MINNESOTA BEE KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. 321 



Pres. Wilcox: I will say this: I have at present something 

 over 150 colonies. I do not feel able to go into any argument 

 or discussion over this matter to-night, but I will state a fact, 

 and that is that I have had but one swarm from which I did 

 not control the increase for three years, and if any of you will 

 take the pains to visit my apiary during swarming season, if I do 

 not prove to you that I control the increase I will give you 

 every swarm. 



Question. ' 'Is it practicable to catch the entire swarm on leav 

 ing the hive in swarming?" 



J. W. Murray: I do not catch the swarm at all; I catch the 

 queens and control the swarm. 



Mr. Doudna: I go for the queens, and when I see a swarm 

 come out, without getting excited, (I do not believe I get as 

 nervous as friend Taylor anyway) I take the queen up quietly, 

 and I once put three swarms into a hive like' Mr. Taylor. I 

 got over two hundred pounds of comb honey from those three 

 swarms. 



Question. "Is 50 degrees of heat too warm for wintering?" 



James Taylor: It is too warm. 



C. Thielmann: It is pretty well settled that from 40 to 45 de- 

 grees is too warm, but I believe we had some men, such as 

 Barber, who had it up to 90, and his bees came out all right. I 

 had a little experience when I had that sawdust house. In fact, 

 it got quite warm. We had a spell of close warm weather and 

 I happened to be away for three days, and I got uneasy before 

 I got home; I thought of the bees and knew it was getting too 

 warm for them. When I got home the first thing I did I went 

 to the bee house and I heard the bees roar before I was within 

 three rods. I opened the door and all the bees came right out 

 just as thick as the door would hold them. I shut it very 

 quickly ; I did not want them all out, went and got a light and 

 stepped in as quickly as I could, and there were the bees all 

 out on the hives and on the wall, and the whole thing was just 

 one mass of bees. There were about 130 colonies in the house, 

 and the house was 16x24. I dared not open the door because 

 they would all go out, so I opened up the ventilators. There 

 were thousands of bees over the whole house that hung 

 there and died, and the floor was covered an inch deep with 

 dead bees. So I know that 62 degrees is far too hot for bees 

 in winter. 



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