: "■_ ,; -.^►^;;^^W?^*i;i''-'C-f "T'-v--''^^^^^^ 



116 



NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



yet I don't know why there should be 

 that trouble. 



Mr. Kannenberg — The bees built it 

 down so far it got a kink between the 

 bottom starter and the top starter. 



I>r. Miller — I ihave seen that kink 

 often when they were partly down, but 

 by the time they finished it up, the 

 whole thing was built down square. 



Mr. Kannenberg — It was not with 

 me. 



Mr. Brown — Did I understand some- 

 body to say that the bottom starter 

 curled away? 



Mr. Kannenberg — Not the bottom 

 starter; the top starter. 



Mr. Brown — I was going to say, in 

 connection with the bottom starter, 

 ■tlhat in all cases the foundation should 

 be put not in the way the bee would 

 build it naturally, but with the cell- 

 wall — the 'horizontal wall of the cell — 

 on the upper and lower side. The 

 bees naturally build a cell-wall vertic- 

 ally on the side, and the foundation 

 should toe turned half around, in order 

 to make it stiffer. Otherwise, you will 

 have trouble with the bottom starter 

 curling over. 



Mr. Wheeler — I think that is a very 

 important question with people who 

 are producing comb honey, the compet- 

 itors with Colorado honey and CaU- 

 fornia honey. In those countries, it 

 looks as if the bees do not require 

 bottom starters. They build down a 

 section and clear down through it, 

 "Without any starter, but in this coun- 

 try they don't do it, and the people 

 w!ho produce honey for market in this 

 part of the country have to compete 

 with t^ie Western honey, more or less, 

 and when our honey goes on the mar- 

 ket, as it has this year, with the sec- 

 tion short at the bottom, they don't 

 look well. If they have a bottom 

 starter, the bees will attach the sec- 

 tion to the bottom and make a section 

 look fuller and better, to my mind. I 

 would not attempt to produce a crop 

 of comb honey without bottom start- 

 ers. 



Mr. Trickey — As the gentleman says, 

 as to combs not being 'built down to 

 the bottom of the section, in Colorado 

 and California, and the Western coun- 

 try, I find, by twenty years' experience 

 in that line of business, that we get 

 the ihoney off the hives in that coun- 

 try that is not filled out good to the 

 bottom, and we even get some of it 

 off that is not attached to the bottom 



by from a half to a quarter of an 

 inch; built down very square and nice^ 

 but still fail to attach it to the bottom^ 

 The bottom, starter seems to remedy 

 that defect to some extent, and, 

 while there may be some defect to it, 

 it remedies that witlh us. We have 

 some of that kind of honey sold to us 

 here, but a great deal of it is kept at 

 home, and is not brought on the mar- , 

 ket here. And the cause of that, gen- 

 erally, is a sign, in that country, of a 

 cessation of the honey-flow at a cer- 

 tain stage of the completion of the 

 section, more ihan the bottom starter, 

 or the side starter, or foundation for 

 the bees to w^ork on. If we get a good 

 honey- flow that lasts until the com- 

 pletion of the section, we very seldom 

 have any trouible about filling out. 

 But, if it slacks off in the season, we 

 have all kinds of trouble, the same 

 as you do here. 



On motion, the convention then ad- 

 journed until 9:30 a. m. the next day^ 



Second Day — Forenoon Session. 



The convention was called to order 

 at 10 a. m. 



The Question- Box Program. 



President York — This morning we 

 have with us Mr. Holtermann, fron* 

 Canada, Mr. Wilcox, from Wisconsin, 

 Mr. Whitney, J. L. Anderson, and Mr. 

 Kimmey, from Illinois, and others who 

 were not here yesterday. 



A great many people think this is 

 the best convention held in America,, 

 exxcepting, of course, that held in On- 

 tario, whre Mr. Holtermann comes 

 from! The old "Northwestern Society"^ 

 never had a paper read. Liast year we 

 had papers, and Dr. Miller thinks we 

 make a mistake in bringing in papers 

 this time. I tried to prove to him that 

 we were more progressive than in those 

 days when they did not have any 

 papers read. I do not think the papers 

 hurt very much, and if you do, I wish 

 you would notify the Executive Com- 

 mittee. If you do not want any more 

 papers, I think we can agree on that 

 point and not have any. The papers 

 have been short, and have brought up 

 questions that we have discussed. 



Dr. Miller — It may be interesting for 

 some to know Just how that started, 

 having the meeting taken up entirely 

 with questions. The first meeting had 



