THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



757 



locate in a field entirely unoccupied 

 by any other. Withdraw your patron- 

 age from all bee-papers and supply 

 dealers who are working against your 

 interests, by inducing all classes to 

 attach apiculture to their other busi- 

 ness. 



To anv man who is trying to in- 

 crease the surplus lioney crop of our 

 country^ by aiding those already in 

 the business to secure larger and bet- 

 ter yields, I extend the right hand of 

 fellowship ; but to those who are trying 

 to increase the number of producers 

 of this already fully-supplied luxury, 

 I have nothing to offer but pity tor 

 the mistaken, and contempt for the 

 designing. 



I advise all who mean only to dab- 

 ble with the business, to abandon it; 

 and all those who wish to embark in 

 it as a business, to have no fears, but 

 go right ahead. 



Dowagiac, Mich. 



New Jersey and Eastern Convention- 



The Xew Jersey and Eastern Bee- 

 Keeper" Association assembled in the 

 Cooper Institute building in New 

 York City, on October 29, 1884. 



The meeting was called to order by 

 the President, Joseph H. M. Cook. 

 The Secretary reported that he had 

 received neither the roll of member- 

 ship nor minute book from his prede- 

 cessor, and was, therefore, unable to 

 report, except as to what took place 

 at the last meeting, and with which 

 all the members were familiar, having 

 seen it published in the April number 

 of the Bee-Keepers'' Magazine for 1884, 

 commencing on page 84, which report 

 was accepted and ordered to be placed 

 on the minutes. 



The Treasurer was absent, but hav- 

 ing sent his report to the President, 

 the same was read and accepted. 



Xo programme had been prepared 

 for the convention. Mr. A.J. King 

 stated tliat the condition of the Asso- 

 ciation to-day was due to the neglect 

 of the officers in not doing their duty, 

 excepting, however, the President, 

 who was always on hand. 



The President explained that other 

 duties had probably prevented him 

 from giving all the time necessary to 

 the success and for the benefit of this 

 Association, and that he was ready to 

 share his part of the blame. He then 

 delivered a short address, -saying that 

 the past year had shown him some- 

 thing that he had not been aware of 

 before ; he had lacked faith, but this 

 year had convinced him that there 

 ■was no ground for this lack of faith, 

 and that he was now satisfied that 

 New Jersey can rely on bees produc- 

 ing a good crop of honey, and that the 

 bee-keeper had an e^ual chance with 

 the farmer in the raising of any par- 

 ticular crop. The farmer had only 

 this advantage : That he was not rely- 

 ing on any particular crop, and that 

 while his corn may fail, his potatoes 

 would be a success. Bee-keepers do 

 not receive that profit from their bees, 

 because they do not qualify them- 

 selves for the profession — for such it 

 must be considered ; but if they do 

 this, they will adapt themselves to it 



and will realize the greatest possible 

 profit. The season with him had been 

 a prosperous one. lie had received 

 2,-"iOU pounds of comb honey and about 

 500 pounds of extracted honey from 

 40 colonies. 



The taking up of miscellaneous 

 business was recommended, and dis- 

 cussion arose as to the method of 

 answering questions, whether some 

 should be appointed for the purpose 

 or have them answered by any one 

 having had experience bearing upon 

 the point enquired about. The latter 

 metiiod was adopted. 



Mr. Blauvelt : " Is it practical, and, 

 if so, is it of any benefit to reverse the 

 frames in the" hives? Will it not 

 cause the honey to run out '? 



Mr. Dean said that he had never 

 heard any objections regaringthe run- 

 ning out of honey, but thought that 

 the reversing of frames would cause 

 the bees to fasten the comb more sub- 

 stantially. 



Mr. King said that the reversing of 

 frames was for the purpose of having 

 the honey stored in the top of the 

 frame, placed in the bottom for the 

 purpose of having the bees carry it 

 into the surplus boxes. 



Mr. Dean ; I have heard the state- 

 ment repeatedly from bee-keepers, 

 that in feeding bees with honey for 

 the purpose of storing, it would lessen 

 from one-third to one-half. 



Mr. King said that this loss was 

 due to the rearing of brood ; but in 

 reversing the frame, the brood being 

 already in it, but placed in the top of 

 the frame, the bees would not, there- 

 fore, store the lioney there, but would 

 carry it into the top boxes, 



Mir. Vescelius said that feeding was 

 generally done when there was a lack 

 of honey ; this accounted for the loss. 



The President thought that he 

 would make reversible frames if he 

 had practical knowledge of using 

 them in the spring, when we have the 

 apple blossoms ; and, considering the 

 small number of bees in the hive, 

 they would bring in a large amount of 

 honej; during the day, and having at 

 this time only a little brood, they will 

 fill all the empty cells in the top of 

 the frame, and we will find about two 

 inches of solid honey in the top ; then 

 comes the benefit of reversing the 

 frame. He had tried it with a few 

 hives, and found in reversing the 

 frames, that it started the bees in the 

 boxes. He said he considered rever- 

 sible frames a step in advance in bee- 

 culture. 



Mr. Samuel Miller explained on a 

 black-board how these frames might 

 be made, and stated that the reversi- 

 ble frames would prove a success, and 

 that more honey could be obtained 

 from a single colony by their use, but 

 he thought that the best way to get a 

 good return was to choose a good 

 locality and have more colonies and 

 give them less attention, than to have 

 less colonies and give them much 

 attention. He said he knew of some 

 bee-keepers who get from .50 to 60 lbs. 

 of honey from a colony, and who gave 

 them but very little attention. 



Mr. Dean said that he thought that 

 if an extractor were used there would 

 be no need of reversible frames. 



Mr. King said tli.at Mr. Pean had 

 struck the key-note. Extracted honey 

 was taking its stand in the market 

 and that considerably more honey 

 could be obtained from a colony by 

 the use of the extractor, and there 

 was no cause to worry ourselves about 

 reversible frames. 



Mr. Miller : How would you extract 

 honey from the brood-chambers ? 



Mr. King : It is my experience in a 

 good-sized hive, to extract from the 

 outside combs and replace them in 

 the center of the hive, and in this 

 manner keep the brood-chamber in 

 good condition. 



Mr. Vescelius said that reversible 

 frames would be of no benefit to him ; 

 that he must extract from the brood- 

 frames, or else he would have no bees 

 to gather honey, for they would fill 

 every cell with honey, and crowd out 

 the queen which would have no place 

 to lay her eggs. He thought that an 

 extractor was an actual necessity to 

 the bee-keeper. 



Mr. Terraberry : Bee-keeping is a 

 business that a person may engage in 

 profitably, provided he has an average 

 locality. My honey crop this season 

 has been very light. The month of 

 May, with us, was very cold. June 

 warmed up at once and came out very 

 dry. White clover bloomed and dried 

 right up. My plan of management is 

 about the same as that of other prac- 

 tical bee-keepers. I do not think it 

 advisable to equalize brood too early 

 in the spring, but do it later in the 

 season— on the approach of white 

 clover. I secured some honey from 

 apple blossom ; after that, from rasp- 

 berry. I believe in, and practice 

 swarming by division. Out of an 

 increase of twenty- five, I have had 

 only one natural swarm. In making 

 new colonies, I take a frame from sev- 

 eral hives, rear queen-cells in full 

 colonies, and transfer to a new colony 

 or nuclei. I use two kinds of hives, 

 a chaff hive with one tier only, and 

 another when I tier the boxes. I do 

 not use side-boxes, except early in the 

 spring, and when they are drawn out 

 and partly filled, I transfer them to 

 the top— bees and all. I use founda- 

 tion in both brood-nest and surplus 

 boxes. I never practiced " feeding 

 back," except in one hive, which I had 

 in my store window, but found that 

 it did not work well. I do not believe 

 that they will store in boxes, all the 

 honey fed to them. I have some of 

 all kinds of bees in my apiary. I aim 

 to keep pure Italians, but black bees 

 will sometimes come in. I do not see 

 any very great difference in their 

 honey-gathering qualities, but I pre- 

 fer pure Italians. I started my apiary 

 with the old-fashioned brown bees, 

 but could not succeed as well with 

 them as I do with the Italians. I con- 

 sider that it is necessary to study 

 the bloom and get bees ready for it. 

 VVhere natural swarming is resorted 

 tb, I would not place boxes on imme- 

 diately after hiving, but would wait 

 a few davs. unless I had two or three 

 combs to" give them in which to store 

 pollen and start the queen to laying. 

 I do not use any drone-excluders, 

 except in that I use foundation with 

 worker-cells. I rear no more di'ones 



