312 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 10, 



the middle of May, and the bees cannot get out of the hiye. 

 As a consequence, they get but little honey from fruit-blooms. 

 Then the strongest colonies are the most likely to die of star- 

 vation, because they have a hive full of brood and no honey. 

 They must be fed or they will die, and that in a very short 

 time. It is a very good idea to examine every colony the first 

 warm spell in March, mark the weak ones so you can tell 

 them, and feed at once. Also mark the strong ones ihat have 

 the most brood and but little honey, and feed them as soon as 

 they need it, and before they are out of honey. 



ITALIANS vs. NATIVE BEES. 



In what way are Italians better than native bees? 



W. J. Price says they are a little larger and stronger ; 

 gather more honey, and go farther after it. Also, they are 

 handled more easily. 



J. P. Ralston doubts if the Italians will gather any more 

 honey than the natives, but are more quiet and easier to 

 handle. He thinks a cross between the two races are the best 

 honey-producers. 



W. J. Price here wanted to know then why a cross be- 

 tween a shorthorn and a Texan would not produce a better 

 class of cattle than either race. He believes in pure stock — 

 the purer the better. 



J. C. Balch thinks the Italians are the best ; they stick to 

 the combs better while being handled, are not so cross, and 

 then they are the best " moth-traps " you can get. While 

 there is a pint of bees of the Italian race in the hive, the moth 

 has no business there, and if it goes there it can't stay — the 

 house isn't big enough to hold the two families ! 



C. C. Thompson thinks the Italians are the best, but that 

 some breeders in breeding for very yellow bees have lost sight 

 of the object of the general bee-keeper. With him, it is more 

 a matter of honey than color. He thinks that some of the 

 darker-colored Italians are better honey-gatherers than the 

 very yellow ones, and that the hybrid, or a cross between the 

 Italian and the native, is the bee for business. He says they 

 are always ready for business — at both ends. He imagines 

 they are like a mule — they will both kick and bite. 



REARING QUEENS "ARTIFICIALLY." 



Ought any one who handles bees to be satisfied until he 

 can rear queens " artificially ?" 



All thought that every one who handles bees to any ex- 

 tent should be able to rear as good queens as he could buy, 

 and in many cases really better ones; but the man who has 

 a few colonies can buy what queens he will need cheaper, 

 perhaps, than he could rear them. 



COMB OR EXTRACTED HONEY — WHICH ? 



Which is the more profitable, comb or extracted honey ? 



That is largely a question of circumstances and location. 

 In some locations and seasons comb honey would be the most 

 profitable, but taking it altogether, the extracted will be the 

 more profitable, for when there is a small honey-flow, and you 

 have the extractiug-combs, the bees have no comb to build, 

 and they can spend their whole time gathering the honey; 

 when, if they had to build the comb, they would get but little 

 honey, and perhaps not get that in a marketable condition. 



The election of officers resulted as follows : 



President, J. P. Ralston, of Uniontown ; 1st Vice-Pres., 

 C. C. Thompson ; 2nd Vice-Pres., R. Garber ; 8rd Vice-Pres., 

 J. C. Wilson; Treasurer, Mrs. M. Thompson ; and Secretary, 

 J. C. Balch, of Bronson. 



The President then appointed a committee on programme 

 for the June meeting, consisting of R. Garber, J. C. Balch, 

 and C. C. Thompson. 



The convention adjourned to meet in Fort Scott, Kans., 

 on June 6, 1895. J. C. Balch, Sec. 



Air-Space Over Frames in Winter, Etc. 



BY W. W. M'NEAL. 



While so much is being said of late about hives and hive 

 manipulation, I would like if some one would explain to me 

 the advantages of an air-space over the frames during the 

 winter season. My experience has never shown wherein the 

 bees are benefited thereby ; especially if such air-space is al- 

 lowed under absorbent cushions. 



To the extent of my knowledge of the facts in this matter, 

 I consider it a positive detriment to the welfare of the bees. 

 The principle which the theory provides is wholly lost, or 

 nearly so, in the application of that other theory which says 



that dampness is best counteracted by upward ventilation of 

 the hive. Even granting that the principle is complete within 

 itself, what positive proof is there that the separate divisions 

 of the main cluster ever make use of it during severe freezing 

 weather ? I think I have good proof that they do not, if a 

 division or two can be taken as proof, when found dead ; no 

 honey being within their reach. 



Now when a thaw sets in, and any individual bee wishes to 

 change her position to some other space between the combs, 

 it is the downward course likewise then that she takes and 

 not the upward. If the bee-space is a means so reliable 

 towards the saving of the life of any part of the colony, why 

 is it they sometimes starve when within two or three inches of 

 a central passageway through the combs ? When the cover 

 is sealed down perfectly tight, not only to the top edges of the 

 hive-body, but to the top of the frames also, the small clusters 

 forming the whole can accommodate their comfort by moving 

 to a higher or a lower plane on the surface of the comb ; and 

 that Is the embodiment of all the old way contains, which to 

 me appears to be the true principle of wintering. If such be 

 not so, why is it that when a colony has become fully estab- 

 lished in the old-fashioned box-hive, or in an old barrel, 

 wholly unprotected from without, and the bottom of the hive 

 wide open, it comes up in a manner so pleasing as to generally 

 cool the ardor of one whose hopes are centered in the neatly- 

 painted modern hive? 



The large deep combs, with plenty of well-ripened honey 

 in each directly over the cluster, and being tight-fitting in the 

 hive, forms a more perfect barrier against the encroachments 

 of cold and frost than the hive-wall itself. Such hives cost 

 very little time and money in their construction ; and the care 

 required of them after being occupied by the bees is trifling in 

 the extreme when compared with that of the orthodox — the 

 8-frame Langstroth. When these " fearfully cumbersome 

 hives " are run in connection with the half-depth brood-cham- 

 ber hive, they form a system of management not so crude as 

 one might imagine. The swarms that issue from them are 

 monstrous ones, and, when hived on the shallow frame, will 

 plant a consoling smile on the face of the bee-keeper, where 

 possible for bees to do so, if the queen-excluder has been 

 brought into service. Should the bees show no inclination to 

 swarm to suit the taste of the apiarist, it is no great task to 

 drive them out if a Crane or Bingham smoker is used, and the 

 new hive is placed on the old stand. 



The results are not so widely different always by reason 

 of the style of hive used, but more frequently by not adopting 

 a mode of management suited to its construction. Now should 

 this disclose the secret of my trouble with the air-space, will 

 some one be kind enough to point out the means of reaping 

 some practical good, at least, from that which to me seems 

 only a traditional sort of feature of the frame-hive, for the 

 winter protection of the bees ? 



CLIPPING TO DELAY SWARMING. 



Before closing, I will say, for reasons on page 168, I of- 

 fered no solution of the seeming fact that clipping the queens' 

 wings as there described is superior to the common way of 

 doing it, because I do not exactly uuderstand the philoso- 

 phy of it myself. I only know, from an experience with such 

 running through a course of three years, on quite an extended 

 scale, tiiat it did delay swarming in every case for about one 

 week's time. Now keeping the fever in check a few days 

 sometimes means a big thing; but the mere holding of -a 

 swarm after they have made up their minds to do so is a huge 

 mistake if honey is the object sought. When time permits a 

 more critical test, there may be found nothing in the method 

 of real value. 



HOW BEES convey INTELLIGENCE. 



Whether it is by the wings, or the sense of smell, bees 

 convey any intellegence I cannot declare; but I tliinlc it is by 

 the means of both. The different notes they produce would 

 seem to be an expression of their approval or disapproval of 

 certain things. When a bee returns to its hive, cold and tired, 

 and is greeted by the happy sound within — or perhaps it is the 

 warm air issuing from the entrance — it manifests its delight 

 by fanning the wings for some little time before entering the 

 hive. Then, on the other hand, bees communicate pretty 

 much after the fashion of ants ; and I also think that upon the 

 utterance of a particular sound they accompany it with a 

 peculiar odor, or scent, perceptible to them, but not always so 

 to us. Virgin queens often call to each other, or to something 

 by means of " piping," but that the wings are all that is 

 brought into action is not yet clear to me. I have "whistled" 

 swarms out by imitating the call of the queen ; so in those 

 cases it was through the aid of sound alone the communcation 

 was given. 



