ILLTXiQIS STATE BEE-KEEPEJRS' ASSOCIATION 



209 



: . told you on the start that it wasn't 

 for increase at all, but you can have 

 all the increase you want. My plan 



, . was to increase the honey crop and 

 not the bees; keep the same number. 

 I generally increase a little bit, about 

 ten per cent more than I want, be- 

 cause some of these queens will be 

 lost, but you are not obliged to unite 

 them here unless you want to. I 

 unite th-em because it is the increase 

 of honey I want. I have all the bees 

 I care for, so I increase only in that 

 way to get all the queens I can, laying 

 for the fall harvest, and then unite 

 them' again, and go on in that way. 

 It gives you double energy for the fall 

 honey, and more advantages are 

 gained in proportion by having our 

 bees very strong in the fall, than in 

 June. You might say, how can you 

 expand and increase your bees, and 

 yet, at the same time, consolidate 

 them? With this little hive I have a 

 larger swarm of bees than if they had 

 swarmed naturally. If is a swarm time 



^ of the year, and I can give just enough 



to go on and take care of the brood 

 and queen cell, which is almost ripe 

 and ready to hatch, so that the great 

 forces of the bees are in this little 

 bit of a shallow hive. You might 

 ask why I use such a shallow hive. 

 It is simply this: when you have the 

 queen caged, or kill the queen, the 

 bees will fill every cell of comb befipre 

 they will go in the boxes. In tjiis 

 case they haven't much of that kind of 

 work to do. , 



I thank you for your attention. (ijP- 

 plause.) 



Mr. MdEvoy — That gentleman gave 

 you a system that will give you a 

 large crop of extracted honey. 



Mr. Yates^ — Have you combs in this 

 narrow part of the hive? 



Mr. Cyrenius — Sure; I have combs 



in that the same as in any chamber. 



Mr. Root — How deep is this shallow 



^ chamber? 



- Mr, Cyrenius — I think the frames 



are 3 and 7-8; a sheet of foundation 



- - just cuts up into three frames. For a 

 great many purposes I like to put this 



,V brood in the upper chamber. When I 



, have some queens coming from some 

 breeder I always like to have them 

 come by the 1st of July, if I am going 

 to use them for next year; that gives 



'(-■' me 11 months to test them. A week 

 ._ before the queens come I see the 



J brood is in the upper chamber, and 



—14 



when the queens come I haven't got 

 to hunt for them. There is a lot of 

 queenless broods up here, and I move 

 this on the new stand, and the old 

 bees desert this. I have nothing left 

 but the young queen, and she ac- 

 cepts the new queen very easily. I 

 never lost a queen. 



Mr. McEvoy — All the old field-bees \ , 

 that might attack this one have gone l, 

 to gather honey. i 



Mr. Davenport — What is your man- 

 agement when you take your bees out 

 in the spring? 



Mr. Cyrenius — It has been common 

 and customary for the bee-keepers to 

 want a very nice, warm day to set 

 the bees out of the cellar. Now, I 

 want a day that is down to freezing, 

 or if I can get into a little flurry of a 

 snow storm, that is what I call a good T; 

 day. Then the bees settle down, 

 and when it comes a nice day, they fly 

 easily. I clean the bottom-boards off, _ 

 and if I know they have got plenty of : 

 honey I don't disturb them again until 

 the 20th of May. I think the very 

 best stimulant we can give our bees 

 is a good letting alone, and, as Doo- 

 little says, it is millions of pounds of 

 honey in our combs. It is the na- 

 ture of the bees to cover all the brood 

 they can in the spring of the year. , 

 With the bees I winter out doors I 

 have a box a little larger than a hive; 

 I take forest leaves and fill it level, 

 and then I put a board; in which just 

 fits in there; I press it down and get 

 on it with my feet and press it down 

 hard to the bottom. I press that down 

 over the hive, and it is the best pro- 

 tection I know of for wintering. I 

 leave that on there until about the 

 20th of May, when our fruit-bloom 

 comes, and I need another super. 



Mr. I>avenport — You have a deep 

 and shallow chamber. I understood 

 you to say that you used the shallow - 

 chamber to reinforce the stores of the 

 bees for winter. 



Mr. Cyrenius — ^Yes. 



Mr. Davenport — How do you manip- 

 ulate those two in the spring? 



Mr. Cyrenius — Just as though it -" 

 was one hive. There is no manipu- 

 lation at all until June. 



The President called on Mr. Prance 

 to read the paper by Wesley Foster, 

 of Boulder, Colo., on "Methods of Re- 

 tailing Honey." "^ 



Mr. France read the paper as fol- 

 lows: 



_ i ^kJ^^'St..! 



