THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



105 



by the beekeepers present. They 

 made a nice souvenir of the meetings. 

 A discussion of bee cellars was led 

 by Mr. L. Griggs of Flint, Mich. The 

 speaker stated that he was building 

 two bee cellars and wanted to get as 

 much information as possible on their 

 correct construction fi'om the beekeep- 

 ers present. 



After several bee men had described 

 their cellars it was found that a great 

 variation of construction was possi- 

 ble and yet winter bees successfully. 

 The main points brought out were 

 that very dry cellars were not as 

 successful as those containing more 

 humidity, providing the temperature 

 did not go too high. Some form of 

 ventilation, while not absolutely nec- 

 essary, helped to winter the bees bet- 

 ter. A damp cellar with good ventila- 

 tion often wintered bees well. 



Very cold cellars were not conducive 

 to good wintering. An even temper- 

 ature of 45 degrees F. was about the 

 right one to keep cellar. 



Mr. L. A. Aspinwall, Jackson, Mich., 

 one of Michigan's veteran beekeepers 

 and inventors, gave a very interest- 

 ing account of some of our older bee- 

 keepers and their work. Looking 

 back over a period of sixty years, Mr. 

 Aspinwall recalled the name of the 

 Rev. L. L. I-angstroth, inventor of the 

 movable frame hive and author of 

 "Langstroth on the Hive and Honey 

 Bee." Mr. Heddon, an inventor of the 

 Heddon Hive, was also knovni to the 

 speaker. Among other names of 

 prominent Bingham beekeepers, Quin- 

 by. Cook, Hatchings, Ellwood and 

 others were mentioned and an inter- 

 esting account of their life's work on 

 beekeeping given. Mr. Aspinwall is 

 himself the inventor of the Aspinwall 

 non-swarming hive and is now en- 

 gaged in writing a book on beekeep- 

 ing. 



The evening session of the conven- 

 tion opened with an illustrated lecture 

 by Prof. R. H. Pettit, of M. A. C. A 

 number of views of Austrian, German, 

 'T'urkish, Russian, Dutch, Belgian and 

 French apiaries were shown and their 

 methods of management outlined. 

 This was an extremely interesting 

 part of the program and showed Mich- 

 igan beekeepers the many various 

 kinds of straw skeps, clay hives, box 

 hives and other peculiar receptacles 

 in use by the beekeepers of those 

 countries. Once more Michigan bee- 

 keepers seemed satisfied that Europe 

 did not offer the same scope to the 

 beekeeper as the state of Michigan. 



Apiaries of from one to a dozen col- 

 onies are the rule in those European 

 countries, and the crops are small. 

 Here we have larger apiaries and 

 more certain crops. 



Immediately following Prof. Pettit's 

 address, F. E. Millen, State Inspec- 

 tor of Apiaries, gave an illustrated 

 talk on "Features of Interest about 

 the Honey Bee." Slides of the exter- 

 nal and internal parts of the honey 

 bee were shown, and the interesting 

 features explained. Bees carry the 

 nectar from the fields in their honey 

 stomachs and then store it in the cells 

 after regurgitating it back through 

 the mouth parts. The antennal clean- 

 er, or the bee's brush and comb on the 

 front legs, show how bees clean them- 

 selves. Where and how the pollen is 

 stored on the hind legs while the bee 

 is gathering it and returning to the 

 hive, and other interesting features 

 were shown and discussed. 



One of the features of the conven- 

 tion was the Question Box. This was 

 ably handled by Mr. W. J. Manley, 

 Sandusky, Mich., and many pei-plex- 

 ing questions were taken up and dis- 

 posed of satisfactorily. The question 

 box aroused considerable discussion 

 and kept everyone interested. 



On Thursday morning the meeting 

 commenced at 9 A. M. and the "Foul- 

 brood Situation in Michigan" was 

 taken up by the Inspector of Apiar- 

 ies." During the past season, evi- 

 dence of much foulbrood was found 

 and as far as possible remedial meas- 

 ures were taken. One or two minor 

 changes in the law were advocated 

 and the need for more help indicated. 



The most successful method of 

 fighting foulbrood was by educating 

 the beekeepers to the fact that a 

 healthy apiary meant more honey and 

 increased profits, while the opposite 

 is true v/hen disease gets into the 

 bee yard. 



Summer field days, of which two 

 were held last season, are being 

 planned for nineteen fifteen, and it is 

 hoped to meet a large number of bee- 

 keepers in this way. The object of 

 these meetings is to make sure that 

 every beekeeper present is able to 

 identify the disease and is familiar 

 with the methods of treatment. Meth- 

 ods of management are also discussed 

 and those present often gain a lot 

 of useful information. 



The next item on the program was 

 an address with illusti'ations by Prof. 

 Morley Pettit, Ontario Provincial 

 Apiarist, Guelph, Canada. Prof. Pet- 



