648 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Oct. 10. 



the chair, one of the number to be the President, to confer 

 with the Advisory Board of the National Bee-Keepers' Union, 

 as to the advisability of an amalgamation, and to report at 

 the next annual meeting. Seconded by W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Wm. F. Clarke— I must agree with Mr. Newman, that I 

 would not approve of an amalgamation unless the prosperity 

 of the Bee-Keepers' Union can be maintained. The North 

 American has never been what its founders hoped that it would 

 be. It is not representative, and if it cannot be made such I 

 think that it might as well be given a decent funeral. It has 

 always been a local, primary class of bee-keepers. It should 

 bo a high court or parliament of bee-keeping. Then this talk 

 of reducing the fees is all wrong. When we get down so that 

 we have to pay only 25 cents a year, I don't want to belong 

 to it. 



Mr. Newman — I agree with Mr. Clarke. Nothing will kill 

 the Union or the North American, or the amalgamation, if one 

 be effected, sooner than a tup-penny, ha-penny, farthing fee 

 for membership fee. The Bee-Keepers' Union is respected, 

 not because it has a membership of 300 or 400, but because 

 it has a good bank account, and can employ the best of coun- 

 sel. It may seem strange, but when only a little honey is 

 coming in — when there is a poor season — there is very little 

 trouble ; it is when there is a good harvest, when a farmer 

 sees a good crop of honey being gathered from his fields by a 

 neighbor's bees, that envy and jealousy get the upper hand 

 and complaints are made against the bee-keeper. When the 

 Bee-Keepers' Union is notified of the beginning of a suit, the 

 best attorney is retained, and he and the city attorney, the 

 mayor, the aldermen, etc., are all furnished copies of the de- 

 cisions that we have secured, and that usually ends the matter. 

 Dr. Mason — Here in Ontario you get a grant from the 

 Government. In the United States we can't do that. If we 

 should try to get up a county society, and then have this 

 society raise money to send a delegate to the State society it 

 could not be done. I doubt if the North American can ever 

 be made a representative body. Whatever is done, I would 

 not change the character of the Bee-Keepers' Union to any 

 . great extent. 



Frank Benton — It is useless to attempt to make the North 

 American representative unless it is helped by Congress, and 

 this will never be done. The States might do something in 

 this line, that of aiding State societies, if the thing was right- 

 ly managed, but if the two societies are united, and the prin- 

 cipal object is that of defense, no assistance may be expected 

 from the States. 



(ieo. W. York.^I don't think that the committee should 

 wait a whole year before reporting. Let them report as soon 

 as possible, and then let the matter be discussed in the jour- 

 nals. Much valuable time may thus be saved. 



W. Z. Hutchinson — We better make haste slowly. 

 The motion of Dr. Mason was finally revised to read as 

 follows : 



That a committee of seven be appointed to take into con- 

 sideration the proposed amalgamation of the National Bee- 

 Keepers' Union and the North American Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation, and to arrange terms therefor, with full power to 

 perfect the same so far as this Association is concerned ; and 

 to report through the bee-journals as soon as possible. The 

 present President of this Association to be one of the members 

 of that Committee. 



In this shape the motion was carried, and later the Presi- 

 dent announced the following committee: Thos. G. .Newman, 

 Chicago, Ills.; F. A. Gemmill, Stratford, Out.; J. T. Calvert, 

 Medina, Ohio; M. B. Holmes, Athens, Ont.; A. B. Mason, 

 Toledo, Ohio; Eugene Secor, Forest City, Iowa, and R. F. 

 Holtermann, Brantford, Ont. 



Mr. G. M. Doolittle, of Borodino, N. Y., then gave a talk 

 on " Some Things of Interest to Bee-Keepers." \K condensed 

 report of Mr. Doolittle's address will be found on page 652. — 

 Editor.] 



The convention then adjourned until evening. 

 (Continued on page 661.) 



Honey SIS I^ood and Metlicine. — A new and revised 

 edition of this 32-page pamphlet is now issued. It has .5 blank 

 pages on which to write or paste recipes taken from other sources. 

 It is just what its name indicates, and should be liberally dis- 

 tributed among the people everywhere to create a demand for 

 honey. It contains a number of recipes on the use of honey as 

 food and as medicine, besides much other interesting and valuable 

 information. Prices, postpaid, are: Single copy, 5 cts. ; 10 copies 

 ;ii5 cts. ; ."JO for$1.25; 100 for $3.00. Better give them a trial. Send 

 all orders to the Bee Journal office. 



See "Bee-Keeper's Guide" offer on page 655. 



Cotjtributed /Vrticles. 



On Important Apiarian Suhjeots, 



Contraction of the Brood-Nest to Secure Comb 

 Hoaey. 



BY HON. EOGENE .SECOR. 



It used to be a favorite theory of mine that we could hive 

 prime swarms in a small brood-chamber, and compel the bees 

 to store nearly everything they gathered in surplus receptacles. 

 A hive just suited to this end I naturally thought would 

 be the style of the New Heddon horizontally-divisible brood- 

 chamber, because it afforded a larger surface over the cluster 

 than a Langstroth hive divided or contracted vertically by 

 dummies or division-boards. 



The theory was to hive all large prime swarms (or those 

 intended for the production of comb honey) issuing at the be- 

 ginning of, or during the honey-flow, into one section of this 

 shallow hive, and force them into the sections at once. By 

 the use of a queen-excluder the queen is held below. If the 

 swarm is large it will immediately fill one or more supers with 

 bees, and if the half hive is filled with empty frames, or, at. 

 the most, only starters, the bees will immediately begin work 

 in the super if nectar secretion is abundant. 



After practicing this method for a number of years, I find 

 some objections to it which had not occurred to me before try- 

 ing it. 



First, the tendency to "swarm out" the first, second or 

 third day. 



Second, the increased tendency to swarm after a week or 

 ten days — the confined quarters causing them to build queen- 

 cells. 



Third, the great amount of pollen stored in the sections 

 over these shallow hives. 



We can overcome the first objection by using one or more 

 "empties" under the one holding the queen, leaving them 

 there only long enough to get the bees settled down to busi- 

 ness. But the second objection I have not found so easily 

 answered. If anyone knows how to prevent swarming under 

 such conditions without caging the queen, or without entail- 

 ing too much labor, I should be grateful for the suggestion. 



It is the third objection, however, which is the most seri- 

 ous one with me. Comb honey, more or less encumbered with 

 cells of pollen, is a serious matter to the producer who strives 

 to put on the market only a first-class product. 



If it were not for this serious drawback, I should use the 

 half-depth brood-chambers more than I do. They have many 

 advantages over a deep frame, but for the purpose of contrac- 

 tion when working for comb honey they are disappointing — at 

 least to me. Perhaps some one will turn on the light of his 

 experience and help me out of this pollen-polluted difficulty 

 also. Forest City, Iowa. 



Bee-Keepiug in Switzerland. 



BY A. S. R08BNR0LL. 



If the degree of civilization of a nation could be measured 

 by its attention to bee-keeping, then Switzerland certainly 

 would take a foremost position in the ranks of civilized 

 nations. The destiny and welfare of the bee-keeping industry 

 are directed and watched over by not less than four bee- 

 papers, (the property of the various bee-keepers' associations) 

 of which two are published in the German, and one each in 

 the French and Italian languages. Besides, most of the local 

 newspapers, especially those treating on agricultural matters, 

 give numerous articles and hints on bee-keeping. 



The country is well stocked with bees, and according to a 

 former census there were in Switzerland 180,000 colonies of 

 bees, or one colony to every 15 inhabitants. 



The bee-keeper's associations here are not only trade 

 unions, or protective associations, but rather patriotic benevo- 

 lent societies, whose object is to encourage bee-keeping among 

 the country people in order to raise the national prosperity 

 and create a pleasant and ennobling pastime and home indus- 

 try for the professional man, the artisan and laborer, and 

 their families, in their leisure hours. Many of the country 

 schools are supplied with bee-houses and hives, for the use of 

 the teachers, and where the scholars are also given practical 

 instructions in the art of handling and managing bees. 



Some of the railway companies are also assisting their 

 I employes, station officers and linemen to keep bees at suitable 



