I s;t7 



(iLHANINGS IN RKH cn.Trkl': 



iiiitUi' I and wxmU omt ihi.' wlmlc matter care- 

 fully. They then iuvileil ahout fifteen other 

 iiiemhers of llie coiivt'iilioii, aiiiony; whom, if 

 mv memory serves me. were Dr. INIiller, Rev. 

 i:. T. Ahhott; L. I). Stilson and H. Whitcomh, 

 of Xebra.ska; I'.. Kretehmer and Hon. K. 

 Secor, of Iowa, and A. 1. Root; and I believe 

 all sanctioned the work of the committee. I 

 may siiy here that most of those invited to 

 ineet the committee were then, and are now 

 members of the National Bee-keepers' Union, 

 three of them meml)ers of its Advisory Board. 



No material chantje of the constitution as it 

 went to the hands of the committee was made 

 In- them, and none by those invited to meet 

 with the committee. It was then submitted 

 to the convention, and i^one over and discuss- 

 ed antl adopted section by section, only two 

 chanties l)ein,<i made, I believe. 



BeiuLj op]M)sed to amal<^aniation, except as 

 above indicated, I took spi'cial paifis, in draft- 

 ing a constitution, to have every thing so 

 shaped as to favor and forward the interest of 

 the National Union, going so far as to make 

 the officers of the old Union the Board of 

 Directors of the U. S. B. K. U., and leaving 

 the funds, as before, entirely in the hands of 

 and at the disposal of those officers. I know 

 that the aim was to make it as nearly in intent 

 as possible to the old Union's constitution, 

 some going so far as to suggest that it be 

 called "National," with the expectation that 

 the old Union would adopt the new consti- 

 tution. 



In the light of these facts, what more cotild 

 have been done than was done ? Of course, 

 we don't know what ]\Ir. Brodbeck means by 

 •■ the one mi.stake made at Lincoln," nor how- 

 it could have been made more " distincth- 

 national." Unlike Mr. Brodbeck, there are 

 those who think the constitution is " incom- 

 plete, and full of incongruities." I myself 

 must admit that it is incomplete, but that is 

 owing to the elTort made to make it as nearl)' 

 as possible in line with the old constitution. 



Perhaps "the B. K. U. will revise its work 

 and follow in the line of the U. S." Some of 

 us, member of the old Union, tried to have the 

 "work revised," but failed; and the result 

 was the organizing of the U. vS. B. K. U. If 

 the N. B. K. U. "follows in the line of the 

 I'. S., I believe it will be following a vigorous 

 young leader. 



Why didn't :\Ir. Brodbeck tell us how to 

 avoid making the Lincoln mistake ? Perhaps 

 he'll tell us how to correct it at Buffalo. 

 Those interested in the success of the U. vS. B. 

 K. U., like Mr. BrodVjeck, "would like to .see 

 one good organization, . . . " and are 

 " willing to aid as far as lies in their power to 

 accomplish this purpose," and hcwc not and 

 zi'ill not entertain any other feeling than 

 "brotherly love," for their sole purpose is to 

 have "one grand union of bee-keepers in the 

 United States," and they propose to work in 

 that direction till that desire is accomplished. 



It is proposed by several to propose changes 

 to the constitution at Buffalo, so as to make it 

 as complete as possible ; but all proposed 

 changes will have to be .submitted to every 

 member for their adoption or rejection, and 



this can not W done at I'.uffaio. I'rom my 

 correspondence' I gatlier that the feeling is 

 general that the coming conveiition is to be a 

 large and good one, members in California, 

 .Vrkansas, Tennessee, South Carolina, Rhode 

 Island, Massachusetts, and Vermont, and 

 many of the States between these, signifying 

 their intention of being present. 

 Sta. B, Toledo, ()., Aug. (i. 



4 



ANSWERS TO 

 BY C.M.DOOLITTLE.BOROOINO.N.Y. 



FEEDING BACK EXTRACTED HONEY. 



Question. — I have read somewhere that, if I 

 were to run an apiary for exti-acted honey, 

 during the harvest of white honey, and feed 

 the same back to the bees to put into sections, 

 said extracted honey would sell in the section 

 form for enough more to give me a big profit. 

 Is this a fact? If so, how and when should 

 extracted honey be fed back in order to pro- 

 cure comb honey ? 



Anszvcr. — The feeding of extracted honey 

 in order that comb honey may be obtained is 

 something that has been tried by verv- many 

 of our best apiarists, and still remains an vin- 

 solved problem with some of those who have 

 tried it. Some have reported success and 

 others a failure; but, if I am correct, those 

 who consider the thing a failure far outnum- 

 ber those who consider it a success. From 

 my experience in the matter, I should say if 

 an}- one must feed extracted honev to his bees 

 in order that comb honey may be produced, it 

 should be fed in the spring, in order to hasten 

 brood-rearing, thus securing multitudes of 

 bees in time for the honey harvest; then, by 

 putting on the sections at the right time, a 

 large crop of comb hone}- may be secured, if 

 the flow-ers do not fail to bloom or yield honey. 

 My experience has also led me to think that 

 it is better to secure the honey in the sections 

 in the first place, rather than have it stored in 

 combs, and then thrown out with the extractor 

 that we and the bees may go through with 

 much labor and stickiness to secure the same 

 thing which we might have secured without 

 all this trouble. The practice of feeding back 

 is on the principle of producing two crops to 

 get one, and no one will argue that such a 

 course would pay in the long run. Even un- 

 der the most favorable circumstances, to finish 

 nearly completed combs of honey, I can not 

 make it pay if I count my time as any thing. 

 At the close of certain seasons, when I would 

 have a large number of unfinished sections, 

 many of w-hich were so nearly finished that a 

 few- ounces of honey would apparently finish 

 them, it seemed that it might pay to feed a 

 little extracted honey to finish such; but after 

 a careful trial of the matter, covering a period 

 of ten or more years, I finally gave it up as a 

 bad job. and have not fed back a pound of 

 honey during the past six years. If any one 



