ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



103 



Answer: I don't know of any special 

 conditions. After the plurality of 

 queens are safely introduced the bees 

 pay no more attention to one queen 

 than they do to another, and as I have 

 seen almost hundreds of them crawling 

 over each other, I have good reason to 

 believe that laying queens very, very 

 seldom sting each other. 



Question 4 — By Dr. Bohrer: Will 

 there be any real benefit to a honey 

 producer to have more than one fertile 

 queen in a ten frame hive? If so, when 

 and how secured? 



Answer: Yes, I think in most cases 

 there will be much benefit. There is 

 no question but what two queens in a 

 hive will keep it more crowded with 

 brood than one will, and to the extent 

 that a very strong colony with an un- 

 usual amount of maturing brood will 

 gather more surplus than a medium 

 colony, just to that extent it is an ad- 

 vantage to the honey producer to have 

 two or more queens in a colony. 

 After your colonies have a very 

 large working force, they can be used 

 to secure a corresponding large sur- 

 plus, or to form increase. 



Question 5 — By H. Ballon — ^Can you 

 get more honey per colony, by fre- 

 quent extracting the combs during 

 honey flow, than by tiering up supers 

 with full combs? 



Answer — Yes, I think we can get 

 neardly twice the amount, but you will 

 require some large tanks for it to thor- 

 oughly ripen in before it is barreled 

 up. We make it a point to extract 

 just .when the bees commence to cap 

 it. We seldom have any surplus ex- 

 cept buckwheat and golden rod and 

 occasionally some bass wood. We find 

 it is a great improvement to the honey 

 from these flowers to keep it in the 

 tanks about two weeks, so it will lose 

 a part of the strong odor and unpleas- 

 ant flavor it has when flrst extracted. 

 It gives much better satisfaction and 

 sells far more readily than if it was 

 barreled up as soon as extracted. I 

 know that any honey that has a strong 

 disagreeable odor and taste is much 

 improved by being exposed to the air 

 for a short time. 



In answering the above questions I 

 have briefly given my opinion from 

 past experience, and am sorry I can- 

 not be with you, to enter into a discus- 

 sion of the same. 



E. W. ALEXANDER, 



Delahson, N. Y. 



The members should bear in mind 

 the conditions at Mr. Alexander's home 

 before criticizing his replies. 



The President: That point you made 

 reference to as to the late honey flow, 

 buckwheat and golden rod, would have 

 a material influence on the colony as 

 to swarming. It is the early honey 

 flow that induces swarming very much. 



Mr. Hershisher: I have the utmost 

 respect for Mr. Alexander's doctrines, 

 nearly all of them, tout as to tbis one 

 of teaching the advisability of ex- 

 tracting honey before it is capped I en- 

 ter a most vigorous protest. It may 

 be all right for him, but he is answer- 

 ing a question that goes to the bee- 

 keeping world. I want to say that 

 the fact the honey candies is no indi- 

 cation that it is ripe or thick. Honey 

 may candy in different ways. With 

 a flne silky grain it indicates ripeness; 

 with coarse crystal it indicates a poor 

 quality. The way to build up a honey 

 market is to let it be known that we 

 allow" the bees to ripen the honey as 

 best they can. If we aire going to 

 teach the bee-keeping public that 

 honey can be extracted .and ripened 

 afterwards, we will have about nine- 

 tenths of the ibee-keepers will not be 

 ripening it afterwards. I don't think 

 they get as good honey. 



The President: Don't you think that 

 the object of extracting before it is 

 sealed is to get the quantity of honey 

 with Mr. Alexander, and also to pre- 

 vent swarming? 



Mr. Hershisher: That may be so, 

 but the result is the injuring of the 

 market for honey. Let us have good 

 honey;- let us have it as good as the 

 bees can make it. (Applause.) 



Mr. Pressler: If I understand that 

 argument of Mr. Alexander's correctly, 

 I infer that by leaving it in tanks to 

 ripen, evaporation takes place. If it 

 takes the same amount of artiflcial heat 

 to ripen that honey, will not that re- 

 duce that amount to the normal, the 

 same as though it had been reduced 

 by the bees? 



The President: That is the question. 

 Take a section of honey that is not 

 sealed, left green apparently, and let 

 that remain in a warm room until it 

 is thoroughly thick, I will guarantee 

 that the cells will not be lowered to 

 any perceptible degree. And with 

 sealed honey the same way, the longer 

 it is kept in a warm room the better 

 it is and the thicker it becomes, and 

 yet the cells are apparently as well 



