-THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



529 



gathered from cider mills or some- 

 thing of that sort. The syrup should 

 be made in the proportion of live 

 ■quarts of water to twenty pounds of 

 sugar, and it is better that it be fed 

 In time to be sealed over before cold 

 ■weather. I began feeding Sept. 11. 

 I would commence feeding as soon as 

 the honey flow is over. I would not 

 feed iu winter unless as a last resort 

 to prevent starvation. 



Wm. Camm : I never lost a colony 

 that went into winter quarters in 

 proper condition. I never extract 

 honey from the brood -chamber. I do 

 not want any sugar ; think honey good 

 •enough. I do not care for pollen ; 

 give the bees room enough to store 

 plenty of honey, and they are all right. 



Dr. Oven : AV^hat would be the re- 

 sult of coutining bees to a diet of 

 pollen ? 



E. J. Baxter: Mr. Dadant has 

 never tried to avoid pollen, and has 

 always had good success. 



S. M. Slade : During three or four 

 years I wintered my bees without loss 

 in a cellar, but one year 3 or 4 colo- 

 nies became restless and ate up all 

 their stores and died of starvation. 

 At last their came a winter in which 

 my bees and those of my neighbors 

 died. It followed a season in which 

 we had no surplus honey. 



Dr. Oren : I had a weak colony of 

 blacks that had no queen in August. 

 When I put them in winter quarters 

 there was not more than a pint of 

 bees, but I gave them an Italian 

 queen. In the spring all the black 

 bees were gone, and in their places 

 ■were Italians ; plenty of them. They 

 wintered well. 



E. J. Oatman : I think that pollen 

 is at the bottom of much of our win- 

 ter troubles. One reason for feeding 

 sugar is to cover the pollen, so that 

 the bees cannot get at it. 



James Heddon : All our losses are 

 nothing compared to that caused by 

 dysentery. Kow, what causes dysen- 

 tery V Does any body know ? Has 

 laying a little stick over the frames 

 got anything to do with itV Has 

 turning back the quilt one-eightfi of 

 an inch at the back of the hive any- 

 thing to do with it V lias a little chaff 

 here, and a little chaff there anything 

 to do with itV lias ventilatioii any- 

 thing to do with it y Do not bees die 

 out-of-doors and in the cellar, when 

 they are ventilated and when they are 

 not ventilated, when they are kept 

 dry and wlien they are kept in a 

 damp cellar, and do not tliey live 

 sometimes under just these same cir- 

 cumstances? Confinement is not the 

 primary cause of dysentery, neither is 

 cold, nor coufiuement. Xow, what is 

 it ? It is my opinion that the trouble 

 is in the food. Pollen is what causes 

 the trouble. Grains of pollen are 

 often floating in the honey. Pollen is 

 a needed food in building up tissue, as 

 in rearing brood or repairing the waste 

 tissue when bees are laboring in the 

 field, but it is not needed when bees 

 are quietly clustered in the hive dur- 

 ing the winter. A heat producing 

 food is then needed, and for this pur- 



Eose pure cane sugar is better than 

 oney. It is also more completely 

 digested, leaving a smaller amount of 



residue. This pollen theory is the 

 only one that will tit all cases. A 

 man puts his bees in the cellar, or in 

 a clamp, and leaves them there five 

 or six months, and they come out in 

 fine condition ; the confinement did 

 not bring on the dysentery did itV 

 The nexc winter, with even a less 

 amount of contjneraeut, they may all 

 die. Dampness does not cause dys- 

 entery ; if it does, why did it not kill 

 that man's bees who kept them in so 

 damp a cellar that the hives were 

 dripping with moisture, and a large 

 number of combs blue witli mold? 

 If cold causes dysentery, why is it 

 that bees often winter best in a long, 

 steady, cold winter where the mer- 

 cury often goes down below zero, and 

 stays down a long time. Cold, damp- 

 ness, and confinement may be aggra- 

 vating, but they are not primary 

 causes. Pure cane sugar is the 

 remedy for their troubles. 



E. J. Baxter : I have quieted rest- 

 less colonies by giving ttiem more 

 ventilation. 



Rev. L. L. Langstroth : I cannot 

 think that the Creator would make 

 things so antagonistic to each other. 

 The instinct of the bee teaches it to 

 gather, store and eat pollen ; hence, 

 it should be healthful. Cold does not 

 always cause dysentery. I have 

 known bees winter successfully, iu 

 a severe winter, when the hives were 

 raised from the bottom-board, and iu 

 some instances where the bottom- 

 board had fallen off entirely. I liave 

 had persons experiment by hanging 

 up a colony, combs and all, of course, 

 i)ut without; any liive, in large boxes, 

 or in a smoke house, and, although 

 the winter was severe, they wintered 

 perfectly. 



James Heddon : I would say to 

 fattier Langstroth, that I do not claim 

 that tlie bee will eat pollen, during the 

 winter, from instinct, but they are 

 sometimes compelled to eat it. 



The next topic of discussion was 

 " Comb foundation." 



E. J. Oatman : I prefer the Given 

 to all others. Think 7 square feet to 

 the pound about right. 



James Heddon : I prefer the Given 

 foundation ; for sections I would have 

 it about 8 feet to the pound. For put- 

 ting foundation in brood frames, the 

 Given has no competitor. 



E. J. Baxter: That Mr. Dadant 

 has, the past season, made 45,000 

 pounds of Dunham foundation, is 

 something in its favor. 



Geo. Grimm : I have laid aside the 

 Dunham mill for the Given press. I 

 prefer the Given foundation both for 

 surplus and for brood combs. The 

 base of the cells are always thin, 

 even in a heavy sheet of foundation, 

 and as it is the base only that receives 

 the pressure, the side walls are soft. 



Dr. Miller : I like the Given foun- 

 dation best, but I have noticed that it 

 is not always of uniform tliickness, 

 some parts of the same sheet being 

 thicker than others. 



James Heddon : The base is so 

 very thin in the Given, tliat any dif- 

 ference is more perceptible. 



T. F. Bingham : As the bees are 

 obliged to add some wax in order to 

 tinisu the comb, what material differ- 



ence does it make if some parts are 

 a trifle thicker than others ? I think 

 that the excessive pressure of some 

 mills makes the foundation too hard ; 

 and the bees are thus liable to thin 

 the base if it needs it. 



The next subject was "Fastening 

 Foundation in Sections." 



E. J. Baxter : I fasten it in by 

 pressing it in with a knife. 



Dr. Miller : I prefer the Clark fast- 

 ener. 



F. Wilcox: I never tried the Parker 

 fastener — use the Clark. In removing 

 the section, I pull out one corner first, 

 which answers the same purpose as 

 the sliding-back movement of the 

 Parker. I fasten foundation in the 

 brood frames with a putty knife. 



Dr. i\Iiller : I do not twist the sec- 

 tion in removing it from the Clark 

 fastener, and the starters do not fall 

 out. 



James Heddon : No other fastener 

 except the Parker has that sliding- 

 back movement, and, without that, I 

 consider no fastener as perfect. 



Geo. Grimm : I fasten mine with 

 melted wax and a brush ; I keep the 

 wax at the proper temperature by 

 means of a lamp. 



Upon the subject of " Purifying 

 Wax," Mr. Black said : Melt it with 

 large quantities of water ; let it cool 

 slowly while upon the water, and all 

 impurities will settle to the bottom. 



The question was asked : Is it 

 profitable to prevent after-swarming? 



F. Wilcox : Yes. 



My. Black : It depends upon cir- 

 cumstances. Second swarms are often 

 the best ; especially is this so if they 

 come during a good flow of honey, 

 when they can build up quickly. The 

 succeeding year they are the very best 

 of colonies. 



James Heddon : Some, to prevent 

 after swarming, cut out tlie queen- 

 cells. I object to this. There is 

 something in nature that hatches the 

 best queen first. Now, I will tell you 

 how I manage second swarns. I hive 

 them upon frames of wired founda- 

 tion, and place the hive containing 

 them by the side of the old colony. As 

 soon as the queen is fertilized and 

 laying, I shake the whole swarm down 

 in front of the old hive, and put away 

 the drawn-out foundation for future 

 use. All the bees being the offspring 

 of one queen, they do not quarrel. I 

 have tried uniting" bees ; some seasons 

 they did not quarrel, others they did. 



Geo. Grimm : I hive an after 

 swarm, and place it by the side of the 

 old colony, and then a"t evening shake 

 it down in-front of the old hive. 



James Heddon : Yes, I have tried 

 that plan, but the next day out came 

 the swarm again. 



"Prevention of robbing and unit- 

 ing bees." 



Rev. L. L. Langstroth : If it is in 

 order, I should like to tell how Mr. I). 

 A. Jones manages robber bees. He 

 has found tliat one dry bee can con- 

 quer a large number of wet ones ; 

 hence, when there is any fear that 

 robbers may over-power a colony, he 

 piles hay in front of the entrance, 

 then wets some hay and puts over 

 this, and the result is, that the rob- 

 bers become wet and are easily over- 



