THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



101 



taiit that we should look through a 

 colony after a swarui has pome out, as 

 Iliey will soiiH'tiiiu's swarm when there 

 is iiothine: iu the hive but an egsj 

 from whioli to rear a (lueeu. causing 

 the bees to be idle from 14 to IG days ; 

 by sivinjr them a laying queen they 

 ■will at once go to woik. 



Mr. Henediet : There never was a 

 young queen hatched in an Italian 

 colony before the old one had left. 



Mr. Spear : You cannot adopt any 

 rule on which we can always rely. 



Mr. Eaton : The best way to get 

 good queens is to give the larva plenty 

 of food. The young bees always rear 

 the queens, as "the old ones will not 

 care for them. 



•■ Introducing queens in new colo- 

 nies, "" was next discussed. Various 

 plans was given, of which I will men- 

 tion a few, that was thought to be the 

 best. 



Mr. Benedict said his plan is to con- 

 quor his bees; first he gives them a 

 little smoke, and after the old queen 

 is removed, he shakes the bees down 

 in front of the hive and drops the new 

 queen among them ; he repeats this 

 two or three times and lets them go. 

 Another is to use a small wire cage, 

 ■with corks fitting in either end loose, 

 attached to strings, the ends of which 

 come outside of the frames ; after the 

 bees have become quiet, draw the 

 corks out of the cage and let the 

 queen out ; it should be done quietly. 

 The Doolittle cage is thought to be as 

 good as any. 



Mr. Root said that foundation is 

 now made that will take from 1-5 to 20 

 feet to a pound, and that it has been 

 greatly improved within the last year. 

 J. T. Martin, of Tiffin, then deliv- 

 ered a lecture on " Encouraging bee- 

 keeping among the people.'' 



The following lectures were deliv- 

 ered during the convention : Mr. 

 Benedict read an excellent paper on 

 " The management of l)ees for profit;"' 

 Dr. Besse on the subject of " Spring 

 Management;" Prof. Lazenby, of the 

 Ohio State University, on " The na- 

 ture, quality and usefulness of nectar, 

 for the purpose of plant fertilization ;" 

 Mrs. .Jennie Culp reported her man- 

 agement of bees during the produc- 

 tion of over two tons of lioney. 



" How to keep grass and weeds 

 down around the hives?" Sprinkle 

 salt around them ; others advised the 

 keeping of sheep or rabbits in the 

 Apiary. 



" AVhich is the best and quickest 

 way to get and keep shade over the 

 hives y" 



The President and Mr. Root pre- 

 ferred grape vines. 



" Are the new races of bees a suc- 

 cess ■;'"■ They were not thought very 

 favorably of by the majority of those 

 ■who had kept them, on account of 

 their being so irritable, and on ac- i 

 <;ount of their being too prolific in 

 time of drouth. When bees are the 

 main object they are very profitable, 

 as they have been known to increase 

 20 colonies in a single year. 



" Where a perforated honev board is 

 used will it prevent tlie queen from 



foingupinto the surplus chamber V" 

 t was generally conceded to be of no 

 use. 



A committee was appointed to ex- 

 amine the honey and bee supplies, 

 and in their report Mr. Root says that 

 he has discovered that honey may be 

 keiit two years in as good condition as 

 as that of new honey ; the lioney was 

 that of Mrs. Culp. 



Mr. Riegel explained a surplus 

 honey box for containing sections of 

 ditferent sizes, whicli was considered 

 to be quite an advantage to those that 

 work t(U' comb lioney. 



A general discussion ensued on how 

 to winter bees successfully. Several 

 ways were given, of which I will give 

 two or three that was considered to 

 be the best. One is to build a house 

 with double walls about six inches 

 apart, and Mil between the walls with 

 sawdust ; also on the floor and celling 

 about the same thickness, and at one 

 end make an air tube from 10 to 12 

 inches square, allowing it to extend 

 through the floor and within 3 feet of 

 the ceiling ; and at the other end of 

 the building have a similar tube ex- 

 tending from within 3 feet of the 

 floor, up through the roof ; have a 

 valve in the first tube, so that it can 

 be opened and shut as the weather 

 may change. In many instances 

 where the cellar is well ventilated and 

 dry, they may be wintered very suc- 

 cessfully ; the" majority favored" win- 

 tering on the summer stands. Care 

 should be taken not to try to be too 

 kind to the bees, as the entrance 

 should be left wide open and some 

 porous material put on top of them, 

 and let them remain quiet all winter. 

 The bees want more ventilation iu the 

 winter than in the summer. 



Mr. Martin thinks the cause of bees 

 dying when they have plenty of stores, 

 is that they exhaust themselves in 

 breathing so fast to inhale oxygen to 

 keep lip heat. 



Dr. Besse's theory is that they 

 starve to death with stores close to 

 them, which they are unable to reach. 



The eommittee to confer with the 

 members of the Legislature report 

 that they met the chairmen of the 

 committee on agriculture in both 

 branches of the Legislature, and they 

 thought sometliing'ougbt to be done 

 in that direction, and would give the 

 bill a favorable consideration. 



Prof. Riegel then gave a very in- 

 structive lecture on extracting Jio'ney. 



Mr. Shively asked how- to Italianize 

 an apiary with one pure Italian (jueen. 

 The Mce-President said the best way 

 was to rear cells from the queen, and 

 place them in nuclei or full hives. 

 These young queens may, however, 

 meet with impure drones ; "which must 

 be prevented, if possible, by not al- 

 lowing any black drones to be reared 

 in the vicinity of tlie apiary. 



Mr. Cole spoke of fertilizing queens 

 late in the fall, when the bees had 

 generally destroyed the drones ; said 

 he had reared queens, last fall, quite 

 late, and feared the queens were not 

 fertilized as they laid no eggs. The 

 "\^ice-President "thought that if the 

 queens were of proper age, they would 

 likely be fertilized, as drones would 

 be found about the apiary. 



Mr. Nntt, of Iowa, said that thev 

 have more bees die in April than any 

 other month iu the vear. 



Mr. Martin had an occasion to take 

 a frame from a hive in the middle of 

 winter, and oii doing so he found web 

 and moth worm in the middle of the 

 frame ; how did it get tliere, in a 

 strong colony at that time of year ? 



A motion was made and carried to 

 insert in our premium list a premium 

 for extracting honey. By some it is 

 thought better to go in winter quar- 

 ters with old bees than young ones. 

 C. M. KiNCiSBUKY, Sec. 



For tbe American Bee JoumaJ. 



Care of Bees on Sundays. 



■WM. H. BALCII. 



All animate creation develop, ma- 

 ture and decay regardless of any day, 

 it being only a matter of time. Trees 

 bring forth fruit, fields yield their 

 harvest, flowers secrete nectar to be 

 taken up by insects, or " wasted on 

 the desert air." But man, formed in 

 the image of his Creator, a little lower 

 than the angels, requires more ; food, 

 raiment, and many other things ; with 

 the rest, wild and domestic animals, 

 all more or less, in different ways, 

 contribute to his happiness and sup- 

 port. With the latter there is a cer- 

 tain amount of care and labor to be 

 bestowed, in order that we may reap 

 the full benefit for them to ser've the 

 end for which they were created. 

 Who would think of leaving the faith- 

 ful horse or the patient ox after their 

 week's toil, from Saturday night until 

 Monday morning without food or 

 water? VVliat would be the result if 

 dairymen should not milk tlieir cows 

 or feed them on Sunday ? It seems 

 needless to multiply words on the 

 subject, when we consider the small 

 amount of necessary time required for 

 the care of our bees on Sunday, when 

 compared to that of other domestic 

 animals. 



Oran, N. Y. 



[Discussions involving religious 

 views, of which there are ^11 kinds 

 among bee-men, are out of order in 

 the Bee Journal. With this, there- 

 fore, let this subject rest, for, once 

 begun, it would be an endless dispute, 

 and no one would be benefitted. — Ed.] 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



New Facts from Old Theories. 



li. F. CAKROLL. 



Proposition IX, Dzierzon theory : 

 " All eggs germinated in the ovary of 

 the queen develop as males, unless 

 impregnated by the male sperm while 

 passing tbe mouth of the seminal sac 

 or spermatheca, when descending the 

 oviduct. If they be thus impregnated 

 in their downward passage (which im- 

 pregnation the queen can effect or 

 omit at pleasure,) they develop as 

 females." 



When this theory was first promul- 

 gated by the venerable German bee- 

 master, it seemed so ridiculous that it 

 could not be believed ; but time has 

 shown that this great master in api- 



