44 



EIGHTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE 



first place with having too small a 

 space under. I have % or one-half 

 inch. 



In the next place, if we can have a 

 large space in the winter time and a 

 smaller space in the summer time. 

 We can get that by a reversed bottom. 

 But I wouldn't have one now because 

 I can do better. If I couldn't do any 

 better I would want the advantage of 

 that deep space. 



There is a man in Ireland that has 

 three or four inches space. He may 

 have a reason for that depth. But I 

 think two inches space in the cellar 

 in the winter time is enough. I have 

 good results and I don't want to re- 

 verse them. It is a heavy business, 

 so I have that two inches depth in 

 the winter time. In the summer time 

 I put something under to partly fill 

 it. In the first place, I put a little 

 bo:sfin there, a common box made of 

 light thin boards, turn it upside down, 

 I think edge down, you turn the front, 

 then they each now have just a little 

 raise. 



Suppose you take a piece of wood 

 half an inch thick running across, 

 it has one at the front end and one 

 at the back end, and it would have 

 strips about % of an inch thick to 

 nail on the upper side. Then on 

 the under side the same thing, only 

 laying the joints so that the bees will 

 have plenty of chance for air to go 

 up through there. There will be two 

 runners down under it to support the 

 whole thing. The upper part of the 

 surface will be within an inch of the 

 bottom bars. 



There is scarcely anything in there 

 and yet the bees will never 

 build down. That surplus of thin 

 wood you can pull out in the winter 

 time very much quicker than revers- 

 ing them in the summer time, and I 

 have the advantage of the same space 

 without the disadvantage of the build- 

 ing. Now, if I can have all that space 

 and the advantage of it aren't you 

 making a mistake by having a board 

 within an inch or half an inch of the 

 bottom boards? 



Maybe some one would like to ask a 

 question. 



Mr. Pt-esident: Maybe, as Dr. Mil- 

 ler suggested, they want to ask some 

 questions. 



Mr. Stone: Mr. President, we have 

 a paper from Mr. N. E. France, of 



Plantville, Wisconsin, subject, "Better 

 days." 



Paper read before the convention by 

 the Secretary. 



Better Days. 



Bee-keepers have long ago become 

 accustomed to live largely on hopes. 

 Next season to be better, next win- 

 ter to have less loss of colonies, bet- 

 ter methods, better sales and all kinds 

 of hopeful dreams. But we are now 

 living in much better days than but 

 a few years ago. Compare present 

 methods with our youthful days, and 

 what advancements in everything ex- 

 cept the market price of honey. We 

 must compete with standard foods on 

 the market, while but a few years 

 ago honey was considered a luxury, 

 to be used as such, and price accord- 

 ing. Today honey is recognized as 

 one of the standard and cheapest daily 

 foods on the every-day table. Meth- 

 ods of handling bees with le^s cost 

 of production is demanding our at- 

 tention. Let me give you what I saw 

 lately in one of Wisconsin's apiaries. 

 Owing to overwork in factory this man 

 has to resort to methods of bee-keep- 

 ing with easy methods. He uses a 

 wheelbarrow to move all his supers 

 from apiary to bee house. Uses queen 

 excluders between brood chamber and 

 supers above. No brood in sections or 

 extracting combs. Also uses the bee 

 escape boards to remove the bees from 

 supers, saving hard labor and keeping 

 the bees free from disturbance, which 

 means good-natured bees. 



This is proven, for he lives adjoin- 

 ing a large school yard where over 

 150 students are at play near the bees, 

 and no one yet stung. By his own 

 make he has the best lifting device I 

 have seen, for by its use he, with left 

 hand, lifts one or more sup- 

 ers, to place under the excluders 

 or will swing raised supers around 

 over wheelbarrow and easily let same 

 down on to a non-drip box; wheels 

 same into bee-house without once lift- 

 ing except handles of wheelbarrow. 

 In bee-house he has another equally 

 easy method of hoisting all supers 

 upstairs and so placed that the same 

 oil stove heats air under the supers 

 until extracted. This oil stove also 

 melts all cappings as fast as taken 

 off, leaving nice wax cakes in the pan 

 below. It also keeps hot water for 

 uncapping knives to be in when not 



