474 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



by mixing the races. Much is claimed 

 as a superiority in bees, which is not 

 an advantage "in any way; thought 

 the Italian the hest, but would rather 

 have a hlack bee than a mixed race. 

 Those wlici have a large stock of bees 

 always say (that is in the papers) that 

 all other bees are of no account. lie has 

 found all bees to yield ahout the same 

 amount of honey. Report of commit- 

 tee was sustained. 

 Adjourned till 8:30 a. m. 



April 2o. The Association met at 9 

 a. m.. Dr. Marshall presiding. A 

 motion was carried to fix the next 

 place and time of meeting. McKinney 

 was unanimously chosen, for the first 

 Thursday in May, 1.SS5, to continue 

 two days. The election of otHeers for 

 the ensuing year resulted as follows : 

 Dr. W. K. Marshall, President ; B. F. 

 Carroll, Vice-President; Dr. Howard, 

 Secretary; W. B. Graham, Treasurer. 



Judge Andrews, delegate from the 

 State Bee-Keepers' Association of 

 Texas, for 1883, to tlie North Ameri- 

 can Bee-Keepers' Association at To- 

 ronto, Canada, made his report : He 

 thought that his attendance of the 

 Association was of much value, but 

 his visit to Mr. .lones' apiary was 

 worth much more. Mr. .loues has 

 2,-500 or 3,000 colonies, distributed 

 over a territory nine miles in diame- 

 ter, keeping "loO to 170 colonies in 

 each yard. He breeds liis queens and 

 drones at home, and sends them over 

 to Islands in the Georgian Bay, and 

 by this means keeps them unqwes- 

 tionably pure, impregnation being 

 made sure. His profits arise largely 

 from the sale of queens, but he also 

 sells large quantities of fine honey at 

 20 cents per potmd. The .Judge spoke 

 well of Canadian honey, and exhibited 

 a sample %vhich he had brought home 

 with him. He said there was a great 

 quantity of fine extracted honey on 

 exhibition at the Convention. The 

 most prominent questions discussed 

 in the Convention were left without 

 taking a vote. On spreading the 

 brood, the weight of opinion was 

 against it, many contending that it 

 was one course of foul brood. It re- 

 quires an expert to accomplish it suc- 

 cessfully. The weight of opinion was 

 in favor of the Langstroth hive. 

 Mr. Langstroth is entitled to be called 

 the Huber of America. He thought 

 Mr. Jones the prince among bee-men. 

 He spends vast sums of money in ex- 

 perimenting. According to Mr. 

 Jones' experiment, there was no great 

 difference in the products of the dif- 

 ferent kinds of bees, as he observed 

 in Mr. Jones' apiary. In Convention 

 he met distinguished bee-men. There 

 were but three representatives from 

 the Southern States. Mr. J. P. H. 

 Brown, of Georgia, Mr. W. S. Hart, 

 of Florida, and Yiimself. Bethought 

 more honey was produced in the 

 North than in the South, because 

 they have more honey-producing 

 plants. It was unanimously agreed 

 that extracted honey wns the most 

 profitable, and the disparity between 

 comb and extracted honey was fast 

 disappearing. As to different varie- 

 ties of bees, he formed a diversity of 

 opinions. There was no decision' of 

 the Convention as to whicli were best. 



A motion prevailed to appoint a 

 delegate to the next National Con- 

 vention t<i meet at Rochester. N. Y. 

 Judge Andrews was selected as dele- 

 gate. A motion was carried to so 

 amend the Constitution as hereafter 

 to collect SI as an initiation fee. Also 

 another motion carried, that volun- 

 tary contributions of SI from eacli 

 member be asked for, in order to de- 

 fray all expenses of the Association. 

 A resolution passed instructing the 

 secretary to notify all the members 

 not present, of tlie one-dollar contribu- 

 tion, and request them to send in 

 theirs. 



Association adjourned till 1 p. m. 



EVEXIXG SESSION. 



The Associatiom met pursuant to 

 adjournment, ^Ir. Carroll presiding. 



11. Question from the committee. 

 " Is the moth a destructive enemy to 

 the bee in any way V" Answer. " Not 

 to the bees, but to the comb."' Judge 

 Andrews held that the moth never 

 hurt a colony of bees, l)ut destroyed 

 unprotected comb. That a strong 

 colony is never hurt by moths, and 

 advised that combs be hung up and 

 smoked like bacon. Dr. Howard said 

 he put his combs where light and air 

 could reach them, and they were never 

 injured by mollis ; but if they were 

 put in a dark, damp, and warm places 

 moth would destroy them. Judge 

 Goodner had found, by experience, 

 that it would not do to hang combs 

 in a dark smoke-house. Mr. Kerr 

 hung his to joists over-head, and 

 found it a safe plan. The report of 

 the committee was adopted. 



12. " What is the best method of 

 increasing colonies." Answer, "By 

 artificial swarming." Sustained by 

 the Association. 



13. "What is the best plan of keep- 

 ing the bees from swarming ":"' ><o 

 answer by the committee. Mr. Carroll 

 said swarming could be prevented to 

 some extent by using the extractor 

 freely. Dr. Howard said swarming 

 conld be prevented by keeping the 

 bees too weak, but did not like the 

 manner in which the question was 

 put. Judge Andrews said he would 

 be obliged to any one who would give 

 him any information as to how to 

 limit swarming without injuring the 

 bees. He had been for years trying 

 to solve the problem. No conclusion 

 arrived at. 



14. "Is the swarm always led bv the 

 queen "y" Committee answered "No." 

 Mr. Carroll thought the queen always 

 led. Judge Andrews thought all the 

 bees went out by instinct and one bee 

 never leads another. Bees will come 

 back to hunt the queen sometimes but 

 not always. Mr. Horn remarked that 

 he could see no practical bearing in 

 the question ; he had seen the queen 

 come out first, in the middle, and the 

 last. Answer of the committee sus- 

 tained. 



1-5. "Does the queen control the 

 colony in anything ?" Answer by 

 the committee, "jes." Judge An- 

 drews held that she did, only so far 

 as the work of tlie one depends on the 

 other. Both are moved by instinct. 

 Dr. Howard did not think the queen 

 " bosses ''the bees or tells tlicni what 



to do. Instinct prompts them all and 

 tells them how to do. Mr. Davis did 

 not know what was meant by instinct, 

 as he never had heard that bees had 

 reason. Mr. Horn thought all acted 

 from instinct. Dr. Marshall said it 

 was ditHcult to define the difference 

 between reason and instinct. Bees 

 pay respect to the queen onlv after 

 impregnation. They feed her and 

 give her other attentions. He said 

 the queen controlled the colony to a 

 certain extent- The queen is the first 

 to become excited before swarming. 

 The report of the committee was 

 adopted. 



16. "Is a division-board desirable, 

 and are the advantages snflicient to 

 justify the expense V" Answer , 

 "No". Judge Andrews and Dr. 

 Marshall favored the use of division- 

 boards. Mr. Carroll said that an 

 empty comb was sufilcient. Answer 

 of committee reversed. 



Judge Andrews asked. "Should the 

 old queen be removed before the new 

 queen is selected V Mr. Carroll said 

 that, in a good honey season, the old 

 queen should remain until the other 

 was turned loose. Mr. Kerr had lost 

 queens while in the cage in the hive. 



Adjourned to meet on the first 

 Thursday in Mav, 1885. 



W. B. HowAKD, Sec. 



Tor the American Bee JournaL 



" Reversible Frames." 



n. DAVIES. 



On page 439 of the Bee Joukn.\l of 

 .July 9, 1 read Mr. Pond's article on 

 "Reversible Frames;'" and a few 

 minutes afterwards I began to read 

 the Kansas Bee-Paper for July, when, 

 on page 10-5, 1 saw the following arti- 

 cle on the same subject. Imagine my 

 surprise to find it signed " P"' (which, 

 I believe, is Mr. l\)nd"s signature for 

 his editorial articles in that paper). I 

 am now puzzled to know what Mr. 

 Pond"s real ideas are on reversible 

 frames. Here is the article : 



" The question of reversible frames 

 is one of no little importance; that is 

 to say, the results said to be produced 

 by reversing, are exceedingly advan- 

 tageous. The experience of all bee- 

 keepers is, that the lower part of 

 frames are never as well filled out as 

 the upper: reversing is said to over- 

 come this entirely. We. however, 

 look for far greater results therefrom. 

 Our experience is, that when we get 

 the brood placed to the top-bars of 

 the frames, the bees will atoiice begin 

 work in the sections. In order to 

 accomplish this in days past, we have 

 been obliged to make" use of the ex- 

 tractor, which causes considerable 

 hard labor at a time when we are 

 busy otherwise. Now, it seems we 

 canaceomplish this result simply and 

 easily, all we need to do, is to reverse 

 the frames, at the time we put on the 

 sections. The bees will rear brood 

 close up to the top-bars, and at once 

 proceed to fill the sections. If any 

 trouble is feared from the queen going 

 into the section also, it can be easily 

 remedied by using the perforated-zinc 

 lionev-boarcl between the frames and 



