ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



131 



two or three days, an<J you take a 

 strong colony, they will take it down 

 within 24 hours. 



Another thought on that line: In re- 

 gard to the filling of the comb. We 

 had that question up here two years 

 ago. I believe the question was asked 

 — "How to fill combs?" Dr. Miller said 

 — "Take a little spray and fill the 

 combs." I tried it without success; I 

 found the easiest way to fill a comb— 

 You hold the comb at an angle, and 

 take a quart dipper and pour it down 

 over that comb, and in less than a half 

 minute you can fill that comb even 

 full with syrup. The thought is this 

 with me : Holding it at the right angle, 

 and coming down with a force, it 

 trikes the upper edge of the cell and 

 •drives the air out, and in that way, 

 the syrup drops into the cell; turn it 

 over, fill the other side, hang it in a 

 hive to drain, and they will be ready 

 for use, and it is the easiest and quick- 

 est way to fii^ the comb that I have 

 tried. ^ 



I had two or three hives that would 

 leak and I found the combs filled with 

 water; and in this way I made up my 

 mind that combs could be filled in that 

 way; but you cannot fill them if you 

 hold it flat; it will all bubble up and 

 keep the air in the cell. 



Mr. Cavanagh — I shipped a carload 

 of bees one time, and they were prac- 

 tically in a starving condition; I would 

 say those bees stood the trip all right 

 by filling the combs as you suggest, 

 "but I used an ordinary $3.50 force pump 

 and forced that feed in the combs'; I 

 liad one darkey boy filling combs and 

 one working the pump. 



Pres. Huffman — You try it with a 

 tJipper and you will save your darkey 

 "boys' wages. The faster you can pour 

 it, the better. 



Mr. Cavanagh — I like the force pump ; 

 it is the best, I think, and the quickest; 

 the force pump will throw 20 feet. 



Pres. Huffman — I would like to hear 

 from Mr. ' Baldridge. 



Mr. Baldridge — ^It is a very simple 

 matter to fill a comb if you hold it at 

 an inclined position of 45 degrees. Hold 

 the comb in that position, and you can 

 readily fill your comb ; reverse the comb 

 and fill the other S'ide; put it in the 

 hive, and the bees will take a good 

 share of the candied honey, and per- 

 haps the second application 

 they will take it all out; there is not 

 much trouble in getting granulated 



honey out of a full comb and save your 

 comb. I have been doing that for 

 years; you can put in about 3 lbs. of 

 water into an empty comb very quickly 

 — in only a minute or two; you will be 

 surprised if you try it to see what the 

 result will be. 



Mr. Cavanagh — Have any of the 

 members of this convention tried using 

 dried sugar for stimulating feeding, 

 and using an auxiliary water supply 

 and let the water drop on the sugar? 

 The idea is to run them several days 

 to stimulate feeding to keep the sugar 

 moist. 



Pres. Hufllman — Do I understand that 

 you feed that sugar dry? 



Mr. Cavanagh — I have been doing 

 that. I asked if there was any one 

 working a scheme of that kind. The 

 proposition is to put the sugar in dry 

 and to have the water drip on there 

 slowly enough so it would take several 

 days to exhaust the water supply. 



Pres. Huffman — ^Por the benefit of Mr. 

 Cavanagh — ^I do not do that, but I put 

 the granulated sugar in the bottom of 

 the feeder and put on % as much 

 water as sugar and pour it on top of 

 that sugar, and in less than two days 

 that sugar was gone, water and all.; 

 I suppose the water dampened the 

 sugar and got it in shape for the bees 

 to use it up, somehow. 



Mr. Cavanagh— You missed my point: 

 My idea is to have the bees each day 

 keep that stimulating feeding going on 

 constantly and slowly, so that we can 

 go in an outyard once a week and 

 have that last them the week through. 

 We know they will start a lot of brood 

 when we feed them heavy feed, but 

 they will destroy a lot of that brood if 

 there is a dearth between the time we 

 feed them and the next time we come. 

 I believe in continuous stimulating 

 feeding, but it is impossible to accom- 

 plish that where one has so many yards 

 where they cannot be reached in a day. 



Mr. Pyles — The thought comes to me: 

 If you put dry sugar where the bees 

 have access to it, without water, and 

 water within a reasonable distance — 

 they will make use of that sugar? Mr. 

 Cavanagh's idea is entirely feasible; 

 I think it would be a simple msatteT 

 to rig up some kind of a can, even in- 

 side the hive, where the water would 

 drop — it would require a nicety of cal- 

 culation to make it last — and the can 

 of water would last a week, and have 

 sugar just enough to last for that 



