart, don't care 

 whether school keeps or not ; and, more 

 than that, there is a scent about the 

 hive that I think attracts robber-bees. 

 Don't you think so, Mr. France? 



Mr. France — Yes, sir. 



Mr. Taylor — If there is a colony that 

 has any foul brood about it, you will 

 notice the robber-bees are prowling 

 around there. I don't know whether 

 it is the scent, or whether they appreci- 

 ate that the defenders are not very anx- 

 ious to defend their hives. .*\ny way, 

 you have got to look out if you have a 

 colony of foul brood. 



Mr. France — I think Mr. Taylor has 

 pretty nearly covered the ground. The 

 bees seem to lack the defensive, and the 

 odor also seems to have a tendency to 

 warn the outside bees that there is 

 something wrong. 



Brood-Chamber in Winter. 



"For wintering on the summer stands 

 in lo-frame Langstroth hives, is it ad- 

 visable to contract the brood-chamber 

 with tight-fitting division-boards?" 



Members — No. 



Mr. France — That depends upon your 

 location. The farther north you are the 

 more you need to contract them. You 

 do not need any of that if you are down 

 in Missouri ; and if you go into the ex- 

 treme northern part of Wisconsin where 

 the thermometer goes to 40 below, you 

 have other conditions. There are other 

 conditions for an outdoor winter. I 

 want a good, vigorous queen in the fall, 

 and more than honey enough. 



Mr. Wilcox — I would say from what 

 experience I have had in outdoor win- 

 tering that I would contract a little, but 

 more especially put on another story, 

 use the second story for outdoor winter- 

 ing, always with 4 or 5 combs in, and 

 of course a division-board at each side 

 and packing behind. I think the second 

 story is the most important part of out- 

 door wintering. 



Mr. Jones — I would say it depends not 

 alone upon the locality but upon the 

 strength of the colony. With a really 

 good young colony with plenty of bees in 

 there, there would perhaps be no nec- 

 essity of it. and perhaps no advantage; 

 but a small colony, I say by all means 

 to contract. I have wintered bees in 

 Wisconsin outdoors. Up there 1 do 

 not think there would be any show of 

 their wintering if they had not been con- 

 tracted. 



Mr. Chapman — I believe 2-frame di- 

 vision-boards, in our locality of Chica- 

 go, are of great benefit to the bees. Mr. 

 Wright, at one time attending our con- 

 vention, said if you would take a super 

 of dry extracting combs and place it 

 underneath the hive-body where you 

 wished to winter them, it w-ould be far 

 better for the bees. I have practiced 

 that now for 6 years; placed it under- 

 neath, put a super the section-size on 

 top of either excelsior or ground cork, 

 and I have never lost a colony of bees. 

 I did not lose them 3 years ago when 

 so many were lost here, and I have my 

 bees right on the roof of the house, 

 where they arc exposed to all the winds 



and weather that can be, and I think 

 I have struck an excellent plan. 



Points in Juihiinc Bees. 



"In judging Italian bees at fairs, what 

 points should be taken into considera- 

 tion ?" 



Mr. Wilcox — I did not ask that ques- 

 tion, but that is just the information 

 I want. I may say what I have done, 

 but I .don't know what I ought to do. 

 I have considered as of first importance 

 uniformity of markings. This, of course, 

 speaks of Italian bees. Uniformity of 

 markings of the worker-bees is my 

 standard for purity. If all the bees are 

 alike — size, color and shape — I consider 

 it proof positive that they are pure- 

 bred. It is the only standard I have, 

 absolutely, in judging bees. If I had 

 them in my apiary where I could ob- 

 serve their actions, then I would have 

 additional standards, but we can not 

 have that at the shows, consequently 

 we must judge from the looks only. 

 Size and uniformity of markings are the 

 principal things. Size, however, is an 

 uncertain standard, because the more 

 agitation, excitement and jarring you 

 give them the larger they will be. You 

 go in the morning and look at the bees 

 on exhibition and they are small, and 

 in the afternoon they are much larger. 

 The fact is, they have gorged themselves 

 with honej'. ? So you can not depend 

 very much upon the size, but you can 

 upon the markings. 



Mr. Jones — Wouldn't it be a little ad- 

 vantage for a person to get them in 

 show condition, if he knew when the 

 judge was coming around? 



Mr. Wilcox — If size were important he 

 could, but size is not a very important 

 point. 



Mr. Hutchinson — Uniformity is all 

 you can go by. You can't tell by the 

 size. If they are uniform in marking 

 that is the best we can do. 



Foul Brood Legislation. 



Dr. Bohrer — It may be a mere matter 

 of criticism upon my part to call the 

 attention of this Association to the mat- 

 ter of foul-brood legislation. I under- 

 stand that here in Illinois you have a 

 law for the use of the bee-keepers of 

 the State, but that does not clothe a 

 bee-inspector with authority to go up- 

 on the premises of a man who may have 

 foul brood, except at his will and pleas- 

 ure. I don't know if you want to get 

 the legislation to take cognizance of a 

 matter of that kind. Find out and make 

 a report of such persons as refuse flatly 

 and absolutely to allow a bee-inspecto/ 

 to cure the disease or stamp it out, 

 destroy his bees or make an effort to 

 get_ them cured. If you can gather 

 suflicient evidence, even perhaps one or 

 tw'O cases of that kind, where men have 

 refused, then go to some influential 

 member of the legislature, and some 

 man who knows something about the 

 business, if you can find one. We suc- 

 ceeded in our State in finding a man 

 who knew something about bees and 

 the wants of the bee-keepers. He laid 

 it before the legislature. They were 

 ready to hear it, when they found it was 

 about to destroy an industry — an infant 

 industry but growing rapidly — and we 



