730 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



sible to attest his reading. If each 

 were to do this it would put us to 

 thinliing on the subject, and by hard 

 thought all our inventions and im- 

 provements are brought about, and 

 mankind is thereby benetitted. Keep 

 thiuliing as Galileo did wlien he saw 

 the chandelier swinging to and fro at 

 Pisa. His thoughts gave us the pend- 

 ulum ; your thouglVts may give us 

 something as beneficial. Improve the 

 evenings by reading bee-literature. 



No time is lost by tlip " busy bee," 



In riinniug- its daily train; 

 From tlie rising- sun till dewy eve. 



It treasures its honest ^ain. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Will Honey-Dew Granulate ? 



HENRY JONES.© 



The best report that I have ever 

 made is the following : Last fall I put 

 50 colonies of bees into winter quar- 

 ters. Eight of them died, I sold 6, 

 and began the season with 36 good 

 colonies. From tliese I have taken 

 3,.546 pounds of comb honey and 210 

 pounds of extracted. This is not an 

 estimate, but all of it was carefully 

 weighed. I now have 78 colonies with 

 whicli to try the coming winter. I 

 winter my bees on the summer stands 

 and pacli them with dry sawdust. 

 Will honey dew, or the product of 

 aphidae, granulate V I had the im- 



Eression that it would not, but some 

 oney which I extracted on June .5 

 granulated solidly before July 1. 

 Nearly all who tasted it pronounced 

 it honey-dew. 

 Chesaning, Mich., Oct. 31, 1884. 



[Prof. Cook's reply to the above 

 inquiry on the granulation of honey- 

 dew is as follows : " So far as I have 

 been able to determine, tlie better kind 

 of honey-dew (that from aphidse and 

 ergot) is quick to granulate ; that 

 which I have from bark- lice shows a 

 tendency to solidify." — Ed.] 



desiring to loan them goods for the 

 Exposition (and this is urgently re- 

 quested) will send all articles to my 

 address at Delaware, O., I paying the 

 express or freight charges. All de- 

 siring to respond to this call please do 

 so at once, as all articles must be sent 

 to me by Nov. 20, 1884. 

 Delaware. O. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Apiarian Display at New Orleans. 



H. BESSE, M. D.Q 



For the American Bee Journal 



Southern Wisconsin Convention. 



I am appointed Assistant Commis- 

 sioner for Ohio to represent and ar- 

 range the apiarian display at New 

 Orleans. The exhibition will not be 

 large, but I shall aim to show the 

 most instructive articles, such as 

 hives, honey-packages for surplus 

 honey in all forms to ship and in the 

 market; and all kinds of apparatus 

 and material used or produced in the 

 apiary. I am given but a small 

 amount for this object, and will, 

 therefore, have to limit the exhibit to 

 the practically useful. If any bee- 

 , keeper, or any one in the supply biisi- 

 ' ness, thinks that he has that which 

 will be instructive, and is new and 

 peculiar, I shall be glad to hear from 

 him at once. Any articles donated 

 will be arranged in the most tasteful 

 manner. (Tliis \v\l\ give an excellent 

 opportunity to advertise goods.) Those 



The fourth regular meeting of the 

 Southern Wisconsin Bee-Keepers' 

 Association was held on Oct. 28, 1884, 

 at Janesville, Wis,, President C. O. 

 Shannon presiding. 



After the reading of the minutes of 

 the previous meeting by the Secretary, 

 Mr. Levi Fatzinger read an essay on 

 the " Advancement in Apiculture," 

 commenting on the benefit of organ- 

 ized associations, the improvements 

 made in handling bees since the days 

 of tlie old log-hive, the value of the 

 pioneers in bee-keeping, and the va- 

 rious experiences through success and 

 failure. 



The different methods of wintering 

 bees was discussed at some length. 

 Wintering in the cellar was first con- 

 sidered with the following conclu- 

 sions : It is most important to have 

 a dry cellar and sub-earth ventilation 

 with a constant temperature of about 

 45" above zero. The hive-stand should 

 be one foot high. Place the hives in 

 rows and in three or four tiers high. 

 The caps should be removed, and the 

 honey-board slioved forward }4 of an 

 inch for ventilation. Keep the room 

 dark, and handle as little as possible. 

 The bees should not be put into the 

 cellar until the cold weather comes to 

 stay. Their food must consist of the 

 best honey or granulated white sugar 

 made into a thin syrup. All dead bees 

 should be removed from the bottom 

 of the hive. 



Wintering bees out-of-doors, the 

 hives being packed in chaff, was next 

 considered, and was generally ad- 

 mitted as the best method. Build a 

 house large enough to allow a pack- 

 ing of five or ten inches thick around 

 each hive. Arrange the hives in rows 

 facing to the south. The entrance 

 must be left open so that the bees can 

 pass out and in at will. Ventilation 

 must be provided at the top of each 

 hive so that the moisture will be ab- 

 sorbed by the packing. Do not put 

 the bees into winter quarters until 

 the warm days are past, otherwise the 

 bees will return to their old stand and 

 be lost. The entrance should be kept 

 clean from dead bees. The great ad- 

 vantages of wintering out-doors are : 

 The bees can take a cleansing flight 

 on warm days (it being necessary to 

 scatter straw in front of the house 

 for the weak ones to light upon). 

 Also, they may be left in winter quar- 

 ters until frosty nights are gone in 

 the spring, thus saving much spring 

 dwindling. 



Tlie exhibit of apiarian supplies 

 was better ttian at any previous meet- 

 ing. A case holding 24 one-pound 

 sections, made for tiering up, and so 

 arranged that the bees could not soil 



the outside of the sections, was cou- 

 sidered the best for the purpose. A 

 patented bee-smoker was shown and 

 highly recommended. 



A novel queen-nursery attracted 

 considerable attention. It consisted 

 of a block of wood ly inches thick 

 and 3 inches square, having a 2-inch 

 hole in the centre, covered with fine 

 wire -cloth. In the end were two 

 ;>^-inch holes connecting with the 

 large one. A queen-cell is placed into 

 one of the holes, and a sponge sat- 

 urated with lioney into the other. 

 Any number of these may be put into 

 a brood-frame and placed into the 

 centre of the hive to be hatched. 



A reversible frame was shown. It 

 is the ordinary frame except the sup- 

 port or projection of the top-bar was 

 cut away and supplied with strap- 

 irons fastened at the centre of the 

 end-pieces witli a screw, and reaching 

 to the top. Here it is bent over and 

 back and terminating in two points. 

 These irons may be turned to eitlier 

 the top or bottom of the frame. The 

 frame may be hung bottom upward 

 in the hive ; the bees will then carry 

 the honey into the upper story, leav- 

 ing the entire brood-chamber for the 

 queen. 



Hints and suggestions were made 

 as follows : A colony may be placed 

 on its own stand or any other in the 

 spring. Hives should be numbered so 

 that a record of each colony may be 

 kept. To insure the successful win- 

 tering of bees, honey-dew and buck- 

 wheat honey should be extracted in 

 the fall, and replaced with the best 

 sugar syrup. The weight of a colony 

 of bees is from 3 to ."> pounds. It is 

 the common opinion that extracted 

 honey changes its flavor, and is not 

 equal to comb honey. It is claimed 

 that some people do not know the 

 difference between extracted and 

 strained honey. Extracted honey is 

 pure, and is extracted from the combs 

 by a machine made expressly for the 

 purpose ; strained honey is comb 

 honey mashed up with bee-bread, 

 beeswax, bee-glue, and the dirt of the 

 hive. 



We give below the statistics for 

 1884, which we regret to say is in- 

 complete, many members failing to 

 report : 



Colonies put into winter quarters 286 



Colonies taken out of winter quarters 283 



Colonies lost by robblngand spring dwindling 24 



Colonies sold 25 



Colonies bought 27 



Coloniew commenced tlie season with 269 



Increase of the season 209 



Comb honey produced 9,256 



Extracted honey produced 3,7-.i2 



Wax produced 63 



The investment may be estimated 

 as follows : 



209 spring colonies at $8 each $2,152 



2(19 fall colonies at *li each 1,254 



Total I3.4U6 



The product is as follows : 



9.2fi6 lbs. of comb honey at 16 cents $1,480 96 



3.722 lbs. of extracted lioney at 12 cents. 465 25 

 6.3 lbs. of wax at 26 cents 16 38 



Total , tl,962 59 



From the above it will be seen the 

 profit is over .55 per cent. Had our 

 table been complete, we could have 

 made a better show of figures. The 

 next meeting will be held at the usual 

 place in Janesville. on Jan. fi, 1885. 



