MINNESOTA BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. 319 



disgusted bees when they swarm go to the tops of the highest 

 trees on the premises, and it comes right in the busy season 

 during haying and they allow them to go to the woods. 



C. Thielmann : I would like to ask if those men who make 

 nothing on bees are good for anything else? (Laughter.) 



Pres. Wilcox: Is it not a fact that those men who have so 

 many irons in the fire make a failure in the business? 



Mr. Ford: Our president says we do not want too many irons 

 in the fire. A man who goes into the bee business must attend 

 to that business, and it is so in any other business. 



Mr. Doudna : So far as I am personally concerned I would 

 rather have the prof ts from my bees than the best one hundred 

 acres of wheat in Douglas county. 



Question "Is stimulative feeding in spring desirable?" 



Pres. Wilcox: I will call upon Mr. Urie to answer that 

 question. 



Wm. Urie: I was in hopes you would call upon some one 

 else. I will try, however, to make a few remarks upon that 

 point. I can say that stimulative feeding in spring is a success 

 if properly done. My method I have used in my experience of 

 a great many years is to feed in troughs during the day, and if 

 that is properly done by an experienced hand there is no 

 danger. They come out every pleasant day, and I take honey 

 and thin it down pretty thin, say two-thirds water, and I put 

 into the troughs from one to two pails full and let the bees 

 come out and carry it back to the hives, and you will find if you 

 fill that in the morning about nine o'clock that they will come 

 out and carry it back in the hives, and there is no fighting in 

 the hives; but perhaps a new beginner had better not attempt 

 it. Do not commence feeding until nearly May. My advice 

 would be about the first of May, then feed a little every day, and 

 you certainly will have a stronger swarm the first of June. 



C. Thielmann: My experience in that line is just the reverse 

 of Mr. Urie's. The quieter and warmer I can keep my bees in 

 spring the better I succeed in getting large swarms when I 

 want them. All bees, if they have it in their hives, place their 

 food just where they want it exactly, and I alwaj^s prepare my 

 bees in the fall so they will have enough to last them till warm 

 weather comes, and there is no danger of killing the brood. It 

 seems to me with this stimulating feeding they overdo the 

 breeding part, and they have more brood than they can take 

 care of, and the consequence is that when a spell of bad weather 

 comes the young bees in the cells will die. I used to feed my 



