ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



141 



swarming impulse already pregnanted 

 through the whole hive, I don't know 

 as you can in any way eradicate it in 

 that last hour. 



Mr. Wheeler — Could you not set 

 those two upper hive bodies off for a 

 few days and on new bottom and let 

 them destroy the queen cells? 



President France — We could but we 

 don't know whether it would be of any 

 advantage to us; we want to do the 

 work of the whole yard that day and 

 go home. 



Mr. Wheeler — Are you sure of find- 

 ing the queen cells in those upper 

 stories? 



President France — That is why we 

 had a swarm; two queen cells were 

 skipped. 



Mr. Coppin — You put the queen i'a 

 the lower chamber? 



President France — Yes. 



Mr. Coppin — Does that not cause the 

 bees to build queen cells above? 



President France — Generally; a big 

 colony of bees; not as quick if you 

 have wood and wire as they would if 

 you have zinc. 



Mr. Coppin — I have had them, es- 

 pecially with wood, we had queen ex- 

 cluder a number of years ago of wood, 

 I have had them stop it up entirelj\ 



Mr. Miller — My experience this past 

 season has been different than for- 

 merly; the bees do not do the same 

 thing one year that they do the next. 

 I found the queen below one franie of 

 brood the early part of June; it was 

 only three or four weeks before they 

 were ready to swarm again. 



I fixed them up in July and in the 

 latter part of August they swarmed 

 again. 



I thought I had them fixed so they 

 would not swarm the rest of the sea- 

 son; they fooled me. 



Mr. Wheeler — Probfably had the old 

 queen. 



Mr. Kindig — I would like to ask you 

 a question about producing extracted 

 honey. 



Do you find it of any particular ad- 

 vantage, and worth the extra work, 

 to try to keep your extracted combs 

 free from ever having brood raised in 

 them ? 



Just keep them for nothing but 

 extracted? Never let the queen in? 



President France — I have often 

 thought I wished I could but I don't. 



Mr. Kindig — Do you think it is 

 worth while for a real practical bee- 

 keeper to try it? 



President France — We have one man 

 in our state who has taken, I think, 

 as many, if not more, first premiums 

 at our State Fair, who is a man of 

 careful manipulation, w^hof has hun- 

 dreds of combs that have never raised 

 any brood in them. 



They look better than mine which 

 have had some brood in, but I have 

 just as good honey, but I do think that 

 if we take old combs, or combs that 

 have been used repeatedly over and 

 over for brood, you will not get 

 as ideal choice honey as combs that 

 have never had brood in at all, and, 

 by raising one or two sets of brood in 

 them, that cocoon lining will 

 strengthen that comb by which it will 

 stand rough usage in the extractor. 



Mr. Wheeler — I have six or eight 

 hundred supers made out of the old 

 Heddin comb honey super 4 1-4 inches 

 deep inside the frame. They are the 

 nicest thing I ever used for extracting 

 honey. I put one on and raise it up 

 and put another under it and keep 

 building it up. It makes a very nice 

 comb to get extracted honey in. 



I w'ould not use a wide frame at 

 all because j'ou get more or less brood 

 unless you use the extractor. A queen 

 seems to like a frame 8 inches deep 

 for breeding; a four or five inch frame 

 they very seldom brood in. 



Mr. Bull — In my extracting combs 

 I never have much brood; use the 8 

 inch frame and 10 inch super over 

 excluders. I prefer those combs to 

 those that have brood in; I don't 

 have any trouble with uncapping. I 

 have a spacing arrangement — as fast 

 as they come out of - tlie extractor I 

 put them in the super; I nail a cleat 

 across the frames on either end; a 

 spacer 3-4 inch. 



I never touch those frames again 

 until they are filled with honey; never 

 take them out of the supers. 



I load those supers on the truck 

 and take them out and put them on, 

 and when they are full I take them 

 back in again and never take the 

 frame out. 



Mr. Wheeler — I am in the same boat 

 with Mr. Bull; I use the excluder and 

 there is no chance for brood above. 



President France — Mr. Bull, in re- 

 gard to that spacing on the sides of 



