1881. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



411 



EVENING SESSION. 



Meeting called to order bj James 

 lleddon, the newly elected 1'resident. 



who, in a lew well ehosen remarks, 

 thanked the Association Eorthehonor 

 conferred upon him, and hoped by 

 their assistance, to faithfully dis- 

 charge the duties that may devolve 

 upon him. lie then announced the 

 next subject tor consideration, which 

 was •■ Wintering of Bees.'' 



O. O. Poppleton, Williamstown. 

 Iowa, stated that about 6 years ago lie 

 adopted his present plan of wintering. 

 He believed that this is one of the 

 most important questions with which 

 bee-keepers have to do. He thought 

 there were many elements which enter 

 into success. His remarks were ap- 

 plicable to Iowa, and might not be to 

 Michigan. His summer crop is apt to 

 be light, but his fall crop is generally- 

 good. He uses a single story, long, 

 chaff hive, and keeps all combs cov- 

 ered with bees. He extracts thor- 

 oughly' when at all, but not after Aug. 

 in. lie found the late honey the best 

 for winter food. The colonies from 

 which he extracted from the brood 

 frames wintered the best. When the 

 season is over, he takes out all surplus 

 combs and crowds the bees on as few 

 frames as possible. lie destroys his 

 poorest queens in the fall, and gives 

 the bees to other colonies, and was 

 not quite sure that young bees winter 

 the best. Winter passages are im- 

 portant, and he packs as early as Oct. 

 1, and gives ventilation above. Uses 

 very line Timothy chaff ; straw is too 

 coarse. The packing should be left 

 on until late in the spring. Honey 

 ripens more rapidly in the brood nest 

 than any where else in the hive ; he 

 pays no attention to pollen. Success 

 in bee-keeping depends upon atten- 

 tion to many details. 



The President preferred to have his 

 bees stop breeding early in the fall, 

 and begin late in the spring, because 

 then no pollen would be used when 

 the bees could not fly. He had seen 

 colonies which had been wintered on 

 white sugar syrup; they showed no 

 disposition to fly after a long confine- 

 ment, when others that had had pollen 

 during the time, were eager to escape 

 from the hive. 



Prof. Cook was sure that pollen was 

 necessary to breeding bees, and does 

 not care to have his bees breed before 

 April, and keeps pollen from them 

 during the winter. Any activity 

 during winter is very injurious to 

 bees, and they should be kept as quiet 

 as possible. He winters in a cellar. 



Dr. Southard : I use the same 

 kind of hive and use cushions. The 

 air can circulate over them. 



Prof. Cook : The Cyprians should 

 be packed early, before they are 

 through gathering honey. 



Pres. Heddon said one of his neigh- 

 bors wintered his bees well by remov- 

 ing the center combs and left the fall 

 honey. This plan removed the pollen 

 that the bees store in the center in the 

 fall. 



B. Walker mentioned a colony from 

 which he extracted all the early honey 

 intending to feed, but over-looked 

 them. They had lots of pollen, but 

 died without disease, while others 

 with lots of honey had disease. 



Pres. Heddon : Pure sugar syrup 

 renders bees comfortable. 



Dr. Southwick's died from dysen- 

 tery and starved also. 



Prof. Cook said they aualized sugar 

 and fed it in empty frames. They 

 stored the combs having pollen. The 

 bees started breeding but soon stopped. 

 He felt sure they cannot breed with- 

 out pollen. We take away all the pol- 

 len, but give it back in the spring. 

 He does not want them to breed in the 

 winter. 



Mr. Townley said if you go to the 

 cellar and find the bees quiet, you can 

 be quiet too. We make statistics 

 slowly — have only 12 colonies. 



The following by Charles F. Muth, 

 Cincinnati, was read on 



Wintering of Bees. 



Several conditions are essential un- 

 der which bees can winter safely ; but 



laughable somtimes and contradictor} 



are the conditions reported under 

 which bees have passed a winter in 

 safety. These, put up again in the 

 same manner, were lost the following 



winter. Among the colonies of an 

 apiary prepared ill the same manner. 



and by the same party, we find some- 

 times in spring a strong, splendid col- 

 ony by the side of a weak one. which 

 had been, in fall, in better condition 

 than its now vigorous neighbor. A 

 friend had his 40 colonies of bees in 

 I wo rows, and during a severe winter, 

 lu or 1:2 years ago, lie lostevery oneot 

 them but. the four end colonies, the 

 very ones which were exposed to wind 

 and weather most. Hisbees had died 

 of dysentery, my friend said, and so 

 they had, but dysentery was caused by 

 eating sour honey, which, again, was 

 the consequence of a damp, warm hive, 

 otherwise the combs would not have 

 been so moldy, nor the insides of the 

 hives so wet. He had his bees cov- 

 ered up warm and tight, with straw 

 under the hives and between them. 

 Had each hive been properly ventila- 

 ted, this dampness would not have ac- 

 cumulated and his bees would have 

 lived. 



One of the most essential conditions 

 for good wintering, next to a good 

 colony of bees, is undoubtedly a suffi- 

 cient quantity of good honey, in the 

 proper place, i. e., in the middle of the 

 hive, and within easy reach of the 

 cluster. I do not believe that fine clo- 

 ver honey is more wholesome for bees 

 than fall honey, nor that all must be 

 capped ; but if your hive is insuffi- 

 ciently ventilated, your uncapped 

 honey is the first to sour, and the bees 

 get dysentery earlier than they other- 

 wise would, while with proper venti 

 lation, there would be no sour honey 

 and no dysentery. 



We can keep honey in open vessels 

 in a garret, or in a warm, dry room, 

 in good condition forever, while it 

 sours in a damp cellar. By the efforts 

 of the bees to create the necessary 

 heat in winter, their exhalations, una- 

 ble to escape, condense into water, 

 which hangs in large drops under their 

 top covering until it runs down the 

 combs, the walls of the hive, and out 

 in front. The hive is worse than a 

 damp cellar. Should we expect honey 

 to keep or bees to prosper under such 

 conditions? There is an abundance 

 of hives in the same condition every 

 winter, as every observing bee-keeper 

 knows, and, what is w T orse, we rind 

 them sometimes in our own apiaries. 



The next essential condition for ev- 

 erything that breathes is pure air, and 

 bees are no exception to the rule. As 

 soon as we learn the art of providing 

 our hives with the proper upward ven- 

 tilation, so as to have the moisture 

 removed and the air renewed gradu- 

 ally without causing a draft through 

 the colony, we will have advanced 

 considerably. No difference how well 

 the hives are covered with absorbing 

 material, it will amount to nothing 

 unless we provide ventilation above. 

 A tightly tilled, thick, chaff cushion 

 is as bad as a tight wooden cover or an 

 oil-cloth, because it will retain the 

 moisture in spite of the air passage 

 above it. But chaff put on loosely, or 

 a straw mat (I prefer the latter), are 

 good absorbents and non-conductors, 

 and answer the purpose admirably. 



Bees can create a great amount of 

 heat and withstand severe cold, but 

 the longer the cold spell lasts, the 

 greater should be the ventilation by 

 the air-space above the covering. As 

 long as frost is visible in the ventila- 

 tors or upper stories provided for ven- 

 tilation, so long is the ventilation in- 

 sufficient. A different protection is 

 necessary under different surround- 

 ings and in different climates, as a 

 matter of course ; but until we learn 

 how to provide our bees with pure air 

 properly, we shall always be in trouble 

 as to the best mode of wintering. 



I provided air-passages, this fall, by 

 boring an inch hole in each side of the 

 upper story near the cover. 

 Cincinnati, O. Ciias. F. Muth. 



Mr. Harrington said that in Ohio 

 near his home, there was a certain 

 wild flower that was sure death to 



bees; the honey from it ferments be- 

 fore the bees can store it. One gen- 

 tleman lost his bees last spring from 

 too early breeding. 



Mr. Jones said that dampness and 

 dysenterj were most to be dreaded; 

 the Cormer is frequently the cause of 

 the latter. Bees will winter if dry and 

 well provisioned. 



Mr. Townley believed that dryness 

 is necessary. 



Mr. Jones had found line dry saw- 

 dust is the best absorbing material. 



Pres. Heddon read part of a letter 

 favoring the removal of pollen. 



Mr. Herd, of Saginaw : I have no 

 upward ventilation— no passages 

 through the combs— none die. I have 

 practiced the same plan of wintering 

 for 5 years. Never put a colony up so 

 that did not live. lie has 50 colonies; 

 he fed rye flour in the spring. The 

 cold snap in April killed 15. 



B. Walker : I don't take much 

 stock in honey causing sickness ; I 

 removed the pollen, but lost all last 

 winter. 



Mr. T. P. Bingham read a paper en- 

 titled " Hints." If you find open 

 cells in solid honey (that is all open) 

 it is a hint that the honey is thin, or 

 not very well ripened. If you open a 

 shallow frame hive and raise the mat 

 carefully, a stir will be seen some- 

 where on the top of the frames, it is a 

 hint that the queen is just below ; and 

 if you wish to find her, examine the 

 two combs each side, and you will 

 find her at once. Deep frames will 

 not show this. When bees suddenly 

 stop swarming, it is a hint that the 

 special flowers on which the swarming 

 began is on the decline, and the sur- 

 plus capacity is to be narrowed, so as 

 to avoid partially rilled sections. 



The matter of petitioning the State 

 Board of Agriculture, suggested by 

 Pres. Cook, was referred to committee. 

 Mr. Jones explained his method of 

 waxing sections with a revolving 

 wheel. In reply to the question, 

 " which paid best, the getting of ex- 

 tracted honey, or honey in the comb?" 

 I use the extractor exclusively. I 

 also chloroform bees in introducing 

 queens. I place a small sponge filled 

 with chloroform in a bellows bee 

 smoker, and blow it into the entrance 

 of a hive until the bees are still and 

 quiet, then let the queen run in at the 

 entrance. 



Mr. Heddon remarked : The chloro- 

 form is taken into the circulation, and 

 did not think it should be used. 

 Dr. Southard sustained the opinion. 

 Prof. Cook thought Mr. Heddon 

 wrong, and requested Dr. Kellogg to 

 explain : 



The Doctor stated that its repeated 

 use on human beings was deleterious. 

 The blood must be saturated with it, 

 hence it takes time to recover. The 

 effect is to benumb the nerve centers. 

 Prof. Cook thanked Dr. Kellogg for 

 his last winter's service in helping to 

 bring the adulteration matter before 

 the Legislature. 



The question box contained the fol- 

 lowing: " Can bees be made to swarm 

 when no honey is coining in ?" An- 

 swer by Mr. Jones — Yes. 



" How can bees be prevented from 

 swarming ?" Mr. Heddon thought 

 that it was generally best that they 

 should swarm, but could be prevented 

 by keeping an abundance of empty 

 cells for the queen's use. 



" How can a drone-laying worker be 

 disposed of V" Mr. Townley said to 

 remove the hive to a distant place and 

 put a hive having a good queen in its 

 place. Mr. Harrington gives the col- 

 ony a good queen. Mr. Andrus could 

 find and remove. Others could not 

 detect them. 



" Can we be compelled to remove 

 bees from a city ?" Mr. Miner had 

 looked into the subject, and learned 

 that they could be removed if they 

 were proved to be a nuisance. 



" How can bees be handled when 

 neither smoke nor sweetened water 

 will subdue them ?" Answer— Use 

 puff-ball or sprinkle them with water. 



" Is shade necessary for bees V" 

 Mr. Heddon said yes; 1 use a board 

 laid on the hives. 



" How can we get drones only from 

 onr best colonies V" Answer by Mr. 

 Walker— Put drone comb in the hive 

 from which you wish to get the 

 drones. 



" In cellar wintering, is it best that 

 hives should be near the floor ?" An- 

 swer by Mr. Robinson— Yes, if the 

 room is dry. Mr. Jones had found 

 that the air near the bottom of the 

 room is injurious to bees unless venti- 

 lation is good. 



The committee on 'delegates re- 

 ported 4o gentlemen from other States 

 and 92 delegates from other societies. 



A committee was appointed on 



establishing a society in the south- 

 western part of the State, and one for 

 the northeastern part of the State. 



The committee on exhibits reported 

 a large display, which included' the 

 following : 



James Heddon, of Dowagiac, ex- 

 hibits 3 kinds of foundation, Van- 

 dervort, Dunham and Given ; also 

 spruce dovetailed sections and honey 

 box, his feeder, honey jars (3 sizes), 

 Given comb foundation in wired 

 frames, Barker's foundation fastener 

 and tin pail for honey. 



J. D. White, of Massachusetts, ex- 

 hibits a feeder built on the same prin- 

 ciple as the Shuck, as is also Mr. 

 Heddon's. 



Mr. Forncrook,of Wisconsin, shows 

 a lot of one-piece, sections, both in the 

 flat and put together. 



Mr. D. A. Jones, of Beeton, Out., 

 exhibits a lot of japanned cans for 

 marketing extracted honey, varying 

 in capacity from U to 5 lbs. each ; a 

 package of Bokhara clover seed, a 

 refrigerator model for regulating the 

 temperature of winter repositories for 

 bees, sheets of perforated metal for 

 separating the brood nest from the 

 surplus frames, and to regulate the 

 entrances to hives; a lot of honey 

 labels, and an improvement on the 

 Langstroth style of frame, and a 

 model for illustrating a new style of 

 hive for wintering out-doors. 



Prof. Cook exhibits an instrument 

 for measuring the length of the 

 tongues of different races of bees. 



Mr. Haughey and Mr. Saulsbury 

 each exhibit chaff hives, and Mr. 

 Haughey an observatory hive. 



M. D. Weeks, of Homer, cans of 

 extracted honey. 



Mr. Cutting, a feeder, L. C. Root's 

 smoker, a frame of foul brood, and a 

 collection of bee periodicals and books. 



T. F. Bingham, of Abronia, Mich., 

 Bingham smokers of various sizes, 

 and Bingham & Hetherington honey 

 knives. Dr. Whiting, a reversible 

 frame supposed to combine the ad- 

 vantages of the Langstroth and 

 Quinby frames," and to avoid their 

 defects, the invention of Mr. Van- 

 deusen, of Sprout Brook, N. Y. 



Mr. A. I. Root, of Medina, O., a 

 number of articles to be used in 

 transporting bees by mail and express, 

 a honey scale, etc. 



W. B. Southard moved a vote of 

 thanks to T. G. Newman, A. I. Root, 

 D. A. Jones, II. B. Harrington, Med- 

 ina, Ohio, which was carried unani- 

 mously. 



Sixty-three new members were en- 

 rolled, and Tnomas G. Newman, Chi- 

 cago, 111., A. I. Root, Medina, Ohio, 

 D. A. Jones, Beeton, Out. Can., and 

 J. H. Townley, Thompkins, Mich., 

 were elected honorary members. 



Mr. Newman stated that large ex- 

 hibits at State fairs produced good re- 

 sults. In London at the exhibition 

 of the Royal Agricultural Society, 

 American honey received the first 

 premium. Every one wanted it. The 

 streets and avenues were crowded to 

 see American honey, and it sold 

 rapidly at 60 cts. per lb. To see itwas 

 to covet it. lie recommended the of- 

 fering of large premiums for exhibits 

 of honey, and this would command 

 large exhibits. 



Pres. Cook suggested a committee 

 to take into consideration the exhibi- 

 tion of bees and honey at the Michi- 

 gan State Fair in 1882. 



Mr. Newman said bees were shown 

 in London in a round tent with an 



