March, 1909. 



American Vqc Journal 



that the Association has ever held. One 

 enthusiastic member who has attended 

 some National conventions, said: "It 

 was the most profitable meeting I have 

 ever attended an.vwhere." 



But next year we expect to achieve 

 just t%vice as much. 



Albert G. H.\nx. Siw 



Pittstown, N. J. 



Report of the Xoitheast Wiscoiisiu 

 Convention. 



The Northeast Wisconsin Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association held its fifth annual 

 meeting on October 8, 1908, at Mishicott, 

 Wis. It has not as large a membership 

 as many other bee-keepers' associations, 

 so the attendance was rather small, liut 

 those attending are quite a live set 

 of bee-keepers. The meeting was called 

 to order by the president, John Cochems, 

 at ID a. m. The report of Secretary 

 C. H. Voigt was then read and approved. 

 Then the treasurer's report followed, 

 and was also approved. There were no 

 papers read, the main feature being the 

 question-box. 



AFTERNOON SESSION 



President Cochems called the meeting 

 to order, and the question-box was con- 

 tinued. The first question was, "What 

 is the best way to get only one swarm 

 from a colony, if you allow natural 

 swarming?" 



The ideas ran quite apart, and could 

 not be satisfactorily settled. A motion 

 was then made and carried that the 

 members present experiment on that 

 line next season and report at the next 

 annual meeting. 



"Is the Baldridge plan a good one 

 for curing foul brood, or are others 

 better ?" 



There was no one present that knew, 

 but all were thankful that so far they 

 did not have to make the accquaintance 

 of foul brood. 



"Is honey taken from a colony affec- 

 ted with foul brood all right for table 

 use ?" 



The answer was, ''Don't know." But 

 it was thought by some that it ought to 

 lie all right when produced in a super 

 with a queen-excluding zinc between. 



How to prevent swarming during a 

 honey-flow, was an interesting topic. 



The first answer was to have no 

 honey, and the bees would prevent it 

 themselves. The next answer was. 

 When you are working for extracted 

 honey with 2-storv hives, examine the 

 brood-nest when putting supers on, and 

 find the queen-cells. Cut them out and 

 shake off the bees, put the brood in the 

 upper story, and give empty comb be- 

 low. The next was to shake the bees 

 off the brood, cut the queen-cells if 

 any, give the brood to weak colonies. 

 and put empty combs in the brood-nest. 

 It was then agreed that these methods 

 were not always sure preventives. 



Then followed election of officers : 

 President, John Cochems, Mishicott. 

 Wis. ; Vice-President, Mark Schnieder ; 

 Second Vice-President, Fred Trapp : 

 Secretary, Charles W. Voigt, Tisch 

 Mills, Wis. ; and Treasurer, John G. 

 ^lueller. 



The question-box was continued as 

 follows : 



"How can you tell so late in the sea- 

 son as October 8, without opening the 

 hive, by outside appearance, that a col- 

 ony is queenless?" 



This brought out a lively discussion. 

 Mr. Trapp thought it was a sure proof 

 that, if a colony had drones as late as 

 October, it had no queen. Mr. Voigt 

 showed that drones were not always a 

 sure sign of queenlessness. He said 

 that only 2 days prior to the convention 

 he examined a colony with drones, and 

 found they had a queen. It was con- 

 sidered best, by the majority of the 

 members, to open the hive and examine 

 the colony, as they may have a queen 



which is worthless. 



"How should we feed in the fall when 

 it gets cold and bees need feeding?" 



Feed early, before it is too cold. As 

 long as bees can' fly every day, it is 

 all right to feed. If neglected till cold 

 weather, feed on warm days, good thick 

 syrup ; or, still better, give sealed combs 

 of good honey. 



A motion was made and carried that 

 the secretary should send a report of 

 the convention to the American Bee 

 Journal. 



On motion the convention adjourned 

 till October, 1909, to meet at the call of 

 the committee. C. H. Voigt, Sec. 



!9 





Building Bees Up for the 

 Harvest 



BY RALPH BENTON. 

 Asst. EiUomoJogist, University of California. 



The passing of winter and the dawn- 

 ing of spring marks the most critical 

 point in all apiary operations, a point 

 when the skill of the bee-keeper is taxed 

 to its fullest extent. If it is a critical 

 time for the operator it is so because 

 it is a critical time for the bees them- 

 selves. At this time of the year the old 

 bees are dying off very rapidly ; yet at 

 the same tiiue the warmth of the great- 

 est number of bees obtainable in the col- 

 ony is essential for brood-rearing opera- 

 tions to replace this rapid death-rate. 

 The position of the colony is further 

 made precarious at the opening of this 

 period by the absence in any great num- 

 ber of young or nurse bees to care prop- 

 erly for the brood under way, thus 

 necessarily limiting the extent to which, 

 and economy with which, brood may be 

 reared. Manifestly the situation of a 

 colony in the early spring of the year 

 is greatly modified by the. condition in 

 which the given colony went into winter 

 quarters. 



It is not my purpose here to go into 

 the matter of wintering bees, for that 

 is a subject in itself, but there are a few 

 principles that may be here cited for the 

 sake of their bearing upon spring man- 

 agement. To insure a good supply of 

 strong, vigorous, young bees, breeding 

 operations should be kept up as late in 

 the fall as practical, and every colony 

 should go into winter quarters with a 

 good cluster of bees headed by a young 

 and vigorous queen. This insures early 

 spring brood-rearing operations carried 

 on by a sufficient number of compara- 

 tively'young bees, enabling the colony to 

 make relatively rapid strides in regain- 

 ing a working strength. 



.\bi'ndance of Stores — Pollen. 



In the matter of stores it has been my 



experience, other things being equal, that 

 the colony having an abundance of stores 

 comes through the winter in better con- 

 dition. Tliis may be due to several rea- 

 sons. Chief among these, aside from 

 actually affording the bees an abundance 

 of food, is no doubt the fact that combs 

 filled with honey retain the heat of the 

 cluster much more effectively than do 

 eiTipty or only partially filled combs. 

 The result is that a more constant tem- 

 perature is retained in the colony and 

 the cluster not exposed to sudden chang- 

 es of temperature with the consequent 

 wear and tear of the bees. The elimina- 

 tion of this energy-consuming wear and 

 tear as a result of constant and sudden 

 changes of temperature decreases the 

 amount of stores consumed by the col- 

 ony so that in reality a colony wintered 

 on an abundance of stores actually con- 

 sumes less than the colony wintered on 

 scant stores. The distribution of the 

 stores should be through or contiguous 

 to the cluster, and each comb should be 

 readily accessible from the adjoining 

 one, either through the comb itself by 

 passage-ways, or over the top-bars, thus 

 insuring against the possibility of stores 

 at any time becoming inaccessible. 



I deem it essential to early brood-rear- 

 ing operations that a good supply of pol- 

 len be present in the hive ; this is es- 

 pecially essential when colonies are win- 

 tered on artificial stores, as sugar syrup, 

 since such stores do not contain the pol- 

 len present in normal honey. With a 

 good cluster sufficient to generate heat, 

 and plenty of stores, the wintering of 

 bees resolves itself into keeping the col- 

 ony dry, for if bees under the above con- 

 ditions are kept free from dampness they 

 will stand almost any amount of cold 

 within reasonable limits. The value of 

 packing about a colony to retain the 

 heat generated is conditioned upon two 

 things : the closeness of the packing to 

 the bees, and the moisture-absorbing 

 power of the packing. Unfortunately, 

 in most winter hives the packing is sepa- 

 rated from the bees by an inner wooden 



