82 



SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



these offers they would say they were 

 samples of buckwheat honey. The fact 

 was, the bees were not working at all 

 on buckwheat, and there were only a 

 few acres of buckwheat and there were 

 hundreds and hundreds of acres of blue 

 aster with a flower no larger than your 

 thumb nail, so that the fields were 

 perfectly covered with it, and the bees 

 tumbled over each other working on 

 that flower at the time when the farm- 

 ers thought they were gathering buck- 

 wheat honey. 



Mr. Colyer: In regard to golden rod, 

 I have extracted golden rod in Minne- 

 sota; and in Pennsylvania our golden 

 rod is yellow and the sealing is yel- 

 low — golden yellow; honey in Minne- 

 sota where I extracted there, 75 miles 

 north of St. Paul, would granulate al- 

 most as soon as you had it extracted. 



The President: You a,re sure it was 

 golden rod? 



Mr. Colyer: Yes. The honey is 

 straw color. That is the kind we have 

 where I live up here now; and the aster 

 we have there is white — it is water 

 white. This golden rod honey is as 

 thick as any clover honey and as fine 

 a tasting honey as you would wish 

 to use. 



Mr. Moe: Before any of our dis- 

 cussions will be considered of any val- 

 ue we must determine what has been 

 called the personal equation. If we 

 were in the railway business we would 

 have our eye sight tested. I have got 

 to the point that I dare not say from 

 what I see that a bee is Italian or 

 black or any other color. I have got 

 to the point that I don't know some 

 of these things. We need to deter- 

 mine or leave it to people who are 

 competent, but we are certainly on a 

 line of thought that is interesting and 

 instructive and of educational value. 



Mr. Rea: Can Brother Selser tell 

 from a chemical analysis of the honey 

 what flower it comes from? 



Mr. Selser: No. 



The President: I think Mr. Selser 

 will say the essential oils will bar that. 



Mr. Selser: We are guided by cir- 

 cumstances. I have rows of bottles 

 in my laboratory from a light yellow 

 grass color to a bronze color, but com- 

 petent men say that honey was from 

 exactly the same thing. So we have 

 got to take all those conditions into 

 consideration. I keep an actual record 

 of the analyses of all of them, but for 

 me to say I could tell from one analy- 



sis what it was from, I would have 

 to say no. 



Mr. Holterman: Don't you think the 

 rapidity of the honey flow and the 

 gathering has really more to do with 

 the analysis than the source from 

 which it comes? 



Mr. Selser: I think it has. 



On motion of Mr. Moe, duly sec- 

 onded, the Convention adjourned to 

 meet at 1:30 p. m. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 

 1.30 p. mi. resumed. 



The President: The paper by Mr. 

 Alexander having been read, it has 

 been suggested we take up the sub- 

 ject of plurality of queens in a hive. 

 The subject is now open for discus- 

 sion. I know Mr. Holterman likes to 

 have a good many queens around. 



Mr. Selser: I wish our President 

 would state Mr. Alexander's plan in 

 keeping a couple of queens in a hive. 



The President: I must confess that 

 while I heard the paper I didn't get 

 enough of it, more than that it was 

 the slow introduction, getting the bees 

 well fllled with honey and releasing 

 them, as I understand it, so that the 

 bees would scarcely know it; they 

 would begin their labors without the 

 bees knowing there were additional 

 queens. If Mr. Root was here he could 

 give It exactly, as I got it in "Glean- 

 ings." 



Mr. Hutchinson: It is necessary, is 

 it vital to the principle we wish to 

 discuss to tell how those queens are 

 introduced? I could go on and give 

 you his method, but it .seems to me 

 the point we wish to discuss now is 

 the advantages or disadvantages of 

 having more than one queen in the 

 hive. We can read the details in 

 "Gleanings" of how he introduces them. 



Mr. Selser: Let us have the state- 

 ment of one who did this. We would 

 like to know what points of success 

 he gives for it. I am in ignorance of 

 that. 



The President: As I understand 

 from the reading of the letter, the 

 points of advantage are that in sea- 

 son a large number of young bees are 

 reared, whereas if one queen was in 

 the hive there would be a smaller 

 number. He is able to meet the honey 

 flow with a larger number of bees in 

 the spring; by virtue of the plurality 

 of queens he is^ready to commence 

 the season with more bees. 



