ILLINOIS STATE BJSE -KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



105 



Mr. Moore: Dr. Miller, can you add, 

 if you know, what is the practice of 

 our largest comb-honey producers in 

 this matter? 



Dr. Miller: I think there are very 

 few comb-honey producers who use 

 excluders. Indeed, some of our larger 

 producers of extracted honey do not 

 use excluders. They, however — for in- 

 stance, B. I>. Townsend — depend upon 

 getting the bees started to storing over 

 the brood-chamber, and then, when 

 they add room for extracting combs, 

 they add it above. There are some at 

 least who depend upon what Mr. 

 Wheeler spoke of, shallow extracting 

 combs. I think Mr. Dadant says the 

 queen will not go up and lay in shallow 

 extracting combs as she would in the 

 deeper combs. 



Mr. Taylor: I should like to ask 

 v.-hether some seasons you don't get 

 considerable brood in sections? 



Dr. Miller: Yes, and no. I think 

 there is a difference in seasons, and I 

 don't know what the difference is. 

 Sometimes I have had a super in which 

 there would be a very large proportion 

 of the sections that would have brood 

 in them. I don't know, but take it all 

 together, take one season with another, 

 I think the worst season I ever had, I 

 don't believe I ever had enough brood 

 in sections to make it pay to use ex- 

 cluders. 



Mr. Taylor: I think not. Still, I 

 think there are some things that rather 

 draw the queen up. For instance, if 

 you have a good colony upon founda- 

 tion or starters, and you remove sec- 

 tions from the hive from which they 

 came, sections that are only partly 

 worked out, the queen is pretty sure to 

 go into them. 



Dr. Miller: That is, would swarm. 

 But if you have comb, to hive them 

 upon comb, they are not apt to do that, 

 or if you have a case of sections nearly 

 finished and put that immediately 

 above the brood-frames, she isn't likely 

 to go up. 



Mr. "Wheeler: It looks, from what 

 these men. say, as if a man that han- 

 dles comb honey should not use queen 

 excluders. I use queen excluders on 

 my comb honey, but I use a different 

 hive. I use the Heddon hive. After 

 the bees get nicely started in two of 

 the Heddon hives, I put the comb super 

 above and slip the lower story away, 

 and I have the brood chamber 6 inches 

 deep, (about 5%), and above the queen - 



excluder all the comb honey goes. Nine 

 times out of ten the whole of the white 

 clover honey comes into the comb 

 honey super. Whenever that is filled 

 I put another above. I never have any 

 brood in the super, and very seldom in 

 arranging that way do I have any pol- 

 len. At first I had trouble with pollen 

 in the super because I didn't put my 

 second brood-chamber underneath. But 

 by leaving the two brood-chambers on 

 for two or three days, the bees com- 

 mence putting pollen into the combs 

 they have already built, and none of it 

 gets into the super. I use the queen- 

 excluder entirely for hiving new 

 swarms on the Heddon hive. 



Dr. Miller: Mr. Wheeler and Mr. 

 Taylor have together mentioned one 

 thing, and I might perhaps be pardoned 

 to go«on with what Mr. Taylor said, 

 and say that the rule is in hiving a 

 swarm not to put the supers on until 

 the bees have got a start below, until 

 the queen has established her work 

 below. 



That is not what I say. 

 What do j'Ou say? 



I say put them right on. 

 Without any excluder? 



Yes. 

 What if the queen goes 



If she does? 



She 



Mr. Taylor: 



Dr. Miller: 



Mr. Taylor: 



Dr. Miller: 



Mr. Taylor: 



Dr. Miller: 

 up? 



Mr. Taylor: 

 doesn't. 



Dr. Miller: I understood you to say 

 that if you put on sections that they 

 had just started on — 



Mr. Taylor: I said if you do that, 

 but I didn't say I did it. No; I don't 

 use excluders. I use comb generally. 

 For instance, if I were obliged to use 

 a hive with only starters in or foun- 

 dation, and didn't have a case of sec- 

 tions nearly finished to go on to act 

 as a queen-excluder, I should be 

 obliged to put on an excluder for a 

 time. 



Dr. Miller: Or wait. Suppose you 

 didn't have an excluder, 



Mr. Taylor: I don't wait. I have as 

 many bees as I want, and I don't hive 

 swarms now very often on either 

 starters or on foundation. If I have 

 a comb I use the comb. Then I man- 

 age my swarms in some other way 

 after they are exhausted. 



Dr. Miller: The President asked as 

 to the point Mr. Wheeler made — the 

 depth of the frame. The kind of hive 

 has no little to do with it. Unques- 



