THE AMERICA!? BEE JOURNAL. 



333 



to become experts with the Langs- 

 stroth or Quiuby frauie. 

 Again, those that have learned to 



five their bees the best advantages in 

 oth summer and winter with one 

 shaped hive, would have to experi- 

 ment for years before they would be 

 able to do the same with another hive 

 and frame, differing so widely as do 

 the Gallup and Quinby. 



And yet again, men are seldom 

 willing to sacrilice all the stock that 

 they nave carefully invested in a 

 business. Even if an economical bee- 

 keeper should become satisfied that 

 he could do somewhat better with a 

 different hive if he has a hundred or 

 more colonies in hives that work rea- 

 sonably well, he will not hurry him- 

 self to make an entire change. 

 Another objection to this i)roposed 

 constitutional amendment is, that 

 many bee-keepers choose to winter 

 part or all their bees on the summer 

 stands ; and in this locality that way 

 of wintering, and the use of tlie 

 Langstroth hive and frame, would 

 mean the loss of the bees. Even the 

 chaff hive, with the Langstroth frame 

 is a failure as an out-door winter hive 

 in this part of the Northwest. 



And yet again, many experienced, 

 careful and thorough bee-keepers And 

 practical advantages in the use of one 

 form of frame and hive that they fail 

 to tind in the use of any other, and 

 they would not consent to forego those 

 advantages on any consideration. 



Please let me ask those who are 

 advocating the adoption of the Langs- 

 troth frame as the standard, suppose 

 it were put to vote, as to what frame 

 we should all adopt, and a majority 

 should cast their vote for the A,meri- 

 can frame, would you forego your 

 choice, discard the Langstroth and 

 adopt the American 'i Tell us. please, 

 how you feel about that part of the 

 universal suffrage business. 



Orion, Wis. 



Haldimand, Out., Couveution. 



The Haldimand Bee-Keepers' As- 

 sociation met at Cheapside on June 

 16, pursuant to adjournment. Mem- 

 bers present: E. DeCevv, President ; 

 Messrs. Jas. Armstrong, Robt. Buck- 

 ley, William Jack, William Kindree, 

 Andrew Vanderburg, A. Gloyd, 

 Henry Smith, P. Mehlenbacher, E. 

 Gee, D. Byers, Mansel McCollom, 

 Wm. Harrison, R. W. Beam, Robt. 

 Anguish, D. Rose, Dr. Harrison, Jas. 

 Caldwell, and E. C. Campbell. 



The minutes of previous meeting 

 were read and adopted. 



The first questions discussed were : 

 " How to successfully winter bees, 

 and to prevent spring dwindling." 

 The president gave his experience ; he 

 had 15 colonies in the winter, and had 

 lost them all. He attributed his loss 

 to two causes— extracting too late, 

 and not feeding enough back, and 

 spring dwindling. He packed his 

 bees in straw. 



Mr. Smith packed bis bees in chaff, 

 and did not lose any. 

 . Mr. Jack fed some of his colonies 

 m the fall, and packed them in dry 

 sawdust, and brought them through 



all right. Those not packed died dur- 

 ing the winter. 



Mr. Armstrong thought that with 

 proper protection, plenty of stores, 

 and young bees, there would be little 

 or no loss in winter. He packed his 

 bees in sawdust, and left them in the 

 packing until about the 10th of May, 

 and lost only 4, one of which was 

 queenless. 



Mr. Vanderburg wintered his bees 

 in double-walled hives, well packed, 

 and gave them plenty of stores so as 

 to keep up late breeding, and brought 

 them through successfully. He did 

 not lose any. 



Mr. Buckley thought the great 

 secret of wintering successfully was 

 in having plenty ot young bees. He 

 put 38 colonies in the cellar in the fall, 

 took out 33 in the spring, had lost all 

 but 8 in April and May, by spring 

 dwindling. 



The sectetary gave his plan of 

 wintering, and an account of a visit 

 to the apiaries of D. A. Jones, of 

 Beeton, his method of wintering, and 

 how to prevent spring dwindling. Mr. 

 Jones uses a bee-house with walls two 

 feet thick, packed with sawdust and 

 ventilated by pipes running under 

 ground. His plan of preventing 

 spring dwindling is to leave the bees 

 in the bee-house until there was plenty 

 of pollen for the bees to work on, and 

 closing the hives on cold or windy 

 days after being set out. 



Messrs. Gloyd, Kindree, Byers and 

 Beam gave their views, mainly the 

 same as given by others. 



Dr. Harrison gave an amusing ac- 

 count of his first attempt at winter- 

 ing bees. He bought 2 colonies at 

 Holterman'.'s sale late in October, and 

 when he and Mrs. Harrison examined 

 them, a few days afterwards, found 

 that they had not half a pound of 

 honey between them. He carried 

 them into the house, put them into 

 an empty room, darkened the win- 

 dows, and fed them, all winter, with 

 a thin syrup, by means of an inverted 

 fruit jar. On warm days, he opened 

 the window so that they could have a 

 fly, and they came through all right, 

 and he has them yet. 



Mr. Rose, an old bee-keeper, gave 

 his experience in wintering bees in 

 different wavs, and succeeded best 

 with the old box hive. 



Which are the best race of bees V 

 Mr. Kindree thought hyl)rids were 

 better honey gatherers than either 

 blacks or Italians. 



Mr. Buckley thought there was as 

 much difference between Italians and 

 blacks as there is between thorough- 

 bred and grade cattle. The Italians 

 were far ahead of the blacks, and 

 gave instances in proof of his view. 



Mr. Armstrong also liked the Ital- 

 ians, and thought they were superior 

 in many respects. 



Mr. Rose liked the Italians because 

 they were so gentle and easy to 

 handle, but did not know whether 

 they were better workers or not. 



The secretary spoke in favor of the 

 Holy Land bees, saying they were 

 splendid workers, and not fialf so 

 cross as they got credit for. 



The following resolutions were 

 passed : 



Resolved, That application be made 

 to the various agricultural societies 

 for space and prizes on honey and 

 apiarian supplies, at the fall shows. 



Resolved, That the next meeting of 

 the Association be held on Saturday, 

 22d of September, at Cayuga, at 1 

 o'clock. E. C. Campbell, Sec. 



Frankford Herald. 



Preparing for Emergencies. 



JOHN SHALLCROSS. 



The young bee-keeper has, no 

 doubt, learned by this time that there 

 is a wide difference between theory 

 and practice. That while the one is 

 importantand instructive, the other is 

 full of value, as a means to success. 

 An occasional mishap keeps the be- 

 ginner upon tlie alert, and teaches 

 him to make the best use of his re- 

 sources. 



He has expected abundant stores in 

 his section boxes, while the bees have 

 insisted upon filling the brood combs. 

 He has tried to Italianize his colonies, 

 but his most expensive queens have 

 been rejected and destroyed. He has 

 intended to prevent natural swarming, 

 but the perverse insects have taken 

 wing in spite of him. Other disap- 

 pointments hedge up his way until, 

 in his discouragement, he concludes 

 that bee-keeping is not all romance. 

 It is a wise and wholesome instruc- 

 tor. It is to the amateur the begin- 

 ning of wisdom. It sets him think- 

 ing. He begins to ask questions, and 

 to read up on the subjects of his 

 failure. He realizes the cause of his 

 mistakes, and learns how to prevent 

 a recurrence of them. He begins to 

 believe he is traveling a safer path, 

 and knowledge comes in proportion 

 to his faith. It is probably the case, 

 while expecting much, he has pre- 

 pared for nothing. New hives were 

 needed for the increase of his stock 

 when none were readv. The boom of 

 the honey harvest came when no sec- 

 tion boxes were prepared, and the 

 manufacturers were too busy to fill 

 an order withoutgreatdelay. t'rames 

 were needed for newly captured 

 swarms, but had been forgotten until 

 too late. When foundation, would 

 have been most advantagnous to the 

 busy workers, none had been secured. 



He writes in his note book •' too 

 slow; bees, like time and tide, will not 

 wait." Forewarned, he determines 

 to be forearmed ; there is great hope 

 for him now. Tlie result of his think- 

 ing will be that he must be always 

 systematically ready. 



For every colwiy that a young bee- 

 keeper has he will require at least 

 three fully equipped extra hives ready 

 for use at a moment's notice. Thus, 

 no contingency of swarming, dividing 

 or creating nuclei will catch him un- 

 awares, lie should have a light box 

 or basket of proper dimensions, to 

 take swarms from the branches upon 

 which they may cluster. He should 

 have a good smoker to subdue obsti- 

 nate colonies. Also, an overplus of 

 broad frames and section boxes with 

 separators and starters, in case of 

 unexpected yields of honey. He 



