BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
Secretary Knickerbocker--Some of my colonies have gathered ten pounds of honey from buckwheat per day. Another year we had eight acres of buckwheat and I don't think all our bees gathered two pounds of honey from it.
Mr. Root--The basswood tree is valuable for bees, and I have planted 4,000 trees on ten acres. They may not pay for bees, but I think they will for timber.
Mr. Dickinson--Some years the basswood blossoms freely but yields no honey. This may not occur once in ten years, but you will find it so sometimes. The supply of honey depends on climatic conditons. It is driven back sometimes, as is the sap in a tree, by cold weather.
Mr. Foster--Should we not use the word linden instead of basswood?
Mr. Root--In some localities one term is preferred, and in other places another.
Mr. Dickinson--Let us talk and speak United States. Linden is a German term.
J. H. Taylor, Ilion--There is a great difference in the locality as regards the quantity of honey produced. This year the bees failed to get honey from buckwheat near Ilion, but later at Jordanville the same bees, when I took them there. worked in the plant freely. I find that they will gather honey from buckwheat on the hills when they will not in the Mohawk valley.
Mr. Root--How many have succeeded in increasing the yield of honey the sense of this meeting that it does not pay to raise plants for honey.
Mr. Dickinson moved. by way of amendment, that it was the sense of the meeting that it does not pay to enclumber cultivated lands with weeds for the sake of honey. The amendment was accepted by Mr. Aspinwall, and the motion carried.
Miscellaneous topics.
Miscellaneous topics for discussion were then declared in order.
Mr. Aspinwall--It seems to me it has been proved this year that there is something else than climatic changes that effect the yield of honey. The conditions were apparently favorable for producing honey, but the yield was light.
President Clark--My experience with buckwheat has been that fifteen years ago I got a good yield, but since that time I have not been able to get a good yield from that source. I presume my bees get a little buckwheat honey but consume it.
Mr. Dickinson--I. Scofield has had an apiary at Chenango Bridge in a buckwheat country, and where he once had a large yield of honey he now gets but little. Bees work very little after middav. If the night has been warm and a fall of dew follows, the conditions are favorable for the bees.
Mr. Root--We are satisfied that buckwheat is worth a good deal for brood combs if not for honey.
Mr. Dickinson--How can you distinguish buckwheat honey late in the fall from that from other sources.
Mr. Root--From the odor.
Mr. Aspinwall--The demand for buckwheat honey in our part of the state is greater than for clover honey.
Mr. Knickerbocker--It seems to me you can work up a trade on almost any kind of honey. It is the way the people are educated.
Mr. Dickinson--We prefer the buckwheat honey in our family to any other.
Mr. Knickerbocker--The bees in our section did not work on the basswood trees in 1886, but last year they did.
Mr. Root--How many have succeeded in increasing the yield of honey by moving their bees from one place to another?
Mr. Taylor related an instance where bees had been moved two miles and they had worked much better.
Mr. Root spoke of an instance where bees had worked on buckwheat in the afternoon.
Mr. Dickinson--Can any one report a yield from sumach?
Mr. Knickerbocker--Mr. Jackson of Deposit says he gets a good yield of honey from sumach every year.
We have a little in our place and it yields very well.
two rows of forty-two in each, making eighty-four pounds in a hive, and have noticed that the latter sections were filled by the bees about as soon as the smaller ones.
Mr. Bettsinger--The advantage of the larger sections was that the bees could use their extra heat. The larger the package the greater amount of honey until you reach the capacity of your colony.
Mr. Winter inquired if Mr. Dickinson had any experience with the open cells.
Mr. Dickinson--If you can tell how you call fill outside cells, the difference will be considerable. Sections should be about i 34 inches in thickness.
Mr. Winters--We have no trouble in getting our sections filled, whether their sides are opened or closed.
A brief discussion, on foundations for combs in sections, followed. The sentiment was in favor of having the sections fastened on the sides.
Mr. Root said that the sections were soiled less where modern separators were used.
Mr. Bettsinger used tin and wood separators side by side for years, and he found that the honey was whiter where the wooden ones were used. The wire cloth is still better.
Mr. Dickinson--The bees will not go to work as early in the day where a tin separator is used as they will where it is of wood.
A recess was then taken until 7 o'clock.
Evening Session.
uses of foundation.
In the evening the association convened shortly after 7 o'clock. The first thing on the programme was the receiving of members.
The topic of discussion was ''Does it pay to use full sheets of foundation in the brood chamber?''
Mr. Root spoke briefly on the subject and said in Michigan perforated zinc is used extensively. The speaker told of the experience of Messrs. Hutchinson, Boardman and others in the use of the foundations.
W. L. Coggeshall thought it paid to use the foundation.
Mr. Foster said he had always used full sheets, and his bees never go into winter quarters with over fifteen or twenty pounds of honey.
Mr. Bettsinger said that the foundations had been used a long time. For extracted honey full sheets of foundation should be used.
Secretary Knickerbocker thought locality had a good deal to do with the matter, and in this connection read an extract from a letter from Ira Barber. Mr. Barber was strongly in favor of using the foundation. He had a good crop of honey this year, whereas his neighbors had scarcely enough to keep their bees. Mr. Knickerbocker said he used the Quimby standing frames and with good effect. Taking the average of the season right through he would not do without the foundation if it cost a dollar a pound.
Mr. Aspinwall--In Cuba they use full sheets, but of course they work only for extracted honey.
R. L. Crocker--I have lived some swarms for full sheet, some on empty combs and some without any. Those that made the most were hived on empty frames. I found no-pollen until the third box, but that was covered with it. The bees were hived in the alsike clover season. I had 'nearly thirty acres of this clover which blossoms some ten days before the white. I use the Quimby hive, but have perhaps forty Headen hives, from which I have had good results.
Mr. Aspinwall--Does not the value. of the foundation depend on the weight? Is not that of six or eight feet to the pound the best?
Secretary Knickerbocker--Some of the most successful honey producers of the State, L. C. Root for one, prefer that of four feet to the pound to be used without wire, but I prefer lighter. Mr. Foster--Can the foundation be so used as to prevent drone comb?
Secretary Knickerbocker--I have had the bees tear down the side walls and work over the drone comb.
President Clark--Were the broods that Mr. Crocker hived on empty THE BEE-KEEPERS' MAGAZINE.
frames in as good condition when winter came as others?
Mr. Crocker--They were not, for they had no honey left.
The prevailing opinion seemed to be that full sheets of foundation should be used in the brood chamber.
Miscellaneous topics were then discussed.
Mr. Root--Carbolic acid has been successfully tried by Mr. Cheshire.
Mr. Aspinwall--The starvation process, and boiling the hives, is the most successful method of killing the germs.
Mr. Root--We use salt and water very freely in the front of our hives.
Secretary Knickerbocker said he once
The scixty-six colonies of bees sugar
srup during the winter and had only
one left in the spring.
A. I. Root, in response to a query
from the president, said he thought a
pound of sugar equal to a pound of
honey for supporting bees. Granulated sugar is better than honey
for this purpose.
Mr. Forster--There is nothing to
hinder a man from feeding his bees
sugar, but they ought to be fed honey.
There is nothing to hinder bees taking
sugar into the sections. I believe
bees carry sugar and syrup into their
cells and cell it over. I have stopped
using sugar for keeping bees. California honey is as cheap as sugar and
just as good for the bees. Why not
use it?
Mr. Root--I believe bee-keepers are
honest as the general run of man-
kind and a little better than the average,
if they are not angels. Mr. Hutchinson
feeds his bees, and others at the convention have said they diu the same
thing, but there is no complaint. It
does not pay to buy extracted honey
at eight cents a pound even if you can
get eighteen cents for the honey in the
comb. I have tried sugar to see how
it would work, but we all recognized
that the honey made was from sugar.
When broods are about to starve, however, granulated sugar can be safely
and economically used to feed them.
It is safer to feed sugar in the case of
foil broods than to use honey. Heating honey to the boiling point for
about six minutes would obviate the
trouble though.
Mr. Eptsinger--Salt cures and prevents foil brood. Professor McLane
has tried it successfully. I have cured
the trouble in this way effectually and
cheaply.
The trouble in this way effectually and
Mr. Crocker--They were not, for
they had no honey left.
successfully tried by Mr. Cheshire.
The prevailing opinion seemed to be
Salycilic acid had also been used to
that full sheets of foundation should
kill the germs.
be used in the brood chamber.
Mr. Aspinwall--The starvation process, and boiling the hives, is the most
successful method of killing the germs.
Mr. Root--We use salt and water
very freely in the front of our hives.
Scretery Knickerbocker said he once
sugar has ever been mentioned in
the existence of foil broods in their
the spring.
adulterated honey.
The question of
adulterating honey has been dropped
entively. I have not seen anything
in the New York stores that looked at
all suspicious. I don't think there is
any adulterated honey on the market
to-day.
Mr. Root--There is a standing offer
of \(\$,\!\!50 THE BEE-KEEPERS' MAGAZINE.
after I have sold what I want to and allow me five cents a pound? I think not. Therefore, taking honey away and feeding sugar instead is not advisable.
Mr. Foster--That is what it is coming to unless something is done.
Mr. Root--It is a long time since bee-keepers' journals advocated this way of doing business.
President Clark--There are some people whom you can hardly induce to believe that extracted honey is pure.
Mr. Root--Some persons prefer the extracted honey in a candided condition.
An extract from the _American Grocer_ was read in which it was stated that in New Jersey forty-two samples of bottled honey were analyzed and it was ascertained that out of thirty-one samples put up by packing houses only six were pure. The samples purchased of farmers, however, were all pure.
Mr. Root--I fear there is a mistake about some of those samples examined. The state chemist of Ohio says it is a difficult matter to tell when honey is adulterated. Bees gather every variety of honey.
Mr. Aspinwall--With the polariscope you can detect the presence of five per cent. of glucose. **A** point in the article just read is that, whereas the honey procured of dealers was nearly all found to be adulterated, that purchased of bee-keepers was all pure.
There is a law against adulterating honey, and can not be induce the state chemist to analyze honey sold on the market? I back down from my position taken in regard to the honey sold in New York, for I may have seen adulterated honey there and not have recognized it. I think this showing in the _American Grocer_ is the worst I ever saw. The honey sold by commission men, though, is generally pure.
other topics.
Mr. Aspinwall--The government has recently granted a patent for making an article taste like maple sugar by introducing a decoction of hickory bark.
The question of "Artificial Fertification" was on the programme for dis
honey-bee in this respect, is another proof of the correctness of the evolution theory. This gland is very deficient in old worker bees, which shows that nursing is not their business. It is the food furnished by these glands that the workers feed the queen. If she had to eat honey and pollen, and digest it herself, she could never lay twice her weight in eggs in one day. Another set of glands furnishes a fluid that changes the character of the nectar gathered and changes the cane-sugar to glucose. This glucose may be chemically the same as commercial glucose, but there are other tests that show it to be different.
(_To be continued._)
CONVENTION OF THE EASTERN MICHI-CAN BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. Annual Meeting Dec., 17th-Next Convention at Jackson. The annual meeting of the South-Eastern Michigan Bee-keepers' Association was held in the Supervisors room of the court house at Adrian, December 15th, 1887.
forenoon session.
Meeting called to order by President Howes. The Secretary's report was read and accepted, as was also was that of the treasure. The report of the standing committee to confer with the executive committee of the county agricultural society, was given by Mr. D. G. Edmiston, who reported that the aiparian department of the premium list, of the Agricultural Society had been placed in the control, of the association and that a fairly liberal amount had been allowed the department, which had been arranged in a suitable list for this department. Some discussions followed the report, relative to striking out the part of foot note referring to bee-hives, feeders, and queen cages and to honey being raised in the county, which resulted in a motion for a committee to be appointed to revise the premium list of the department and to make necessary arrangements with the Fair Society. It was also voted that the portion of the food note mentioned above should be stricken out. The committee as above mentioned is: Mr. H. D. Cutting, Clinton, Mich. Mr. A. M. Gander, Adrian, Mich. Mr. D. G. Edmiston, Adrian, Mich. The annual membership fees having been raised from 25 cents to 50 cents at the last meeting, were voted back to the former amount. The annual dues were collected and new members received, fifteen in number as follows: H. D. Cutting, Clinton, Mich. H. Scranton, West Toledo, Ohio. D. G. Edmiston, Adrian, Mich. A. D. Armstrong, Hudson, Mich. E. Goodrich, Hudson, Mich. Dr. Sam't Stevenson, Morenci, Mich. A. Combs, Morenci, Mich. D. C. Cleghorn, Lyons, Ohio. E. Hubbard, Fayette, Ohio. George M. Deer, Riga, Mich. Rufus Baker, Fairfield, Mich. C. J. F. Howes, Adrian, Mich. A. M. Gander, Adrian, Mich. E. W. Allis, Adrian, Mich. H. Barber, Adrian, Mich. Only a partial statistical report was secured showing as follows: Number colonies, in spring of '87, 307. Number of colonies in fall of 1887, 377. Number of pounds wax produced in 1887, 173. Number of pounds comb honey produced, 2,515. Number of pounds extracted produced, 5.405. Total honey produced, 7,920. Average price obtained per pound 14 cents. Average yield per colony, spring count, 2534 pounds. Number of queens sold, 9!. A committee of three on exhibits was appointed and the meeting was adjourned to 1 o'clock p. M. AFTERNOON session. Meeting called to order. President Howes in the chair. There was considerable discussion on the subject of producing both comb and extracted honey in the same apiary by Messrs.
## 5 The Bee-Keepers' Magazine.
horn favored the appointment of a good business man to look the markets over, and open up avenues by which the honey in the districts might be disposed of. Mr. Armstrong also favored Mr. Cleghorn's idea.
Ex-President Howes, illustrated how certain parties not posted, brought their honey to market, selling it at less than its value, and when asked why they sell at less than what it is worth, and told what can be obtained for such honey, seem surprised and want to know where they can get such prices, or its value.
He also stated that said parties will not take a bee paper and keep posted as that would cost something, and every penny saved is so much clear gain, but they go on losing dollars and tens of dollars, all for the lack of a little extra energy and to save the small sum it would cost to keep posted, yet the same thing happens year after year. The opinion seemed to prevail that those interested should use every influence possible to inform and induce such parties to keep posted.
A vote of thanks was tendered for the use of the room in court house, and for janitor's services.
Adjourned to meet at Jackson, with State Bee-Keepers Association.
A. M. Gander, Sec'y.
North American Bee-Keepers' Society.
(Continued.)
N. N. Betsinger -- The crates are soiled by being put on a dirty floor in some depot before shipment; then they are placed in a dirty car, from that they are loaded upon a dirty day, and in all this handling the dirt is rubbed from one crate to another.
The convention then adjourned until 9 a. M., on Friday.
During the afternoon session of Friday Mr. R. L. Taylor, of Lapeer, Mich., read an essay upon
Wintering Bees in the Northern States.
The only thing necessary to bees in order to secure their perfect wintering, can be expressed in one word--comfort. In a climate warmer than that
## 1 The Bee-KeeperS' Magazine.
egin{tabular}{p{142.3pt}|p{142.3pt}} \hline \hline give a full hive-entrance ; in-doors I remove the bottom-board entirely, not for ventilation proper, but that the bees may the more readily expel moisture,. & stores. Some apiaries are, no doubt, placed where the natural stores obtained are always of a quality to be relied upon, but mine, I have no doubt, are not thus fortunate. The reasons for my conclusions, that improper food is the prime cause of our winter losses, I draw from the following facts, which are within. my own experience and knowledge : \ \hline \end{tabular}
In the autumn of 1879 I had i5 colonies, and as that was a year of great scarcity I fed each colony largely of sugar syrup, and wintered them on the summer stands. In the spring a pint cup would have held all the dead bees from all the colonies.
,Having purchased a few colonies in the spring of 1880, I began the disastrous winter of 1880-81 with 60 colonies ; to 30. of these I fed a limited amount of sugar syrup, and of these 16 survived; of the 30 colonies not fed, 3 survived.
For the present I pass over the next three winters, to the still more disastrous winter of 1884-85, only saying that during the fall of 1883, as an experiment, I supplied a few colonies with sugar stores, and those thus prepared wintered so much better than those having honey stores, that in the autumn of 1884 I gave all my 200 colonies empty combs, and fed them. syrup. The result was, that while all the other bees with but few exceptions in that part of Michigan perished, there was not a colony of mine in a normal condition, but so far as I could judge, wintered perfectly. These bees wereintered in a cellar.
During the following winter my loss was about 12 per cent. of bees managed in every way precisely the same, except that their stores were partly honey and partly syrup, and this though the winter was much more favorable for the sucessful winter of bees.
During the next winter, that of 1886-87, I had in two collars at home nearly 40 colonies. Of these about two-thirds had honey stores exclusively, but the other third being in single sections of the new Heddon hive, were almost destitute of honey, and consequently were supplied with
## 11 The BEE-KEEPERS MAGAZINE
DETROIT.
Best white comb honey in one pound sections continues to be quoted at 18(r)20c. Extracted 10(r)11c.
Beeswax--22(r)23c.
M. H. Hunt.
_Bell Branch, Yam., 1888._
CHICAGO.
The business during the past month in honey has been light, only taken in a small way. The prices remain at 18(r)20c., for the best grades of 11b section; 21b sections or thereabouts 15c. The larger shipments are from the East. Extracted honey 7(r)10c., for white grades; 6(r)7 for dark. Beeswax 23.
R. A. Burnett,
161 South Water street.
## 12 The BEE-KEEPERS MAGAZINE
## 13 A N T S.
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VANTED-A purchaser for pure Italian Bees in best hives, double-walled in winter, eight frames 15% x 15%, at 85 per colony; or same in light, strong shipping boxes, 75c. less. Liberal discount on large lots. Dr. G. W. Young, Lexington, Mo.
VANTED-to sell for less than cost a limited number of Receets for making C. D. Bee vector, which protects the teess from the following troublesome insects: Ants, Toads, Spiders, etc. Price contents. Address
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Sheldon, Vt.
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