264 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Apr. 25, 



for some of the " larger" fry, and get "swallowed up." Be 

 this as it may, I know a thing or two about some 5-banded 

 bees. I consider their points of merit iu the following order : 

 Beauty, prolidcness of queens, honey-gathering, hardiness, 

 and gentility. I have never tried but one strain of these bees, 

 and would say that the 3-banded, or ordinary strain of Ital- 

 ians, are their superior, unless it comes to the question of 

 tem'per. Why, those 5-banded bees could organize and have 

 a regular pitched battle before one could think of anything 

 but run for his life, and leave the battlefield in possession of 

 the enemy ! I intend to get some more queens this season, but 

 they will not be the 5-banded kind, unless it be under the 

 guarantee that they will prove different from the ones I have 

 tried. Nortonsville, Va. 



Report of the Vermont ConventioH. 



BT C. W. FISHER. 



The 20th annual convention of the Vermont State Bee- 

 Keepers' Association was held at Middlebury, Jan. lit) and 

 31, 1895. The convention was called to order by Pres. W. 

 G. Larrabee. After prayer by R. H. Holmes, the President 

 read a letter from Secretary H. W. Scott, saying that he 

 would be unable to attend the convention on account of sick- 

 ness at his home. C. W. Fisher was chosen Secretary pro tern. 

 The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. 

 There were 25 members present at the roll call. 



The Secretary reported that he had sent cards to the bee- 

 keepers throughout the State for the purpose of obtaining 

 statistics in regard to number of colonies, amount of honey 

 secured, method of wintering, etc. As so few responded to 

 the request, nothing definite could be obtained. The Treas- 

 urer's report was quite flattering. 



BEARING QUEENS IN UPPER STORIES. 



A very interesting essay was given by A. E. Manum, on 

 " How to rear queens in upper stories, and the best time to 

 rear good ones." He chooses his stock colonies the year be- 

 fore, and uses the natural method of queen-cells. He often 

 had diiliculty in introducing virgin queens the same day that 

 the second lot of cells were cut out, but by skipping one day 

 he was almost sure of success, losing not over 3 per cent. If 

 the virgin queens were a few days old he had to use much 

 more care in their introduction. Sometimes the colony would 

 build queen-cells after the queen had been removed eight 

 days. He thought that he had one instance of a nucleus 

 carrying eggs into the hive and starting queen-cells. 



BEES MOVING EGGS. 



J. E. Crane had a case of bees moving eggs from one 

 comb to another. O. J. Lowery gave an instance of eggs 

 being found and cells started when there was no possible 

 source in the hive from which the eggs could come. Mr. Ciane 

 had had trouble iu introducing virgin queens into mixed colo- 

 nies ; he cauld easier introduce older ones into black than 

 Italian colonies. 



CLEANSING WAX AND JIAKING FOUNDATION. 



" How to cleanse wax and make foundation " — R. H. 

 Holmes. "Put nothing in, take everything out." was his rule. 

 He melts the wax in a steamer, not allowing it to boil : in a 

 second can, it is kept warm and allowed to settle, then it is 

 strained through cheese-cloth into the dripping-can. He uses 

 the Given press. Mr. Crane thinks the wax is better if water 

 is in the dripping-can. 



W. G. Larrabee had used a solar wax-extractor with very 

 good success. E. H. Sturtevant uses the Doolittle method. 

 He could make, with very little labor, fine wax ready for use, 

 from old combs. 



Reports of the members for the season of 1894 showed 

 that the crop of honey throughout the State was rather light. 

 Some localities reported a good yield, but it was overbalanced 

 by the shortage in other places. 



The question-box was next opened. 



SPRAYING FRUIT TREES — BEES FOB WINTERING. 



" What can the association do to prevent injury to bees 

 from spraying of fruit trees?" J. E. Crane recommended the 

 distribution among the farmers of a pamphlet by A. I. Root 

 upon the subject of spraying. Educate the farmers as to the 

 best time to spray. 



"Would a colony of bees be worth as much the following 

 spring if, when the supers of honey were taken off, the bees 

 were destroyed instead of letting them return to the hive 

 again ?" R. H. Holmes thought it would be detrimental to 



them. He wants both young and old bees for wintering. H. 

 B. Isham wants August to September bees to winter. Mr. 

 Crane wintered a colony successfully that were queenless 

 after the middle of July. 



HOUSE-APIARIES— EXPERIMENT STATION WORK. 



" What I think of house-apiaries, and how to work with 

 one" — U. H. Burge. I liave a house holding 52 colonies, the 

 lumber of which cost about .S50. I have used it one year. 

 There was not much difference from the chaff hives in the 

 production of honey last season, but the work could be car- 

 ried on much easier because everything was more convenient 

 and accessible. One is not as apt to be stung. Fall feeding 

 was much easier than when the colones were out-of-doors. 



" What has been done at the experimentstation ?" — C. W. 

 Fisher. During the winter the temperature of the bee-room 

 in the house-apiary varied considerably. Records were made 

 which showed that at times the mercury changes 30^ to 

 35-' in the course of five hours. The hives were well packed 

 in chaff or sawdust, with cushions of the same on top, and a 

 dead air space below. The temperatures in the brood-nests 

 also changed; sometimes there was a variation of 15- in the 

 same period of time. The bees wintered very well, not seem- 

 ing to be affected by the changes. The spring was so very 

 early there was no chance to do experimental work in spring 

 feeding. The colonies averaged heavier, in the spring, win- 

 tered in the house than in chaff hives outside. The honey- 

 yield was much abovp that of the State in general, notwith- 

 standing the experimental work. 



Mr. D. D. Howe, Farm Superintendent, first said that the 

 Board of Control of the Station commended the work done the 

 past year, and they requested that experiments be prescribed 

 for another year. Director J. L. Hills requested that a report 

 be prepared for the yearly bulletin. Mr. Howe then gave re- 

 sults of the experiment with the fjangdon non-swarmers. 

 Four colonies were run with the non-swarmers through the 

 swarming season. There was no swarming. The colonies 

 were much weakened during the time because the queens 

 nearly stopped laying. Two of them were destroyed by the 

 bees before the non-swarmers were removed. The directions 

 as to changes, etc., were closely followed. However, a good 

 many capped queen-cells were cut out. The first capped cells 

 that were destroyed by the bees was July 6, after the non- 

 swarmers had been on a month. The yield of honey from 

 either set was not as much as from single colonies equally 

 heavy at the commencement of the honey-flow. 



O. J. Lowrey read the experiments that were accepted by 

 the Board of control to be tried during the past year. A row 

 of evergreens was set around the yard for a wind-break. One 

 of these experiments, which was carried on under Mr. Low- 

 rey's supervision, was for the purpose of determining whether 

 the bees added to or chemically changed sugar syrup when 

 transferring it to the cells. Empty combs were given colonies 

 in the fall, and sugar syrup was fed. One colony was fed 

 three pounds, another 20 pounds per day. After feeding it 

 was extracted, and samples taken which were chemically ana- 

 lyzed. 



The samples taken were numbered 2, 3, 4 and 5. Nos. 



2 and 3 were from the colony fed 2U pounds, and Nos. 4 and 

 5 from the one fed three pounds per day. If these honeys 

 were sold in open market, sampled and analyzed, Nos. 2 and 



3 would be condemned as adulterated with cane-sugar with- 

 out question, and Nos. 4 and 5 almost without question. 



A very interesting letter was read from V. V. Blackmer, 

 who has moved to San Mateo, Fla., and purchased an interest 

 in the apiary of A. F. Brown. 



The committee on nomination of officers of the associa- 

 tion for the ensuing yeargave their report, which was accepted 

 and the nominees elected as follows : 



President, H. W. Scott, of Barre. Vice-Presidents — Ad- 

 dison Co., Miss M. A. Douglass, of Shoreham ; Chittenden Co., 

 D. D. Howe, of Burlington; Franklin Co., F. M. W^right, of 

 East Enosburgh ; Lamoille Co., J. \V. Smith, of Moscow ; 

 Orange Co., M. F. Cram, of West Brookfield ; Rutland Co., 

 V. N. Forbes, of West Haven. Secretary, C. W. Fisher, of 

 Burlington. Treasurer, H. L. Leonard, of Brandon. 



The committee on resolutions submitted their report, 

 which was unanimously adopted as follows : 



RcsoliKcl, That we express our thanks to the proprietor 

 of the Addison House for favors shown at this meeting ; also 

 to the C. V. railroad for reduction in rates. 



Resolved, That we express our thanks to the Board of 

 Control of the Vermont Experiment Station for the very able 

 manner in which they have conducted the experiments rela- 

 tive to the apiary connected with the station. 



Whereas, An all-wise Providence has removed from this 



I 



