THE AMERICAJNI BEE JOURNAL. 



55 



the heat was detrimental to honey 

 production ; that It was better to put 

 up with some little inconveniences. 

 The bulged and imperfect sections 

 could be sold in the home market, and 

 used upon our own daily tables, and 

 the ones more perfect could be crated 

 for markets at a distance. We cannot 

 very easily afford a shortage, when 

 the per cent, of imperfectones are not 

 too great. He believed that separa- 

 tors, especially tin, were a detriment 

 to honey production. 



Mr. Camm said, in looking over a 

 large number of his sections, that it 

 was difficult to tell which was top or 

 bottom, and whether separators had 

 been used or not. He considered that 

 he got as much honey suitable for 

 market without separators, and combs 

 more securely fastened at the bottom. 

 Mr. Petty said that bees did not start 

 so many sections at once where sep- 

 arators were used, and left fewer in- 

 complete ones. Mr. Hambaugh asked 

 if bees would start as quickly with 

 only starters in the sections, as they 

 would where full sheets were used, 

 and if as much honey would be ob- 

 tained from the former as from the 

 latter. 



Mr. Camm said that consumers 

 would educate themselves as to what 

 was best in comb honey, sooner than 

 bee-keepers would educate themselves 

 to supply that which is best. He 

 thought that the " fish-bone " could 

 easily be detected,and worked against 

 the honey-trade. He said that it was 

 not the most honey that we were 

 working for, but the most money. 



Mr. Petty said that if the apiarist 

 would label his honey that was drawn 

 out on full sheets of foundation, and 

 also that which was made from start- 

 ers only, he would find that tlie honey 

 built on starters would take the best. 



" How can we keep the bee-yard 

 clean of weeds V" was asked. 



Mr. Cooper said he believed the 

 lawn-mower the best. He had used 

 sawdust, but found it blew around a 

 great deal, making it unpleasant. 



Mr. Hambaugh had found from ex- 

 perience that where chickens were 

 allowed to run in the apiary they 

 would make ugly work, especially in 

 the morning, by scratching and throw- 

 ing full the entrances to the bee-hives, 

 making considerable work and no 

 little annoyance. Besides, he had 

 met with several narrow escapes from 

 fire by sparks catching from the 

 smoker, and concluded to do away 

 with the sawdust under his hives. 

 He laid his apiary off facing the 

 southeast, and then set dwarf fruit of 

 various kinds, 8 by 10 feet apart. He 

 then made a small mound for each 

 hive to rest upon, from old bleached 

 ashes that had been used for soap- 

 making, so that a fruit-tree would 

 stand at the southwest corner of each 

 hive. He had not yet used the lawn- 

 mower, but thought that he would 

 by another year, as he believed this 

 about the most satisfactory plan. 



" Is shade a benefit to the beesV" 

 was then asked. 



Mr. Petty said that the bees would 

 be better off without it. and that they 

 should be in open territory, with lots 

 of ventilation. 



Mr. Camm said that bees should 

 have shade in the heat of the season, 

 to prevent the combs breaking down. 



" Will it do to move bees about the 

 middle of November ?" Mr. Camm 

 replied, " Yes, provided they can 

 have a flight right away." Mr. Petty 

 said that there was nothing in the 

 gorging idea, and that he would not 

 hesitate to put them into the cellar 

 for winter immediately on arrival. 



Mr. Cooper then suggested the idea 

 of raising wrens, as they were a 

 benefit in eating worms, moth, etc. 

 Mr. Camm agreed with Mr. Cooper. 



" How do you sulphur honey so as 

 to keep it free from moth i"' 



Mr. Petty said that he had but little 

 trouble with moth ; he crated his 

 honey as soon as taken from the hive, 

 and had noticed that when honey was 

 paced in a dark room, moth would 

 collect. He advised fumigating with 

 sulphur, the fumigator to be at the 

 top of the comb. 



Mr. Hambaugh advised putting in 

 a close room impervious to moth 

 millers. 



" What should be the difference of 

 price between comb and extracted 

 honey V" 



Mr. Wallace said that 150 pounds 

 of extracted honey could be obtained 

 as easily as 50 pounds of comb honey. 



Mr. Camm said that he considered 

 8 cents per pound for extracted better 

 than 12^ cents for comb honey. He 

 could get 1.50 pounds of extracted to 

 100 pounds of comb. 



Mr. Petty said that he sold comb 

 honey at 15 cents per pound, and ex- 

 tracted at 8 cents ; be thought that he 

 could make as much at one as the 

 other. 



" Will honey keep that has been ex- 

 tracted from well-ripened sections, 

 and sealed in air-tight vessels V 



Mr. Hambaugh stated that he had 

 never tried the plan. He had ex- 

 tracted as often as every seven days, 

 with no bad results ; his honey was 

 put in barrels and placed in the cellar. 

 He thought that the results would 

 have been larger had he extracted 

 oftener. 



Mr. Camm had seen honey in the 

 hands of dealers, that had soured. 

 He thought it was on account of its 

 being placed in a damp cellar. He 

 considered a damp cellar the worst 

 place in which honey could be placed. 



Mr. Petty had noticed signs of 

 fermentation from what he consid- 

 ered the best of honey when placed 

 in air-tight glass jars. 



" Is a bee-space between the tops 

 of the brood-frames and the supers of 

 any advantage ?" 



Mr. Black said that it was an ad- 

 vantage. He had tried putting sec- 

 tions directly on the frames, and did 

 not want any more. 



Mr. Cooper had tried the same, and 

 did not like it. He left a y-iuch bee- 

 space between the honey-board and 

 sections. 



Mr. Petty said that the difficulty of 

 brace-combs could be obviated by 

 making the bee-space i^ of an inch 

 instead of ^3 of an inch. Mr. Camm 

 confirmed >lr. Petty's statement. 



Mr. Petty said that he had done 

 away with the slotted honey-board. 



and that one bee-space was all-suf- 

 ficient. 



Mr. Hambaugh stated that bees in 

 their natural state built their combs 

 straight, with no obstructions, mak- 

 ing continuous passage-ways from 

 bottom to top, and considered it a 

 vital point to construct hives with 

 continuous passage-ways as near as 

 possible. 



" Are side passage-ways in sections 

 and supers of any advantage V Mr. 

 Camm replied that he had tried this 

 plan, and believed there was an ad- 

 vantage. Bees seemed to attach the 

 section all around in better shape. 



The convention then adjourned till 

 9 a.m. on the following day. 



THURSDAY SESSIONS. 



The convention assembled at 9:30 

 a.m., when President Camm read an 

 essay on " The Different Baces of 

 Bees." 



His experience had extended to 

 Syrians and Cyprians. The Syrians 

 he thought were inclined to breed up 

 too late. They came through winter 

 in fair condition, built up very fast, 

 brought in honey like water, but the 

 cappings seemed to lay directly on the 

 honey, presenting a greasy appear- 

 ance. They were very irritable if the 

 combs were disturbed, but easily sub- 

 dued with smoke ; also very nervous 

 and fidgety when being handled. 

 They invariably crossed with blacks, 

 and the crosses were no better, if as 

 good, as the pure bloods. He would 

 not have Cyprians. He could not 

 subdue them with smoke. They are 

 vicious and cross. They are good honey 

 gatherers, and for rearing queens, 

 as he could get one-half dozen queens 

 from one frame. They swarmed later 

 than any other bees, but made up for 

 the lost time. The queens had a 

 trait of flying when being handled. 



Mr. W. J. Cullinan, of Mt. Sterling, 

 then read the following essay on 



MARKETING HONEY. 



I shall not attempt a complete and 

 exhaustive treatise upon this subject, 

 but merely outlining its principle 

 features, leave them to be drawn out 

 and rounded up by those whose riper 

 experience in the matter will give to 

 their utterances greater weight, and 

 make them of much more value to 

 the listener. 



It is with pleasure that we view 

 the rapid advancement that is being 

 made in the science of apiculture, the 

 vast improvement in methods of ma- 

 nipulations of hives and frames, as 

 well as the breeding of the bee itself ; 

 while gazing on this pleasing picture 

 we cannot shut our eyes to the fact 

 that honey has not as yet been given 

 its rightful place among the commer- 

 cial products of the world. And why, 

 we ask, is this thus ? It is because, 

 in the great struggle that has been 

 made to attain preeminence in the 

 breeding of bees and the production 

 of honev, we have, in a very marked 

 degree, lost sight of that equally im- 

 portant concomitant of the business, 

 viz : The profitable disposition of the 

 article which we produce. 



That we have learned the art of 

 producing honey is amply attested by 



