

ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



169 



comb or two the best course would be 

 to burn them right up. Burn them or 

 bury them unless you have conven- 

 iences in which you can take care of 

 the combs securely. There is where 

 the danger comes. 



Mr. Holterman — If you had 100 col- 

 onies would you do that? 



Mr. Taylor — It would depend on the 

 man. A good careful man could save 

 his bees and save the wax in the 

 combs. If he was not a careful man 

 he had better burn them up. 



Mr. Lewis — Mr. Taylor says put the 

 diseased brood over a queen excluder. 

 Now, I have tried that with four hives 

 and have had two of them block up 

 the escape so that the bees above 

 smothered to death. 



Mr. Holterman — ^Were there many 

 drones in your brood? 



Mr. Lewis — No, it wasn't from that 

 cause. 



The President — Did you use a bee 

 escape ? 



Mr. Lewis — Yes, a regular bee es- 

 cape. That seemed to be all filled up 

 with cappings and then the bees had 

 crowed in "and blocked it right up so 

 that it was just solid and the bees 

 were dead. Now, take a good clean 

 comb that never had foul brood in it^ 

 but that had honey from a foul brood 

 hive below, and above a bee escape. 

 I had one hive of that kind and I 

 wanted to save that comb badly. How 

 I could get the honey out that re- 

 mained in those combs after extract- 

 ing was a problem. I saw that every 

 cell was uncapped on both sides of the 

 card; it was about two-thirds full 

 above when I discovered the old hive 

 was full of foul brood. So I took 

 them one by one and I soused each 

 card up and down in water, turning it 

 over and throwing the water out three 

 times in succession. Then I sunk 

 them In water over night and then 

 threw them out, and the next morn- 

 ing put them up to dry in my bee 

 house, and before they were quite dry 

 a large colony of bees came out and 1 

 put them right into that hive and they 

 have been there four years without 

 any sign of foul brood. 



Mr. Taylor — What did you wash 

 them out for? 



Mr. Lewis — To get the honey out. 



Mr. Taylor — It was brought from 

 the fields? 



Mr. Lewis — ^Yes. 



Mr. Taylor — Well, that is always 

 safe. 



Mr. Williams — Mr. Taylor speaks of 

 using the hives again. Does that in- 

 clude using the frames over again? 



Mr. Taylor — I have. If you boil 

 them thoroughly I consider it safe. 



Mr. McEvoy — Yes, perfectly safe. 



Mr. Taylor — ^In fact I think it would 

 be safe without it in the majority of 

 cases, because the foul brood does not 

 go up to the -frame and if I cut out 

 the combs I would not be much afraid 

 to use them just as they are. 



Dr. Phillips — ^It seems to me that 

 this discussion has missed the whole 

 point in the financial treatment of bee 

 diseases. If we are going^ to eradicate 

 bee diseases from the country or state 

 or continent, it must be done by a 

 modified method of manipulation. If 

 a man goes on producing honey, as 

 we have been taught to do since the 

 honey extractor was brought in, the 

 bee diseases will be very hard to con- 

 trol; but if we modify our methods so 

 that wax production becomes a part of 

 our manipulation, bee diseases will no 

 longer be a serious proposition. We 

 have been led to believe that the 

 combs may be used and should be 

 used year after year. Bee-keepers 

 have been led to believe that wax pro- 

 duction is not profitable and a little 

 figuring on this thing will demon- 

 strate that such is not the case. A 

 colony of bees does not consume fif- 

 teen or twenty pounds of honey in 

 making a pound of wax provided the 

 extractor that is used is of the right 

 kind. If a colony of bees is shaken 

 from its combs or swarms from its 

 combs and is started in a new hive 

 the amount of honey used in pro- 

 ducing a pound of wax is far from 

 being fifteen pounds. It is very low. 

 We have a fresh writer who is very 

 competent to ■n^rite on the subject, 

 who has put this figure as low as two 

 pounds. It does not cost fifteen 

 pounds of honey to get a pound of 

 wax. Now, if we utilize this point Tf 

 we modify our manipulations in such 

 a way that we compel the bees to 

 build wax by shaking we will make 

 almost as much money from wax as 

 we did before from the old method. 

 The shaking treatment I believe is the 

 only treatment worthy of considera- 

 tion. If we allow the bees to leave 

 the combs bj' the use of the bee e£ 

 cape they go out without the stimulus; 

 which they should have, and do not 



