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88 



SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



Mr. Holekamp — I suggested dry 

 leaves. 



Moths and Pollenless Combs. 



"Will moth-worms destroy comb 

 where there is no pollen?" 



Mr. Hyde — I dropped that question 

 in. I thought I would like .to hear 

 some of the bee - keepers talk on 

 It. I can give my experience in a few 

 words. Where there is no pollen there 

 will be no moth-worm. 



Dr. Phillips — I have seen it in comb 

 foundation. 



Mr. Victor — Combs with pollen are 

 much worse than combs without pol- 

 . len. 



Wm. Atchley — I wish to differ from 

 Mr. Hyde very much, as I have had 

 them to eat up combs with no pollen 

 in them, and have had them to de- 

 stroy solid cakes of beeswax. 



Mr. Hyde — In that case, was there 

 not some comb near by, or did they 

 degenerate ? 



Wm. Atchley— Why, I don't think 

 there was any empty comb there. 



Mr. Wurth — I have had the same 

 experience as Mr. Atchley, in regard 

 to destroying combs with no pollen in 

 them; they will destroy them. 



Mr. Stone — My experience has been 

 ■■-e the one who asked the question. 

 I have never known the moth to be 

 in any of the extracting frames in 

 my honey-house, and I have always 

 attributed it to the fact that there was 

 no pollen in the frames. 



Mr. France — As a partial explanation 

 of moth-worms working on wax, in 

 many places in our State, it is the 

 combs with apparently no pollen that 

 are rendered into wax; and when that 

 wax is settled, you would be surprised 

 to see the amount of pollen in it. It 

 is the same way with foundation. More 

 or less pollen is in it, as in the wax. I 

 seldom see them in new combs. 



Mr. White — I want to give an ex- 

 perience I had last spring with the 

 worms. During our convention in 

 North Texas, we had a little discus- 

 sion about the moth-worm. Some asked 

 me to bring in a dry comb. As near as 

 I could tell it was clean, smooth, nice 

 comb, and after the convention was 

 over I just set it back in the corner 

 of the office, and it was left there for a 

 few weeks; I did not move it, and 

 I thought one day that I would put it 

 awav. The moth-worms had eaten it 



up, while, according to my judgment, 

 there was no pollen in it; if any was 

 there it was very little, and I thought 

 then that the particles had fallen out on 

 the floor. I had learned a lesson. I 

 believe worms will get into combs 

 where there is no pollen. 



Pres. Dadant — I wish to correct an 

 impression, which I consider is a mis- 

 take, given by Mr. France, that foun- 

 dation contains a great deal of pollen. 



Mr. France — You are mistaken: I 

 did not say that. 



Pres. Dadant — Did you not say that 

 melted wax contained pollen? 



Mr. France — I was speaking of old 

 wax. 



Mr. Jones — I have had a good deal 

 of experience with combs and moth- 

 worms. I have a honey-house that I 

 put away my combs in, and I some 

 way favor Mr. Hyde's idea. In put- 

 ting away those combs I was very 

 careful that no pollen whatever got 

 in, but I can not say absolutely that 

 it did not get in there. I have noticed 

 that if there was a little brood they 

 are just as bad to commence on it, and 

 when I looked over my combs the moth- 

 worm had commenced there. 



Perfect Packages for Shipping Honey. 



"Is there a way to educate the bee- 

 keepers to use perfect packages for 

 shipping honey. 



Mr. Muth — It was I who put that 

 question in. The majority of bee-keep- 

 ers ship their honey to market in sec- 

 ond-hand molasses barrels, and second- 

 hand tin cans, and it is only those per- 

 fect packages from the West that come 

 through without loss. Imperfect pack- 

 ages make high rates on freight, and un- 

 pleasant business relations, and if they 

 can get down to new packages — if honey 

 is worth anything at all, it would be 

 a good idea to educate them a little on 

 this point. As it is now, most of the 

 small shippers ship their honey in a very 

 careless manner. The bee-papers could 

 do a whole lot more on that subject, but 

 they don't. 



Mr. Hyde — I thought that we bee- 

 keepers in Texas were doing pretty well 

 along that line the last few years. In 

 1902 and 1903 we had a good deal of 

 trouble in the packages for shipping — 

 a great deal of loss in the transit — and 

 all sized cans and packages that could 

 be thought of; but we bee-keepers of 

 Texas saw that we needed some pack- 



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