AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



353 



Farmers' Club, in the day time, and that 

 mass-meetings, composed of all of the 

 members of the several societies, be held 

 in the evening, in the Hall of Represen- 

 tatives in the Capitol Building, during 

 the continuance of the session of the 

 Illinois Farmers' Club. 



On motion, a committee of three was 

 appointed by the chair, to draft by-laws, 

 and report at the next regular meeting, 

 as follows : 



C. E. Yocora, of Sherman ; Aaron 

 Coppin, of Wenona ; and G. F. Robbins, 

 of Mechanlcsburg. 



Voted, that the Executive Committee 

 be a Board of Directoi's for incorporation. 



A motion prevailed that this commit- 

 tee be authorized to procure the Articles 

 of Incorporation, and that they be fur- 

 nished with the required amount to pay 

 for the same. 



It was moved, by Mr. Thomas G. 

 Newman, that our State Legislature be 

 asked for an appropriation of five thou- 

 sand dollars ($5,000) to represent our 

 interests at the Columbian World's Fair. 

 Pending discussion of this motion, Mr. 

 Newman very eloquently addressed the 

 association as to exhibits, and with tell- 

 ing affect. The motion was carried. 



It was moved by C. E. Yocom, that the 

 chair appoint a committee of three — 

 amended, by making it seven — to present 

 the above memorial to the Legislature. 



The chair appointed the following : 

 Mr. Thomas G. Newman, C. P. Dadant, 

 Hon. J. M. Hambaugh, Col. Chas. F. 

 Mills, S. N. Black, Hon. J. S. Lyman, 

 and A. N. Draper. 



A motion that the next regular meet- 

 ing be at the call of the Executive Com- 

 mittee, was carried. Adjourned, 



Bradfordton, Ills. 



Euerience in Reams: Oneens, 



THEODORE HEISS, JR. 



After considerable experience in bee- 

 culture and in queen-rearing, I have 

 come to the conclusion that my own 

 methods are most liable to insure perfect 

 queens. The usual way of rearing 

 queens, is to make a colony queenless by 

 removing the queen and supplying it 

 with a comb of eggs and larvae. After 

 the queen-cells are capped, they are 

 hatched in a nucleus, and finally mated 

 in the same. This manner of rearing 

 queens seems to be one of emergency, 

 which has many disadvantages. 



Bees often take brood too far ad- 

 vanced, and the queen-cells are gen- 



erally small, and I never had a good 



queen hatched out of a small queen-cell. 



My method is as follows : Early in 



the Spring, say about the first of April, 



1 take out my selected colony containing 

 my best queen, from which I desire to 

 rear queens, protecting the colony from 

 cold by a chaff hive. I stimulate brood- 

 rearing about the last of April, by feed- 

 ing daily about one pound of sugar syrup, 

 slightly warmed, so as to get them un- 

 der the swarming impulse about May 

 20, or earlier if the weather will permit. 



As a rule, I cut out all newly-made 

 queen-cups in any of the hives, and pre- 

 serve them in a little box, which I carry 

 with me while working in the apiary. 

 After having collected a number of such 

 cups, I- fasten them (by dipping the base 

 of them into a little melted wax), say 10 

 or 12 in number, onto the bottom part 

 of one or two combs (after having cut off 



2 inches of the bottom of the combs), 

 parallel with the bottom, fastening the 

 cups point down, in the vacant place. 



I carry the frames thus prepared back 

 to the queen-rearing hive, the bees of 

 which, being now under the swarming 

 impulse, and building queen-cells, will 

 complete the newly introduced queen- 

 cups, preparing them for the queen to 

 lay in. Next, I proceed to crowd the 

 queen-rearing hive by adding to it one 

 or two weak colonies, all of which stim- 

 ulate the queen to lay in these queen- 

 cells to hasten swarming. 



After the first cell is capped, a swarm 

 will issue with the original queen. I 

 hive this swarm, and put it in another 

 place. I take out queen-cells as fast as 

 capped, and cage the same, putting 

 them into other hives to hatch, except 

 the last one, at the same time noting 

 the day each one was capped, and ex- 

 amining the hives with the cells twice 

 a day, so as to know precisely what day 

 each will hatch. 



Twenty-four hours before a queen 

 hatches, I prepare a nucleus by fitting 

 four 43^x4^i frames in a little hive, with 

 brood, for that purpose. The reason for 

 making these nucleus frames exactly 

 that size {4z^4 inches) is this : As eight 

 of those small frames fit in one Lang- 

 stroth brood-frame, being only a fraction 

 larger, I place such frames, with eight 

 small ones, in the center of the brood- 

 nest of some strong colony. Taking four 

 of the small frames, with a nucleus, and 

 adding a cupful of bees, I at once in- 

 troduce the virgin queen and close the 

 entrance for one day. 



In from 3 to 9 days the queens will be 

 mated, most of the brood will be 

 hatched, and the new queens will com- 



