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98 



SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



their defence, they are ever liable to 

 fall a prey to some of their many ene- 

 mies, who are all agreed on this one 

 point, at least, that stolen honey is 

 much sweeter than the slow accumu- 

 lations of patient industry." 



The President: We are much o- 

 bliged for this paper. It is entirely an 

 innovation; and the question has not 

 come up very much in reference to the 

 insects that are troublesome to bees. 

 We do not wish to occupy very much 

 time in its discussion, as other mat- 

 ters will come up. Perhaps our man- 

 ager may have something to say in 

 reference to the Association. 



Mr. Selser — I would like to ask the 

 speaker about that second illustration 

 (wolf -fly or bee killer). After I had 

 shipped some queens to one man 

 which he seemed to think did him a 

 great deal of good, he kept on order- 

 ing. The last nuclei I shipped to him 

 he sent back just that sort of an in- 

 sect and said that was the queen I 

 sent him in the nuclei. (Laughter). 

 I would like to know if they get in a 

 colony whether the bees kill them or 

 not? 



Mr. Satterthwait: In answer to the 

 question I would say these flies attack 

 bees on the wing and they must be en- 

 tirely outside of the hive; but they 

 might be caught by this fly right close 

 to the hive. There is a specimen in 

 the box from a party in Louisiana who 

 reported it was the cause of 85 per 

 cent of his queen bees never getting 

 back after leaving the hive. If that 

 was at all general, it would 'be a seri- 

 ous consideration. 



Mr. Moe: I am one of those fellows 

 who like to get as much good things 

 as I can. I move you we take a five 

 or ten minutes recess to allow a little 

 changing about and exercise. We will 

 be in better shape to listen to what is 

 coming after and it will do us all 

 good. 



The President: A recess is in order. 



AFTER RECESS. 



The President called for any sug- 

 gestion or anything that might be of 

 value which any individual had to of- 

 fer that would be of interest to those 

 present. 



QUESTION BOX. 



Mr. France: Mr. President, realiz- 

 ing that our secretary was a very busy 

 man and the time drawing close for 

 our convention, I assumed the respons- 



ibility of helping him in so far as an 

 information bureau was concerned by 

 requesting each Individual member to 

 ask one or more questions upon bee 

 keeping which to them would be im- 

 portant to have answered. Further- 

 more, to suggest who among all the 

 bee-keepers of the United States and 

 Canada they would prefer to have an- 

 swer them. I felt that question to 

 that member would be worth more 

 than his annual dues. I have received 

 a good many questions and largely 

 have the returns from those who were 

 to answer them. With your permis- 

 sion I will read a short reply from 

 Mr. Dadant on questions asked which 

 it was preferred he should answer. 

 Then if we want to take up the same 

 question under discussion here I pre- 

 sume it is our privilege. 



Question by N. P. Whitmore. 



In using full sheets of comb founda- 

 tion, how will you prevent drones be- 

 ing reared in worker combs? N. P. 

 Whitmore. 



Drones are reared in worker combs 

 wherever these combs are perceptibly 

 larger than the ordinary worker cells, 

 and it is not necessary that such cells 

 be as large as the ordinary drone cells 

 built by the bees, in order to have 

 drones reared in them. If comb 

 foundation be given to natural swarms 

 or to strong colonies in the center of 

 the brood nest, it often happens that 

 the bees lengthen out the center part 

 and, in fact, a great portion of the 

 sheet and place both brood and honey 

 into it before they properly strengthen 

 the upper part. The result is a few 

 rows of cells near the top stretched 

 down sufficiently by the weight to in- 

 duce the queen to lay drone eggs in 

 them. This, to my mind, is an evi- 

 dence of the mechanical action of the 

 queen in laying. If laying was all vo- 

 lition and she could lay either drones 

 or workers at will, there would prob- 

 ably not- be found so invariably drones 

 in slightly larger cells. 



To prevent the occurrence of elon- 

 gated cells, it is important to have 

 the comfb foundation worked out by 

 colonies that are' not sufficiently 

 strong to overload it at the start. But 

 a great deal of stretching may be 

 avoided by using a wire near the top 

 as near as within an inch of the top 

 bar. In fact, if the combs are wired, 

 the wires ought to be inserted much 

 higher than it has been customary to 

 insert them, for they are not needed 



