Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-05-11
MEETING OF BEE-KEEPERs,


MEETING OF BEE-KEEPERS.
A Small Attendance-Stateo of tho Bee In
terest-TOpics Discussed.
The Lancaster county bee keepers So
ciety met at the Black Horse hotel, North
Queen street, yesterday afternoon at
o'clock
The president being absent, Mr.. 1. G..
Martin, of Earl, was called to the chair.
Reports Of the condition of the bees be-
ing called for, Mr.. Martin stated that he
had wintered 50 colonies on summer
stands that all of them stood the winter
very well, not single colony being lost.
He was not obliged to feed them this
spring, and they are at present strong.
active, and almost ready to swarm. He
considered the prospect of full crop OF
honey very good.
Mr.. Elias Hershey, of Paradise, win,
tered 81 hives, of which number he lost
two by starvation. The others got
through in good condition but none OF
them have yet swarmed. He has heard OF
some hives in the neighborhood that have
already swarmed.
Mr.. John Eitemiller, of Strasburg, win.
tered 26 hives and had the misfortune to
lose of' them-the others being in good
condition, with promise to yield a good
crop Of honey.
John S. Mellinger, of Strasburg, wiz
tered IS colonies on summer stands, with
out packing. He lost three colonies-all
pf fban, Gnuinr t1,oir in, hn
fall.
\ discussion ensued as to the best method
of introducing a new queen into Il hive.
Mr.. Martins plan was to remove the old
queen and at once introduce the new one,
placing her in a wire cage. At the end of
"a hours he released her from the cage,
and watches to see whether the bees treat
her kindly. If they do not, he again
cages the queen, smokes the hive, and at
the end of "A hours again liberates her,
and repeats this operation until the colony
accepts her.
Mr.. Eitemiller's plan was to remove the
old queen place the new one i'll a cage.
two by four inches, and close the aperture
with honey and comb. If the queen eats
through the comb within three days she
will be all right. If not he open the cage
and leaves her out. In fifteen cases in
which he adopted this plan he did not lose
a queen, he had put i'll the queens as early
as May and as late as August.
The question was further discussed by
Messrs. Hershey, Mellinger and Martin.
''Why is it that the bees at the present
time are engaged in killing off the
drones 90 was asked by a member ; and
another member answered that it was be-
cause of the scarcity of honey flowers.
1t was stated that a Lancaster county
bee-keeper had found queen at the en-
trance of a hive, stiff, helpless and appar-
emily nearly dead. He took her into the
house, warmed her up and when she re-
vived put her into the hive again, which
she entered and was received by the bees.
Mr.. Eitemiller believed the queen was
all old and almost worthless one and had
probably been expelled by her subjects.
- Is it :justiiable to invest in 81 queens?"
was the next question discussed. Mr..
Mellinger believed that it was good in
vestment whenever Italian queens could
be secured and bad investment when the
queens were of the black or hybrid varie-
ties He added that where different kinds
of bees are bred by the same apiarist, it is
almost impossible to get pure Italian
queens.
After an informal discussion on the pro-
priety of longer keeping up the organiza-
ton of the society, owing to the small
number of bee-keepers who patronized it,
it was resolved to hold Oh little longer,
and on motion the society adjourned to
meet at the same place on the second Mon
day of August.