692 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL.. 



CONDUCTED BY 



Floyd, Hunt Co., Tex 



ataf fi* 



The Bee-Meeting at Dallas, Texas. 



In the forenoon of Oct. 27th, the bee- 

 keepers assembled in the Hunt Com- 

 pany's exhibit hall, and a committee of 

 three appointed to pass on and judge 

 the honey that was entered for competi- 

 tion. J. D. Givens, of Lisbon, A. Bran- 

 shaw, of Dallas, and Mrs. Jennie Atch- 

 ley, of Floyd, were selected to judge 

 both the honey and bees. W. R. Graham, 

 of Greenville, carried off the blue ribbon 

 on the best section of honey, and J. T. 

 Corbet on second best. The latter also 

 took first premium on extracted honey 

 and beeswax. 



Dr. W. K. Marshall, of Marshall, took 

 the first prize on the best colony of Ital- 

 ian bees. The judges thought he had a 

 very fine queen. W. R. Graham was 

 awarded second prize. 



J. D. Givens had a very fine nucleus 

 of five-banded bees, but was not compet- 

 ing. After the bees and honey were 

 passed upon, the crowd dispersed, with 

 the understanding that we should meet 

 in a room on the third floor of the main 

 exhibition building prepared for the 

 occasion. 



Promptly at 1:30 p.m. the meeting 

 was called to order by the President, W. 

 R. Graham, and as we were crowded for 

 time, only having a few hours to meet, 

 proceedings at once began. 



BEE-KEEPING IN THE SOUTH. 



The question-box was then opened. 

 The President asked, " Is the bee-busi- 

 ness on the increase in the South ?" The 

 answer came from all sides that scien- 

 tific bee-keeping was on the increase 

 rapidly, in that the old, loose, slipshod, 

 log-and-box-hive bee-keepers were los- 

 ing ground, and giving way to the 

 modern and more profitable way of 

 keeping bees, using the movable comb 



hives, and caring for the bees as we 

 would our other stock. 



CROP REPORT FOR 1892. 



Next a crop report was taken. About 

 500 colonies were represented, and the 

 average per colouy was 21 pounds, 

 about half comb and half extracted, 

 which shows we had a very poor season. 



LARVAE USED IN GRAFTING QUEENS. 



While the crop* report was being 

 taken, the question list was completed. 

 Dr. Marshall asked Master Willie Atch- 

 ley how he could tell when he was graft- 

 ing queens, whether he was using a 

 drone larva or a queen larva. Willie 

 answered that he did not use either, that 

 he used' a worker larva. Then he was 

 asked, " How do you know whether you 

 are using a drone or worker larva?" He 

 promptly answered that he knew it was 

 a worker larva because it was in a 

 worker-cell, as a good queen did not lay 

 drone-eggs in worker-cells. 



This question brought out an interest- 

 ing discussion by W. H. White, J. D. 

 Givens, S. J. Darby and others, on 

 whether the bees had the power to 

 change the sex of an egg, and it was 

 decided that they had not, as the queens 

 and workers were reared from the same 

 eggs, and were precisely the same sex ; 

 the queen being fed on richer diet, and 

 having a large, roomy cell, she matured 

 faster, and it gave her the power of be- 

 coming impregnated and taking up the 

 duty of egg-laying, while the worker 

 had barely food enough to put her 

 through, and a small, tight cell which 

 makes her a dwarf, while if all the larvae 

 had the privilege of subsisting upon the 

 rich food and large roomy cells, they 

 would all be mothers, and no workers. 



QUEENS FROM OLD OR YOUNG MOTHERS. 



W. H. White asked, " Are the queens 

 reared from a queen in her last days, or 

 from a queen three or more years old, 

 as good as those reared from a young 

 mother '?" 



Dr. Marshall thought that probably 

 the queens would be somewhat weaker 

 reared from the old mother. So did W. 

 H. White, but J. D. Givens, Mrs. Atchley, 

 W. R. Graham and others thought not. 



DIFFERENCE IN YIELDS OF COLONIES. 



"What is the cause of one colony 

 gathering more honey than another 

 when two are placed side by side and 

 given the same chance?" was asked. 

 The general answer was, that it was in 



