792 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



The quarter- bloods are no better than 

 others ; but these crosses are vicious. 

 One colony of them, at the close of 

 the white clover season, drove me out 

 of the apiary, in spite of smoker, etc. 

 I took them to an outside apiary and 

 shall let them remain there till next 

 spring, when I shall destroy them. 

 They do not cap the honey so that it 

 will look as nice and white as I want. 

 When I i)ut it on the market, it is 

 worth from 2 to 5 cents per pound un- 

 der price. The Ijees do not stay on 

 the combs as well as Italians, either. 

 Mr. Gray said that his neighbor, Mr. 

 Miller, had 1,000 pounds of houey in 

 the comb on Water street, and he 

 could take any one and point out all 

 the honey gathered and capped by the 

 Syrians. He agreed with'Mr. Oatman. 

 President Miller asked: As they 

 gather so fast, do you not obtain 

 enough honey to more than counter- 

 balance the loss in price V E. J. Oat- 

 man : No ; it will not make up the 

 loss in price when we market our 

 honey. They are so cross that I do 

 not want them at all." 



Dr. Miller said that Mr. Oatman 

 had sent a sample lot of honey to New 

 York, and among it was some honey 

 gathered by his Syrians, and the buyer 

 said he would not take any more of 

 that Syrian honey when he ordered 

 another lot. 



T. F. Bingham said he did not think 

 it best to advise the introduction of 

 untested and high-tempered bees. 



Small Frames or Sections for Honey. 



Mr. Newman said that bee-keeping 

 was progressive, more so than any 

 other pursuit. President Heddonsaicl, 

 at the Chicago convention, that " the 

 ink of a book was hardly dry before 

 the author was at work on a revision" 

 —and -it was true. We must keep 

 abreast, if not in advance of the 

 times. The requirements of the trade 

 should be ascertained, and then bee- 

 keepers should supply the demand, 

 whatever' it may be. Only 'a short 

 time ago the li lb. section was consid- 

 ered small — now, one holding one 

 pound of honey was the most popular 

 —and when Mr. Ripley a member of 

 the firm of Crocker & Blake, of Bos- 

 ton, was here, he said that Boston re- 

 quired a smaller section, holding only 

 half a pound of honey. If that is to 

 be the demand, we must supply it. 



Dr. Southwick did not object to 

 progress, but he did not think that the 

 section should be smaller than two 

 pounds. 



Mr. St. John said that we must edu- 

 cate everybody to eat honey, and a 

 Small package was best. 



II. D. Cutting said that small sec- 

 tions sold first, and not until they 

 were all gone could you sell the larger 

 ones. 



President Ileddon said that he had 

 used the 2 lb. sections in one apiary, 

 and the 1 lb. sections in the other, and 

 could not see but the small ones were 

 filled as quickly as the larger ones. 

 He tho\tght of using half pound sec- 

 tions next season, and would have the 

 combs thinner, about the same thick- 

 ness as brood combs. 



T. F. Bingham said that thin combs 

 were better for the table, cut out bet- 



ter and made a better appearance on 

 the plate. He recommended U inches 

 for the sections, and said that when 

 thin foundation was used no separators 

 would be necessary. The demands of 

 the market must be met. 



T. G. Newman said that honey was 

 more healthy for the children than 

 confectionery made with glucose ; that 

 Solomon knew what he was recom- 

 mending to the children when he said, 

 " My son, eat thou honey, because it 

 is good." We must popularize the 

 sale and use of honey by tempting the 

 working man to take it home to his 

 wife and children ; they need sweets, 

 and honey is the best and most healthy 

 of all sweets for the consumption of 

 humanity. When properly devel- 

 oped the market could not be over- 

 stocked with honey. All we had to do 

 was to educate the masses to eat 

 honey — to popularize it, and then the 

 demand would be far greater than the 

 supply. 



11. D. Cutting said separators must 

 be used if the sections are not tilled 

 with comb foundation. 



Dr. Miller said variety was neces- 

 sary, and if others made smaller sec- 

 tions, he should tnake larger. 



Dr. Ranney : People do not buy the 

 large sections of honey as quickly ; 

 nor as many of them as they do the 

 small ones. 



Mr. House said that he knew of a 

 dealer in Chicago who had a lot of 

 comb honey in half-pound sections, 

 and he had sold it far more quickly 

 than he could have sold one or two 

 pound sections. 



T. G. Newman remarked that he 

 was not au advocate of half pound 

 sections, but if they were used, they 

 should have as large a surface as pos- 

 sible, because they would look more 

 for the money, and the bees would 

 work more readily on them, if they 

 had more surface and less thickness of 

 comb. 



A. I. Root said that years ago we 

 talked of a section for 25cents,novf we 

 want one for 10 cents. If we make 

 sucli they will sell readily. His wife 

 wants the section so small that it is 

 all eaten up at one meal. It is never 

 so good to put back on the table the 

 second time. 



T. F. Bingham said that the extra 

 thinness, by using H inch sections, 

 would render the use of separators 

 comparatively unnecessary, as the 

 bees did not often enlarge their combs 

 so as to encroach on the next one, if 

 they are only made of the thickness 

 of the brood combs. 



Side and Top Storing. 



Mr. Balch had experienced no trou- 

 ble with eggs in the sections when 

 using sections in broad frames for side 

 storing. 



Dr. Miller is a side as well as top 

 storer — uses a frame of brood to decoy 

 the bees up to the sections. He wants 

 to get them over as much ground as 

 possible in the spring, and as little as 

 possible at the end of the season. He 

 had 174 colonies last spring and had 

 only an increase of 28. His honey 

 crop amounted to 16,549 pounds ; all 

 comb honey. 



Adjourned. 



EVENING SESSION. 



The convention assembled at 7:30 

 p. m.. President Ileddon in the chair. 



Dr. Miller was, on motion of Prof. 

 Cook, made an honorary member. 



The following committees were ap- 

 pointed : 



On Resolutions — Prof. Cook, Dr. 

 Southwick and R. L. Taylor. 



071 Exhibits— Vv. Haskins, W. Z. 

 Hutchinson and Dr. Miller. 



On Statistics— II. D. Cutting, Mr. 

 Kazartee and Dr. O. B. Ranney. 



The convention then proceeded to 

 discuss the subject of 



Overstocking a Locality. 



President Ileddon said bees would 

 gather honey profitably about 3 miles, 

 and it was useless to move bees less 

 than 4 miles unless there existed a 

 barrier of trees, rocks, liills, etc. 



A. I. Root had 200 in one apiary, one 

 year, when, in July, with clover in full 

 bloom, the bees suddenly stopped 

 gathering. 



J. H. Robertson, of Pewamo, usually 

 had 300 colonies in his home apiary, 

 but he thought he was overstocked 

 last year, for there was no honey to 

 gather. He had seen his bees 7 miles 

 away from the apiary. 



James Heddon found that east of 

 his apiary bees had not done as well 

 as they had on the west. He was just 

 at the edge of the honey shower. 



Dr. Miller wanted to know how to 

 get the greatest aggregate amount 

 from 100 colonies of bees. 



Dr. Ranney had tried to manage so 

 as to prevent increase, and obtained 

 much more than his neighbors did, by 

 cutting out queen-cells. 



Dr. Miller had kept 120 colonies 

 down to 122. 



Prof. Cook had visited D. A. Jones, 

 of Ciinada, who had 1,000 colonies this 

 year, but no honey, and was feeding 

 them hundreds of barrels of sugar. 



Clipping Queens'' Wings. 



Dr. Miller said that when a swarm 

 comes out, I put back the bees and 

 cage the queen(her wings bein^clipped 

 she is easily secured). I let them re- 

 main 5 days and then cut out the 

 queen-cells ; 5 days later I cut out the 

 queen-cells again and let the queen 

 loose in the hive and they do not 

 swarm again. This was usually suffi- 

 cient to prevent swarming, but this 

 year they came out again in spite of 

 my precaution. The ijlan I have de- 

 scribed is Mr. Doolittle's plan, and I 

 have now practiced a plan of my own, 

 which is as follows : I kill the queen 

 and wait until "piping" is heard; 

 then I cut out theother queen-cells, 

 and take 4 brood frames and put in a 

 super with the new queen and place 

 this on the top of the honey board, 

 leaving the lower hives queenless. 

 Ten days after I cut out all the queen- 

 cells and put the nucleus above, back 

 in the lower story. This has been 

 successful. 



President Heddon said he did not 

 believe in cutting the queen's wings ; 

 he did not like a part of a queen and 

 did not believe the bees liked her any 

 better than he did. 



