THE . AMERICAI* BEE JOURNAL. 



671 



close it up. If the outside tempera- 

 ture rises, it will not much affect the 

 cellar if it is kept closed. 



Mr. t;mij,'h : I winter my bees in 

 the cellar, and my losses are slight. 

 In the spring I set out one colony, 

 and when that begins to bring in 

 pollen, I put out the rest. My cellar 

 is ventilated by a pipe connected with 

 the stove-pipe. 



D. A. Jones : As near as I can rec- 

 ollect, the consumption of honey, per 

 colony, in my cellar, is about 6 pounds. 

 Out of door's it requires 10 pounds 

 more. Carrying bees out for a flight, 

 always brings on dysentery. My 

 bees, confined six months, came out 

 all right. When bees are found clus- 

 tered tightly, all is well. 



Dr. Mason : I agree with Mr. Jones 

 that, when bees are clustered tightly, 

 they are all right. I have wintered 

 bees successfully in different kinds 

 of celliirs, and I "do not care whether 

 the cellars are wet or dry. Bees that 

 die in the cellar do not have the right 

 kind of food ; and the less of any 

 food they consume the better. 



Mr. Muth : I want my bees to have 

 from 20 to ,30 pounds of lioney for win- 

 ter, and I care not for pollen. I do 

 not think it causes dysentery. 



Mr. Jones : The mice pulled the 

 covers from some of the colonies, in 

 one of my bee houses, and those colo- 

 nies wintered the best. 



Prof. C'ook ; My experience has been 

 the opposite. 



Rev. L. L. Langstrotli : Moving the 

 combs apart is a great help in winter- 

 ing. A warm covering, something 

 like a woolen blanket, is a good pro- 

 tection. 



Adjourned till 1 :oO p. m. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



The Convention was called at 1 :30 

 p. ni. President Hutchinson in the 

 Chair. The first topic brouglit up 

 was : " Comb Foundation."' The dis- 

 cussion was preceded by an exhibi- 

 tion of tlie Given press, and the man- 

 ufacture of foundation. The sheets 

 of wax had become so warm that sev- 

 eral had stuck together, and in mak- 

 ing up full sheets, several pieces were 

 put together. 



Mr. Taylor : I use Babbitt's concen- 

 trated lye to keep the wax from stick- 

 ing to the dies. Wax works best in a 

 temperature of from 70'^ to 80". Lye 

 is not disagreeable to bees, as they 

 often come out and sip it up while I 

 am at work. 



Prof. Cook : The foundation made 

 here last spring by Mr. Taylor, was 

 certainly very fine, but as some prefer 

 the Van Deusen fovuidation, and as 

 Mr. Van Deusen is here, we would 

 like to hear from him. 



Mr. Van Deusen exhibited a large 

 sheet of foundation. He said that 

 many ol)jectedto it on account of its 

 hardness, but such should rememljer 

 tliat the heat of tlie hives soon softens 

 the wax. Others objected to the flat 

 bottoms, but he thought this no more 

 objectionable than tlie round cell of 

 the Dunham. 



Prof. Cook : The Pelham will need 

 mention, especially as it is cheap. 



C. P. Muth : I have tried the flat- 

 bottomed and that made by Chas. 

 Dadant, and I see no difference. 



Question — " What kind of bees are 

 the most gentle ?" 



D. A. Jones : Italians are the most 

 gentle ; but Syrians crossed with Ital- 

 ians are the' best honey-gatherers. 

 There is a difference in the Syrians — 

 from some localities they are gentle, 

 from others they are not. Those 

 from Mt. Lebanon are the best. I 

 prefer to mate Syrian queens with 

 Italian drones. 



On " Finding Black Queens," D. A. 

 Jones said : Shake all the bees from 

 the combs into the hive, and set the 

 combs to one side, shake the bees to 

 one side of the hive, and as they start 

 to spread out, and set up their Ijuz- 

 zing, the queen will come to the top 

 and start out with those long strides 

 of hers, and she can easily be found. 



The question was asked : " Is it 

 true that bees can be wintered on 

 from 6 to 10 lbs. of honey per colonvV" 



D. A. Jones : Yes, it is true, but 

 they will consume large (quantities 

 after being placed upon their summer 

 stands. 



Prof. Cook : We have wintered a 

 colony upon 3 pounds. 



On motion of H. D. Cutting, W. J. 

 Baxter, ot Jauesville, was made an 

 honorary member. 



Question — " Shall we influence peo- 

 ple to become bee-keepers 'r'" Some 

 .said yes; others, no. D. A. Jones 

 gave several reasons in the aftirma- 

 tive. Said that we could not produce 

 as much honey as we could sell. 



Prof. Cook agreed with Mr. Jones. 



On the " Prevention of Bee Stings," 

 D. A. Jones said : I have found that 

 a person wearing black clothes is 

 more liable to lie stung. " Fuzzy " 

 clothing is the kind to wear if you 

 want to be stung. Something smooth 

 like duck, is the best to avoid stings. 

 The first thing a student is told to do, 

 is to singe the liair from his hands and 

 wrists. If you wear a veil you must 

 wear it constantly. If one operator 

 wears a veil, and another in the same 

 yard does not, the one without a veil 

 will receive more stings than he would 

 if the other did not wear one. A 

 straw hat with a wide slouching rim 

 is the best with which to avoid stings. 



Adjourned till 7:30 p. m. 



EVENING SE.SSION. 



The meeting was called to order at 

 7:30 p. m., by President Hutchinson, 

 who remarked that Dr. Mason had a 

 comb on exhibition, one-fifth of which 

 was parafflne, and he knew that the 

 Doctor would like to talk about it. 



Dr. Mason : I do not know that 

 there is mucli to say. I tried mixing 

 parafline with wax, and making the 

 mixture into foundation. Alternate 

 frames were filled with this kind ot 

 foundation, and the other frames with 

 pure wax foundation. The bees drew 

 them out and used them just alike. I 

 could see no difference. INIyself and 

 neighl)ors have used such foundation 

 for two years. Paraffine can be ob- 

 tained wliose melting point is about 

 like wax. The time is coming when 

 something must be substituted for 

 wax. I would use it for coml) honey 

 if certain that it was a fine article. 



D. A. Jones : To detect paraffine or 

 tallow in wax, keep pure wax and the 

 suspected wax at the same tempera- 



ture, gradually raising the tempera- 

 ture, and tliat containing the other 

 substances will melt first. I have 

 tried parafline, but could obtain no 

 satisfactory results. 



J. Van Deusen : I have looked for a 

 substitute for wax. Thought cellu- 

 loid might answer, but found tliat it 

 cost $2 per pound. I found paraffine 

 that would stand a test of 140^. but 

 even that would not answer. 



Dr. Mason : I have had parafline 

 that it became necessary to break 

 into small pieces in order to have it 

 melt as soon as wax. 



J. Van Deusen : I presume it would 

 be possible t(j obtain parafline whose 

 melting point would be high enough 

 to answer when wires are used. 



Dr. Whiting : I have used founda- 

 tion containing parafline, and it gave 

 me mucli trouble. Tlie wax made 

 from such combs might cause the pur- 

 chaser of it some trouble. 



S. T. Pettit : We must soon have a 

 substitute for wax, why discourage 

 trying such things '/ 



D. A. Jones : I have tried almost 

 everything ; muslin covered with wax 

 was a failure. An expensive quality 

 of linen paper covered with wax has 

 been a success to a certain extent. 

 Figures, writing, or drawing can be 

 made upon the paper before coating it 

 with wax, and they will show after 

 the comb is drawn "and finished. The 

 trouble came in when the bees at- 

 tempted to thin the septum. 



R. L. Taylor had tried mixing resin 

 with the wax, but it was a brilliant 

 failure. The bees neglected it for a 

 long time, and then built drone comb 

 over it. 



The report of the committee on res- 

 olutions was passed unanimously. It 

 gave thanks to Rev. L. L. Langstrotli 

 and visitors from other States ; to the 

 proprietors of the hall ; the railroads 

 for reduced fares ; the local papers for 

 notices, etc. 



The Convention adjourned to meet 

 at Lansing upon the second Wednes- 

 day after the first Tuesday in Decem- 

 ber, 1884. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Straight Worker Combs without 

 Using Comb Foundation. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



To have all our combs built true in 

 the frames, so that each comb is as 

 true as a board, is certainly worth 

 working for, to those who handle 

 their frames. If frames are not to be 

 handled, then a box hive is as good as 

 one with frames in it, for all practical 

 purposes. The object of frame hives 

 is to allow of a better control over the 

 inside of the hive than could be done 

 with box hives, and only as these 

 frames are movable, in the fullest 

 sense of the word, is this object se- 

 cured. We often see combs so bulged 

 or crookefl in the frames, that they 

 will not allow of their being exchanged 

 to different parts of the hive, or from 

 one hive to another; in which case the 

 hive containing them can scarcely be 

 called a movable comb hive. 



To tell those wishing to know how 

 worker combs can be secured, built 



