

ILrLINOIS STATE BEE KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION^ 



195 



Finland think that the American 

 methods are the best, from tihe results 

 that have 'been obtained from the 

 systems used by the most prominent 

 bee-keepers of the United States and 

 Canada, The American methods were 

 Imported to Finland mostly through 

 the Bee Journals, suoh as "Gleanings 

 in Bee Culture," "The Bee-Keepers' 

 Review," and "The Anaerican Bee 

 Journal." J think the editors of thos? 

 Bee Journals know tihat there are not 

 very many subscribers in Finland, 

 but that is due to the fact that there 

 are not many bee-keepers in Finland 

 who understand English enough to 

 read English bee-papers with p^o^i^ 

 Still, the few who are abie to read 

 them communicate with other bee- 

 keepers and tell them about the new 

 methods employed in America. 



Now, I think per<haps you would 

 like to know why I am here in Amer- 

 ica. I left Finland for a couple of 

 years. I made up my mind I would 

 cross the ocean and learn the modern 

 methods of bee-keeping here and 

 study here for two or three years, 

 and then go back and start in with 

 the old apiaries. Our climate is dif- 

 ferent from the climate in Canada and 

 the northern part of' the United 

 States; it is colder, and we have 

 longer winters and more snow. We 

 used to have very severe ' frosts in 

 tihe spring and fall; and the latest 

 reports tell me that in a large part of 

 Southern Finland there is practically 

 no clover crop; it is almost all spoiled 

 by the frost. Of course, there are 

 years when a bee-keeper can (have 

 surplus honey and enough to make 

 the business profitable, too. I heard 

 from a man iwho, this year, although it 

 is a poor season, has fifty pounds per 

 colony of white alsike honey. We 

 can depend upon two crops, tftie clover 

 honey and the heather honey. I don't 

 think there is any heather honey in 

 America to speak of, but almost 

 everybody knows that they have 

 heather honey in IJngland and Ger- 

 many, and in different parts of Eu- 

 rope. 



Mr. Stuart — How do you winter 

 your bees? 



Mr. Mecewltz — ^As far as the straw 

 skip method is concerned, these are 

 wintered out of doors. The skips are 

 provided with a mat of strsm, or I 

 "have seen tnem cover the hives with 

 snow, and it is supposed to ibe nearly 

 the best thing that there is. Of 



course, the ibee-keepers have to look 

 out for warmer weather and remove 

 the snow before it melts. I have 

 never heard of anybody who wintered 

 his bees in cellars. All our bees are 

 wintered outside. 



Mr. Stuart — -How long do you con- 

 fine them? 



Mr. Mecewitz — I think they have 

 the very first flig<ht in the spring, in 

 April, and some times earlier, perhaps; 

 and the last, I think, is about October.^ 

 It depends upon the season very 

 much. 



Mr. Cavanaugh — When your bees are 

 working on heather, are they any 

 crosser than when working on clover? 



Mr. Mecewitz — t have never noticed 

 thai the bees were crosser on heather 

 than any other crop. 



Mr. McEvoy — Have you foul brood? 



Mr. Mecewitz — Tes, but I am glad 

 to say we haven't any wax moths, and 

 we are not anxious at all to see them. 



Mr. Stuart — ^Do you extract heather 

 honey? 



Mr. Mecewitz — Yes, and we are 

 compelled "to perforate the old combs; 

 that is, we uncap with the uncapping 

 knife and use a pin brush, and put it 

 right through the comb, so that pretty 

 nearly every cell is perforated at the 

 bottom, so that the air can pass 

 through, and the honey comes out 

 easily. 



Mr. Pressler — Doesn't that seem to 

 injure the comb ? 



Mr. Mecewitz — ^It does somewhat, 

 (but if the comb is wired it won't hurt 

 it very much, and the bees fix it up 

 soon enough. We use . the shallow 

 frame mostly for extracting. I don't 

 know whether a deep frame would 

 stand it or not. 



Mr. Armstrong — Do you use any of 

 the Holterman hives over there? 

 (Laughter.) 



Mr. Mecewitz — No. I have seen a 

 ten frame. 



Mr. Jeffrey — For how long does this 

 heather plant blossom? 



Mr. Mecewitz — That depends on the 

 season, when it begins to bloom, I 

 think heather honey begins about the 

 middle of August and runs some times 

 till the middle of Septemtoer. Heather 

 honey is very much dependent on the 

 seasons. Some times we don't get it 

 at all. I heard one bee-keeper, say he 



