1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



11 



merchant, R. A. Burnett, of Chicago. 

 Mr. Burnett, who for probably forty 

 years or more has handled ship- 

 ments of honey, stated that he had 

 never known the honey market to be 

 so cleanly swept as it was during the 

 present fall. Remnants of honey 

 from previous crops which had been 

 thought unsalable had been cleaned 

 out for export. But the high price 

 was to some extent lessening the 

 demand. 



The consensus of opinion was that 

 there is going to be quite an increase 

 in the proportionate amount of ex- 

 tracted honey produced, because of 

 the proportionately greater advance 

 in the price of it. 



In a discussion upon the use of 

 feeders above the brood chamber, ob- 

 jections were made to them because 

 of the deperdition of heat. Br. Bull, 

 the secretary, explained that he 

 avoided any loss of heat by using 

 over the brood frames a piece of 

 roofing paper, cut of the exact size 

 of the top, with a hole in it just suf- 

 ficient to enable the bees to reach the 

 food. 



A number of resolutions were 

 passed urging the building of a 

 Honey Building at the Illinois State 

 Fair grounds, the increase of State 

 support to the beekeepers' associa- 

 tions and the greater advertising of 

 honey as food. 



The election of officers resulted in 

 the selection of the same men as be- 

 fore, E. S. Miller, President; Edward 

 Hassinger, Jr., Vice President; John 

 C. Bull, Secretary-Treasurer. 



Although the crop was reported as 

 very meagre among the members, the 

 high price of honey has evidently 

 worked in favor of more production 

 and the general tendency proved to 

 be in favor of the cultivation of a 

 greater number of bees. During the 

 coming years beekeeping will be in 

 the ascendency. 



The Iowa State Meeting 



The meeting at Des Moines was as 

 well attended as any previous meet- 

 ing. This evidences the advisability 

 of thorough advertising. The effi- 

 cient secretary, Hamlin B. Miller, 

 kept the matter before the public for 

 several months and did not spare 

 printer's ink. 



One of the most interesting fea- 

 tures was the address by E. R. Root 

 on the Demuth plan of wintering 

 mentioned in both November and 

 December numbers of Gleanings. 

 The Demuth plan, described in a few 



words, is the putting of the seven 

 best combs of a colony into a box in 

 which they stand on end. This box, 

 which is inexpensive to make, is then 

 put inside of a two and one-half story 

 ten-frame hive. This practically 

 makes a winter packing body, as 

 there is room for several inches of 

 forest leaves between the two, and in 

 spring the bees can be readily re- 

 transferred into the ten-frame hive. 

 Instead of an expensive winter case, 

 the beekeeper supplies only a small 

 box of thin lumber. The advan- 

 tages of the system are apparent, the 

 only objection possible being the ne- 

 cessity of transferring the bees in 

 fall and spring, which ought to be 

 done without much loss of time. 



Dr. H. E. Ewing, professor of en- 

 tomology at Ames, gave a very inter- 

 esting talk on the anatomy of the 

 bee. 



J. W. Tinsley gave an address on 

 "painting foundation with hot wax" 

 which convinced us still more of 

 what we have said in the December 

 number of the American Bee Journal, 

 page 410, that the proper weight of 

 foundation to use, in order to supply 

 the bees with all the wax they need 

 to build the entire comb would be 

 about six sheets, Langstroth size, to 

 the pound. The weight required by 

 the trade is 7 or 8 sheets. 



Another scientific address was 

 given by Professor H. R. Werner, 

 also of Ames, upon the determination 

 of sex in bees, showing the develop- 

 ment of the egg and the manner in 

 which fertilization changes the sex 

 of the undeveloped eggs. We should 

 very much like to give a detail of this 

 very scientific address, but it was 

 accompanied by chalk drawings, 

 without which the matter could hard- 

 ly be made intelligible. Such an ad- 

 dress must be heard to be appre- 

 ciated. 



Still another address by a scientist 

 of Ames College was given by Pro- 

 fessor Atkins, Assistant at the Ex- 

 perimental Station. This was a de- 

 scription of the three best methods 

 of queen rearing, the old Alley meth- 

 od, the Doolittle cell-cup method and 

 Dr. Miller's latest method described 

 by the American Bee Journal in Au- 

 gust, 1912. Never before have we 

 heard so thorough and exhaustive a 

 description of the best practical ways 

 of rearing queens. 



Professor F. Eric Millen, apiarist in 

 charge at Ames, described and an- 

 nounced several short courses in 

 beekeeping and secured the promise 



of the editor of the American Bee 

 Journal to attend the May short 

 course, to address the students. Those 

 interested in these short courses 

 should write him to enquire about 

 the dates and particulars. 



Papers were read by Dr. Bonney 

 and others. A most interesting short 

 paper by a lady, Mrs. Clara T. Noel, 

 was secured for our Journal. It will 

 be found in the Woman's column. 



Mr. Pellett gave a lecture on "Bee- 

 keeping North and South," with lan- 

 tern slides in the evening of the first 

 day. 



The election of officers resulted as 

 follows : 



President, Professor F. E. Millen, 

 of Ames; Vice President, W. S. 

 Walker, of Iowa Falls; Secretary, 

 Hamlin B. Miller, of Marshalltown ; 

 Directors, C. H. True, Mrs. Clara T. 

 Noel, Bert Brown. 



The advancing price of honey was 

 discussed at length, and while the un- 

 usual war conditions are known to be 

 in great part responsible for the ad- 

 vance, yet it is the general opinion 

 that honey will gain in public favor 

 through the temporary shortage of 

 sugar. The beekeepers are therefore 

 generally planning to increase their 

 holdings and the teaching of apicul- 

 ture in the colleges is considered as 

 more and more necessary, especially 

 in order to do away with ignorance 

 among owners of apiaries. This ig- 

 norance is held to be one of the 

 greatest obstacles to the eradication 

 of foulbrood. 



Beekeepers, join your State Asso- 

 ciation. It will not only help you in 

 producing a greater amount of honey, 

 it will also help you in securing fair 

 prices for it. 



New Zealand Beekeeping 



The New Zealand Farmer Stock 

 and Station Journal, in its October 

 number, contains a number of arti- 

 cles on beekeeping and, among oth- 

 ers, a description of sacbrood after 

 Dr. G. F. White. This is written by 

 one of the old veterans, I. Hopkins, 

 of Aukland. Mr. Hopkins writes us: 

 "I intended to have visited my native 

 country, England, in 1915, had war 

 not been on. My wife and I were go- 

 ing via Canada, and I had a very kind 

 invitation to visit Dr. Phillips at 

 Washington, who was to take me to 

 some of your principal beekeepers. 

 I am afraid if the war don't end soon 

 I shall be too old, as I passed into 

 my 81st year last month." 



