842 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15. 



CONVENTION OF THE SOUTHWESTERN WISCON- 

 SIN BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. 



The Good Work Done hy the Foiil-brood Inspector. 



BY HARRY LATHROP. 



The above association, of which Mr. N. E. 

 France, our untiring foul-brood inspector, is 

 president, met at Lone Rock, Wis., Oct. 5th 

 and 6th. This place, being on the Wisconsin 

 River, at the outlet of the Richland Co. coun- 

 try, and within ea.sy reach of the great bass- 

 wood regions on the Kickapoo, where there 

 are many bee-keepers, a large attendance was 

 expected ; but in this the few faithful ones 

 were disappointed. Those who attended had 

 a very pleasant time. The local bee-man, Mr. 

 F. Z. Dexter, made it as pleasant as possible 

 for us. A hall free of charge was provided for 

 the meeting, and a lady choir came in and 

 treated us to some splendid vocal music. 



One notable attraction at this convention 

 was the photographs of various apiaries and 

 buildings pertaining to bee culture, which N. 

 E. France had taken with his camera on his 

 various trips over the State, while in the dis- 

 charge of his official duties. These were plac- 

 ed at the end of the hall, and there were 

 enough of them to cover several square yards 

 of surface. The display was very instructive. 

 Every thing was shown, from the picture of a 

 prosperous apiary down to that of a great pile 

 of empty hives with the inscription, " Bees all 

 dead — results of foul brood." Mr. France, 

 with his views, would be a winning card for 

 any bee-keepers' convention where his attend- 

 ance could be secured. 



On account of the small number present, 

 very little convention work was attempted, 

 and at noon of the second day the meeting 

 was adjourned. We feel like throwing some- 

 thing at the bee-keepers over on the Kickapoo 

 for not taking enough interest to attend when 

 the convention was held within easy reach of 

 them all, and they had a good honey crop this 

 year, too. Evidently, Wisconsin bee-keepers 

 fail to appreciate the importance of this work. 

 I had the pleasure of making a brief report 

 of the Omaha convention, and at the close 

 several came forward and joined the United 

 States Bee-keepers' Union. 



We had the pleasure, on the second day, of 

 the presence of Mrs. Pickard and daughter, of 

 Richland Co. Miss Pickard has recently been 

 spoken of in the Amer. Bee Journal as being 

 " the sweetest girl in Wisconsin." Eight tons 

 of extracted honey was the product of the out- 

 apiary which she handled without assistance. 

 How grand to see a young woman making 

 herself independent by her own effort, instead 

 of (as many do) growing up as useless butter- 

 flies, flitting from one vain thing to another ! 

 The entire crop produced by the Pickards was 

 50,700 lbs. extracted, from about 400 colonies. 

 The experience and advice of such successful 

 bee-keepers are eagerly sought in conventions. 

 Success is more than any amount of theory. 

 The above-mentioned yield must not be taken 

 as an indication of the general yield of the 

 State. Mr. France estimates this year's crop 

 in Wisconsin at one-third of that of last year. 



and for the whole of the United States at one- 

 fourth. But, despite the short crop, it was 

 stated by Mr. France that many bee keepers 

 in the Slate, who had produced a few hundred 

 or thousand pounds of honey, had sold, or of- 

 fered to sell it, at prices as low as or even low- 

 er than the low price of last year. It is a 

 well-known fact that, when farmers have but- 

 ter and eggs to sell, they do not show such a 

 lack of good business sense. They want the 

 full market price, and they get it too. 



Another convention of Wisconsin bee-keep- 

 ers will be held at Madison in February, and 

 we hope the bee-keepers will redeem them- 

 selves by a large attendance. Our foul-brood 

 inspector has done a noble work. The disease 

 has been stamped out over large districts ; but 

 other infected districts await the same per- 

 sistent effort. 



Browntown, Wis., Oct. 18. 



THE PETTIT SYSTEM NOT NON-SWARMING, 



NO CLAIM FOR THAT, BUT AGAIN 



SATISFACTORY. 



Large Entrances Defended ; The Danzenbaker Floor 

 a Good Thing, but may be Impro\ed. 



BY S. T. PETTIT. 



I read with some surprise Mr. Doolittle's re- 

 ply to Dr. Miller on page 760, where he ( Mr. 

 Doolittle) insinuates that I claim my system 

 of taking comb honey is a non-swarming one. 

 I wish to say that I do not set up any such 

 claim. But I do claim that the large entrance, 

 and proper distribution of the bees to the ut- 

 termost parts of the super, and holding them 

 there by the use of dividers, so relieves the 

 pressure in the center of the hive that it makes 

 the bees feel cool, free, and easy — indeed, the 

 bees feel that there is more room in the hive, 

 and so I reason that swarming is held back 

 for a time at least, Mr. Doolittle's three 

 swarms to the contrary notwithstanding. 



That the large entrance and wedges cause 

 the outside sections to be beautifully finished, 

 this season's operation has again fully demon- 

 strated, in my yard at least; and, again, I say 

 I have no doubt that more honey can be taken 

 by this method than by the old way, both 

 comb and extracted. It is no uncommon 

 thing to find the outside combs in the ex- 

 tracting-supers better finished than the center 

 ones. 



The Danzenbaker floor is a good one, but I 

 believe that, if you would lower the rear end 

 of the hive to something like half an inch by 

 making the sides of the floor wedge-shaped 

 you would like it better: then the hive would 

 be perpendicular, and the floor would be just 

 right to help the bees clean house antl to 

 throw the water off. 



Returning to Mr. Doolittle, let me say it 

 seems to me very unfair to test a system, and 

 in that test leave out half of that system. He 

 does not tell us that he used the dividers in 

 that experiment. Is that fair and just ? Mr. 

 Doolittle seems to think that he settled nearly 

 every thing in bee-keeping twenty-five years 

 ago, and now he doesn't have to test any 



