1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



301 



Oakland County, Michigan, is men- 

 tioned as a lively county. They have a 

 meeting of beekeepers nearly every 

 month, and with good attendan^ce. D. 

 A. Davis is their President. Tfiey say 

 much of the enthusiasm in that coun- 

 ty, for bees, i due to the influence 

 and earnestness of Miss Abbie Sly, a 

 lady of wonderful activity. 



Michigan has many young men of 

 promise. The State that produced Dr. 

 A. J. Cook is now encouraging young 

 men like P. T. Ulman and R. H. Kelty. 

 Ulman was in the A. E. F. and is 

 working hard now at spreading infor- 

 mation on bees. Kelty is Secretary 

 of the State Association. He is only 

 23, but is already making interesting 

 microscopical studies of bees and dis- 

 eases of bees. At the Huron County 

 meeting he took samples of diseased 

 brood from a comb and in a very few 

 minutes had a microscopic display of 

 Bacillus larvae, showing very plainly 

 American foulbrood. We need many 

 such men and they should be encour- 

 aged, at any cost. There is so much 

 room still for discoveries. 



The meeting of Huron County, at 

 the home of David Running, was at- 

 tended by about 75. A demonstration 

 of practical and profitable beekeeping 

 with 8-frame Langstroth hives, was 

 given in the apiary. By an ingenious 

 management of bees, after a variation 

 of the Demaree plan, Mr. Running 

 succeeds in getting a fine crop of 

 honey from "3-pound packages" of 

 bees received May 12. He had as 

 many as 6 8-frame stories occupied 

 with bees, brood and honey. He is 

 certainly very successful, the only 

 drawback being the large amount of 

 work required to keep 300 colonies 

 under this management, as every col- 

 ony must be examined at least as often 

 as once in 10 days, to keep down the 

 swarming fever. 



Mr. Running has proven to his sat- 

 isfaction that when the brood is put 

 up at least 3 stories removed from the 

 queen and the queen is confined to 

 the lowest story by an e.xcluder, the 

 young queen hatches above and, if 

 she has been given a separate en- 

 trance, will often be mated and will 

 begin laying without interference 

 from the workers, who seem to con- 

 sider this remote apartment as a sep- 

 arate brood-chamber. Then there is 

 no danger of swarming. 



David Running's large experience 

 with 2 and 3-pound packages, for sev- 

 eral years past, indicates that queens 

 sent with the bees should be caged 

 in such a manner that the bees can- 

 not release them during the trip. On 

 arrival, after the bees are hived, the 

 candy end of the cage should be un- 

 covered and a toothpick or a match 

 forced through the candy to help the 

 bees in releasing her. There is no 

 loss of queen when this method is 

 followed. The attention of both ship- 

 pers and buyers is called to this ad- 

 vice, which is based on protracted 

 experience, by an attentive man. 



Frederick, in the middle north of the 

 peninsula, is a station called "Mance- 

 lona Road." It is in the center of an 

 immense burnt over plain, where 

 grow ferns and endless thickets of 

 red raspberries. There is neither sta- 

 tion, depot nor village — absolutely 

 nothing but a wagon road crossing 

 the track, and winding around in the 

 sand. I am told there are dozens of 

 such "stations" in northern Michigan, 

 Splendid places to keep bees and har- 

 vet raspberry honey. But when one 

 considers the loneliness of such spots, 

 one wonders whether it is worth 

 while to keep bees so far away from 

 the comforts of life. Not a neighbor 

 for miles and miles. 



Propolis for Stopping 

 Leaks in Tin 



Years ago, when we first used tins 

 for honey, I found it a great annoy- 

 ance to empty a leaky can of its 

 h'oney and to repair it. I tried bees- 

 wax, but it would not stick. Mixing 

 a little tallow or grease with the wax 

 made a good mi.xture and I have used 

 this at all times to stop a leak, if small 

 enough, in a filled honey can. Now 

 I find, in the "Bulletin de la Societe 

 d'.A.piculture de la Meuse" for Novem- 

 ber last, the recommendation of using 

 propolis for this purpose. As every 

 beekeeper always has pronolis handy, 

 it is a good suggestion. 



At the meeting of Michigan's State 

 Beekeepers' Association, in Boyne 

 City, Hon. Colin P. Campbell, of 

 Grand Rapids, called the attention of 

 the beekeepers to the great amount of 

 honey which is still wasted in Michi- 

 gan for want of bees to harvest it, 

 which has been estimated at fourteen 

 million pounds each year. Many 

 farmers make fruitless efforts to de- 

 stroy the milkweed in their pastures, 

 while this same milkweed would give 

 them a profitable income in fine 

 honey. 



W. D. Achord, of Alabama, was 

 present at the Michigan meeting and 

 explained some of the troubles that 

 meet the shipper of bees by the pound 

 in the South, every spring. Every 

 northern buyer wants his bees at 

 about the same date, and this is next 

 to impossible to achieve. One of the 

 great troubles of shippers is the fact 

 that it is quite warm in the South 

 and cool in the North when the bees 

 are shipped. They need shad , on the 

 way, but many express agents or 

 mail agents, regardless of instruc- 

 tions, leave the cages containing them 

 for hours in the sun, at connecting 

 stations, thus causing the death of 

 bees which the shipper has to stand. 

 This delays delivery of orders, since 

 more bees must be furnished than ex- 

 pected. 



Michigan has some wonderfully 

 lonely spots. Between Alba and 



The Michigan Meeting 



The meeting at Boyne City was well 

 attended, over 100 being present. 

 Many came there from all parts of 

 the State in their autos. The roads 

 of Michigan should put to shame the 

 roads of Illinois. It is true that 

 Michigan has better soil for roads. 

 But they spend millions for a bitumin- 

 ous covering which appears to be 



mainly "Tarvia" and this covering 

 would be about as serviceable on 

 dirt roads, if properly graded, as on 

 gravel roads. 



One of the leading features of the 

 Michigan meeting was the approval 

 given to the American Honey Produc- 

 ers' League. It was voted to join it, 

 and as the State Association did not 

 have sufficient funds in its treasury to 

 pay the $100 required, a collection 

 was taken up and the $100 subscribed 

 in a very short time. That is the 

 right spirit, and Michigan is demon- 

 strating that the State which pro- 

 duced such beekeepers as A. J. Cook, 

 W. Z. Hutchinson, T. F. Bingham, 

 James Heddon, R. L. Taylor and many 

 others, cannot show the white feather 

 in a matter of national interest. It 

 may take some time to line up the ma- 

 jority of our State Associations in 

 favor of the American Honey Produc- 

 ers' League, but sooner or later it will 

 be done. Efficient service can hardly 

 be expected unless this comes about. 



The program was very full, in spite 

 of the failure in attendance of some 

 desirable men, such as Mr. Rattray, 

 of the Domestic Beekeeper; Mr. El- 

 mer Hutchinson and Mr. Townsend. 

 The latter was present the first day, 

 but did not remain long enough to 

 give the e.xpected address. 



The citizens of Boyne City helped 

 to diversify the program bv furnish- 

 ing automobiles to take a 50-mile trip 

 in the late afternoon to visit the mar- 

 velous experimental stock farm which 

 is said to have cost three million dol- 

 lars to establish. The second day an- 

 other trip was made to two apiaries 

 and the central plant of E. E. Cove- 

 you, where actual proofs were given 

 of a fine honey yield from clover and 

 milkweed. 



The meeting next summer will be at 

 Alpena, on Lake Huron. 



Mr. Frank Moore, of Newaygo, 

 Mich., uses propolis, heated, to fill 

 cracks or knot holes in defective Jum- 

 ber in beehives. He presses it in 

 thoroughly and then paints it over, 

 and says that hives finished in that 

 way are as good as those made of 

 clear lumber. They must be. 



If you ship honey in 60-lb. cans use 

 strong cans and strong cases, says 

 E. R. Root, as this may save loss of 

 honey, and is sure to secure better 

 condition on delivery. The saving is 

 greater than the extra cost. 



Disgusted With Honey 



.\t Bay \^iew, we met a lady who 

 had been very fond of honey. But 

 accidentally, she saw, in an exhibition, 

 a comb with bees on it, in an observing 

 hive. She said: "I was very fond of 

 honey, but when I saw all those flies 

 on that honey, tramping around, it 

 disgusted me. I can't eat honey any 

 longer. I did not know that honey 

 was made that way.' 



E. R. Root advises the shipping of 

 pound bees on strongly wired frames 

 of foundation, and reports that he 

 has known bees thus shipped to work 

 the foundation into comb while in 

 transit. 



