198 



EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT OP THE 



colonies. It has simmered itself down 

 to a business proposition with us. 

 Dr. Pljillips called our attention to 

 the aniount of loss there was in the 

 w^reck. After we have lost our bees 

 there is half enough in that wreck, if 

 it is properly looked after, to replace 

 the loss. What wax will there be in 

 a ten-frame hive? Dr. Phillips said 

 four pounds. I didn't get that. Then 

 there is always considerable honey. 

 Every pound of that is utilized and 

 marketed. The bakers will take ev- 

 ery pound of it. 



Mr. McEvoy — Was the comb built 

 out of foundation? 



Mr. Manley — Usually the natural 

 comb. The bees we buy as a rule are 

 on natural comb. 



Mr. McEvoy — You wouldn't get it, 

 and Mr. Phillips would be right if it 

 was foundation. 



Mr. Manley — I melted up the comb 

 from one hundred nine-frame hives 

 once that were shipped from Ken- 

 tucky up here, and they averaged 

 three pounds. I think I get it out 

 pretty thoroughly. It Is no trouble to 

 keep any amount of extracting combs 

 ovigr that are used from season to sea- 

 son. If I have a surplus I turn that 

 into combs. I have a cellar that 1 

 built on purpose to keep my bees in, 

 and it is an ideal place; it is above 

 ground and it is built of brick. It 

 cost me $250 spot cash and my. own 

 labor. It is moth tight and bee tight. 

 There is no trouble to keep moths 

 from combs that you are using from 

 season to season. I have never had 

 to sulphur my combs. If I have a sur- 

 plus of combs I melt them into wax. 

 We always hive our 'bees on full 

 sheets of foundation wired in. I just 

 leave seven in an eight-frame hive. 



Mr. Coveyou — What would Mr. Man- 

 ley be willing to pay for his bees if 

 they would live? 



Mr. Manley — ^I did winter through a 

 few bees last winter and I have 

 actually sometimes been sorry I did 

 not clean them up, because they were 

 kind of weak and depleted. 



Mr. Coveyou — Why do they get 

 weak? 



Mr. Manley — I am right on the open 

 prairie between the bay and the lake, 

 and they spring dwindle. 



Mr. McEvoy — ^Don't you think 



spring dwindling is the fault of bad 

 management? 



Mr. Manley — Yes, I said these 

 losses were the result -not only of bad 

 stores and poor protection, but bad 

 management as well. 



Mr. C. F. Smith — Don't you think if 

 you take all the honey away from 

 these bees and give them nice sugar 

 syrup that they will wiater all right 

 in your locality? 



Mr. Manley — Possibly it would 

 work. We haven't tried that plan yet. 

 The aster honey which is so deleter- 

 ious comes late in the fall of the year. 



Mr. C. F. Smith — I live two hundred 

 miles north of you, and that is the 

 only way I can ensure my bees. 



Mr. Manley — Thank you. Doctor. I 

 have tried feeding sugar on top of the 

 honey they already have, adding to 

 their stores, and that helps some. 



Mr. Coveyou — Don't you think if 

 you could get j'our bees shock on to 

 all full sealed stores of sugar syrup or 

 honey and shake them on to five and 

 six- frames they would winter all 

 right? If they don't< there must be 

 something wrong with it distinctly. 



Mr. Manley — Have ypu tried that 

 plan ? il 



^ Mr. Coveyou — Yes, I know it will 

 work. 



Owing to the absence of Mr. E. D. 

 Townsend of Remus, Mich., the paper 

 on "Locating Apiaries" was not given. 



QUESTION BOX. 



Mr. Taylor — Isn't the quality of the 

 stores the whole key to wintering? I 

 have contended for years that cellars 

 and packing and all that sort of thing 

 didn't solve the question at all; it is 

 a question of feed. We used to have 

 a good deal of trouble here in winter- 

 ing bees because we had' swamps and 

 we had fall honey. Our swamps are 

 getting cleaned up now and we don't 

 get fall honey and our bees winter. 



Mr. C. F. Smith — The store prob- 

 lem is not the whole one in the ex- 

 treme north where they have six and 

 a half months of continual confine- 

 ment in such a hive as that. With 

 good winter stores, with sealed syrup, 

 if you use a cover over them they will 

 drown before the six and a half 

 months are out. We leave them in 

 the yard. It has been six years since 



