130 



TWELFTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE 



State Inspector always has claimed, 

 that when he found that condition it 

 was failing queens, but when one api- 

 ary will be that way and the next one 

 won't, it is not failing queens; they 

 don't all fail at once. 



To Get Propolis From Hands. 



"What is the best way to get pro- 

 polis from your hands? 



Mr. Cavanagh — Take a dull knife 

 and scrape off what you can get and 

 take lava soap and finish. 



Mr. Pyles — Kerosene is one of the 

 finest things I have tried. 



Mr. Lyman — There is another soap 

 called scat, put up in tin cans; it is 

 made here in Chicago, I think; it is a 

 good deal ahead of the lava soap. 



Pres. Huffman — I guess I have seen 

 it; there is a kind of grit in the soap. 



Mr. Bull — Most any of the automo- 

 bile soaps will do. 



Mr. Kannenberg — Even Dutch 

 Cleanser takes it off. 



Pres. Huffman — A good soap will re- 

 move it, but some are better than 

 others. 



Too Many Bees in a Hive. 



"Can a hive have too many bees in 

 it for best results in honey obtained?" 



Mr. Bull — They can't if it is in the 

 right time of the 5'ear. 



Mr. Pyles — And if conditions are 

 right — but if you had 100,000 bees in a 

 hive and conditions were not right, I 

 would rather have 30,000 and have con- 

 ditions right, even though the honey is 

 coming in. Some colonies will get 

 sluggish, or something, and will lay 

 around in great quantities, and an 

 expert would have his hands full to get 

 them started. Thei only thing you can 

 do is to shake them. 



Pres. Huffman— Tou consider a 

 "shook" swarm will kill the sluggish 

 ones, as you call them? 



Mr. Bull — Sometimes they are slug- 

 gish for a day or two and they will 

 then go to work. Sometimes for comb 

 honey — we shake the bees nearly all 

 out in front of the hive and alarm them 

 pretty well before we do, and when we 

 run them back in they will move 

 honey in and get a notion to go to 

 work; disturbing them and filling the 

 honey sacks full of honey will very 

 often give good results; as a last re- 

 sort we shake them. 



Mr. Lyman — ^I have done a good deal 

 of experimenting in the line of keeping 

 the bees together throughout the sea- 



son, and not allow swarming, and there 

 are a number of ways to do it; and 

 we run up against that proposition. I 

 believe there is a limit to which you 

 can increase the bees in a hive and 

 have them work — ventilation for one 

 thing. 



Pres. Huffman — You might give us 

 your method if you want to hand it in 

 here. 



Mr. Lyman— Oh, I don't know — there 

 are different methods — most any of 

 them will work, by which you remove 

 the brood to some part separate, either 

 above or at one side or behind; do it 

 in different ways, but there comes a 

 time when there are too many bees in 

 there to work to a good profit; the 

 bees can be kept together through the 

 season. 



"When stimulating how often should 

 one feed and how much?" 



Pres. Huffman — You who practice 

 "stimulating" it seems to me can ans- 

 wer that question, or give an opinion 

 in regard to it. 



Mr. Dadant— Our President has had 

 some experience in stimulating? 



Pres. Huffman— Quite a little. 



A member — Mr, Huffman, we would 

 like to hear from you. 



Mr. Huffman — I used to think when 

 I practiced stimulating feeding that 

 outdoor feeding was the best; that is, 

 when I did not have any neighbors who 

 had bees, but since then, I don't want 

 them to carry off what little feed I 

 have; but I find stimulating feed in- 

 side the hive is just as good and will 

 answer the purpose just as well. 



I use three or four different kinds of 

 feeders, l once used Division Board 

 Feeder — ^Doolittle plan; and I later had 

 a feeder with slots in it; and filled that 

 with honey; then I used the Bordman 

 feeder; that didn't seem to be satis- 

 factory, and I made up my mind I 

 would try stimulating (by feeding filled 

 combs; old combs that didn't have any 

 honey in, filled with sjTi'up, and I found 

 we got better results than with any- 

 thing else I could get. I believe the 

 befter way would be to warm the 

 syrup; do not make it too warm to 

 melt the combs. I like the combs filled 

 with syrup as well, if not better than 

 any feeder I ever used. The Miller or 

 McEntyre feeder for feeding up in the 

 fall I consider the two best in use, be- 

 cause you can feed enough in one feeder 

 at one time to run a colony through 

 the winter; they will take it down in 



