OCTOBER 15. 1916 



975 



Western New York field meeting- at Dysinger's Corners, August li 



are killed by the bees. They fall down on 

 the excluder, but never plug the openings 

 by so doing. Plenty of drone comb is placed 

 in desirable colonies to rear the drones to 

 make sure of having good ones. 



Mr. Lincoln says that he can manipulate 

 50 colonies a day by the foregoing method. 

 He uses eight frames in a ten-frame super, 

 and extracts at the end of the tlow. 



Mr. William Vollmer, of Akron, N. ^., 

 told of bis varied experience in "buying 

 bees in eombless packages from the South. 

 In case of the one-pound package with 

 queen, he thinks it is advisable to put the 

 bees on empty combs with a frame of brood, 

 if they are received early in May, in order 

 to make them a remunerative proposition. 

 With the two-pound package it is also ad- 

 visable to give a frame of brood, but the 

 combs are not quite so essential. The two- 

 pound package generally makes sufficient 

 honey the first season to pay for itself; and 

 as far as honey is concerned, therefore, is a 

 better investment. Of course, if increase 

 only is desired the first season, the smaller 

 package is better. 



Mr. Vollmer prefers a roomy package 

 and a good candy to ship well. Combs of 

 honey are not satisfactory. They melt down 

 and daub the bees, making them worthless. 



Cheap queens are usually dear at any 

 price. The bees are not so important, ex- 

 cept they should be young. If blacks or 

 hybrids they should be forced thru an ex- 

 cluder to get rid of the undesirable drones. 



Some beekeepers make a practice of buy- 

 ing young swarms for increase. This is al- 

 so a good plan if the stock is desirable; but 

 if one takes into consideration the extra 

 time and labor involved in getting one, two, 



or m.ore at a time, instead of having all 

 come at once, as is the case Avhen packages 

 of bees are shipped in, there is not ranch 

 difference, the the young swarms are usually 

 the cheaper. 



Mr. John DeMuth, of Pembroke, N. Y., 

 told of his experience with European foul 

 brood. The beekeeper must first eliminate 

 the black bees or the disease will do it for 

 him. A good strain of Italians is a great 

 help in holding it in check ; but some strains 

 are almost as susceptible as blacks. Caging 

 queens for a period sometimes effects a cure. 

 Killing old queens and giving young vigor- 

 ous ones is another method. Where foul 

 brood prevails it is hard to rear queens, so 

 they had better be bought from some reli- 

 able breeder whose stock has shown good 

 resistant qualities. 



Mr. DeMuth does not think it necessary 

 to melt up combs that have contained Euro- 

 pean foul brood. He merely puts them 

 above an excluder over a strong colony to be 

 cleaned up. This disease is like other dis- 

 eases. It seems to diminish after being in 

 a locality two or three years, and gradually 

 wears itself down somewhat. Mr. DeMuth 

 has visited a large number of beekeepers in 

 the western end of the state, and they all 

 report a small amount of disease, especially 

 where it is in the locality. Most of them 

 treat it by one of the foregoing methods, 

 and consider it the same as a weed in the 

 garden. Eradicate it this year and you 

 may not have any next, or you may. With 

 a little help it can be held in check so as not 

 to be as serious as might otherAvise be ex- 

 pected. 



When selling honey at home to the neigh- 

 bors Mr. Vollmer recommended asking the 



