■V')'^ 



88 



SIXTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



other portion of the United States, and 

 I would not be at all surprised if some 

 of the bee-keepers here in Illinois 

 would not in time like to go south. 



But, if those fellows are allowed to 

 scatter American and European foul 

 brood, you won't want to go i^down 

 there. 



The question is, What is your fu- 

 ture? 



I believe it will be for the benefit of 

 the industry at large. 



President Baxter — All those in favor 

 of the motion, signify it by saying Aye. 



Motion carried; resolution adopted. 



President Baxter — There is to be a 

 committee appointed. I will reserve 

 the names and send them to you. 



Question — ^Who are some of the large 

 bottlers of extcacted honey, who buy 

 extracted honey in small and large 

 quantities? 



President Baxter — Mr. Root, that 

 question is directed to you. 



Mr. Root — Mr. Muth, of Cincinnati. 

 Mr. Weaver, of Cincinnati, is one of 

 the large bottling centers of the United 

 States. Perhaps as much honey in 

 bulk goes to Cincinnati as anywhere in 

 the United States. The Root Company 

 is engaged in bottling; Mr. Bull, of 

 Valparaiso, Indiana; the San Fran- 

 cisco Honey Producers' Association; 

 the A. I. Root Co., of Los Angeles and 

 Philadelphia; the Sioux City Honey 

 Producers' Association, buying large 

 amounts of honey. 



I could give you the list of a dozen 

 more if I had conne prepared. Two 

 glass factories I heard of yesterday 

 had sold thirty carloads of small glass 

 jars for honey alone; that represents 

 only two of the glass factories. That, 

 in connection with the amount of 

 honey that is going into the trenches, 

 is what is making extracted honey 

 scarce. 



This means extracted honey is go- 

 ing up. It also means that those fel- 

 lows that are bothered with the 

 swarming problem can keep on with 

 extracting, and the other fellows bet- 

 ter follow suit. 



Question — What make of hive will 

 prevent bridging between the brood 

 chambers and supers? 



President Baxter^Mr. Kildow? 



Mr. Kildow — The old box hive. 



Mr. Coppin — The hive with square 

 top bar, like on the Hoffman, with 



proper space between that and the 

 super, will prevent it. 



Mr. Kildow — What is the proper 

 spacing? 



Mr. Coppin — Maybe Mr. Kildow 

 crowds his bees too much, and, if you 

 do that, they will fill up every little 

 crevice. 



Mr. Pyles — I will tell you how any 

 hive can be handled: Use enamel 

 cloth, and put the super on top. 



Mr. Dadant — We used to use % inch 

 top bar. As the mill man and the lum- 

 ber man found lumber more scarce, 

 they made their % inch thinner; got 

 down very close to %; supposed to be 

 % inch lumber. We found we had 

 more poor combs than ever. We use 

 the loose hanging frame. Those nar- 

 now top bars gave us a lot of poor 

 combs. When I took hold of 105 hives, 

 of Langstroth hives, he had 1% inch 

 top bars. I was astonished at the 

 small number of bridges there were 

 between them and the supers. 



I concluded if your top bars are 

 thick enough, so that there is about 

 % inch between the top of the frames, 

 there would be very few bridges. 



If you make your toop bars quite 

 wide, leaving enough for free passage 

 of bees, you will have less bridges and 

 bar combs than otherwise. The nar- 

 rower your top bars will be the more 

 chance there will be for the bees to 

 build up. 



Make it not worth their while for 

 them to build in there, and I make 

 them big enough so they can ventilate 

 through it. 



Mr. Kildow — I got to racking my 

 head, and made frames 1% inch and 

 almost eliminated poor combs. I told 

 the Root Company I stopped the poor 

 combs, and they wrote me and told me 

 not to crow. 



Since then I have found that 1% 

 inch, V2 and % thick was a pretty good 

 preventive, and is as close probably as 

 we will ever get to it. 



President Baxter — I want % inch; 

 I would not have a wide bar for any- 

 thing. 



Mr. Coppin — If you run for comb . 

 honey, you would probably change 

 your mind. When we used "V" shaped 

 top bar, the bees did not seem to ! 

 know where to stop building comb. ! 

 We would have all kinds of trouble , 

 producing comb honey with a square ; 

 top bar. We are troubled with scarcely 



N, 



