June 28. 1906 



American Itoe Journal 



space. My sections are supplied with slatted separators the 

 same as below. So I spread out over 15 combs — these in- 

 clude the 7 an-d 8 slatted frame — 9 rows of sections. The bees 

 are entirely devoid of the swarming impulse under this 

 spreading condition. We all know that the cause of swarm- 

 ing is the bees. If we have a weak colony that does not cover 

 the combs, it will not swarm. If we reduce that condition 

 at the start we have deferred the swarming impulse some- 

 what. Then putting on 36 sections, when they are well start- 

 ed in that raise that super and put 36 more under, and we 

 have 72 sections; and I have found by experimenting with 

 lesser and greater number that 72 sections is necessary for 

 a colony of 50,000 bees in order to prevent swarming. Now, ' 

 you see we have made the placing of sections upon this hive 

 compulsory to overcome swarming. I use full sheets of 

 foundation. Should I stop one week in the honey-flow there 

 would be one factor present itself, and would not prevent 

 swarming, and that is the clogging of the hive with honey. 

 There would not be sufficient room to give employment for 

 all the comb-builders. 



Many of you are aware perhaps that in the economy of 

 the hive at a certain age the bees take to the fields. If 

 there is an insufficient number of workers, the younger ones 

 will leave for the fields perhaps a few days sooner than 

 their natural time for leaving the hive. I know from ex- 

 perimenting that many young bees are drawn out of the 

 hive at 12 and 13 days old, simply because we have forced 

 the bees in that direction. 



Now, the paper that was read was by the writer of an 

 article in the Review in November, and he treated the sub- 

 ject of controlling increase largely by the feeding of the lar- 

 val food. I think he has gone into it a little blindly, with 

 all due respect to him, because the bees adapt themselves 

 largely to circumstances in reference to working either for 

 comb or extracted honey. 



Now I have given in brief the outline of my system 

 of working. I will leave the matter, and any questions that 

 may be asked I will be very pleased to answer. 



Mr. Bartz — Do you use a queen-excluder between your 

 super and brood nest? 



Mr. Aspinwall — No, I do not. 



Mr. Bartz — Does the queen keep the combs supplied 

 with eggs sufficiently during the time you use those slatted 

 frames? 



Mr. Aspinwall — She does. 



Mr. Bartz — So that the brood-rearing does not increase 

 with the use of the slatted frames? 



Mr. Aspinwall — No, nor is there chilling of the brood. 

 I have produced, from 35 colonies, this year an average of 

 128 sections filled with honey, and not one cell with brood. 



Mr. Pettit — What was the thickness of those slatted 

 frames? 



Mr. Aspinwall — J4 of an inch in the super; ij4 inches 

 in the lower compartment. 



Pres. Dadant — For how many years have you tried this 

 method? 



Mr. Aspinwall — I have been trying it about 10 years, but 

 it has been subject to many modifications. 



Pres. Dadant — How long have you tried it on that many 

 hives? 



Mr. Aspinwall — My experiments have been on between 

 40 and 45 hives every year for 10 years, and this year the 

 radical change of making all new hives took place. Next 

 year it will be all new hives again, like those that proved to 

 be the best last season. 



Pres. Dadant — How many combs do you winter on? 



Mr. Aspinwall — 7. 



Mr. Whitney — Do you extend them laterally? 



Mr. Aspinwall — Yes. I am satisfied that the drones 

 that are produced in the section-boxes, and even the ex- 

 tending of the brood-nest in the center, as I have known 

 them where they have been crowded, is due to the crowded 

 condition below; the queen can't possibly fulfill her duties. 

 If you will examine colonies that have swarmed you will find 

 in many instances patches of comb without an egg in. This 

 is exceptional, however. That is because the queen has been 

 crowded. She is then in the condition of the old queen that 

 fails to fulfill her function in this respect, and the bees im- 

 mediately by the condition of things start queen-cells. 



Dr. Bohrer — Does your experience teach you that is the 

 universal or general rule? 



Mr. Aspinwall— I think it is universal. I have tried it on 



that many colonies for so many years, .and found it invariably 

 true in my yard. 



Mr. Wilcox — You made tin statement that you average 

 128 sections per colony, [s the honey-flow continuous from 

 willow bloom to clover bloom? 



Mr. Aspinwall — The willow bloom was very short this 

 season, followed by half that number of days until apple 

 bloom. 



Mr. Wilcox — How long is that? 



Mr. Aspinwall — We had clover about June 15 in our 

 locality this year, and it lasted till July 23. I have no honey 

 after that to speak of. 



Mr. McEvoy — Did you feed any in that gap? 



Mr. Aspinwall — No. 



Mr. Wilcox — Did you feed, and how much, from the 

 time the apple-bloom ceased until the clover-bloom began? 



Mr. Aspinwall — I did not feed one ounce in the spring. 

 My feeding is done in the autumn, and nothing after that, 

 for the last 15 years. 



Mr Wilcox — It is possible in your locality if you had 

 apple-bloom that the bees store so much that it would carry 

 them over that period, but it never is so in my locality. 

 They would need feeding during that period, for the queen 

 would stop laying, and they would begin to decline in num- 

 bers. 



Mr. Aspinwall — That is true. I watch them, and those 

 colonies that have the most 1 will interchange combs with 

 sometimes. But I did not do it this year. 



Mr. Ferris — Tampering with the queens will injure the 

 colonies. I took 25 colonies and put them in a row ; one row 

 was made queenless and the next not so, but I found those 

 that were made queenless for 10 days stored more honey 

 than those that had the queen. This proves that taking 

 away queens does not lessen the amount of honey. Those 

 that have no queens will store just as much honey as those 

 that have queens in the hive. 



Mr. Holtermann — How long is your honey-flow? 



Mr. Ferris — About the same as Mr. Aspinwall's. 



Second Day — Morning Session. 



At 9 :3o a. m. Pres. Dadant called the convention to order, 

 and called for the presentation of resolutions. 



Dr. Bohrer moved, duly seconded, that a committee 

 of 3 be appointed to examine the exhibits and report upon 

 them. Carried. 



Dr. Bohrer suggested that the chair appoint a committee 

 of three on resolutions. The suggestion was accepted by the 

 convention . 



Mr. Holekamp moved, seconded by Dr. Bohrer, that a 

 committee be appointed to consider suggestions that might 

 be made as to changes in the constitution and amendments 

 thereto. Carried. 



The Secretary read a paper by E. D. Townsend, of Re- 

 mus, Mich., on 



MOW MANY BEES SHALL A HAN KEEP? 



Th's is a broad subject, and I do not suppose that any two- 

 in this room would answer the question anywhere nearly alike. 

 As the writer is a specialist, with bee-yards located in Isa- 

 bella, Mecosta, and TCalkaska Counties, Michigan, where a 

 hundred colonies is about all that it will pay to keep in one 

 location, and where large numbers of bees have to be kept 

 in small yards in some cases, as in our Kalkaska County 

 yards, quite a distance from home, this paper will be from a 

 specialist's standpoint. 



I think we will all agree that a larger number of bees 

 can be kept more profitably in a location that will support 

 several hundred colonies in a single locality, than if they 

 had to be scattered out 100 in a place, as most locations in 

 Michigan compel one to do. 



Now just a word about the man: The writer will ex- 

 pect that he has made a financial success with at least one 

 yard, and has learned short cuts, so that when he "gets his 

 honey ready for the market he can take his pencil and figure 

 out all his expenses, so that if he had hired the work all done 

 there would be a profit of, say, $300 or $400 from the one yard, 

 for you will see at a glance that quite a percentage of the ad- 

 ditional yards one adds will have to be managed with hired 

 help; for it will be folly to think of more yards until one 

 could make a financial success with one. 



Now we will suppose our prospective experimentalist is- 



