ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



47 



Mr. Baxter — No, sometimes it is 25 

 or 30 below zero. 



Pres. Dadant — I heard that question 

 discussed in Switzerland, and we could 

 no more agree there than here. Some 

 prefer to leave them sticky all winter; 

 while others must have them cleaned 

 up by the bees in the fall. 



Mr. Duby — You have been talking 

 a great deal about extracting honey; I 

 want to talk about comb; I ''have had 

 a little experience in putting up un- 

 finished sections; in the fall we have 

 unfinished sections and do not know 

 w-hat to do with them. W^hat I have 

 generally done is to cut the honey to 

 pieces and put it in glass Jars. 



If there was some way, or some 

 means by which we could use those 

 unfinished sections next spring, that 

 would interest me. 



Has any one had any experience in 

 this line? 



Pres. Dadant — Mr. Coppin can answer 

 that question. 



Mr. Oopin — ^We alv/ays extract quite 

 a number of them. 



Pres. Dadant — Tou mean run them 

 through an extractor? 



Mr. Coppin — Yes, we extract quite 

 a number; and we put some of them 

 in the center of the super, ajid the 

 next season the bees start more readily 

 to work in the super; but at the same 

 time we don't want to use very many 

 of them because the honey does not 

 look as good in old sections as in new 

 ones, from new foundations, but I think 

 it encourages the bees to start to work 

 in the supers. 



Tf there is one row of sections with 

 comb in, they will start there the first 

 thing, and! we always use a number 

 of them that way, but we see that it 

 does not go on the market for sale, 

 because it does not make so good an 

 appearance. 



Question — Do not the bees strengthen 

 the old combs by adding more wax 

 and are they not thicker? 



Mr. Coppin — I never noticed that; 

 the capings do not seem to be so white; 

 the cappings always seem to be darker 

 on the old than on the new. 



Of course I produce comb honey for 

 the market and we want it as white 

 as we can get it. 



Pres. Dadant — To what do you as- 

 cribe the dark capping? 



Mr. Coppin — To the comib being a 

 little darker frorrt'tiie year before. 



Pres. Dadant — They draw that comb 

 out and use some of that wax in the 

 capping ? 



Mr. Coppin — It must be that. They do 

 not look as nice as the new comb. 



Mr. Moore — I have used lots of un- 

 finished sections — the following sea- 

 son, and the cappings are just as white 

 as any comb, but the comb that has 

 been saved over, exposed to the air 

 and light, turns darker in color, and 

 that color shows through the honey 

 and cappings, so it does not make a good 

 marketable comb, but I think they are 

 worth the trouble of saving; they 

 simply make bait combs. 



Among the unfinished sections, we 

 find lots of sections with six or eight 

 ounces of honey and sealed over. I 

 have made it a practice to cut out 

 that honey and put it in a can or glass 

 jar, and run it full of extracted honey, 

 and it sells at a good price. Sections 

 that are half to two-thirds full and 

 mostly capped over will use all right 

 in that way. The sections that are 

 only partly built out and not sealed, 

 I put out in the fall and let the bees 

 clean the honey out, and save those 

 for bait combs next spring. 



Question — What is the trouble when 

 the bees swarm and the queen cells 

 do not hatch — is it foul brood? 



Pres. Dadant — Has any one had any 

 experience in this? Has any one had 

 queen coHs that do not hatch when 

 the bees swarm?' 



Mr. Moore — I bave examined foul 

 brood colonies this season that had 

 swtirnned and had queen cells and I 

 opened the queen cell and the larva 

 was dead. 



Pres. Dadant — I believe this is the 

 first case of that kind I have ever 

 heard. 



Mr. Coppin — I have seen a number of 

 cases where the larva has been dead 

 in the queen cell, that came of foul 

 brood. 



Mr. France — That would cause it; but 

 unless it is the feed, I cannot account 

 for it. At the flush of honey flow dis- 

 eased colonies start some queen cells 

 on drawn comb and 99' per cent of them 

 will prove to be dead. 



Mr. Kildow — I found this summer, in 

 fact the last two or three years, if the 

 colony was diseased, a good many of 

 thi'So aueen cells would not hatch. Then 

 again I found, where there didn't seem 

 to be any disease in the hive at all, 



