THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



508 



My theory is this : Before removing 

 the old queen, I give the colony a few 

 puffs of sinolie to quiet them. The 

 bees at once fill themselves with 

 honey, and are as amiable as one 

 coukl wisli ; the bees coming in from 

 the tiekis are tilled with honey also, 

 and the foragers besides are so occu- 

 pied with their honey gathering pro- 

 pensities that they take no notice of 

 what is going on inside the hives, and 

 as the comb ouilders and nurses are 

 all very young, they do not molest the 

 new queen, even if' they do take any 

 notice of her. i\Iy theory mav not be 

 correct, but the fact is that I do not 

 lose one queen in 10 by introducing in 

 this manner. 



"When no honey is being gathered, 

 queens cannot be introduced safely in 

 this way. The old bees remain in th" 

 hive, and are terribly vexed at not 

 being able to gather stores, conse- 

 quently are ready to vent their spite 

 upon any thing that crosses their path. 

 I nave, however, in several instances, 

 introduced queens successfully in late 

 fall, by tlie metliod advised by Mr. 

 Simmins in the Bntish Bee Journal, 

 viz. : removing the old queen, and at 

 once placing tlie new one upon the 

 same place on the comb the old one 

 was taken from. I am of the opinion 

 that the actions of the new queen 

 have, to a great extent, a bearing upon 

 the matter of whether she is well re- 

 ceived or not; if she is scared and 

 runs from tlie bees, or shows any 

 symptoms of terror, she will be 

 pounced upon at once; otherwise she 

 will hardly be noticed. My reason for 

 allowing queens to run in at the en- 

 trance, as mentioned above, is that I 

 think they are not as apt to show 

 signs of fear, or by any acts of theirs 

 cause the bees to see that they are 

 strangers. 



Perhaps I may be considered as 

 decidedly heretical, but I have never 

 been fully satisfied that colonies have 

 any scent peculiar to themselves, by 

 wliich they are enabled to distinguish 

 visitors from members of ttieir own 

 colony. The idea has always seemed 

 to me as somewhat fanciful ; more 

 particularly when I see that robbers 

 are recognized before they touch the 

 alighting board, and by their actions 

 rather than by anything peculiar 

 about them. I have often seen senti- 

 nel bees " go for " robbers, when they 

 were nearly a foot from the entrance ; 

 and I have seen them oftentimes 

 pounce ui)ou a bee at the entrance, 

 and linding it showed no signs of 

 fear, allow it to go peaceably in when 

 one that did show signs oi fear (as 

 robbers always do when pounced 

 upon), was ruthless destroyed. This 

 question of peculiar scent is a matter 

 of opinion with me ; but is it any 

 more than a matter of opinion with 

 others V If there is anv evidence of 

 the fact, if it is a fact, "I hope yet to 

 see it, and until I do, shall hold to my 

 present belief. 



Foxboro, Mass., Sept. 28, 1883. 



1^" We carefully mail the Bee 

 JouKNAL to every subscriber, but 

 should any be lost in the mails we will 

 cheerfully send anothei, if notified 

 before all the edition is exhausted. 



Western Bee-Keepers' Convention. 



The Western Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation met at Independence, Mo., 

 Sept. 20 and 21. The attendance was 

 good, better tlian at any of the pre- 

 vious meetings of the association, 

 and the first day's session was spent 

 most pleasantly. 



The morning passed in arranging 

 the displays of bees, honey, extrac- 

 tors, hives and fixtures, and in a gen- 

 eral social manner. At noon, those 

 in attendance, were treated to an ex- 

 cellent repast by the ladies of the 

 association. After dinner the tables 

 were cleared and the association was 

 called to order by its president, Mr. 

 .Jas. A. Nelson, Mr. P. Baldwin acting 

 as secretary pro tern. The reading of 

 the minutes was deferred until next 

 day. 



Xo preliminary remarks were made, 

 and the association proceeded to the 

 business in hand. The committee on 

 subscriptions to a premium by the 

 citizens reported an amount of $50 

 subscribed for the best 50 pounds of 

 honey. The committee on premiums 

 offered by the association reported as 

 follows with names of exhibitors : 



(Uass A— Best display of comb and 

 extracted honey, 20 pounds each, $25 ; 

 W.C.Haraldsou and Jonathan George. 



Class B— Best 25 pounds of comb 

 honey, $10; W. C. Ilaroldson, .lona- 

 than George and Miss R. A. Baldwin. 



Class C— Best 25 pounds of extracted 

 honev. $10 ; J. T. Sale, AVillie Bald- 

 win, W. C. Ilaroldson and Jonathan 

 George. 



Class D.— Best queen with her bees, 

 $10; W. C. Ilaroldson and J. II. Fink. 



Class E.— Best display of bee fix- 

 tures. Seoville & xVnderson, Colum- 

 bus, Kansas. 



Those contending for special prem- 

 ium of $50 on exhibit of 50 pounds of 

 honey, are L. W. Baldwin, Jas. Jones 

 and P. Baldwin. 



Class G.— Best package of comb 

 honey, one year's subscription to the 

 Independence Sentinel, Wmie Baldwin. 



The report of the committee was 

 followed by the election of oflicers for 

 the ensuing year, as follows : Presi- 

 dent, II. Seoville, Columbus, Kansas ; 

 Vice-President, G. W. Young, Lex- 

 ington, Mo. ; Secretary, C. M. Gran- 

 dall. city ; Treasurer, P. Baldwin, city. 



No further business was transacted 

 at the afternoon session. 



Quite a number of the citizens 

 joined the members in making the 

 day's meeting a success. Among 

 those present from other places were, 

 Messrs. J. T. Sales, Jas. Jones and 

 their ladies, of the country ; Mr. John 

 Long, of South Missouri : Mr. Jas. A. 

 Nelson, of Wyandotte, Kas ; Messrs. 

 G. W. Young and C. F. Lane, of 

 Lexington ; Messrs. Seoville and An- 

 derson, of Columbus, Kas., and also 

 Miss Millie Seoville, of Columbus, 

 Kas.. who is a guest of Capt. Jas. D. 

 Meador's family. 



Tlie second and last day's session 

 of the annual meetiug of the AVestern 

 Bee-Keepers' Association was even 

 more productive of discussion and 

 general interest than the first day. 

 The attendance was larger, and, all 



in all, the association may be con- 

 gratulated upon its success at this the 

 second meeting since its organization. 

 The premiums were ample for the 

 meeting, but with the present rate of 

 increase in interest and and endeavors 

 for success will necessarily be larger 

 at the next meeting. More visitors 

 were present yesterday. 



On Thursday evening, at 8 o'clock, 

 the associaticm met for discussion 

 with President Seoville in the chair. 

 The evening, which was very satis- 

 factorily spent, was opened by adopt- 

 ing a resolution, offered by Capt. Jas. 

 D. Meador, to present a crate of the 

 premium honey to the Journal. This 

 was followed by voting a half crate of 

 the premium honey to the Independ- 

 ence iSentinel, and also to the Inde- 

 pendence Proqress. 



The President appointed Mr. P. 

 Baldwin committee on statistics. Dr. 

 G. W. Young occupied some little 

 time in addressing the meeting. He 

 was followed by President Seoville 

 with his experience in bee-culture. 

 Raising queens from worker eggs, and 

 his method of swarming bees were the 

 topics. To swarm bees he advised 

 the taking of a small nucleus from 

 each hive and strengthening from the 

 stronger colonies from time to time. 



The subject, " What causes comb 

 honey to sweat and run," was dis- 

 cussed by Messrs. P. and L. W. Bald- 

 win, J. i). Meador, G. W. Young II. 

 Seoville and C. M. Crandall. The 

 conclusion was that it was caused by 

 the bees sealing the honey before it 

 was properly ripened. 



Mr. P. Baldwin propounded the 

 question, "AVhat does the worker bee 

 do with the honey when first brought 

 into the hiveV" The answering of 

 the question was not fully arrived at, 

 and the discussion was rather ani- 

 mated and engaged in by all the 

 members. The best method of mark- 

 eting honey was freely discussed by 

 Messrs. Baldwin, Meador, Jones and 

 Young, and was postponed for further 

 discussion until next day. 



Friday morning was occupied in a 

 social way. The members took pains 

 to explain all the fixtures and in ex- 

 hibiting the fine display of honey to 

 the many visitors who called during 

 the day. At 1 o'clock dinner was 

 served as on the previous day, and 

 those in attendance were highly 

 pleased at tlie efforts of the ladies who 

 prepared the repast. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



President Seoville called the meet- 

 ing to order shortly before 2 o'clock, 

 and called for reading of the minutes 

 of the previous meeting, which had 

 been deferred. They were read and 

 adopted. 



The report of the judge who had 

 awarded the premiums was called for, 

 and read as follows, Mr. Jerome 

 Twitchell, of Kansas City, oflBciating 

 as judge : 



Class A— Best display of comb and 

 extracted honey, to \V. C. Ilaroldson, 

 Buckner, Mo.; premium, $25. 



Class B— Best 25 lbs. of comb honey, 

 to Miss Rosina A. Baldwin, Indepen- 

 dence ; $10. 



