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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Mar. 24, 1904. 



Mr. Wheeler— Some 15 years ago I moved 24 colonies 

 to Iowa on a freight train with a lot of stock and stufif. After 

 I got there, thev were unpacked and I piled them up and 

 covered them with chaff and straw and let them stand there 

 nearly a month before having a flight, and every colony 

 lived and was strong and in good condition, and I was quite 

 surprised myself that they came through. They weren't 

 put in a cellar. The atmosphere was zero. 



Mr. Hintz— I had a little experience in that thmg that 

 I will relate the results of next fall. I moved a lot yesterday 

 on a common hay-rack, 14 colonies, and five in a little spring 

 wagon, and they got roused up on the gravel road. They 

 were three miles from home and I didn't have time to take 

 off the stories. They got roused up, but after awhile they 

 settled down, and I think they will winter just as well as any 

 I moved some before in winter weather. They had a _ good 

 lot of honey, and a good clustering place. They didn't get 

 separated in the comb, but only pretty well stirred up, and there 

 was a clustering place or super up above where they clus- 

 tered between. There is no danger, and especially three or 

 four weeks after, if they can have a good flight. I will report 

 next fall at our meeting. I have 37 colonies to move, and 

 every hive with honey. Both stories are full. 



Mr. Wilcox— It would be well to offer a word of cau- 

 tion. One fall, the harvest over, the hives were turned over 

 in the snow before carrying them into the cellar for wmter, 

 and they remained in that condition but a few days. How 

 long I do not know, but when I went to carry them into the 

 cellar I found the bees were all spotting their combs. I 

 straightened them up and put them into 'hives as well as I 

 could, with plenty of leaves, and carried them immediately 

 into the cellar with others, and they were kept at a good and 

 proper temperature all winter, and in the spring they were 

 all dead, every one, while the other bees wintered well. This 

 tends to show that those colonies were injured by being 

 turned wrong side up into the snow but a few days before 

 going into the cellar. . , rr xu 



Mr. Hintz— Did they have fall or spring honey? if they 

 have good fall honey it won't hurt them. 



Mr Wilcox— If you know that, I will take your word 

 for it. I don't know it. I have always believed fall honey 

 was as good as spring honey to winter bees. As to what 

 they did have, they had the honey they reserved for them- 

 selves, and they got it themselves, whatever that may have 



been. „ . t i_ 



Mr. Wheeler— I am not anxious to talk, but I have 

 had an experience. I have had mine hauled home and put 

 in the cellar without a flight or anything, and I have had my 

 bees in my home yard carried into another cellar, and I 

 watched it very closely for I have heard a great deal about 

 that, and I have found no difference in the way the bees 

 winter. Those that were hauled home and put in at once 

 and not given a flight wintered just as well as those that 

 were set right in the yard. 



Mr. Thompson— Did you ever take them out m the same 

 manner from the out yard? 



Mr. Wheeler— No, sir; I didn't do that. 



PLACE OF THE NEXT NATIONAL MEETING. 



Pres. York- How many prefer to have the next National 

 Bee-keepers' Convention at St. Louis? 



Dr. Miller— That question I see asked in the American 

 Bee Journal by Pres. Harris. 



After a long discussion, the result was as follows: 

 St. Louis, 18: San Antonio, none; Cincinnati, 9; Salt Lake 

 City, none; and Boston, 2. 



SECOND DAY— AFTERNOON SESSION. 



QUEEN-REARING — TRANSFERRING L.\RV.E. 



"What is the best method of transferring larvae from 

 worker-cells into queen-cells, and is royal jelly a necessity? 



Dr. Miller— Roval jelly is not a necessity under the right 

 way of manipulating, but I don't know what the best way of 

 transferring larva; is. The way that does for me is to take a 

 piece of grass, timothy stick, something of that kind, and cut 

 it into the form of a toothpick and dip under the larva in the 

 worker-cell and put it in the queen-cell. That's all there is of 

 that part of it. I don't know but what the queen-breeders 

 use something better, but the grass is always at hand and 

 I use that. . , , -r t j >.. 



Mr Starkey— I don't know what is best, but if 1 don t 

 happen to have a spoon made for the purpose I take my 

 knife and split oft splinters of soft wood, and cut it with a 



toothpick point, and run through my fingers with the thumb- 

 nail on the back, and by that pressure I make it cup. It is 

 pliable, and when I push that down into the cell it will spring 

 under the larva and dip up, and it will very easily slide off 

 when I put it in the cup. The front part of the wood is cut 

 flat and the back I cut three-cornered — a flat triangle, and by 

 slipping it through my thumb it is made pliable. 



Mr. Wheeler — I prefer to let the bees do it. 



Mr. Duby — Is royal jelly a necessity? Some say it is 

 not, some say it is. There are perhaps some parties here 

 who have answers for this. Perhaps Mr. Stanley uses royal 

 jelly when he transfers. 



Mr. Stanley — Well, I don't know. I think it is. It is 

 a great start anywhere. They accept the cells better with it, 

 and there is nothing better than a toothpick to transfer the 

 larva, or a quill will answer the purpose. 



Dr. Miller — Can you get along without the royal jelly 

 at all ? 



Mr. Stanley — Yes, sir; it can't be depended on, though. 

 Some colonies might do very well, and others wouldn't. You 

 might get along without it by putting the cells in first and 

 then supplying them with the larv;e afterwards. By putting 

 the cups in the queenless colony for some time they accept 

 them better that way without the jelly. 



BOTTOM STARTERS IN SECTIONS. 



"Are bottom starters in sections necessary or desir- 

 able?" 



Pres. York — I think they use them in Marengo. Now, Dr. 

 Miller can't say "I don't know" to that. 



Mr. Meredith — In two apiaries that contained over 50 

 colonies, each with and without the bottom starters, 200 

 sections were put on the market cased up, and I found that 

 the ones having both top and bottom starters was honey that 

 was more salable than that produced where they had only 

 the top starter. I am very particular on account of the 

 quality, and if the starters were not very well toward the 

 bottom, many times the drone-comb would be there, and cus- 

 tomers object to it. 



Mr. Longsdon — Will Mr. Meredith please tell us a little 

 bit about the heft and form of the comb-honey package that 

 sells the best, that is, the most in demand, > and that we can 

 do the best with, if he will? 



Pres. York — We will have that after the present question. 



Dr. Miller — So far as I know, I was the first one who 

 began the bottom-starter business, and I am at it yet. Pretty 

 often you find me five years afterwards throwing away the 

 things I have done before. There is this about a section 

 being filled : It is very much as Mr. Meredith has stated. 

 You are sure of having the sections built down to the bottom, 

 and under 'certain circumstances without it you are pretty 

 sure that it will not be built down to the bottom, and it will 

 have a passage-way under. One of the things that results 

 from the bottom starter, you will avoid what is sometimes 

 done — the comb in the section will be bent off to one side 

 and built up against the super, and I confess it was two or 

 three years before I found why I had gotten rid of that. 

 The bees would fill it in. If they had a heavy flow they 

 wouldn't do that, but after a light flow the sections near the 

 outside would be filled in. They work the most on the in- 

 side, and they would keep turning it over and get near the 

 super. One of the first things that the bees do if you have 

 a bottom Starter, if you have a small starter — I have them 

 less than a quarter of an inch between the two starters — 

 and the first thing they do is to fasten the two together, and 

 then cannot be shoved off to one side, so there is a somewhat 

 important point about it there. The thing in a nutshell is. 

 you have it filled up even ; it isn't fuller at the bottom or 

 fuller at the corners. 



Mr. Highet — How deep is the bottom starter? 



Dr. Miller— 5^ of an inch. 



Mr. Kannenburg — Do the bees leave any passage-way, 

 where the starter is connected on either side, sometimes? 



Dr. Miller — Yes, they may do that up at the top, up at 

 the upper corner, but in many cases there is no passage- 

 way whatever. 



Mr. Kannenburg — They generally will have a passage- 

 way somewhere, or they might leave it in the middle. 



Dr. Miller — No, I never saw it. Often they leave no 

 passage-way whatever. 



Mr. Wheeler — I have a way that's a little different from 

 some. I use a split section. I split a section right in two, 

 and run the sheet of foundation right through the center of 



