ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. 



171 



goes down. I mark every good and 

 every bad quality that I can get 

 against a queen or for a queen, ex- 

 cept color. There is no use marking 

 color, because we can see the color 

 by looking at them. When I get that 

 pointer up, I say those are my best 

 queens, I know where to And them 

 any time of the year. 



Apiary Cage. 



Now, I want to call your attention 

 to a queen cage for the apiary; it is 

 made of a narrow piece of wire cloth 

 with a selvage for the plug end nailed 

 to a stick in the form of a W. If you 

 want to get a queen from any hive, 

 you put the open end down over her, 

 and in a moment she is in the cage; 

 if you want to get some more bees 

 you can scoop them up in the same 

 way; and no matter how you put them 

 into a hive the bees can always get 

 to the queen, and feed her. I find it 

 the very thing for the yard. B'Ut it is 

 not a mailing cage. If I was going to 

 ship a queen away I would scoop up 

 my bees the same way. I want to get 

 young bees with the queen for ship- 

 ping. I scoop them up and put my 

 shipping cage over them, and I either 

 smoke them up or immerse them slow- 

 ly in a dish of water, and they run up 

 in the shipping cake. 



Now, a number of years ago I gave 

 Mr. Hutchinson one of my queen cell 

 ■finders or supertighteners. We will 

 get at this more specifically tomorrow, 

 but I think while I am on these special 

 things I will call your attention 

 to it to-night. If we have a hive here 

 with a number of supers on It tiered 

 up, and we want to examine that hive 

 as to its queen cells, here is a little 

 thing which I use, this has eight bear- 

 ings on here. Now your hive is all 

 solid, and with a little smoke you can 

 blow that right up and see whether 

 you have any queen cells there or 

 not, without overhauling the hive. I 

 find that a great comfort. I can look 

 through 30 or 40 hives in an hour, tin 

 them up like that. Tomorrow I will 

 show you a little more in my queen 

 rearing talk how we will handle it. 



Tools Painted White. 



All the tools that we use about the 

 bee yard should be painted white; that 

 gives the greatest contrast of color 



that we can use, because if they fall 

 down in the grass we can find them. 



• Use Curtains. 



Another thing that I enjoy very 

 much is to have a few curtains, some 

 large and some small, and if you arc 

 taking off some hives and robbers 

 coming, you can throw those curtains 

 over them. 



Trap the Robbers. 



I think it is a good idea to have a 

 window near the floor of your bee 

 houses, and just outside you can have 

 a hive and have it provided with a 

 bee escape so that you can have a 

 swarm of bees outside to catch any 

 bees that we take into the honey 

 house that are too young to find their 

 way back to their hives. You will 

 save a great many bees in that way. 

 I thank you for your attention. (Ap- 

 plause). 



Mr. France — I would like to ask Mr. 

 Cyrenius this question: In using this 

 brush there will always be a little 

 drippage of honey from the broken 

 bur or brace combs. When the brush 

 becomes a little daubed up with honey 

 do you wash it? 



Mr. Cyrenius^No, the bees take 

 care of that. There is very little in 

 that; there is none whatever in sealed 

 combs. You can wash the brush if 

 you wish. I have never had occasion 

 to wash it, because there are always 

 bees around it, and they clean it 

 right up. 



Mr. Stevens — ^^The honey is ripe be- 

 fore you take it off. 



Mr. 'Cyrenius — It is just as ripe as 

 you can have it, very little of it is 

 unsealed. 



Mr. Garabrant ('Xtew Jersey) — I 

 would like to know how many have 

 ever used what is called the ordinary 

 wall- scraper. I find it one of the 

 handiest things I know of to keep 

 things clean. I use an ordinary trowel 

 sometimes, and find it very handy. 



Mr. Hershiser — I might offer one 

 suggestion about straining honey. I 

 use in my out apiaries ordinary barrel 

 tanks, and for a strainer I scratch 

 what is called an americabo coffee 

 sack, which hasn't any coloring matter 

 in it, over the top of the barrel, or 

 use the ordinary cheese cloth, and 

 when that gets clogged I have a book. 



