164 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



a meeting held Feb. 12, 1883, when the 

 following resolution was unanimously 

 passed : 



Besohed. That this Association re- 

 cognizes, in the communication read 

 this evening by Vice President Todd, 

 entitled "VVhat shall! feed ray bees? " 

 many points of great interest to bee- 

 keepers generally, and hereby request 

 the vice-president to furnish the Sec- 

 retary with copies for publication. 



He did so, and the secretary, Mr. F. 

 Ilahman, Jr., has sent us the above, 

 which, we think, a very valuable and 

 scientific article, and one that will be 

 read with much more than ordinary 

 interest.— Ed. 1 



Northern Ohio Convention. 



The second annual meeting of the 

 Northern Ohio Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion was held in Norwalk, O., Feb. 

 15, 1883 ; the meeting was called to 

 order at 11 o'clock a. m., by President 

 Samuel Fish, of Milan. Minutes of 

 the last meeting were read and ap- 

 proved. The Society has over 40 

 members. The election of officers 

 was postponed until the afternoon. 



The lirst subject discussed was 

 "The size of sections." Mr. Fish 

 said, he was opposed to adopting any 

 smaller sections than those now in 

 use. While there might be a slight 

 gain in price, in favor of the small 

 section, such gain was more than 

 balanced by the loss in tlie amount of 

 honey stored. Mr. Hovt was opposed 

 to the use of small sections on account 

 of the small difference in price be- 

 tween honey placed on the market in 

 small and laree sections. He said, 

 however, that he was not yet satisfied 

 in his own mind, which size was most 

 profitable. W. II. Cole said, the larger 

 the section the faster bees would store 

 honey. He did not think that honey 

 would sell for enough more in small 

 sections to make up the difference in 

 loss of the amount of honey gathered. 

 He would not use the half-pound sec- 

 tion under any circumstances what- 

 ever. Mr. Ilurlbut said, that in his 

 experience there had been no differ- 

 ence in the price of large and small 

 sections. Mr. (Jauff said, that his 

 success had been, by far, the best with 

 large sections. He thought that bees 

 would store, at least, one-half more 

 honey in two-pound sections than in 

 one-pound. Mr. Sanders thought 

 the use of small sections was like 

 fencing a farm into small lots. It 

 took too much time to do the fencing. 

 It took the bees too much time to 

 make the wax for the small sections. 

 Mr. French had not had much experi- 

 ence. He had all his comb honey 

 stored in sections, that would hold .5 

 or 6 pounds each, and sold it all at 

 home, at a fair price. Mr. Darling 

 said, the sections best adapted to the 

 general market were the ones to adopt. 



The majority of the members of the 

 convention were in favor of using a 

 medium-sized section, one that would 

 hold about II4 pounds. 



Adjourned to 1:30 p. m., when tbe 

 following were elected officers for the 



ensuing year: President, Samuel 

 Fish, Milan ; Secretary, S. F. New- 

 man, Norwalk; Treasurer, Joseph 

 Gibbs, Norwalk. 



After the election of officers, the 

 president delivered the following ad- 

 dress : 



It is now one year since this Society 

 was organized. Our meetings have 

 all been pleasantand, I hope, instruct- 

 ive. It is pleasant to meet with old 

 friends as well as to make new ones. 

 As we know each other belter, our 

 ties of friendship will grow stronger 

 and stronger. Bound together by our 

 common interest in bees and honey, 

 we may well greet each other with a 

 smile and hearty congratulations. 

 Anything that increases our knowl- 

 edge of the honey bee and its ways 

 and methods of working, or in any- 

 way increases the amount and quality 

 of its productions, has real permanent 

 value. An association which brings 

 the bee-keepers of a community to- 

 gether and diffuses useful knowledge 

 in respect to their calling, deserves 

 our kindest attention and should be 

 promoted. 



Tlie past season has not been one of 

 the most profitable on account of the 

 unpropitious weather ; but we should 

 not be disheartened. No, certainly 

 not. We should have no disposition 

 to give up. Does the failure of a crop 

 of wheat, or corn, or potatoes cause 

 the farmer to leave the farm V Such 

 reverses seem only to stimulate the 

 farmer to more energetic courage. 

 Men to succeed in auvthing must 

 focalize their energies, aiid learn that 

 honest industry will be rewarded. 



I wish to call the attention of this 

 meeting especially to section honey. 

 Bee-keepers who succeed the best are 

 those who get the most honey from 

 their bees. Most of us, I believe, use 

 the Simplicity hive. The sections are 

 placed in this hive in wide frames 

 with separators. Is this the best 

 plan y Are separators actually a ne- 

 cessity V Is thfire no way by which 

 they can be abolished a"nd still get 

 honey in merchantable shape V If we 

 can get 3 pounds of section honey 

 without separators, while now we are 

 getting but 2 pounds with them, we 

 are certainly losing too much. If sep- 

 arators are necessary, would it not be 

 better to discard tin ones and use 

 something else V Some are having 

 success with wooden ones. Bees cer- 

 tainly do not want so much cold 

 metal near them, when they are mak- 

 ing comb. Separators cost too much. 



After-swarming is another trouble 

 that bee-keepers are afliicted with, 

 especially those who have bees enough 

 already and want a good crop of 

 honey. We all understand that, when 

 bees once get the swarming fever, 

 they abandon the surplus boxes, and 

 we seldom get any more honey from 

 them during that season. We have 

 all felt this very keenly. At one of 

 the conventions in the West, not long 

 ago, the question was asked, "Can 

 swarming be prevented ?" and it was 

 answered by Mrs. Harrison, a lady 

 bee-keeper of Illinois. She said, 

 " when yon can prevent bees from 

 swarming, you may, perha|is,also find 

 out how to prevent the human family 



from increasing. It cannot be done." 

 As a rule it is best for a colony of 

 bees to cast one swarm, and only one, 

 but the trouble is to prevent it. 1 have 

 controlled them somewhat by cutting 

 out the queen-cells, but that is not a 

 sure remedy. James Heddon says he 

 does not believe in cutting out all the 

 queen-cells but one, and then expect 

 that one to give the future queen with 

 the best results. A writer in the Bee 

 Journal claims he has accomplished 

 this, and gives his method, as follows : 

 " If this inordinate desire to swarm is 

 manifest, there is still a way to satisfy 

 the bees without lessening the work- 

 ing force in the hive. If the bees 

 seem determined to swarm, usually 

 there are several cases ; if there is one, 

 let the first swarm be placed in a new 

 hive. When the second swarm— 1 re- 

 fer to a swarm from some other hive- 

 comes out, it will likely be on the 

 same day ; put this in the hive that 

 swarmed first, after having destroyed 

 all the queen-cells in the hive. This 

 colony is just as strong now as it was 

 before, in brood and bees, and the 

 bees will be satisfied to settle down to 

 work in the sections. A third swarm 

 can be put in the hive from which 

 came the second swarm ; a fourth into 

 the third, etc. 



It has been supposed that the car- 

 bonic acid produced by the bees in 

 breathing, on account of its being 

 heavier than air, settles to the bottom 

 of the cellar or bee-house. We have 

 been told that it is necessary to raise 

 our hives 10 inches from the floor to 

 keep them from this poisonous gas, 

 and sub-earth ventilation has been 

 largely recommended to run this gas 

 out of the way. The experiments of 

 the scientific board appointed by the 

 United States as a special committee 

 on the ventilation of the Capitol at 

 Washington, after a careful analysis, 

 prove that this gas was quite evenly 

 distributed throughout the building. 

 If there was an excess in any given 

 place, it was near the ceiling. This 

 board of scientific men report it as a 

 gross error to suppose that this gas 

 falls to the floor, for, although when 

 pure it is much heavier than air of 

 the same temperature, yet air expired 

 from the lungs is of higher tempera- 

 ture than the surrounding air at ordi- 

 nary temperature, and the law of the 

 diffusion of gases prevents any sep- 

 aration. This may seem strange and 

 wonderful, but it is no more so than 

 to have the amount of water in the 

 atmosphere in a clear day, determined 

 for us. Fortunately for bee-keepers, 

 this board of scientists have solved 

 the difficulty in finding the direction 

 taken by the carbonic acid evolved by 

 respiration. The detection of this 

 gas and the amount the air contains 

 requires skill, careful attention, and 

 instruments of much perfection. 

 Among them is one of recent date, 

 the spectroscope. Powerful spectros- 

 copes, in their early days, were used 

 almost exclusively to detect, while 

 in solution, the different kinds of 

 metals and minerals. Quite recently 

 this instrument has been simplified 

 and reduced in size so as to be carried 

 in the vest-pocket; but it is so power- 

 ful and true that it will determine for 



