142 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1 



the temperature, much less to quiet the 

 bees. We put a small electric desk fan in 

 the doorway, and let it run for an hour or 

 two, when, presto ! the temperature dropped, 

 and the bees stopped their zip, zip, buzzing 

 and flitting to the floor. But the tempera- 

 ture went down no lower than 62. Of course, 

 a blast of air does not change the tempera- 

 ture; but if the air in any part of the cellar 

 is lowered it will tend to equalize the tem- 

 perature. You see the fact was, the bees 

 had warmed up their apartment by their 

 own body heat. When we gave them fresh 

 air from one of the other compartments by 

 means of an electric fan and reduced the 

 temperature, they quieted down. 



On Sunday, the 2 1st of January, when it 

 was very warm, I found the bees were quite 

 uneasy. As there was no current on to run 

 the fan I opened the doors; but as no air 

 was stirring it did not produce the desired 

 effect; for, as a matter of fact, the temper- 

 ature outdoors was the same as that inside, 

 and there was no circulation. That night, 

 when the current came on, I started the 

 electric fan, and in the course of an hour I 

 had the satisfaction of observing that the 

 bees were quieting down. Now, mind you, 

 the temperature had not changed one degree; 

 but the air was changed and freshened up. 

 What was the temperature? It was 63. 



When I hear anybody say that it is not 

 necessary to ventilate bee-cellars, I say yes 

 and no. There are very few cellars indeed 

 where it is not better to ventilate, and these 

 are the ones where the temperature can be 

 kept near 45 almost throughout the winter; 

 but where it is liable to go up to 60, then I 

 believe that ventilation is a necessity if we 

 would have good results. Prior to the warm 

 days just mentioned I took quite a promi- 

 nent bee keeper into our bee-cellar. The 

 bees had been in about two months. We 

 looked down on the cellar bottom, and it 

 was so clean of any stray dead bees that I 

 concluded it must have been swept, and so 

 informed our friend; but later I learned 

 from Mr. Pritchard that the broom had not 

 been used in the cellar at all. 



"HIGH lights" of THE CHICAGO CONVEN- 

 TION. 



I HAD intended to give a summary of some 

 of the discussions, but finally decided not to 

 do so, in view of the fact that the official ver- 

 batim report will be out soon, and that the 

 membership, at least, can get a copy, and 

 others interested can secure one by becom- 

 ing a member by the payment of $L00 to 

 the General Manager, N. E. France, Platte- 

 ville. Wis. In the way of a prelude to the 

 reading of the report, I might say that at 

 this convention there were several ' ' high 

 lights " (borrowing a term used in photogra- 

 phy) that left a strong impression on those 

 who were permitted to be present. I will 

 not mention them all; but suffice it to say 

 that Dr. E. F. Phillips, in charge of apicul- 

 ture at the Department of Agriculture, 

 Washington, fairly captivated the conven- 

 tion. His paper detailing the work done by 



the Department was listened to with the 

 closest attention; and the discussion that 

 followed showed that the members were 

 deeply interested. 



R. F. Holtermann was another high light 

 who aroused considerable interest in his 

 methods of producing extracted honey. A. 

 K. Ferris, of Madison, Wis., told of his 

 method of swarm control; and L. A. Aspin- 

 wall, of Jackson, Mich., described his sys- 

 tem of producing comb honey, by which, 

 also, swarms could be held in check at the 

 same time. The details of these various 

 methods will be given later in Gleanings, 

 for some of the writers have promised to 

 write them out more fully than they gave 

 them at the convention even. Mr. Holter- 

 mann is already describing in this issue his 

 honey strainer. 



A very pleasant incident occured in which 

 Mrs. J. J. Glessner, of Chicago, presented, 

 through Dr. Miller, two gavels— one for the 

 President of the Northwestern Bee-keepers' 

 Association, of which G. W. York is Presi- 

 dent, and the other to the National Bee- 

 keepers' Association, of which C. P. Dadant 

 is President. These gavels were made out 

 of a tree planted by Rev. L. L. Langstroth 

 at his old home in Dayton many years ago. 

 Dr. Miller was in a reminiscent mood, and 

 gave some interesting history regarding 

 Langstroth. Then he also read some letters 

 from contemporaries of Langstroth that had 

 never been made public. While perhaps 

 there was not much in this in the way of 

 valuable bee- lore, yet I think the convention 

 did well to spend a little time in a substan- 

 tial recognition of the man who revolution- 

 ized bee-keeping throughout the world by 

 his inventions, 



0. L. Hershiser read a valuable paper on 

 wax-presses which created an unusual amount 

 of enthusiasm. Some thought presses were 

 unnecessary because they were sure they 

 could get all the wax out of the comb. Mr, 

 Hershiser jolted the confidence of these 

 people considerably when he offered to pay 

 them a dollar a hundred for all their slum- 

 gum and pay the freight on it to Buffalo. 

 He made big money out of people who talk- 

 ed that way, and could do it again. 



The unconventional conventions between 

 sessions were a prominent feature of this 

 meeting. There was a large exhibit of bee- 

 keepers' supplies in a couple of rooms ad- 

 joining, and thither the bee-keepers would 

 congregate to discuss the merits of the vari- 

 ous new things that were presented. I be- 

 lieve that these little conferences between 

 sessions are often more valuable than the 

 regular convention discussions, because each 

 bee-keeper can inquire into the very thing 

 he wishes to know most about by going to 

 the expert who is best posted on that par- 

 ticular phase of the subject concerning which 

 he inquires. 



There were numerous other ' ' high lights ' ' 

 such as C, A. Hatch and William M. Whit- 

 ney, who were active in the discussions on 

 the floor, and contributed much of value to 

 the meeting. 



