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ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



99 



— tihey have gotten away from their 

 purity when they are yellow all over. 

 Mr. Wilcox — I took that "as the 

 standard of purity — the evenness and 

 regularity of the markings. 



A Queen- Experience. 



"After a queen has ceased to produce 

 worker-eggs, and is laying drone-eggs 

 in worker cells, is it possible to make a 

 worker-layer of her again?" 

 . Dr. Miller — Yes, Mr. Whitney did. 



Mr. Whitney — I suspect nearly every 

 one here would say "No," it can't be 

 done." If she were an old queen I 

 would say s-o, but I had just such a 

 case as that. Dr. Bruenich, of Switzer- 

 land, wrote me that it is one of the 

 most interesting cases he has heard of, 

 and he thinks experiments ought to be 

 made along that line to ascertain, if 

 possible, what feeding will do. I will 

 state this case. I have stated it once 

 or twice before, and you people didn't 

 dispute me, but I thought you didn't 

 believe me. 



I had a queen I introduced some time 

 in the latter part of June. I clipped her 

 right wing, so as to Tdc sxire to know 

 her and keep her in the hive. That 

 season was a poor one, but she did 

 fairly well, and by dividing I made two 

 colonies of bees, though they didn't 

 have honey to carry them through the 

 winter. I fed them. About the first of 

 April, the next ^ring, I visited the 

 yard, and that was one of the first 

 colonies I visited, hecause I thought a 

 great deal of that queen. I opened it 

 up and found the colony alive, but they 

 were the worst looking lot of bees I 

 have ever seen^slim, thin — the queen 

 had changed from her yellow, bright 

 color to a dusty brown, and was almost 

 as slim as a wasp, and in the center of 

 the brood-chamber she was laying; 

 more than 3-4 of the brood were drones 

 in worker- cells. 



There were two lady bee-keepers 

 there, and saw this, and they said to 

 me: "Mr. Whitney, is not that too 

 bad?" I said: "Yes, it is, but I am not 

 going to kill that queen." 'She was not 

 a year old yet. She had laid most of 

 her eggs all right the year before. 



I commenced feeding for 8 or 10 days, 

 and after two weeks, or a little over, 

 I examined that hive again. I hap- 

 pened to take out the frame that had 

 the queen on, and she was as plump 

 and nice as she 'was small before; her 



bees were looking better, and there 

 were no more drones to be found in 

 the worker-cells at all; by dividing! 

 made four colonies of bee's from that 

 one that summer. The question is, 

 what caused that change in the queen? 

 Some thought it must have been an- 

 other queen, but I know it was the 

 same old queen. 



I think experiments ought to be 

 made along that line, to see what feed- 

 ing will do with" queens under similar 

 circumstancesi but we might attempt 

 to experiment under different circum- 

 stances, and fail. They w.ere peculiar 

 in this case. While there was plenty 

 of honey in the hive, it was glazed over 

 as if varnished, and the bees seemed 

 to have all they could do to dig in and 

 get any feed at all. They were nearly 

 starved and heavy with honey. 



I would like to know if any here have 

 had a similar experience, and if they 

 take my statement as true. I wish 

 that somebody, next spring, if he finds 

 a colony of bees that come out weak 

 and poor, that he would try it out, and 

 see if this can he done by others. 



Best Package for Retailing Extracted 

 ■ / -, 'Honey. 



"What is the "best package, or con- 

 tainer, (for extracted honey in a retail 

 way?" 



Dr. Miller — Sixty-pound can. 



Mr. Niver — I sell honey in 60-pound 

 cans ■n'herever I can, and the worst 

 trouble about selling a 60-pound can 

 is, to find anybody who has money 

 enough to pay for it. A 3-pound can 

 comes" nearer the size of the average 

 family, although I have sold a great 

 many 60-pound cans the present win- 

 ter, but a great majority of my sales 

 won't average over 6 pounds at a time, 

 and this merely on account of the 

 financial standing of the people; they 

 are working for wages, and don't get 

 wages enough to get far enough ahead, 

 except in exceptional instances, to buy 

 a 60 pound can of honey. They would 

 buy it if they had the money, I have no 

 dou^bt. 



Mr. Wilcox — I have sometimes said 

 that the larger the city in which you 

 sell it, the smaller should be the pack- 

 age. If you will send y^our honey west 

 of the Missouri river, a 60 -pound can 

 is small enough; it does very well in 

 Dakota, ibut when you go into Wis- 

 consin' and Illinois you will have to 



