Show BEEKEEPERS CONVENTION CONVEN-TION I SALT LAKE April Sth 1832 Editors Herald The Territorial BeeKeepers Association As-sociation assembled at the Council House April 6th 1SS2 President A M Musser presiding Salt Lake County was represented by YicePresident Samuel McKay E Stevenson and others Davis County by M T Porter Weber County by County Bee Inspector R M Birch Box Elder County by Chas Connely county inspector Tooele County by Secretary T W Lee and John McClame Sanpete Dountv bv C A Mnc1n i j Letters were read from various parts of the territory Mrs Annie C Woodberry of St George Washington Wash-ington County writes that in the I spring of 1881 she had forty five hives of bees increased sixteen 1 lost five during the summer leaving i fiftysix in good condition had I taken 2200 pounds of honey mostly from top boxes No disease of any kind in the place Mr John Price of Washington Washington County writes March 26th 1882 Six years ago I began i beekeeping with one swarm and I i now 1 have eightyeight hives of i bees in good condition have lost six I swarms by bee moth no foul brood in this place There are 175 hives of bees in Washington no trouble I wintering on summer stands under shed roofs to shield them from our i hot Dixie sun We average seventy five pounds of honey to each hive i but I have taken 162K pounds from one hive i Mr Silas Richards of Union Salt Lake County writes March 27th that they have eleven beekeepers there had sixtyseven hives but have lost twelve leaving a balance of fiftyfive this spring winter on summer stands generally cultivate natural swarming do not use extractor ex-tractor neither disturb the lower hive or brood nest use scarcely any bee rails or gloves Mr Joseph E Johnson writes from St George March 31st 1882 that there are about 500 colonies in Washington Kane and Iron counties coun-ties yielding from twenty to one hundred pounds to the colony honey varying from fifteen to twentyfive cents per pound The supply is equal to the demand Not a single case of foul brood has been known in these parts The best honey season there is is during May and June If there are late rains they have some fall bloom and as the winters are warm bees fly nearly every day Consequently there is liability to about twentyfive percent per-cent loss by starvation unless the bees are fed when supnlies are short President James Cullimore writes from Pleasant Grove Utah County that press of business prevents him trom giving a full report of the association as-sociation He has 115 colonies and has lost only one uu to this time wintered on summer stands After so long a winter honey is scarce in the hives Some in the neighbor hood have lost but few and others none of their bees Mr T W Lee says in Tooele City there are sixteen bee keepers and IOU colonies of Lees They were put into winter quarters on summer sum-mer stands Losses twentyfour leaving eightytwo stands in tolerable toler-able good condition No foul brood Bees are mostly hibrids Mr Charles Connely says as bee inspector he had destroyed twenty one colonies of foul brood in Box Elder County in one season and fourteen colonies the following season sea-son and on his return home expects to destroy others infected and try to rid the county of this dreadful pest He started with two stands and now has fortysix There are about 350 colonies in the county He wintered his b > es on summer Stands alimir four inched ntuirt fills pn with hay chaff or u straw urw Gives s upper ventilation puts a cloth over the lower hive keeps them dry and warm and has no trouble in wintering winter-ing Honey sells then at 20c per pound Bee Inspector E M Birch of Weber County said the county only paid him for destroying foul brood when he was called upon and as his calls were rather scarce he had not done much at it He winters bees on summer stands in shed puts cloth on lower hive and fills the up per box with hay They winter well Bishop C A Madsen of Gunni son Sanpete County said their bees although but few in number had wintered well and as he learned more about bees his interest increased in-creased Intended to progress in bee culture in Gunnison Mr X T Porter of Davis County said they had been sorely troubled with foul brood and consequently heavy loss He had lost his bees I but was starting again with better success He had placed chop feed near his hives and the bees worked wonderfully in it President Musser explained the law on foul brood YicePresident Samuel Mackey took pride in bee keeping and always al-ways had good success In wintering his bees until this very hard winter he had lost fiftysix out of eighty seven colonies He thought the severe frosts had cracked some of the honey combs and the damp of the hives had soured the honey sickening and killing many of the bees also many of the bees had been lost in flight on warm days thus weakening the colonies Foul brood vas imported into our country coun-try and has spread fearfully in many i places It must be destroyed if we would be successful with bees Most of his losses occurred in February ThinKs the losses in Salt Lake County will be over 50 per cent Mr William Egan said his expe rlence had been quite different this winter from that of any previous year He had only five stands of bees left alive out of forty For want of time he had neglected to pack his chaff hives last fall hence his loss Previously when he had protected his bees he lost scarcely anyEdward Stevenson said we must provide better winter quarters for our bees in order to insure success especially as our winters are so changeable in this high altitude He had placed some of his bees under un-der shed roofs packed with chaff with a movable front ten feet long and two feet wide leaving four inches back and front boxing the entrance leaving a passage for the bees throucrh the movable front The hot rays of the sun will not so easily cause the bees to fly until the air is sufficiently warm for them to return home again This makes a cheap chaff hive as six hives can be placed together in one packing and be kept warm until late spring thus inducing early brooding They must have upper ventilation and chaff cushions in upper box In Dixie scarce any bees die because of the cold The meeting was well attended and an increased desire to make Utah a success in bee culture was manifested that the land may flow with honey as it now does with milk Tne meeting adjourned until October Oc-tober 6th 7 p m at the same place Benediction by C A Madsen EDWARD STEVENSON Secretary |