644 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



to allow other bees to remove it. He 

 would not wash them. 



Mr. Forfar was of opinion that the 

 best way was to wash off the honey 

 "with warm water. 



Mr. MoKnight said the bees shook 

 their wings and used every effort to 

 extricate themselves. If they could 

 move round at all they would clean 

 themselves. 



Question. In moving bees for better 

 pasturage liow near may they be 

 placed to their former position so that 

 they will not return thither ? 



Mr. Cornell stated that he had 

 moved some colonies three miles, and 

 there had been no returning. He was, 

 however, satisfied that he could move 

 them a quarter of a mile without fear 

 of their returning, provided he used 

 precautions. 



Mr. Jones had moved some of his a 

 distance of less than two miles with- 

 out any of them returning. If trees 

 were present they could be removed a 

 shorter distance. He did not believe 

 in the practibility of moving them to 

 different places in the same yard by 

 setting up boards. 



Mr. Cornell was of opinion that this 

 could be done provided the bees were 

 shaken up. The motion of a wagon 

 would be sufficient. 



Mr. Chalmer.s had found them to re- 

 turn two miles. This >;ear he had 

 moved a colony half a mile. He had 

 shaken them up and set a board before 

 them as a mark. Few returned. 



Question. What are the advantages 

 to be derived from reversible frames, 

 and what is the simplest means of 

 reversing them V 



Mr. Rutherford; of Strathroy, said 

 that by reversing the frames the 

 combs were completed with feed and 

 made perfect both above and below. 

 When not reversed bees often left an 

 open space below. By reversing, the 

 four corners of the comb instead of 

 two corners were tilled with honey, 

 and the center as usual with brood. 

 He also descriVied an improved form 

 of feeder which he had invented. It 

 enabled feeding to be regulated in 

 speed and applied in any position. 



Mr. Jones said he had tried most 

 methods of bee feeding. During tlie 

 last four vears he had used about 120 

 barrels of sugar. In half an liour he 

 had supplied as much as a thousand 

 pounds by simply pouring the synip 

 upon the backboard of the hive. He 

 fed at night and allowed tliem to con- 

 sume it before morning. It was well 

 to feed the whole yard at once to pre- 

 vent robbing. He recommended 

 nothing but the best sugar. 



Mr. Cornell thought granulated or 

 loaf sugar was better tluin crystalized 

 sugar. In the former the water of 

 crystalization was evaporated. 



Mr. Rutherford preferred the Ital- 

 ians in some respects to the blacks. 

 The Cyprians, according to his e.xperi- 

 ence. were '-terrors." Before hand- 

 ling them he required to smoke them 

 above and below, and even then it was 

 a hazardous matter to handle them. 

 Last year his Cyprians had done ad- 

 mirably. This year they had also 

 done well. He did not- look upon his 

 as pure Cyprians. He believed they 

 were crossed with Italians. 



Mr. Jones thought the Cyprians 

 were too irritable, but when crossed 

 with Italians they were excellent 

 honey gatherers. He believed the 

 Holy Land bees crossed with Italians 

 were the best in his yard. He had 

 had a sad experience witli black bees. 

 Six or seven of these colonies were 

 starving, wliile the Cyprian and Holy 

 Land bees were filling their hives with 

 honey. 



Mr. Woodward narrated a case of a 

 queen that could not fly, being mated 

 in her own hive, contrary to what was 

 usually accepted as the rule. 



Mr. Jones said this question had 

 been discussed last year. No one at 

 that time had been successful in ob- 

 taining fertilization in confinement. 

 A committee, consisting of himself 

 and Prof. Cook, of Michigan, had been 

 appointed to make experiments. 

 Prof. Cook had taken 5 young queens, 

 cut their wings, and confined them 

 by means of guards. Four of these 

 never laid. One after fourteen days 

 did lay, and the offspring was perfect. 

 The queen of this hive had been ex- 

 amined, and was found incapable of 

 flying. Prof. Cook came to the con- 

 clusion that she must have been mated 

 in her own hive. 



Mr. Cornell believed that dysentery 

 was due to dampness of the atmo- 

 sphere. Honey, he said, was a hydro- 

 carbon, and when combined with oxy- 

 gen water was formed. Comparative 

 physiologists knew that honey in this 

 condition produced dysentery among 

 other bad results. The effect of damp 

 weather on man was to prevent proper 

 exhalation. Consequently the excreta 

 that would have passed off by tlie 

 skin was thrown into other channels 

 and produced dysentery. It required 

 dampness to produce fermentation, 

 fermentation to produce bacteria, and 

 bacteria to produce dysenterj^. The 

 proper prevention was ventilation. 

 When air was humid more ventilation 

 was required than when the air was 

 dry. Every 27 increase of tempera- 

 ture in the atmosphere doubled its 

 capacity for absorbing moisture. lie 

 had made experiments to verify this. 

 By making suitable arrangements of 

 pipes in his cellar he entirely pre- 

 vented dysentery among his bees. 

 This was done by keeping the air dry 

 and of proper temperature. He con- 

 sidered it as important to put a hygro- 

 meter as a thermometer in cellars, in 

 order to test the humidity and tem- 

 perature of the atmosphere. Experi- 

 ments of a very careful character had 

 been made in a'hospital in Montreal to 

 ascertain in what part of the rooms 

 the air was purest and in what part 

 foulest. These experiments showed 

 that the purest air was in a layer on 

 the floor and in a layer a little deeper 

 close to the ceiling. The air midway 

 between these layers was foulest. 

 These experiments, the accuracy of 

 which he did not doubt, exploded the 

 old theory of tlie purest air being mid- 

 way between the floor and theceiling. 

 Taking into consideration the law of 

 the diffusion of gases, he could not 

 see how a layer of carbonic acid gas 

 could lie on the floor. If they en- 

 closed two gases in any space both 



would be found after a time equally 

 distributed throughout it. 



Mr. McKniglit was elected Presi- 

 dent for the ensuing year ; Dr. Shaver. 

 First Vice President; and \V. C. Wells 

 Second Vice President; Secretary. 

 Mr. R. F. Hqlterman ; Executive Com- 

 mittee, Dr. Duncan, Messrs. J. B. 

 Hall, Jones, Chalmers, Thorn, Ramer 

 and Colcock. 



The prize of SIO, given by Mr. Col- 

 cock, proprietor of the Canadian Far- 

 mer, fox the best essay on "bee win- 

 tering" had been awarded to Mr. H. 

 Clouse, Beeton, and is as follows : 



WINTERING BEES. 



Preparations for winter should be 

 commenced about Septeml)erl, when 

 it is both necessary and desirable that 

 all weak colonies "should be doubled 

 up and strengthened ; care being taken 

 that all are supplied with goodlaying 

 queens of not more than three years 

 of age— of course, younger queens, 

 all other points being'equal, are prefer- 

 able. The colonies must be kept 

 breeding as long as possible, in order 

 that there may l)e a sufficiency of 

 young bees with which to go into win- 

 ter quarters. 



If there is not sufficient honey in the 

 hive to promote breeding, and the 

 bees are not gathering, they should be 

 fed once a day— in the evening when 

 they are less apt to rob. To make 

 the" feed or syrup, take standard gran- 

 ulated sugar and water, in the propor- 

 tion of two pounds of the former, to 

 one pound of the latter; bring to a 

 boil, and allow to cool, then feed. 



Rather the best vessel, in my ex- 

 perience, is a common coffee-pot. with 

 a lip-spout, and the most expeditious 

 as well as the simplest mode of feed- 

 ing, is to raise the entrance end of the 

 hive about one inch above the level ; 

 lift the cover and displace a corner of 

 the bee-quilt, pouring in the syrup in 

 quantities of a tea-cupful or less, ac- 

 cording to the strength of the colony. 

 On this point considerable care should 

 be exercised as in the case of weak 

 colonies, where they are unable to 

 take up before morning the quantity 

 given them, there is a cliance tliat the 

 other and stronger colonies may be- 

 gin robbing. 



I would advance as another reason 

 for feeding in the evening, that, should 

 there be a chance of their gathering 

 natural stores the follovi'ing day. their 

 hives would be clear and nothing need 

 then preventtheni from going to work, 

 whereas, were they fed in the morning 

 they would remain at work in the 

 hive and would lose what natural 

 stores they might otherwise have 

 gathered. By this method the hives 

 would of a necessity require tight 

 bottom-boards, thus preventing the 

 feed from running out, where bottoms 

 are not so arranged, other means 

 would have to be adopted — such as the 

 use of the different feeders, etc.. 

 which are in existence. This, how- 

 ever, is by far the cheapest, simplest 

 and quickest mode of feeding, as by 

 proper management, one person can 

 (with the ass^istance of a small boy to 

 take off' covers, etc.). feed from 200 to 

 300 colonies per hour. 



This feeding should be continued 

 until about the first of October, but 



