Dec. 21, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



805 



pels outdoor wintering-. Then the spring- work, making in- 

 crease, keeping down the swarming-fever, all require care- 

 ful treatment. 



The honey crop is gathered first. It is for this work 

 that it is necessary to employ skilled and experienced help. 

 Almost any one can work the extractor ; not at record 

 speed, perhaps, but fast enough ; while only an experienced 

 man can tell at a glance what to do with a case of swarm- 

 ing-fever, or, in fact, even to recognize the sj'mptoms. 



Speaking of help, I have about stopt employing local 

 help. No sooner do such get to be good for something than 

 they start in the bee-business for themselves, and my ter- 

 ritory is already badly overstockt, there being about 2,000 

 colonies of bees in the Fall Creek valley, where my best 

 apiaries are located. 



Now as to management : In the spring I usuallj' go 

 around and clean out the hive-entrances and take out dead 

 colonies. The entrances are contracted to one inch at this 

 time; this is usually about the time of the first flight in the 

 spring. 



Then about May 1 I go around and put out a little honey 

 from the dead colonies to one side of the apiarj'. The next 

 visit would be to put out the bees about the last of fruit- 

 bloom. At this time the bur-combs are scraped oft' the top- 

 bars and enameled cloth put on in place of the carpets. 



About ten days later start queen-cells for increase. The 

 nuclei which are made at this time are each supplied with a 

 capt queen-cell. From this time on I visit the bees every 

 8 or 10 days to give the nuclei brood from strong colonies, 

 until the increase is in good condition for the white honey 

 harvest, which begins with us about July 4, and lasts two 

 weeks. 



Buckwheat commences to yield about Aug-. S, and lasts 

 until Sept. 1. 



The extracting-combs are then stored in the honey- 

 house and spaced loosely, so that the bees can get in to 

 clean them out. 



I begin to pack the bees about Oct. 1. It usually takes 

 two men 10 or 12 days to put up the 1,300 colonies. My bees 

 are all packt in sawdust, and about 700 are in sawdust pack- 

 ing or chaff hives. 



Each apiary has a bee-house 12x16 feet, extractor and 

 smoker, store-combs for honey, hives — in fact, everything 

 that is needed in any apiary, even to matches. 



W. L,. COGGSH.^LL. 



Mr. Selser — I would like to ask Mr. Coggshall if he win- 

 ters his bees outdoors. 



Mr. Coggshall — Always. 



Mr. Selser — What do you do when snow is 10 feet high ? 



Mr. Coggshall — The bees are all right. 



Dr. Mason — Does the color of combs have any influence 

 on the color of honey ? 



Answer by some one — I don't see any difference I have 

 combs that I have used several years for extracting. 



Pres. Whitcomb — Doctor, do you wish to establish that 

 wax is soluble in water ? 



Dr. Mason — I am not trying to establish anything ; I 

 am trying to learn something. I have been so convinced 

 the past season that the color of the comb does have some- 

 thing to do with the color of honey, that I think I shall use 

 only such combs in the future for producing extracted 

 honey as have not had brood reared in them. 



Pres. Whitcomb — Mr. Coggshall, how do you clean out 

 the combs after j'ou get thru extracting ? 



Mr. Coggshall — Let the bees do the cleaning. I gen- 

 erally come awav. [Laughter.] 



Pres. Whitcomb — Is it not a better time to go visiting 

 than to receive visitors ? 



Mr. Hershiser — I understand that you lost bees last win- 

 ter. Last winter I had bees under snow-drifts. In another 

 place I had 50 colonies. My experience is that snow-drifts, 

 if too deep, are destructive. 



Mr. Coggshall — They cannot get a cleansing flight 

 when covered with snow. 



Mr. Hershiser — There is a difference in colonies. I had 

 some in Chautauqua hives, and I packt them in sawdust, 

 packt them in so I knew they would winter, but they didn't. 



D. H. Coggshall — I had colonies in two-story hives, one 

 below and one above. Those were what I lost. The others 

 went thru all right. 



J. H. M. Cook — In small hives will there not be some 

 nuclei ? 



Dr. Mason — Not necessarily. 



Mr. Cook — How late will bees lay in the fall ? 



Mr. Coggshall — They are laying now. [Sept. 7.] 



Mr. Cook — But how late will they lay ? 



Mr. Coggshall — After September. 



Dr. Mason — We have got into this matter of wintering. 

 Last winter my bees were well supplied with what I thought 

 was a poor grade of honej'-dew, and I was afraid of heavy 

 loss in wintering, but I never had better success. 



Mr. Coggshall — Did they have cleansing flights? 



Dr. Mason — No ; they wintered in the cellar. 



D. H. Coggshall— I had old combs. One man who workt 

 for me thinks just as Dr. Mason does, that old combs color 

 honey, but I never saw any trouble. 



Dr. Mason — My experience is that where honey is ex- 

 tracted from combs where brood has been reared several or 

 many times, the honey will be slightly colored. 



A sample of honey was shown b)' Dr. Mason. 



Mr. Stone — I had an experience that proved to my sat- 

 isfaction that dust will discolor honey. 



Dr. Mason — Our dust is light-colored. 



Mr. Stone — Can you tell by the color about honey-dew ? 



Dr. Mason — No ; for sometimes honey-dew is of a light 

 color and of rather pleasant flavor ; at other times it has a 

 very dark color, and of such bad flavor that no one can 

 eat it. 



HONEY FROM S-WEBT CXOVER. 



Some extracted sweet clover honey was on exhibition 

 bj' Dr. Mason, and Pres. Whitcomb said, " I would like to 

 wager my reputation as a bee-keeper that that honey is 40 

 percent white clover." 



.Dr. Mason — I won't bet with you for so small a wager. 

 That sample is almost pure sweet clover honey. 



Mr. Abbott — There is not any clear sweet clover honey 

 gathered in Nebraska, and that is why Mr. Whitcomb has 

 never seen it. 



Dr. Mason — I have sweet clover honey at home that is 

 just as clear and nice as any honey can be, and I have 

 another like this sample that is a little colored by a mixture 

 of dark honey. 



Mr. Selser — I would like to substantiate the president's 

 statement that there is 40 percent of soraeting else in that 

 honey. I have tasted the honey. I have written an article 

 and sent it to the bee-papers about it, and that was the last 

 I have heard of it. I think sweet clover is a curse. I have 

 written to all the farmers and told them to root it up. 



Mr. Abbott — Why is it a curse ? 



Mr. Selser — Because the honey is enough to make a dog- 

 sick. 



Mr. Abbott — You mean it ma.ke& you sick. 



Dr. Mason— I don't care what Mr. Selser thinks, any 

 more than he cares what /think. I i:ii02v that sweet clover 

 honey is a first-class honey, if properly ripened. I am a 

 judge of sweet clover honey ; my bees are within reach of 

 acres and acres of sweet clover, and I get more honey from 

 it than from all other sources put together, but enough dark 

 honey is sometimes gathered at the same time to color it. I 

 know enough about sweet clover to know it is noi a curse, 

 either for honey or by the roadside. It is a blessing to the 

 farmer. 



Mr. Abbott — I can go to any market in the United 

 States and get as much for sweet clover honey as for any 

 kind. 



Mr. Selser— Not in Philadelphia. 



Mr. Abbott— Yes, sir, in Philadelphia and New York. 

 The trouble with me is that I don't get enough of it. 



Dr. Mason — Just a few days ago a lady friend was at 

 our house to dinner. We hardly ever put comb honey on 

 the table, but seldom have a meal without having extracted 

 honey, but that day we had a section of pure sweet clover 

 honey on the table, and she said it was as nice honey as she 

 had ever eaten, and we all said it was nice. 



Mr. Selser — What I said was a little strong, for I wanted 

 to get up a discussion ; but to me it is " off." It is a delicate 

 grade of honey. There is a class of people that cannot eat 

 anything strong, and they will throw it back again. If 

 there is any strong- taste they will throw it back to me. 

 Sweet clover has been a curse to me, and I have tried to 

 have it pulled up. 



Dr. Mason — Were you speaking of extracted honej' or 

 comb honey ? 



Mr. Selser — Extracted. 



Dr. Mason— It probably was not ripe, and when un- 

 ripened it has a strange, green, unpleasant flavor, and that 

 is probably the kind Mr. Selser has been getting, and when 

 in that condition it is not fit to eat. 



The convention then adjourned until 7:30 p.m. 

 Concluded next week.) 



" Honey Calendar" in place of the Almanac — Seep. 807 



