1883 



GLEAl^INGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



533 



THE TORONTO CONVENTION. 



(Concluded from page 595.) 



SINGLE-STORY OR TWO-STORY HIVES. 



fIjRIEND JONES, Prof. Cook, and Pop- 

 pleton, held to one-story hives with 

 frames spread out horizontally. I ob- 

 jected, and Mr. J. B. Hall was called on; 

 said he used hives ever so many stories high. 

 There seems to be a wide difference of opin- 

 ion in this matter. 



WHAT SHALL WE PUT AROUND THE 

 ENTRANCES ? 



A variety of plans was suggested. I gave 

 our plan ; friend Jones mentioned ashes ; 

 but others said it made the grass and weeds 

 grow too well. Mr. Hall prefers a board one 

 foot wide, and two feet long. Although 1 

 did not have time to say so, I wanted to ob- 

 ject to this board, on the ground that it 

 would foster toads and other like enemies of 

 the bees. 



By a unanimous vote, the convention, on 

 the second day, was devoted to visiting the 

 fair. Mr. Laugstroth was among us ; and 

 after the building had been viewed and re- 

 viewed, Jones and Clark introduced the bee- 

 men to Mr. Langstroth. He shook hands 

 with them as long as he could stand it, and 

 then he was taken away to rest awhile. 

 Knots of bee men were scattered about, not 

 only through the honey-house, but among 

 the bee-hives and implements, and on the 

 grass outside. Small discussions were held 

 around at various points; and such a friend- 

 ly, pleasant meeting it were hard to imagine 

 anywhere but among a lot of bee-men. It 

 seemed to be emphatically a season of giving 

 and receiving knowledge. There was not 

 much chance to argue with our Canadian 

 friends, because they had only to point to 

 their piles of houey to back up their special 

 beliefs and ways of doing things; and I 

 verily believe that no one feature on the 

 fair-grounds attracted so much general at- 

 tention as the apiarian department ; and the 

 way the questions were asked by young and 

 old indicated strongly the amount of infor- 

 mation that was given to whole crowds of 

 people by the bee-show. In the afternoon 

 we held a session again. 



BEE- VEILS. 



This matter was discussed at length, and 

 there was a variety of opinions expresed ; 

 but I believe it was pretty generally decided 

 that there is nothing yet in the market that 

 is just what we ought to have. Silk and 

 Brussels net, woven of fine thread with a large 

 mesh, makes the best material to put before 

 the eyes ; but it is objectionable, because it 

 is so frail. If we had something made of 

 very fine wire, with a mesh so large that a 

 bee could not quite get through it, it would 

 come pretty near filling the bill, although it 

 would probably obscure the vision more than 

 the Brussels net. No such wire cloth has 

 ever been made, to my knowledge. Some- 

 body called me to order, asking now it was 

 that I had so much to say about veils, when 

 I claimed that I never used them. I replied, 

 that my work and talk were principally for 

 the benefit of the ABC class, and those 



whom I would not dare to advise to work 

 with bees without the use of the veil. 



L. L. LANGSTROTH. 



At this point, Mr. Langstroth was ushered 

 into the convention ; and at a signal every 

 member arose to his feet, while our friend 

 was conducted to the Mayor's chair. The 

 afternoon was consumed in speeches of wel- 

 come from our Canadian brethren, and re- 

 sponses from different friends. Mr. Lang- 

 stroth concluded with some interesting facts 

 in regard to his earlier experience witn bees 

 and bee-hives. Friend L. was feeling ex- 

 tremely well, and his remarks were given in 

 his happiest vein of humor. Those who 

 have never heard him speak can not well im- 

 agine the kind, pleasant, winning way in 

 which he talks, and no one can for a moment 

 doubt his disinterested love for all of the bee 

 fraternity, as well as fervent and earnest de- 

 votion to the great God who gave us this 

 world of wonders. In the evening, business 

 was resumed as follows : 



CLIPPING QUEENS' "WINGS. 



This, also, was discussed with much ener- 

 gy ; while many prominent bee-keepers de- 

 clared they would not have an undipped 

 queen, other apiarists there stoutly main- 

 tained that tliey wanted their queens to have 

 the full use of their wings. I presume each 

 man will have to fix his queens' wings to 

 suit himself, as the matter stands. 



AT WHAT AGE SHOULD A QUEEN BE 

 SUPERSEDED V 



Mr. Hall thought no definite age could be 

 given. Some queens are young when they 

 are old, and others are old when they are 

 young ; therefore we should keep queens 

 just as long as they are profitable, and no 

 longer. Mr. Langstroth thought that it sel- 

 dom paid to keep them beyond two seasons, 

 and also that the Italians generally reared 

 their new queens as soon as the old ones be- 

 gan to fail. 



BEST JIETHOD OF FEEDING BEES. 



Mr. Jones advised granulated sugar, and 

 recommended tilling the hive back and pour- 

 ing the feed in the entrance in the evening. 

 Mr. Locke recommended the Mason fruit- 

 jar, with the cover periorated with a number 

 of holes. 



DOES FDN. DETERIORATE BY BEING KEPT V 



Mr. Jones said it becomes hard on the sur- 

 face, so that the bees find dilHculty in man- 

 ipulating it, but that if the sheets were dip- 

 ped in water, just as hot as it could be with- 

 out melting the fdn., they would be annealed, 

 as it were, and would be worked by the bees 

 just as quickly as if it were made the very 

 day it was put into the hive. Others related 

 their experience in regard to using old and 

 new fdn.; and while some found it to answer 

 well after it was a year old, others strongly 

 objected. Friend Jones said a bee-keeper 

 could make no better investment than to 

 hang frames of fdn. in the hives in fall, so 

 as to get them partly built out, or, at least, to 

 get the bees to go over them before winter ; 

 these sheets would then be worth double 

 price for use in the spring. From what ex- 

 perience I have had with this partly drawn 



