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ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



Mr. Holterman: That is right. 



Mr. Miller: Are not those brood 

 chambers more likely to be clogged 

 with small swarm^s where the colony 

 is down? 



The President: Quite so. 



Mr. Miller: That is my experience; 

 but if I can get a nice large swarm 

 of bees before the honey flow comes 

 on I am sure to get the quantity of 

 bees. 



Mr. Holterman: I find if I want to 

 get the best brood chamber with a 

 good stock of bees I must put on two 

 or three upper stories. "With one up- 

 per story they will crowd the brood 

 chamber much more than with two or 

 three. Take a twelve frame Lang- 

 stroth hive and you may have eight 

 or nine of them with no honey, where- 

 as if you are only using one you will 

 find much more honey between the 

 top bar and the brood. 



Mr. Hershisher: Wouldn't that sys- 

 tem work better with section hives? 



Mr. Holterman: I don't know. 



Mr. Miller: Might not the queens 

 be to blame for this small swarm in 

 the season or can we place it to the 

 wintering season? 



The President: The wintering sea- 

 son is one thing. There are a great 

 many different things that go to ac- 

 count for it. There are a great many 

 conditions under which a colony of 

 bees has to work, and if the colony is 

 a little small after wintering they are 

 a decided hindrance in the way of 

 such colonies. 



Mr. Moe: There is another feature 

 in connection with this system that 

 has not been touched on. I under- 

 stand this dual queen system pre- 

 vents any tendency to swarm in the 

 hive? 



The President: That overcomes 

 some of the difficulties. 



Mr. Moe: Will they swarm at all? 



The President: The opening be- 

 tween the lower or brood apart- 

 ment and the upper is so wide that 

 the heat passes above, and they enter 

 the supers more readily. Consequent- 

 ly under ordinary circumstances there 

 will be less honey below than under 

 other conditions. 



Mr. Holterman: Can you success- 

 fully raise a queen in the super, as has 

 been advocated, and when that young 

 queen hatches, not have swarming? 



Now, it is a nice system, if it can be 

 followed out, of rearing a young 

 queen in the super and have that 



queen go down and destroy the old 

 one. But during the honey flow and 

 during the swarming season is there 

 or is there not a great danger of hav- 

 ing the colony swarm when that young 

 queen hatches? 



The President: It is well demon- 

 strated that more than one queen in 

 a hive during a yield of honey in- 

 duces the tendency to swarm. How 

 many have had any experience along 

 that line? 



Mr. Hershisher: I think it is one of 

 Mr. Alexander's claims that the dual 

 queen system or several queens in a 

 hive, to a certain extent, does away 

 with the desire to swarm. 



The President: The question, as I 

 understand it, was whether a young 

 queen reared above would induce 

 swarming below. It is a flne point. 



Mr. Klees: The point is, after Mr. 

 Alexander has two queens introduced 

 into his hive will it prevent swarm- 

 ing or not? 



Mr. Pressler: Yes, a positive cure. 

 I can prove it easily if you come up 

 to my hive. - 



Mr. President, I did not purpose com- 

 ing before this convention at this par- 

 ticular time or at this session and 

 taking any part in any of the discus- 

 sions from the fact that I had been 

 disabled for active duty the great part 

 of the past season, on account of an 

 infliction; and I have in the past, as 

 the Bee Journal editors will know, 

 avoided saying anything in any of the 

 bee papers, and when writing a per- 

 sonal letter I always instructed the 

 editor not to publish anything over my 

 name. I had not for many years been 

 so excited or provoked so much as I 

 was by the article of Mr. Alexander 

 coming out about tjie plurality of 

 queens in one hive, more than a year 

 ago. I am no Alexander and I don't 

 purpose going into detail as to the 

 system or how to introduce them, but 

 I know it can be done. It cannot be 

 done under normal conditions, but the 

 bee-keeper who knows how to throw 

 his colony out of the normal condition 

 into a panic-stricken condition can do 

 almost anything, even beyond his com- 

 prehension. That is the way to in- 

 troduce queens. The Alexander sys- 

 tem, as it has been recently described 

 in one of the Bee Journals, is the 

 single system I employ, and, as 

 members in the house who have seen 

 my system and my appliances in the 

 past, would be willing to testify, I have 



