weather is warm enough for them to fly they 

 have got used to each other. 



E. D. Godfrey— If friend Rider was sell- 

 ing a lot of cows, would he sell his best cow 

 for half price? Then why does he do thus 

 with his queens, where there is as much va- 

 riation in quality as among cows? I keep a 

 record of all colonies, and know just what 

 each colony does. I had 120 colonies ; 1 se- 

 lected 40 of the best, as regards combs and 

 quality of bees, to keep. The next best 40 

 I sold. The poorest 40 I united to make 

 good colonies. I killed the poorest queens 

 a day or two before 1 united. I took the 

 brood from the killed queen and put it in 

 the hive to be united with it, putting the 

 bees on other combs in the upper story. 

 They gradually go below and unite without 

 any trouble. If I had no 2-story hive I would 

 use a wide cap for the same purpose. It is 

 natural for queenless bees to go where there 

 is a queen. If you' put a queenless colony 

 beside one that has a queen, 9 times out of 

 10 they will go together. 



Jas. A. Simpson— I have tried Mr. God- 

 frey's plan ; it is very successful. But we 

 have hives scattered all over the yard ; if 

 warm days come soon many bees go back to 

 the old stand. I take bees out of both colo- 

 nies to be united and shake all together in 

 one box ; in 30 or 40 minutes put them in a 

 hive, and give best combs from both hives, 

 and they will stay without going back. 



E. D." Godfrey— Place a little board in 

 front of the entrance ; it causes the bees 

 confusion, they will more readily relocate 

 their hive, and prevents their going back. 

 If left queenless awhile, it helps very much. 



O. Clute— I have found the board in front 

 of the hive to be very effective at any time 

 of the year. There is something new and 

 strange about it, and it is a complete suc- 

 cess. Mr. Bingham stated, at the National 

 Convention, that bees can be moved after 

 the honey harvest is over without any 

 trouble by adopting this method. 



D. Rider — I smoke both colonies thor- 

 oughly, disturb them all I can, interchange 

 frames, brushing off the bees ; they relocate, 

 and I never lose a bee. 



O. Clute— Is the atomizer useful in unit- 

 ing? 



L. H. Scudder— I have used it with suc- 

 cess. 



In running for extracted honey, is it 

 bettter to have a two-story hive or a single 

 long hive ? 



Jas. A. Simpson— I have never used any 

 except the 2-story hive, and hardly ever take 

 honey from the brood chamber. The bees 

 will occupy almost the entire lower story 

 with brood. 



C. P. Dadant— I agree with Mr. Simpson ; 

 give the bees ample room above and they 

 will rarely crowd the queen for room below. 

 Through the clover yield we extract from 

 the lower story to some extent. 



Jas. A. Simpson — It is the universal ex- 

 pression that well ripened honey is the best 

 to winter on. I extracted from the brood 

 chamber one fall, and they filled up for 

 winter with the late fall run of honey, and 

 1 had a feaful loss of bees, which I laid to 

 the late gathered honey. 



C. P. Dadant— I do not believe it was ex- 



tracting from the lower story that killed the 

 bees, for we always do it when needed. 



O. Clute— I noticed in one of Mr. Doolit- 

 tle's reports that he got 566 lbs. from each 

 of two hives ; he used a long hive of 20 

 frames ; kept the brood in the center, and 

 extracted from each end. 



C. P. Dadant— We have 60 American frame 

 hives, of 16 frames each ; have tried side 

 and top frames, the top ones were filled first; 

 the bees will crowd the brood before going 

 into the outside frames. 



Will. M. Kellogg— I used to work exclu- 

 sively for extracted honey, and used a good 

 many long hives, some of 20 frames each, 

 and a good share of the time the queen 

 crowded out the extractor ; have had 18 

 frames out of 20 so filled with brood as to be 

 unfit for extracting. Extracting from the 

 brood chamber, if rightly done, makes 

 strong colonies. 



D. Rider— I find the bees prefer the upper 

 story to side combs. 



L. H. Scudder— I have had great trouble 

 in keeping the queen from the upper story. 



C. P. Dadant— I do not think your hive is 

 large enough (10-frame Langstroth). 



Jas. A. Simpson— My hives differ as to top 

 story ; some nave a half inch board between 

 the two stories, and some with no bottom. 

 I find where the queen goes above at all, it 

 is almost invariably in those with no board 

 between. I can see no difference as to yield 

 of honey in the two ways. 



O. Clute— It might be wise to considerthat 

 where you extract from the brood chamber 

 you get a larger amount of bees thereby. As 

 the rearing of brood largely is one of the 

 main features, it seems to me quite possible 

 that this is the reason of Mr. Doolittle's suc- 

 cess. 



Jas. A. Simpson— I have reason to believe 

 that Mr. Doolittle's success is due to hives 

 packed for that purpose. 1 have done it my- 

 self, but cannot get such results from all my 

 hives. 



Many present expressed the opinion that 

 nine-tenths of all our big reports come from 

 packed hives. 



E. D. Godfrey— I think we should use a 

 hive adapted to both comb and extracted 

 honey. Have deep caps, have the brood 

 chamber of one certain size, and have the 

 upper story of the same sized frame as the 

 lower story. I want my hives all alike. 



C. P. Dadant— There is a great deal of 

 difference in taking out honey when it is 

 ready, or waiting to take it all out at once. 

 Frequent extracting is best. 



Jas. A. Simpson— 1 prefer a small frame 

 for the upper story, as it is more evenly fin- 

 ished, and ready to extract sooner than the 

 larger frame. 



T. G. McGaw— I have used 2 long hives, 

 and the only advantage I can see in them is 

 that you can have a case of sections on top 

 at one end, while extracting from the other. 



Why do bees in apparent equally good 

 condition, winter tvith different degrees of 

 success ? 



C. P. Dadant— Apiaries located near each 

 other, with the same treatment, turn out 

 very differently. This last fall we got no 

 fall honey, and we fed some sugar syrup. 

 One apiary wintered well, the other with K 



