THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



87 



even provided themselves with sufli- 

 eieiit winter stores, wliile otlier colo- 

 nies with far less brmid would K've a 

 good yield of surplus honey, and well- 

 filled cond)s of winter stores ;and sub- 

 sequent years of experience have fidly 

 satislied me that excessive breediiiK 

 is not a trait to be desired in the 

 " coming bee,"' but longevity is. 



4. (;entleness or amiability of tem- 

 per.— The sting of the bee is bad 

 enough, even to professional apiarists, 

 but they are not the only ones atlected 

 by the presence of vicious bees. We 

 claim tlie right to keep bees in villa- 

 ges, in corporated towns and cities, 

 and if we, as bee-keei)ers, tolerate 

 cross bees, they and we must grow 

 more and more" in disfavor with the 

 people, and ordinances for their re- 

 moval from such places will become 

 more frequent. In short, every con- 

 sideration of wisdom, iieace and com- 

 fort, dictates the suppression of the 

 vicious type of our honey bees. 



Having thus defined some of the 

 qualities to be kept in view in rearing 

 qneens, we will next consider briefly 

 when and how to proceed. 1. Vigor- 

 ous, long-lived queens cannot be 

 reared much outside the swarming 

 season, and no interference of man 

 can produce better queens than the 

 old fashioned way of natural swarm- 

 ing, provided the swarming colonies 

 are of the type above indicated. But 

 when the supply of queen mothers is 

 very limited, the process is quite too 

 slow. Hence we must resoit to the 

 removal of the queen mother from one 

 colony to another at intervals of about 

 10 days, or the removal of brood from 

 the hive of said queen mother. In my 

 own practice, I prefer to remove the 

 queen, and queens produced by the 

 removal of the queen mother at any 

 time when a good degree of activity 

 exists in the liive witli plenty of bees, 

 brood and eggs, and increasing stores, 

 I have never l)een able to discover 

 that they were in any way inferior to 

 those produced by natnral swarming, 

 while those reared out of season, cer- 

 tainly are inferior. 2. At what age 

 shall the queen mother be V I take it 

 that, with the queen bee. as with man 

 and all our domestic animals, there is 

 a period of greatest vigor, and there 

 are times, whether perceptible or im- 

 perceptible, of gaining or declining 

 strength. Ilence, in selecting queen 

 mothers. I would alike avoid the ex- 

 tremes of life ; I would not breed from 

 a queen less tlian one, or more than 3 

 years old— probably the best age is the 

 summer that the mother bee is 2 years 

 old. About 10 or 11 years since t i)ur- 

 chased an Italian queen from, at that 

 time a, prominent breeder, who pro- 

 fessed to have reared 6 generations of 

 queens in one season, and I guess he 

 had. Without assuming it as a fact 

 in beeology, I would submit it as an 

 hypothesis that the continued breed- 

 ing of queens from young queens, will 

 stimulate too excessive breeding at 

 the expense of vigor, longevity and 

 honey storing qualities. 



As to how to produce the greatest 

 number of queens, shall form no part 

 of this essay, as liee-keeping has suf- 

 fered enough from that source. If 

 queen breeders would kill at sight 



every objectionable queen, and sell 

 less in numbers at a better price, it 

 would lie ijuite as well for the breeder, 

 and much better for the purchaser. 

 Allow me to wish you a happy and 

 successful session of your Association, 

 and a prosperous year for the blessed 

 bees and their owners. 

 Youngsville, I'a. 



Mr. Root thought that the essay 

 was a most impmlant one, and proper 

 action should be taken with regard to 

 the selling of queens. 



Are Bees A Nuisance 1 



Question— Is there any law against 

 keeping bees in incorporated towns or 

 cities y 



In reply to this question, Mr. House 

 gave an instance of a man keeping 

 bees in Syracuse, who was driven 

 from the city by the authorities on ac- 

 count of his'liees being a public nuis- 

 ance. 



Mr. King, of New York, ridiculed 

 that idea, and gave instances of his 

 bees, which are kept on a building in 

 Park Place, New York, swarming on 

 an ItaliaiTs staiul at the corner of 

 Park Place and Broadway. It was an 

 object of curiosity, and not only was 

 it not considered' a Tiuisance, but be 

 received the best advertisement that 

 he ever obtaineil. The jiapers took up 

 the matter and the incident was cir- 

 culated widely. 



Adjourned for one hour and a half. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



The Convention reassembled at 1:4.5 

 p.m. Secretary House appointed L. 

 B. St. ,John assistant secretary. Sev- 

 eral new members were elected. 



The following oflicers were elected : 

 President, W. fMark, Oriskany ; Vice 

 President, L. K. "St. John, Greene; 

 Secretary, George W. House, Fayette- 

 ville, Treasurer. It. Bacon. 



The Convention then balloted for 

 next place of meetiiag, with the fol- 

 lowing result : Syracuse 10, Utica 11, 

 Albany 12. Syracuse was chosen, and 

 the third Tuesday of .lanuary, ISS.S, 

 tlie session to continue for three days. 



The Secretary read the President's 

 annual address on 



Wintering Bees. 



As soon as possible after the honey 

 season has closed. I examine my bees 

 thoroughly and see wliat condition 

 tliey are in for the ctiming winter. I 

 am particularly careful to see that they 

 are strong in bees, for I consider that 

 very essential to success. I tind that 

 it is poor policy to attempt to winter 

 weak colonies. If they are too weak 

 I make them strong l)y uniting early, 

 until they are all stroiig. If any are 

 queenless, now is the time to supply 

 them,as wecan use the surplus queens 

 for that purpose. There is no diffi- 

 culty in uniting at this time of year if 

 we give them a thorough smoking, so 

 tliatthey may all have the same scent 

 and till'theniselves with honey. In 

 uniting, the hive that is left empty 

 should be removed from the stand, 

 and then bees will not return. 



My next care is to see that they are 

 well supiilieil with stores for winter. 

 They should have frmn 20 to 2-5 lbs. of 

 good capped honey to be safe. I feed 



the light by taking frames of honey 

 from those that liave mine than they 

 need, as it is a very easy matter to 

 make them all safe in this respect. If 

 thev are short of stores feed 7 i)arts 

 loaf sugar to 4 of water, putting it 

 into tin dishes,oblongin shajie. They 

 may be made to hold (i or S lbs. Put 

 a lliiat of wood in the dish. Feed on 

 top of brood chamber, until they have 

 sufficient stores for winter use. My 

 nextcare is t<i removecombs from the 

 bi-ood-chaniber until the bees lill all 

 the combs that are left. 



I use the new Quinby hive, and 

 winter them in from 5 to fi frames. 

 Colonies that do not lill ■') frames I do 

 not consider strongenougb for winter. 

 I unhook the frames from the bottom- 

 board, and hook them on a frame that 

 raises them just an inch fnnn bottcun 

 of the hive. I put them at right 

 angles to the position they occupy in 

 summer, as this allows me to com- 

 pletely surround them with the j)ack- 

 ing; which consists of dry pine plan- 

 ing mill shavings. I then cover the 

 frames with pieces of heavy hop bail- 

 ing, which is tlie best and cheapest 

 cover I can find. I also lill the space 

 over the frames with the same i)ack- 

 ing. and leave an air chamber of two 

 iu('hes under top board for the mois- 

 ture from the liees to collect and pass 

 out at a wire screen near top of hive. 



I have the entrance of hive open to 

 give the bees a chance to Hy whenever 

 an opportunity presentsitself. When 

 the weather is stormy, cold or windy, 

 I put a board in front of etitrance, 

 against the hive to prevent a direct 

 draft. When bees are thus care<l for, 

 they will winter very safely on their 

 summer stands. I have usually win- 

 tered in this way without the loss of a 

 colony. Last winter my loss was 

 about 2.5 per cent.; but was owing to 

 the fact that they were moved and 

 packed after cold weather set in. I 

 could not get the shavings to pack 

 them with until then. Most of my 

 bees last winter were wintered in a 

 cellar, and my loss was 7.") per cent. I 

 have tried very bard to winter iu-doors 

 successfully, but have not succeeded 

 very well and have become disgusted 

 witii it. as my experience has been 

 very sad. When wintered on Iheir 

 summer stands as I have described 

 and prepared early for winter, I feel 

 peifectly safe, for I know they will 

 winter well. When thus prepareil, 

 they will not fly in winter unless it is 

 warm enough forthem to retmn safely 

 to their hives. But what is best 

 of all, they do not dwindle in the 

 spring. I have used the IJuinby hive 

 since 1.S72. and do not believe there is 

 as good a hive made for wintering and 

 carrying bees safely through the 

 spring. 



I cannot close without referring to 

 spring. The winter packing is very 

 essential in siiring. and it prevents the 

 bees from Hying when they shoulil not. 

 It also retains the heat' which is s<' 

 , necessary to successful bro(Hl- rearing. 

 The packing should not bo removed 

 until we have settled warm weather. 

 I usually leave it until the bees are 

 nearly ready to swarm. When brood- 

 rearing begins in earnest the cloth 

 cover should be removed from top of 



