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ILLJNOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



113 



hives when you start in the fall; have 

 good winter conditions. 



If you have all the conditions as 

 good as you can get them, you will 

 find there will be lots of them that 

 will not be there. 



Question — ^What can be done with 

 the loafing colony in the fall? 



Mr. Wheeler — Give them more bees. 



President Miller — ^With bees hanging 

 out in front, I don't know how we 

 could give them more bees; when they 

 get ready to swarm they want to get 

 away so there won't be so many bees. 



Give them more ventilation — more 



room. 



Mr. Stewart — Break the capping of 

 the honey in the brood nest. 



Mr. Davis — Give them opening in the 

 center; take out the center comb and 

 place in there an empty comb or brood 

 foundation right in the center. It 

 will help. 



Mr. Williams — ^A good many years 

 ago they had a good honey flow near 

 me and I noticed whenever they 

 manipulated the bees they went to 

 work; I tried it. I took six colonies 

 and whenever they would get to loaf- 

 ing I would give them plenty of room, 

 always above. I would take them out 

 and shake them on the ground in front 

 of the hive. Mr. Hutchinson laughed 

 at me about it — about shaking the bees. 



Well, I don't know if that was what 

 did it or not; but with those six col- 

 onies I made 1,300 sections. 



The next three or four years were 

 bad years. I didn't shake any. But 

 always give them plenty of air, give 

 them plenty of room above is my 

 theory. 



A new swarm always gives best re- 

 sults — work harder and longer and 

 gather more honey. 



You can shake a colony into condi- 

 tion that will swarm and if you do 

 that you will cure them from loafing. 

 I am going to try it; I found it gave 

 good results in three or four colonies 

 —rot course it was not a good season. 

 These bees gave me twice the amount 

 of honey the others did. 



President Miller — ^I don't have any 

 loafing. Put the queen below with one 

 frame of brood; put the super above 

 the queen excluder; the rest is empty 

 comb or foundation; they will go to 

 work and work hard. — ^ 



Mr. Simmons — ^It has been my ex- 

 perience, and I seldom have it fail, to 



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stop loafing by giving more room and 

 plenty of ventilation; I seldom have it 

 fail. 



Mr. Coppin — Mr. President, do you 

 work for extracted or comb? 



President Miller — Extracted and 

 comb. 



Question — What is the best plan to 

 conrtol foul brood? 



President Miller — We have two 

 kinds of foul brood; suppose we dis- 

 cuss American first. What is the best 

 plan to control American foul brood ? 



Mr. Frank — I have had a little ex- 

 perience since I wrote that letter to 

 Dr. Miller. This last summer I think 

 I have cleaned up about all I have; it 

 took me about three years to do it. 

 The method I used in doing it of 

 course may be improved on; others 

 may have better methods but it 

 worked all right with me. The way I 

 did was to take the worst colony and 

 set it ofC by itself somewhere. Put 

 another story on top of that; all the 

 other foul brood frames I run across 

 on top of that; let the bees hatch out; 

 then take the frames away. In time I 

 had a pretty good colony. I cleaned 

 up 12 colonies that way this summer. 

 I did not shake the bees. I gave them 

 one frame of foundation; set them in 

 the middle of the hive and let them, 

 work on that possibly four days; then 

 took out the other frames and gave 

 them new foundation and let them 

 work on that a while. 



Then take out center frame and de- 

 stroy that. That was American foul 

 brood. 



With European foul brood I think 

 the only cure is to kill the queen. I 

 had a little experience in that. I had 

 one colony; they had both American 

 and European foul brood. I read so 

 much and heard so much about Dr. 

 Miller caging the queen and giving her 

 a rest for eight or ten days, and then 

 everything would come all right, I 

 took it for granted in caging the queen 

 the queen needed rest; I took this 

 queen and put her in queenless nu- 

 cleus; it was not long after that I 

 found disease followed her. 



Then I had another queen that I 

 was about to discard; I introduced her 

 into this colony where I had European 

 foul brood and it seemed that she 

 cleaned it right up; there was nothing 

 left of it any more. I did not shake 

 this; I took the frames away. 



I thought by griving them new foun- 



