780 



GLEANINGS IN UEE CULTURE. 



Nov 



eat. When such is the case it does not seem 

 to matter so very much liow they are iXin- 

 tered. In reg'ard to cellars and pits to win- 

 ter in, I at least pretty nearly agree with 

 you; but if you will read the tacts given 

 through (iLEANrNos in years past, I think 

 you can nt)t avoid coming to the conclusion 

 that bees often winter, protected liy double 

 walls packed with chaff, or some eiiuivalent, 

 where they would not in hives built of inch 

 Ijoards only ; tliat is, chaff hives winter safe- 

 ly- V here the rest of the apiary in hives of 

 other kinds are lost. In regard to advising 

 to omit lioard fences or other wind-breaks, 

 you are certainly hasty. Wind-breaks have 

 been proven over and over again to be of 

 very great advantage in not only saving the 

 lives of stock of all kinds, but saving the 

 amount of food consumed. I would have a 

 wind-break built about my apiary, simply 

 to save the bees from being annoyed by higji 

 winds, as they frefpiently are even diu-ing 

 tmrtn weather; and during the cool weather 

 in spring and fall, who can look on and see 

 their frantic attempts to reach their hives, 

 and not be stirred by an impulse to give them 

 relief V 



PBOCEEDINGS OF WESTERN BEE- 

 KEEPEKS' ASSOCIATION. 



Held at Independence, Mo., Sept. 17, 18, and 

 19, 1884. 



EXTRACTS FROM KEPORT OF ABOVK. 



/ / T^ ** profitable to extract honej^ for the pur- 

 k i (di- pose of finishing- up partly filled sections"!"' 

 was taken up for discussion. Mr. A. A. 

 Baldwin regarded the plan as profitable 

 from his own experience, and had fed ex- 

 tracted honey with favorable results. Mr. 

 Consor reported his experience as having met with 

 contrary i-esults, and would not advise the feeding 

 of extracted honey. Mr. W. B. Thorne gave his 

 experience as being- that his bees had a tendency to 

 swarm as soon as he began to feed them. 



The next question discussed was: " Is it profitable 

 to raise queens after the honey season fails?" Mr. 

 E. M. Hayhurst regarded it profitable, as did also 

 Mr. Jas. A. Nelson. Mr. A. A. Baldwin expressed 

 the opinion that queens raised at such a time were 

 not as good as otherwise they would be. 



Upon the proposition, "Ts it advisable to manage 

 an apiary so as to get a large part of the honey 

 gathered as surplus, and feed sugar syrup in win- 

 ter'f" Mr. Armstrong expressed himself as favor- 

 ing the plan. He had done so, using "A" sugar 

 with good results. Mr. P. B. Thaxton stated, that, 

 from his limited experience, he had formed the 

 opinion that bees always winter best on honej'. 

 Mr. Jas. A. Jones was of the opinion that either 

 honey or sugar could be used for wintering, and he 

 would take all the honey possible, as it could be sold 

 at a price exeeding the cost of sugar. Mr. W. B. 

 Thorne stated, rather to the amusement of the as- 

 sociation, that he would feed on sweet cider this 

 fall, and report the result at next meeting. Mr. A. 

 A. Baldwin stated that his plan was to manage so 

 that his bees would store all their honey in sections, 

 and then feed white sugar tor wintering; that at 

 the present price of extracted honey the feeding of 

 sugar was advisable. 



" What is the best time to Italianize an apiary?" 

 was taken up in the regular order, and, as hart the 

 other (juestions, it met with jiciicral dist'iissioii. 

 Mr. E. M. Hayhurst expressed the oiMuion, that, it 

 an ainarist buys his queens, the fall is the best 

 time; but in case an apiai'ist rears his own queens, 

 the best time is when the honey-flow ceases. Mr. F. 

 <i. Hopkins expressed the opinion that the best 

 time was when it best suited the apiarist. Mr. 

 Phidel Baldwin rofiardcrt the best time to be during 

 the How ol honey, at whiel'. time the bees were less 

 inclined to loh. Mr. E. Armstrong regarded the 

 best time for the apiarist, as well as the bees, us be- 



! ing as early in the season as possible. Mr. L. W. 



I Baldwin considered the best time during- the flow of 



1 honey, and regards queens raised at other times as 



inferior to those reared during a flow of honey. 



Mr. J. D. Meador regards the time as the best during 



the swarming season. 



" Is the extra prolificness of the queen a disadvan- 



j tage to herself and colony?" 



Mr. A. A. Baldwin Said: "I had rather have a 



queen that would just keep up the colony," 



t Mr, E. Armstrong, in his remarks upon the sub- 



[ ject, said that the present year Jiad been an excep- 



\ tional season tor bees to breed, and asked for infoi-- 



mation as to how such could be prevented. 



Mr. J. D. Meador, in reply to the inquiry, said he 

 thought it was due to the extra amount of pollen. 

 The most of the ussoeiutioii eoneiirrert in the opin- 

 ion that it had been an unusual season tor breeding, 

 and further that bees had bred latei- than usual. A 

 I vote being taken to decide whether in the opinion 

 of the association it was the queen or bees that 

 caused an excessive production of brood, it was de- 

 cided that it was due to the bees. 



Mr, L, W. Baldwin introduced a fact in his own 

 experience which the association failed to under- 

 I stand. It was, that while his bees were at work on 

 I the Spanish needle they would return to the apiary 

 and tly around as if lost, and alight on the brush 

 ancl (iie. His colonies were very much weakened 

 by death in this way. 



The next question diseussed was: " What is the 

 best practical method of controlling swarming?" 



Mr, P. Baldwin sai<l ujion the subject, that he had 



been trying to control swarming for many years, 



; and in his experience what would work successfully 



j one year would fail the next. He had tried caging- 



the queens, and they would swarm next day not- 



' withstandingthe caged queen, and so on for several 



days. 



Mr. L. W. Baldwin expressed the opinion that it 

 was best not to attempt to control swarming, but to 

 know what to do with swarms. His method during 

 the past season was, as soon as a swarm issued, to 

 take the old queen, and in three days destroy all the 

 cells butone, and give aripe queen-cell. The method 

 had worked to his satisfaction, Mr, C, M. Crandall 

 had successfully operated the same plan, 

 1 " Are vicious bees better honey-gatherers than 

 i gentle bees?" The discussion became general, and 

 the general opinion expressed was that they were 

 not. 



We give the following table to show what 

 bee-keepers do on an average. May be the 

 result will be a little one-sided, however, for 

 unsuccessful bee-keepers do not, as a rule, 

 attend conventions. May be the reason 

 why they do not succeed better is because 

 thej^ do not attend. Do you see the point ? 

 j I think the table makes a pretty fair show- 

 ' ing for a season so universally decided to be 

 a poor one. 



AVERAGE RESULTS OBTAINED BY 35 BEE-KEEPERS. 



