806 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



have put them in the cellar, and kept 

 the temperature at 45°, and it is no 

 better ; it is not the time of the year 

 when bees can be confined — they are 

 not ready for it, and will worry them- 

 selves to death. 1 am sorry that Mr. 

 McLam said what he did in his report 

 about confining them ; it is imprac- 

 tical. 



Dr. Mason — It is best to keep on the 

 right side of our neighbors, then they 

 will put up with some inconvenience 

 from the bees. 



A. I. Root— Mr. L. C. Eootonce told 

 me how careful he was not to allow 

 his bees to annoy his neighbors. 

 When his neighbor was ready to make 

 hay in a lot adjoining Mr. Root's 

 bees, IMr. Root otfered, yes, insisted 

 upon doing the work next to the bees, 

 for fear that the neigbor or his horses 

 might be stung. When neighbors live 

 like this there is little danger of any 

 fault being found with the bees. 



R. L. Taylor — I agree with what 

 Dr. Mason and Mr. Root have said. I 

 fear that no good can come of legisla- 

 tion. I also fear that the Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Union only stirs up things, i. e., it 

 " backs up " beekeepers and makes 

 them less careful. Many of these 

 lawsuits grow out of some old feud, 

 and a member of the Union may be 

 " spoiling for a light " with some 

 neighbor, and takes advantage of the 

 " backing " furnished by the Union to 

 lead some enemy into a lawsuit. Were 

 it not for the Union he might be less 

 belligerent. 



II. D. Cutting— I have no faith in 

 legislation in this matter. It will 

 simply be a question of " the survival 

 of the fittest." 



Prof. Cook— I firmly believe that 

 this question must be eventually set- 

 tled by law, and that, too, in the 

 highest courts ; and here we shall 

 need the Union. When the question 

 is carried to the highest courts and 

 settled, the bees will remain, as it can 

 be proved, and our best horticulturists 

 now admit, that grapes cannot be suc- 

 cessfully grown without the aid of the 

 bees in fertilizing the blossoms. 



R. L. Taylor— If these are the facts, 

 and horticulturists can be convinced 

 that they are facts, there will be no 

 lawsuits. 



The next subject brought up was 



MARKETING HONEY. 



E. L. Taylor— It may not be the 

 best way, but I send my honey to 

 commission men. 



Geo. E. Hilton— I sell my own 

 honey ; or leave it with grocers to be 

 sold on commission. 



John Rey— I have built up a good 

 home market by scattering the 

 Amekican Bee .JouKNAL " Leafiets," 

 and by advertising the honey in the 

 local papers. I give the editors some 

 honey, and they tell how nice it is, 

 and you ought to see the orders for 

 honey come in 1 I never allow a sec- 

 tion or package of any kind to go out 

 that does not bear my address, 



A. I. Root — We always take es- 

 pecial pains to keep different kinds 

 of honey put up in all styles and sizes 

 of packages all ready for customers. It 

 is quite a point to be ready at a mo- 



ment's notice to hand out just what a 

 customer asks for. 



Dr. Higbie— We must advertise; 

 have a neat little sign, " Honey for 

 Sale," to hang out. 



Geo. E. Hilton— This matter of 

 marking our sections and crates is 

 important. I stencil each side of my 

 crates, and also put a large display 

 card in each crate, and on the card 

 this is printed : " Nice clover honey 

 from the apiary of Geo. E. Hilton, 

 Fremont, Mich." This card the 

 grocer can hang in some conspicuous 

 place. 



Dr. Ashley— I try to keep up the 

 market, but the trouble is that some 

 farmer with a few colonies brings in 

 his honey, in poor shape perhaps, and 

 sells for whatever the grocers will pay 

 him, and this demoralizes the market. 



A. I. Root— Buy him out. 



Prof. Cook— This plan will answer 

 when a man has a " big factory and 

 lots of money," but every bee-keeper 

 cannot buy all the honey that some- 

 body is bound to give away. 



Next came a few words about 



nONEYrAT FAIRS. 



H. D. Cutting— I consider Fairs one 

 of the greatest educational institu- 

 tions we have. The Michigan State 

 Agricultural Society has dealt very 

 liberally with bee keepers, but if bee- 

 keepers expect to keep the premiums 

 at their present figures, they must 

 turn out better than they have lately. 



Prof. Cook— When I was over in 

 Toronto, it was astonishing to see the 

 amount of honey that Mr. Jones sold 

 at the Fair. One way was to cut sec- 

 tions of honey from corner to corner, 

 selling each piece for 5 cents. 



W. Z. Hutchinson— I should think 

 there would be trouble from "visitor" 

 bees. 



F. H. Macpherson— We kept the 

 honey under wire dish-covers. 



A. I. Root— We sell honey at our 

 Fair, and have no trouble with bees, 

 but none are allowed to load up and 

 get away. I visited all the candy, 

 cider and lemonade stands, furnished 

 each proprietor with a " shingle " and 

 extracted a promise that it should be 

 used in killing every bee that at- 

 tempted to load up. The Fair ground 

 is near our apiary, and the Fair lasted 

 three days during a dry time, yet 

 there was no trouble. 



It is a pretty hard matter to knock 

 Dr. Mason "off' his pins," but it was 

 very neatly done at this point, by 

 making him an honorary member. 



The committee appointed for the 

 purpose, then made the following 



REPORT ON EXHIBITS. 



We beg to report as follows on the exhibits 

 at this lueeting- : 



Mr. M. H. Hunt showed a Clark smoker, 

 Bingham honey-knife, very nice sliced sec- 

 tions, wire embedder, wired frame, division- 

 board, metal rabbets, two stj les of bee- 

 brushes, twined coil wire, and a sample of 

 the Hunt chaff hive. 



H. D. Cuttintr showed the Cuttinpr saw- 

 arbor, very useful for bee-keepers, and of a 

 nice size. 



Mr. John Rey had on exhibit his fruit can 

 bee-feeders, which he claims as robber- 

 proof ; a bee-veil with isinglass front, sec- 

 tions with foundation fastened at both top 

 and bottom, and sections of honey where 

 the foundation thus fastened had been used; 



nice samples of honey in glass buckets ; also 

 the Stanley extractor for four frames. 



Dr. G. L. Tinker had on exhibit his beauti- 

 ful four-piece sections in basswood and 

 black walnut. 



A. D. D. Wood showed eand-papered one- 

 piece sections in basswood and white poplar; 

 also four-piece poplar sections. 



A. M. Gander exhibited honey in cases of 

 different st«es ; also bottles of the Muth 

 description; honey In sections, and a com- 

 bined frame and hive. 



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

 " Doctor" smoker and the Bingham honey- 

 knife, both of which are well known. 



Dr. A. B. Mason, of Wasron Works, Ohio, 

 showed three samples of granulated honey, 

 and a sample of the same liquified, all of 

 which is very interesting. Also some heads 

 of the Chapman honey-plant, just about to 

 bloom ; which is another proof of the value 

 of the plant, showing, as this does, its hardi- 

 ness. 



Mr. T. F. Bingham also showed the surplus 

 honey department of the stingless bees of 

 Honduras.— F. H. Macpherson, A. I. Root, 

 and Geo. E. Hilton. 



Mr. A. I. Root then called attention 

 to a 



QUEEN-EXCLUDING TOP-BAR. 



This was exhibited by Mr. A. M. 

 Gander. The frame had a double 

 top-bar, i. e., two top-bars one above 

 the other, a la Demaree ; and in a 

 slot, extending the whole length of 

 the upper top-bar, was slipped a strip 

 of perforated zinc. The upper top- 

 bar is wide enough to make the top- 

 bars close-fitting. 



T. F. Bingham— We have here a 

 fine illustration of what a patent will 

 do ill the encouragement of invention. 

 This is clearly an attempt to secure, 

 in a different manner, the same re- 

 sults as Mr. Heddon does with his 

 honey-board. There are these ob- 

 jections to it : To make a set of 

 trames requires more pieces than to 

 make an ordinary set of frames and 

 Mr. Heddon's honey-board in the 

 bargain ; then the propolis will accu- 

 mulate along the edges of the top-bar, 

 and it entirely prevents the adoption 

 of the " contraction method " without 

 on immense amount of complication. 



W. Z. Hutchinson— What advan- 

 tages do you claim for your frame, 

 Mr. Gander V 



A. M. Gander— When I use a honey- 

 board, and take it off, the bottom of 

 it is covered with brace-combs, and I 

 do not like this. 



W. Z. Hutchinson— Why do you re- 

 move the honey-board V 



A. M. Gander— Why, to handle the 

 frames. 



W. Z. Hutchinson— Why do you 

 handle the frames V 



A. M. Gander— In the fall I wish to 

 take out some of the combs. 



Mr. Bingham then made a few re- 

 marks on 



WINTERING BEES. 



He considered it important to put a 

 rim Ua or 2 inches wide under each 

 hive in winter. It allows the bees to 

 cluster naturally upon the lower edges 

 of the combs ; the dead bees and rub- 

 bish can drop out of the way, the 

 combs are always dry and clean, and 

 the entrance never clogged. He ad- 

 vised its use both out-of-doors and in 

 the cellar. His bees are kept upon 

 platforms. He prefers three hives 

 upon each platform, and the platform 

 is 2x6 feet in size, and raised from the 



