THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



641 



or 5 months and 9 days. This is a 

 very long period to feed bees, but if 

 the temperature can be kept up and 

 bees have a good supply of pure 

 honey, the loss by this method of 

 wintering bees will be comparatively 

 small. 



SUN AND SHADE FOR BEES. 



W. C. Wells prefers apple trees as 

 shade for his bee hives in very hot 

 weather. 



C. W. I'ost prefers fruit trees and 

 grape vines f(u- bee shade. 



J. G. A. Wallace jireferred large 

 Missouri currant bushes as bee shade. 

 He had been very successful in tliat 

 way. 



S. Powell preferred large board caps 

 placed on the top of the hive 6 or 8 in. 

 larger eacli way, than tlie top of the 

 hive. This afforded ample protection 

 against the rays of the sun, and pre- 

 vented the melting of honey hi the 

 sections. 



INCREASE OF BEES IN THE SPRING. 



W. C. Wells and C. W. Post agreed 

 that the best plan to get a large in- 

 crease of bees, was to spread the 

 brood frames by removing the division 

 boards and inserting empty cards of 

 combs as fast as the bees are able to 

 cover them. Care should be taken 

 not to spread the brood too fast, as a 

 cold night might chill the brood and 

 produce foul brood. 



THE BEST TIME TO TRANSFER BEE.S. 



J. G. A. Wallace prefers the spring 

 when apple trees are in blossom. 

 Messrs. JDempsey, Wells, Post, Haw- 

 ley and Powell all concured in the 

 view. 



Question by Mr. J. H. Peck,— 

 " Which is the best hive for all pur- 

 poses, a one or two-story hive V" All 

 agreed that a two-story hive was best 

 for all purposes, for the following 

 reasons : 



1. All surplus honey, as a rule, was 

 stored in the upper story and the 

 brood-chamber below. 



2. The honev above is clearer and 

 free from brood, and can be extracted 

 without injury to the brood, and is 

 more accessible, the lower chamber 

 bemg left almost entirely for brood, 

 and comb honey is cleaner, as the 

 bees do not travel over it in passing 

 out of the hive. 



COMB HONEY, WITH OR WITHOUT SEP- 

 ARATORS. 



Mr. Wallace was of the opinion that 

 he could get more honey without 

 separators. 



Mr. Hawley had tried both plans 

 during the past season, and obtained 

 as much comb honey with separators 

 as without. By the use of the sep- 

 arators his comb honey was in much 

 better condition for shipping in the 

 usual size crates than without sep- 

 arators; about one-eighth of the 

 comb boxes were bulged out with 

 honey, and could not be sent out in 

 the usual sized shipping crates. 



THE BEST RACE OF BEES. 



Mr. Post thought the Italians were 

 the best knid of bees, had destroyed 



his Cyprian and Syrian queens in con- 

 sequence of their stinging propensi- 

 ties, and kept none but Itjilians. 



Mr. Dempsey did not like Syrian 

 bees, they were such ferocious sting- 

 ers. Was better pleased with Italians 

 and Cyprians. 



Mr. Hawley preferred a cross be- 

 tween the Cyprians and the Italians. 

 By this means the excellent working 

 qualities of both races were obtained 

 coupled with the proliflcness of the 

 Cyprians. 



Mr. Stafford preferred the Italians 

 as a class of bees. 



Mr. Peek got his bees as pure Cyp- 

 rians, but liad been informed that 

 they were Italians. They were pro- 

 lific, and good workers, fighting pro- 

 pensities pointed, but by the aid of a 

 " smoker " liad no trouble to manage 

 them. 



INTRODUCING QUEENS. 



Mr. Post makes a cage out of wire 

 netting, an inch and a half wide, 4 

 inches long, and % of an inch thick, 

 in which he placed a queen and about 

 one dozen working bees, and inserted 

 in the hive between two cards of 

 honey and leave them there for about 

 48 hours. If the bees are quiet, lib- 

 erate tlie queen, and if not quiet in 

 the hive, leave them for 24 hours 

 longer before letting into the hive. 



Messrs. Wells and Wallace adopted 

 the same plan. 



THE BEST HONEY PLANT. 



All agreed that basswood . is the 

 best honey plant. 



ARE BEES BENEFICIAL TO FLOWERS ? 



Mr. Stafford stated that his or- 

 chard near his bees bore far more 

 fruit than any of his neighbors, the 

 past season. 



Mr. Dempsey said that portion of 

 his orchard near his bees produced a 

 fair crop, while the more remote por- 

 tions bore no fruit worth speaking of. 

 All said that bees were beneficial to 

 flowers. 



THE BEST PLACE' FOR TSf ARlvETING 

 HONEY. 



It was agreed that Toronto and 

 Western Ontario afforded the best 

 market for honey, as the people of 

 the Province of Quebec did not con- 

 sume as much honey in proportion to 

 the popnlation as the people of 

 Ontario. 



H. G. Stafford had an average of IflO 

 pounds of extracted honey from each 

 old colony, and an increase of 3 

 swarms from each old colony, this 

 being the largest yield reported. 



The number of colonies represented 

 at the meeting was 1,003. The total 

 number of pounds was ."54.000, being a 

 fraction less than •>> pounds per col- 

 ony. It must be borne in mind that 

 average is based upon the count at 

 the close of the season, and most of 

 our bee-keepers are working to in- 

 crease their colonies of bees instead 

 of for suqjlus honey. 



AV. C. Wells, seconded by II. G. 

 Stafford, moved that the next regular 

 meeting be held in the city of Belle- 

 ville during the month of February 

 next. Carried. 



For the American Bee Journals 



Pollen and Dysentery. 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



Away back in Vol. I, of the Amehi-. 

 CAN Bee Journal, on page 2-53, ^ 

 find the following " Analysis of tha 

 Excreta of Bees," by Donhoff. 



1. " Remains of Pollen. I boiled tha 

 excrement in caustic potash lye- 

 slightly diluted. After filtering, I 

 washed the residuum in hot dilute 

 muriatic acid. AVhat was left after- 

 again filtering, could from its insolu- 

 bility, be only the remains of pollen. 

 It appeared," under the microscope, 

 like an indistiinct granular mass. 



2. " Uric Acid. I immersed the ex- 

 crement in concentrated sulphurio 

 acid, in which uric acid remains un- 

 decomposed. After carefully decant- 

 ing the liquid from the resulting car- 

 bonaceous mass, I added water ; and 

 then washed the precipitated mattei'- 

 in water. I now added one drop of 

 liquor ammoniaci, and one drop of 

 muriatic acid. On heating, the mass, 

 assumed a purplish hue — tlie charac-. 

 teristic reaction of uric acid. 



3. " Hippuric Acid. . I boiled some 

 excrement in caustic p l'.'''ie. After 

 ■filtering, I added dilutu .., '^j c acid ; 

 and obtained a precipi*'' . 'which 

 proved to be composed ol uric and 

 liippuric acid. 



" According to an approximative es- 

 timate, the excreta of bees consists of 

 about one-third uric and hippuric acid, 

 and the residue of indigestible por- 

 tions of pollen." 



Now, dysentery or bee-cholera ia 

 simply an overloaded condition of the 

 intestinal canal, with no opportunity 

 of flying in the open air to discharge 

 feces ; and if this fecal matter is two- 

 thirds pollen, is it not a logical con- 

 clusion that the more pollen there is. 

 consumed, the sooner will the intes- 

 tines become overloaded 'f 



Last winter I had colonies die with 

 dysentery, in its worst form, early in 

 January,' before a particle of brood 

 had been reared ; hence, it certainly 

 was not brood rearing that eausetl it ;, 

 and if the fecal matter discharged by 

 the bees is two-thirds pollen, those 

 colonies certainly consumed large 

 quantities of pollen at a time when no 

 brood was being reared. I also had 

 some colonies the same season that 

 wcn> given empty combs in the fall 

 containing no pollen, and were tlien 

 fed a syrup made from pure cane 

 sugar, aiid when the bees from these 

 colonies flew, they discharged so little 

 fecal matter that it was scarcely 

 noticeable, and some of them were 

 kept in the cellar, without a flight, 

 all winter. Thirty-two colonies were 

 buried in a clamp, the same season, 

 and all, except those having sugar 

 stores, suffered, and some died from 

 dysentery. When taken out in April, 

 no brood had yet been reared, but a 

 few colonies had fresh laid eggs. 



Rogersville, Mich., Dec. 3, 1883. 



1^ To give away a copy of " Honey 

 as Food and Medicine " to erertj one wfm 

 buys a package of honey, will sell almost 

 any quantity of it. 



