July, 1908. 



American Vee Journal 



^ 



Convention 

 Proceedinds 



■^.^sm»i^-> 



Report of the Chicago-NoPthwest- 

 ern Bee-Keepers' Convention. 



jContinued from page 179i 

 Early Hatched Queens. 



"Why are early hatched queens poor?" 



Mr. Wilcox^Call for a show of hands 

 as to how many think they are poor. 



Dr. Miller — What do you mean by ear- 

 ly-hatched queens? 



Mr. Dadant — If by an early hatched 

 queen is meant one reared by a colony 

 not ready and not strong enough, I be- 

 lieve that the question is right. If how- 

 ever, an early-hatched queen is simply a 

 queen of an early swarm that is swarm- 

 ing naturally early in the season, I think 

 it is entirely different. A queen might 

 be hatched so early that the time might 

 pass for her mating and she would be 

 unable to find any drones ; or where the 

 brood can not be kept warm; or where 

 the queen-cell is not made with large 

 capacity. I think under some of these 

 circumstances there is a chance for a 

 queen to be inferior. I think there is a 

 greater chance when the colony is not 

 in a position to rear queens. A queen 

 can not be inferior except accidentally, 

 when a colony is in a position to have 

 plenty of honey and plenty of heat, and 

 everything necessary to rear a large 

 number of bees. 



Mr. Wilson — The flow of nectar has 

 a great deal to do with jt. 



Dr. Miller — Can a begmner rear good 

 queens in April? 



Mr. Taylor — For a flight of the virgin 

 queen in order to get good results it 

 should be good, warm weather, and if 

 there happens to be warm weather at 

 the proper time, and if the queen is 

 properly nourished, there is no reason 

 why she should not be a good queen. 



Mr. Moore — About 35 years ago I can 

 remember that in rearing queens our 

 folks took a single frame. They reared 

 queens from a single frame. The 20th 

 century idea is that tlie best colony is 

 none too good for rearing queens. Be- 

 ginners would better not try to rear 

 queens until they have settled warm 

 weather, and great big, strong, pros- 

 perous colonies to get them from. 



Mr. Dadant — If you have plenty of 

 bees in a small hive you could then 

 rear a good queen. If you can get such 

 a large number of bees concentrated on 

 that one patch so that they will feed 

 the queen with enough royal jelly, you 

 can rear a good queen from a small 

 colony, if crowded. 



Dr. Miller — One of the things that I 

 have had to fight about within the last 

 few years was the saving of the life 

 of any queen reared early in the sea- 

 son. Sometimes a colony will rear a 

 queen in April. My own judgment is 

 that the proper thing to do is to take 



off that queen's head. My assistant says, 

 "Let them try." Miss Wilson, how 

 many times have we gained anything 

 by saving a life? 



Miss Wilson^Not many. 



Mr. Wheeler — You are not alone in 

 that. I have women at my house. They 

 are always sorry to see a queen's head 

 come off. 



Dr. Miller — You can rear a queen 3 

 weeks before swarming time by put- 

 ting ID colonies together, but I don't 

 want queens reared from that kind of 

 a colony. 



Mr. Dadant— Why? 



Dr. Miller — I don't know. You want 

 all favorable conditions. Nectar must 

 be coming in. You can feed, but not as 

 well as to have the nectar coming. You 

 must have warm weather. How many 

 think you can rear good queens 3 weeks 

 before the time that bees will naturally 

 swarm — -in this latitude? How many 

 think that good queens can be reared 

 before the middle of May? 3. How many 

 think good queens can not be reared 

 before the middle of May? 6. The mid- 

 dle of May is different in different 

 years. 



Mr. Taylor — Can a good queen ever 

 be reared before the middle of May? 



Unanimously, "Yes." 



Objections to Foul Brood Laws. 



"What is feared by those who object 

 to a foul brood law?" 



Mr. Dadant — I would like to answer 

 that question. I have been called by the 

 Legislature, or rather by the committee 

 of the Legislature to advise on the mat- 

 ter of foul brood, if it is contagious. 

 I was with the secretary of the Illi- 

 nois State Bee-Keepers' Association. 

 The member of the Legislative com- 

 ' mittee held in his hand a letter whicli 

 he had received in which it was said 

 that bee-keepers will be injured by a foul 

 brood law because the inspector will 

 burn the colonies, and the supply deal- 

 ers will sell more goods. He did not 

 give the letter-writer's name. In the 

 afternoon we went back and gave the 

 name, as we thought it was. The letter 

 was opened and that was the name. 

 Learning About Bees. 



"What have you learned this year in 

 keeping bees tliat is any good?" 



Dr. Miller — I don't know. How many 

 think you have learned something this 

 year that is any good? 3. 



Mr. Taylor — I don't know as it is very 

 new. But it is new to me. Often there 

 is a great deal of question as to how 

 to keep down increase of colonies. 

 When a swarm issued I shook out all 

 the bees from the combs and set the 

 frames on weak colonies with a board 

 between. This is good. 



Mr. Chapman — I have learned some- 

 thing new to me. Heretofore I have 



taken extracted honey off the hive and 

 extracted immediately. This year I took 

 my honey off with bee-escapes and set 

 the honey away until late in the fall, and" 

 at my convenience I extracted. I kept 

 the honey in a warm room. 



Mr. Wilcox — I used to store honey 

 until fall before extracting, but I don't 

 now. You can store it a little while,, 

 but it is likely to granulate, especially 

 in unsealed combs. It is advisable not 

 to store it, especially in the fall. 



Mr. Wheeler— Did Mr. Wilcox use 

 bee-escapes 25 years ago? 



Mr. Wilcox — I used them as soon as- 

 described in the bee-periodicals. I don'^ 

 use them now. 



"What have you learned to avoid?" 



Mr. Dadant — We have learned to- 

 avoid discouragements, because in most 

 discouraging seasons we are closer to- 

 success. What I mean is this : That 

 when the bee-business looks at its- 

 worst, that is the time when we must 

 learn to take good care of our bees,, 

 because the worse off they are the bet- 

 ter chance there is for us to succeed. 

 Circumstances will be more favorable. 

 We must avoid being discouraged sim- 

 ply because the bees are discouraged. 

 We had a good instance of that this- 

 year. In March we had an early spring,, 

 and the bees were in good condition. 

 Then came the frosts, and we lost sev- 

 eral colonies. I advised keeping on and 

 taking better care of the bees. We did, 

 and were rewarded. 



Mr. Wilcox — If other seasons are like 

 this, we have learned to avoid putting 

 honey-money in the banks ! 



Dr. Miller — I had pretty nearly giyer:- 

 up having any honey at all. The time 

 for clover had passed, and then came 

 a flow of honey, and I got an average 

 of 66 sections to the colony, of the very 

 finest white honey. It was an average 

 of about 60 pounds to the colony. 



Mr. Whitney — What sort of honey was- 

 it? 



Dr. Miller— I don't know. I think it 

 was heartsease. 



Dr. Bohrer — There is a heartsease ir? 

 Kansas that always produces dark honey. 

 You have a different species here that 

 produces light honej". 



Clipping Queens. 



"Is tliere any harm in clipping queens ?" 

 Dr. Miller — How many of you think 

 there is no harm in clipping queens? 18. 

 How many think there is harm in clip- 

 ping queens when the clipping is prop- 

 erly done? None. 



Bee-Space or Quilts Over Frames. 



"Is a bee-space over the frames next 

 to the cover, preferable to the use of 

 quilts there?" 



Twelve said "Yes," and 2 "No." 

 (Continued next month) 



Bee Joui-nal for 1907 — tOc. 



We still have on hand some complete 

 volumes of the .\nicrican Bee Journal for 

 190/, which we will mail for 40 cents- 

 each. The first half of that year the Bee 

 Journal was issued weekly, and the last 

 half monthly, which would make 32- 

 numbers. And all of them for only 40 

 cents ! Surely this is a bargain for any 

 new reader who has become a subscriber 

 this vear. 



