ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPEfRS' ASSOCIATION 



103 



Dr. Miller — I would not think so 

 many as that. 



Mr. Taylor— I think half of them 

 will stay with her. 



Dr. Miller — What do they do ? 



Mr. Taylor — They go to w'ork. 



Dr. Miler — I would not expect so 

 many as that, and yet bees are snch 

 stubborn things if they can have their 

 own way about it. For some years I 

 practiced taking out the queen and 

 putting her up into a nucleus and set- 

 ting it on top; sometimes the nucleus 

 would swarm out, and if they did 

 they would go back in the hive, and 

 they had their own way. 



Mr. Whitney — I had a case similar 

 to that which Mr. Taylor speaks of. 

 It was an extremely strong colony; had 

 three section cases on, and I had no 

 idea they were preparing to swarm. I 

 went over to see them one morning about 

 9 o'clock; they were just coming back 

 to the hive. I examined them and 

 r found that they had 3 section-cases 

 full of honey. I raised up the lower 

 one, put two others under (and took 

 two off) and did nothing more. They 

 didn't swarm out again. The old queens 

 went back in the hive all right. 



Some one wanted to know how I pre- 

 vented them swarming again. I just gave 

 them "a good talking to!" I told them 

 they were making a good record, and 

 it was a shame for them to spoil it in 

 that sort of way, and they never 

 swarmed again! 



Mr. Wilcox — Did you look to see if 

 they had any queen-cells? 



Mr. Whitney — ^I didn't look into the 

 hive at all. I got from that colony 

 seven cases of honey that summer. 



Mr. Wilcox — In almost every case 

 where the queen was put back and 

 stayed contented, they swarmed on ac- 

 count of excessive heat. Of course, 

 putting them back. I ventilated them 

 by the operation so that they were con- 

 tented, and hot weather ceased, and 

 they went on with their work. , I would 

 expect, if _you put the old queen back, 

 when the swarm issues they would 

 come out again. 



Mr. Macklin — ^I would like to ask Mr. 

 Miller one question: Suppose you have 

 some colonies that have swarmed, and 

 you didn't want any more increase ; 

 you have a swarm come off, and put 

 that in the colony that swarmed within 

 8 days of the time that it cast its 

 prime swarm; put the new swarm in 



that — what is left of the old colony? 

 Will that new swarm in there take care 

 of the queen-cells and prevent after 

 swarming ? - 



Dr. Miller — I don't know. If I stud- 

 ied on it a while I might make a guess. 



Mr. Hatch — I have done it a great 

 many times; it generally cleaned out 

 all the queen- cells and stayed there, 

 and I got a full crop of honey from 

 that colony where otherwise it would 

 not get enough honey to build up on. 



The convention then adjourned to 

 meet at 7:30 p. m. 



FIRST DAY— EVENING SESSION. 

 Per Cent of Beeswax in Propolis. 



"What- percentage of beeswax is in 

 the propolis which is scraped from 

 sections ?" 



Mr. Taylor — I have taken it out, but 

 I cannot give you exact ounces. 



Pres. York — What would you guess? 



Mr. Taylor — Probably a pound of 

 wax to a thousand pounds of honey. 



Pres. York — Not very much beeswax, 

 then,- in propolis? 



Mr. Taylor — Not very much; but then 

 by scraping you can soon get out what 

 wax there is. 



Mr. Howard — I came to the conclu- 

 sion, after trying it, that there was 

 nearly one-quarter down in our section. 

 I was astonished. 



Ml. Taylor — ^It depends somewhat on 

 the flow of honey. If it flows fast 

 the bees don't get so much propolis, 

 and they put in more wax in place of 

 propolis. 



Mr. Schlader — How would you sepa- 

 rate the wax from the propolis? 



Mr. Taylor — Put it in water and boil' 

 it, and it separates itself. The propo- 

 lis einks to the bottom and the wax 

 rises to the top. 



Mr. Whitney— ^Does not the amount 

 of propolis in the wax depend upon the 

 season of the year when you do the 

 scraping? If done in the fall there 

 would be a great deal more. 



Mr. Taylor — It depends upon the sea- 

 son of the year when the honey is 

 stored. 



Mr. Hatch — Depends en the location 

 of the bees, toe. There are two or 

 three things to consider. 



Mr. Maeklin — Do you get enough to 

 make it pay? 



Mr. Taylor — Yes. It doesn't cost 



