126 



TWELFTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



in the clover season; we want all the 

 brood we can get until the honey flow 

 starts and then slow down. 



Mr. Pyles^ — Locality has everything to 

 do with it. In the vicinity of Chicago, 

 and practically all down the State of 

 Illinois to the center, there is a great 

 deal of sweet clover, and you must have 

 a force of bees at work to take care 

 of the clover. If you stop brood rear- 

 ing at the beginning of white clover 

 you must necessarily have diminished 

 your force of bees to take care of that 

 honey. I want brood rearing to con- 

 tinue from the time they start in the 

 spring; I make a special effort to keep 

 the bees rearing brood right along. I 

 am. in the comb honey business and it 

 take 40 to 80 thousand to gather a 

 crop of section soney, and I must have 

 that number of bees to get the crop 

 ot' honey from the white clover; after 

 that, the more bees I have the merrier. 



Mr. Dadant — Locality has a great 

 deal to do with it. Mr. Bull speaks of 

 white clover; he wants to urge the 

 1 rood rearing in the early part of the 

 season liecause he wants producers and 

 he is after bees and he gets them. As 

 soon as the tin-te comes when there are 

 going to be consumers instead of pro- 

 ducers he wants to cut down the brood 

 rearing. We don't want to have a lot 

 of loafers there to eat a lot of our 

 honey; Mr. Bull is right in his locality 

 as to what he does, and Mr. Pyles, in 

 his. 



When they cut down their lirood 

 rearing, as soon as the white clover is 

 on — how long is that white clover flow 

 going to last? We are like Mr. Pyles — • 

 we keep our brood rearing going along 

 in full blast; sometimes white clover 

 lasts two weeks; if it were only two 

 weeks it would be all right to cut down, 

 but if it is like it was' one year, eleven 

 weeks, we had better have brood rear- 

 ing going right along, especially as we 

 have fall flow coming along the last 

 of August. 



Pres. Huffman — As a rule people who 

 live in a locality where there is mostly 

 white clover, they know about the life 

 of that plant for honey and for that 

 reason thej^ work accordingly. 



Wintering Bees. 



"Would" you under any conditions 

 winter an unusually strong, powerful 

 colony in two story, 16 or 18 hive 

 frames, single or double wall?" 



Pres. Huffman — I know of a colony 

 wintering out of doors without any 



protection without any loss; they were 

 in two story hives; they were in 

 a fairly protected location, but in 

 single walled hives. 



Mr. Cavanagh — That is the secret of 

 sucess, to winter in a sheltered loca- 

 tion; if I had paid attention to that 

 I would have been dollars ahead. 



Mr. Bruner — I am wintering 12 frame 

 hives, 2 story, lower frame with frame 

 crossways; hive practically square; it 

 is almost impossible for a very strong 

 breeze to get up in the brood nest in 

 the second story with those frames 

 crosis-ways the hive; I am hoping for 

 results. 



Mr. Dadant — In the matter of loca- 

 tion: Our home j'ard and one of our 

 other yards is located favorably; one 

 on the slope facing south, a hill in front 

 of it; it is practically in a little valley 

 hy itself; that yard had the same pack- 

 ing, exactly, and had worse stores than 

 some of the others that were on the 

 prairie; it came through with less than 

 10 per cent loss, while we lost 50 and 

 60 per cent of our colonies where they 

 were in the open prairies and where the 

 wind could get at them. 



Mr. Pyles — Along this same line — 

 other things being taken into considera- 

 tion (there are some things we don't 

 know about and we are guessing at); 

 I am using a sectional hive; I have 

 largely my own system of handling 

 bees. When the honey flow comes, I 

 raise up the front of the hive and put 

 in 2 in. block; ordinarily at the end 

 of the honey flow I let the hive down: 

 This spring when going through my 

 bees, for the first time I found colo- 

 nies frozen to death; the bees in a 

 cluster, or two clusters. 



There was a colony with a 2 in. 

 block in front all winter, with oil cloth 

 on top and cover. I said I will let this 

 down so that the bees can't rob it; 

 and I heard a noise, and there was as 

 strong a colony of bees as I want, so 

 it is true we can't always tell. 



Pres. Huffman — I have read similar 

 evidence as to that in regard to the 

 top of the hive being open and they 

 came through all right. 



Mr. Kneser — Have you any experi- 

 ence with a tight board fence as a shel- 

 ter ? 



Pres. Huffman — I think it would be 

 all right if you had it so it would 

 keep out the storm and wind. I have 

 heard some say a tight board fence is 

 detrimental; that the wind will go over 



