ILLINOIS STATE BEE- KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



101 



last fall I shook 9, and 8 out of the 9 

 showed foul brood in the spring again. 



Mr. Cavanagh— Where did you get 

 the combs you put the bees on, and 

 what time did you shake them? 



Mr. Jones — I got the combs from 

 good, healthy colonies. I shook them 

 when the bees were in flight (in No- 

 vember). 



Mr. Cavanagh — I cannot account for 

 your failure by the bees carrying im- 

 perfect honey with them? They don't 

 breed any more in the fall; they must 

 consume that honey in the winter. 



Mr. Jones — I don't know that they 

 consume that honey in the winter, 



Mr. Cavanaugh — I cannot account for 

 that theory. 1 even do this: I put 

 away extracting combs late in the fall 

 after the brood is all hatched, and give 

 them a good disinfecting. If there is 

 any scattering of foul brood I have 

 never seen it. I don't think there was 

 any disease in those combs; I did that 

 the year we had European foul brood. 

 I think thofa'e bees were infected from 

 some other way. 



Dr. Miller — I think possibly Mr. Mc- 

 Evoy recommends this: That in the 

 fall, after breeding is done, you T)ut 

 your infected colonies upon full frames 

 of sealed honey. Now if Mr. Jones had 

 frames that had some empty cells in 

 which they could carry and deposit 

 honey that they had before — and I 

 think Mr. McEvoy would object to that 

 — Re insists that the combs must be en- 

 tirely filled and sealed with honey; and 

 Mr. McEvoy recommends that very 

 Ktrong'ly as a good treatment to give 

 in the fall of the year — a diseased col- 

 ony, full sealed frames of honey, and it 

 is just possible that in Mr. Cavanagh's 

 treatment he had the full frames, and 

 In Mr. Jones' he had frames that were 

 only partially full. 



Mr. Jones — Not every cell was filled; 

 that is a pretty hard thing to get; you 

 may g'et an individual comb here and 

 there, but it is a hard thing to get 

 evfery cell filled. 



Mr. Cavanagh — ^Were these colonies 

 badly infected, or only slightly? 



Mr. Jones — They were not badly in^ 

 fected. 



Mr. Cavanagh — I don't want to be 

 misunderstood in the matter. I would 

 not treat any colony that is badly in- 

 fected with American foul brood; I 

 would put them out of existence. There 

 is no use in bothering with a colony 



of bees unless they are of some com- 

 mercial value. A few bees would better 

 be killed than to fuss with them. 



Strengthening Comb Foundation. 



"Could not a brood foundation be 

 made heavy at the top and tapering 

 to thin super at the bottom, so that 

 in TYz in. frames no wire would be 

 needed ?" 



Pres. York — Mr. Dadant should be 

 able to help us on that. 



Mr. Dadant — I never have been able 

 to do anything like that yet. It is hard 

 enough to ge.t a straight sheet without 

 any knots in it. 



Dr. Miller — Something that is prac- 

 tically close to that in effect has been 

 done. I believe there has been a patent 

 taken out, and there are some that 

 practice it. Take a brush and paint 

 the upper part of the foundation with 

 melted wax, so as to make it heavier 

 at the top; some speak very highly of 

 that. A Mr. Vogeler, of California, in- 

 vented the process. 



Mr. Huffman — Did not Mr. Popple- 

 ton recommend that at the Sioux City 

 Convention? 



Pres. York — ^He spoke of it, but the 

 California man recommended it. 



Mr. Howard — ^I thought it might be 

 made so that one side would be thin 

 and the top thick. 



Mr. Taylor — It is an easy matter with 

 a good press. 



Swarm Control and Comb Honey. 



"What is the best plan for swarm- 

 control when working for comb honey?". 



Mr. Taylor — I can tell you how I do. 

 I give them plenty of room. Not 

 too much but see that they have 

 plenty of room; then there will 

 be some swarms, and I catch the 

 queen; put on the queen-trap, put the 

 swarm back; the old queen will be 

 killed and they will come back. If they 

 go up, as they will generally, unless it 

 is near the end of the season — when the 

 swarm is out I pull out all the rest of 

 the queen cells and put them back, 

 and that is the end of it. 

 ■ Dr. Miller — I don't know; I am try- 

 ing to learn that. One way, a little like 

 this, and this is older than any of us — 

 put the swarm back every time it is- 

 sues, and if you keep doing that you 

 will finally get the thing over, because 

 the old queen will be killed in a little 



