STATE bee-keepers' ASSOCIATION. 91 



divided it up into two or three colonies sometimes and gave 

 them all a laying queen. I had the queens, maybe a dozen, 

 before I commenced my work, and with each colony went a 

 queen, turned loose at once, and they had one frame of brood 

 and the rest foundation, and under such circumstances I have 

 never had any cells started or had any trouble. My idea was 

 to bring out the point that the way to make shook swarms 

 is to keep a number of lajdng queens on the colonies you 

 want to divide, and then turn the laying queens loose at 

 once, and I don't think they will build any cells if you do 

 that. 



Mr. Hutchinson — If I understand the matter, they do not 

 shake the bees from the colony until they have made prepa- 

 rations for swarming; and the bees are shaken off on the 

 old stand and the brood given the bees on the new stand; 

 and the old queen and all of the bees, or nearly all, go on 

 the old stand, and the flying bees that come back join that, 

 and that has a queen; and what we have been talking about 

 is the giving of a new swarm a comb of brood to prevent 

 them absconding, and sometimes they go to work and build 

 cells on that. That is all the division they usually make ; they 

 do not divide them up into several parts; they just have the 

 two; and the old combs of brood are usually given a queen- 

 cell nearly ready to hatch, or else given a laying queen, 

 preferably a laying queen. If it is given, then there is no 

 use going to work and hunting up the queen-cells and de- 

 stroying them, because that colony and laying queen will 

 destroy them themselves. 



Mr. Smith — I believe it is their instinct for ther own 

 preservation. You disturb a colony of bees, or alarm them, 

 and they will immediately start queen-cells, but they will cut 

 them out again after they find their old queen is secure, in 

 a day or two. I think that is the reason; it is the fear of 

 their queen being injured or taken from them that they 

 start queen-cells. 



Mr. Snell — I would like to ask any one who has given 

 a shook swarm a queen, and then that colony started cells, 

 if he has ever known them to be matured and a swarm made 

 from such colonies? I would doubt their doing it very 

 much. ■ , ; V ' 



ADVANTAGES OF THE '^WISCONSIN HIVE." 



"What are the advantages of the so-called Wisconsin 

 hive?" 



Mr. Bacon — It seems to me that the Wisconsin hive has 

 the combination of the good points of the Improved Lang- 

 stroth-Simplicity and also the dove-tailed; it seems to me 

 that is the main reason for its popularity. It has a portico 

 front and it is now made so that the supers which are now 

 used with the dove-tailed hive can also be used on the Wis- 

 consin hive. Those I believe are the principal points. 



Mr. Abbott — I want to say that the main advantage of 

 the Wisconsin hive is that its makers took all they could 



