ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



4i 



year at the Chicago-Northwestern 

 Convention he said he did not use bee- 

 escapes; he said he smoked them down. 

 I would like to know how he prevents 

 robbing. 



Mr. France — Different localities make 

 these differences. The bulk of our 

 honey is removed from the hives before 

 Mr. Dadant's honey season begins; the 

 conditions of our locations are differ- 

 ent — although I have tried the bee- 

 escapes and am now using them some 

 in the home yard; in this apiary of one 

 hundred or one hundred and twenty 

 colonies, we calculate to extract all 

 those combs in the whole apiary in one 

 day. The same is true of each out 

 apiary. ^ 



Boys go in pairs to a hive; one opens 

 the hive, and at once the other puffs 

 a little smoke over the honey combs to 

 start the bees below. With hive tool 

 the combs are quickly lifted out, and 

 as they come high enough the bees are 

 brushed off onto combs below, using a 

 soft German brush the width of the 

 comb, making clean sweep of entire 

 comb on both sides at the same time. 

 The combs are placed in common hive 

 body on wheelbarrow and wheeled to 

 bee-house in exchange for fresh ex- 

 tracted combs, so that when entire 

 apiary is extracted no set of combs are 

 in same hive as they were before being 

 extracted. 



I certainly favor removing the bees 

 with bee-escapes where the operator 

 can place escapes on the evening before 

 extracting, but for my several out 

 apiaries, each several miles from home. 

 It is not practical. If I had an auto, 

 or quick means of travel, likely all my 

 out apiaries would have bee-escapes in 

 use. ! ""^ 



From 3 to 5 minutes is plenty of 

 time for anj'- pair of boys to take off 

 a full set of ten extracting combs and 

 return as many extracted combs. 



L. C. Dadant — Do you return the 

 combs at the same time if there is no 

 honey flow? 



Mr. France — There is a honey flow 

 on w^hen we extract. 



L. C. Dadant — That makes all the 

 difference in the world. 



Pres. Dadant — Have you ever had 

 any one complain of the taste of smoke 

 in the honey? 



Mr. France — Never but once. I got 

 a .shipment of honey at one time; I 

 bought enough to finish making a car- 



load of comb honey; and sent it East 

 for fancy trade. After a while I got 

 word that the honey was the finest 

 they had received for years and they 

 wanted another carload. Before I got 

 that second carload ready, I got notice 

 not to ship — to wait. There was one 

 lot in. that first carload that had a 

 flavor of smoke; and it had been re- 

 turned by the consumers; they stated 

 they could not handle it, and that if 

 the next carload had some of that 

 smoke flavored honey — they did not 

 want it. This man had smoked his 

 bees down with tobacco smoke; I in- 

 vestigated and found that it had 

 flavored the honey. 



In smoking our bees, t never noticed 

 that it affected the taste of the honey; 

 I don't believe in using much smoke; 

 it is not necessary. 



Mr. Stone — What kind of a box do 

 you have on your wheel barrow? 



Mr. France — A common hive body. 



L. C. Dadant — Tour reason and 

 method are different from ours; our 

 honey is all of it taken off when the 

 honey flow is over; I can remember 

 but one or two years when we were 

 able to extract during the honey flow. 

 Father probably remembers more than 

 that. 



I had one experience— the first year 

 I was in business with father; we 

 shipped a barrel of honey to a man in 

 the east and he shipped it back, stating 

 that it tasted of smoke. We had ex- 

 tracted with the use of smoke that 

 year, but I think it came from the un- 

 capping can; honej'' will taste more of 

 smoke there than anywhere else. 



Mr. Baxter — I extracted here last 

 August and put the supers back as 

 fast as I extracted. 



L. C. Dadant — But you had the honey 

 flow! 



Mr. Baxter — In my home apiary 1 

 am twenty-five feet from the public 

 road, where people are traveling' con- 

 stantly, and I extract at the end of 

 the season, and brush the bees off; 

 I never had any complaint from any- 

 body toeing stung yet. I extracted two 

 apiaries this fall, not over three or four 

 weeks ago, and not a bit of robbing; 

 I don't give them a chance; I can take 

 supers off in five minutes. While I 

 cah take them oft' pretty fast myseif; 

 most of my helpers are rather slow. 

 I never tried the bee-escape, but I am 

 going to try it, ■ • 



