1433 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15 



ators, Mr. France referred to one A. D. 

 Barnes, one of the most extensive fruit- 

 growers of Wisconsin, who offered to fur- 

 nish room and a building at each one of his 

 orchards to a bee-man who would put a few 

 hives in the vicinity of the trees. He stated 

 that a large numljer of fruit men were be- 

 ginning to find that it was to their distinct 

 advantage to do this. 



PLURALITY OF QUEENS. 



At this point a very valuable and suggest- 

 ive paper was read from Mr. E. W. Alexan- 

 der, of New York. It was brief and to the 

 point, calculated to draw out discussion, 

 which it did in a most admirable manner. 

 He spoke of the advantages of the plurality 

 of queens in a hive; that we had already 

 made a good start toward the successful 

 handling of them. One could thus keep a 

 good supply of queens on hand, secure 

 strong colonies, and supersede at any time. 



He also referred to the advantage of un- 

 capping the combs and feeding honey back 

 again to the brood-nest in the spring, for 

 the purpose of stimulating brood-rearing. 

 But this question he has already covered in 

 these columns, and we will not attempt to 

 give his line of argument at this time. 



He had tried a gasoline-engine for running 

 a large eight-frame extractor, and expressed 

 himself as believing this was the coming way 

 of taking off a large quantity of honey. 



He thought that the subject of keeping 

 more bees in a large apiary was coming 

 more and more into prominence. At one 

 time he was almost the sole advocate of it; 

 but judging from his correspondence there 

 must be quite a number of bee-keepers who 

 were gradually working into the scheme of 

 using fewer yards and more bees to the yard. 

 He spoke of the peculiar conditions of his lo- 

 cality: of the large amount of honey that he 

 secured from buckwheat, goldenrod, and aster. 



In the general discussion that followed, 

 goldenrod as a honey-plant was discussed 

 first. Some one asked for reports. A few 

 found that it did not yield any honey, while 

 others secured considerable from it. Some 

 question then arose as to whether golden- 

 rod was a dark honey or not. Mr. O. L. 

 Hershiser held that it was not dark unless it 

 had buckwheat in it. As both bloom sim- 

 ultaneously in many localities there was apt 

 to be considerable buckwheat in it. Others, 

 not in the buckwheat country, testified that 

 goldenrod was a light honey. 



At this time some discussion arose as to 

 the different honey-plants — what they were, 

 and whether they yielded honey, and under 

 what conditions. Prof. Surface offered the 

 suggestion that a committee be appointed to 

 work in connection with the State and fed- 

 eral governments, to have a botanist or bot- 

 anists appointed, who were to name, for 

 members of the National Association, honey- 

 plants that might be sent in. A committee 

 was duly appointed; and probably some- 

 thing along this line will be announced later. 



At the next session, or the following after- 

 noon, the subject of plurality of queens, as 

 introduced in Mr. Alexander's paper, re- 



ceived a spirited discussion. We will not 

 attempt to give all that was said, any more 

 than to state that there seemed to be a gen- 

 eral agreement that two or more queens, 

 each one separated by perforated zinc from 

 every other queen, could be kept in one col- 

 ony of bees so long as there was general 

 prosperity in the hive; but when a dearth 

 of honey came on, there seemed to be a feel- 

 ing that all the queens would disappear ex- 

 cept one. Two or three reported they made 

 a success of the two-queen system. Among 

 them was Mr. E. E. Pressler, of Williams- 

 port, Pa. He, like Mr. Alexander, had made 

 a success of it, and even gone so far as to 

 make the system work without the use of 

 even perforated zinc, but had not been able to 

 test the principle this past summer, owing to 

 an affliction of the eyesight; but he thought 

 there was great possibility along that line. 

 But the majority of those present who took 

 part in the discussion seemed to feel that it 

 was practicable to run two queens to a hive, 

 providing they were separated by perforated 

 zinc. 



As noted at the outset, the secretary, Mr. 

 Green, had been very busy, and therefore 

 was unable to prepare a program. In view 

 of the fact that he had been formally nom- 

 inated to succeed himself, some of the mem- 

 bers present felt that it was unwise to force 

 upon him a duty that he would probably 

 have declined if he were present and knew 

 that he had been nominated. Mr. R. F. Hol- 

 termann, therefore, introduced the following 

 resolution: 



Resolved, That the members of the National Bee- 

 keepers' Association assembled at Harrisburg, Pa., 

 feel that, owing to the very many duties of their 

 present secretary, Mr J. A Green, and his inability 

 to attend to those duties properly, this position 

 should not be forced upon him for another year; that 

 we take this action with resrret. realizing that, if 

 other duties would permit, Mr. Green would make an 

 able and capable secretary. 



It is further resolved, that, while we would in no 

 way seek to dictate to any member how to vote, in 

 view of all the circumstances we would recommend 

 that, at the coming election, Mr. O. L. Hershiser. of 

 Buffalo. N. Y., receive the undivided support of the 

 Association.* 



As it would be practically impossible to 

 get this i;^solution before the general mem- 

 bership before the next election, the editor 

 of Gleanings was requested to place it in 

 his next issue. While this resolution is 

 nothing more than a recommendation, yet 

 it is a suggestion to the membership at large. 

 We were also requested to announce that 

 the members of the Pennsylvania Bee-keep- 

 ers' Association in their Convention which 

 was held just before the National, introduced 

 the name of Prof. H. A. Surface for Director 

 from Pennsylvania. It was felt that the 

 great Keystone State had no representation, 

 and it was no more than fair and right that 

 it should have a Director. As there are three 

 whose terms of office expire, the member- 

 ship will now be at liberty to act according- 

 ly. We will, if our space permits, continue 

 the National report in our next issue. 



*A copy of this was sent to Mr. Green; and just as 

 we go to press we have received a telegram reading: 

 "I withdraw; could not serve if elected. 



"J. A. Gbeen." 



