ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



139 



the manner that is best for the man- 

 agement of bees in large numbers. 



Let us put the matter in another 

 form: Let us suppose that a man is 

 going to devote his whole time to the 

 keeping of bees, desiring to secure the 

 largest possible profits, in which di- 

 rection cam he work with the greatest 

 hopes of success, that is, by "keeping 

 more bees, or less bees better?" Per- 

 haps this might depend upon whg.t we 

 consider "less bees" or "more bees." 

 For illustration, however, we will sup- 

 pose that the man has 100 colonies. 

 Now, then, shall he spend his whole 

 time on these colonies, packing them 

 up in the spring; feeding them; shift- 

 ing about the combs of brood; taking 

 away individual sections as soon as 

 finished, or extracting as soon as a few 

 combs are filled, or any of the thou- 

 sand and one things that are supposed 

 to increase the crop — in short, shall 

 he turn his whole time and talents and 

 capital into securing the greatest pos- 

 sible amount of honey from 100 col- 

 onies, or shall his energies be turned 

 in the direction of short-cut methods 

 that will allow him to care for another 

 100 colonies, either in his home apiary, 

 or placed out two or three miles? I 

 suppose this is the real chit of the 

 question. 



I can answer it without theorizing. 

 I can answer it in a concrete way. 



For a score of years I have been 

 visiting bee-keepers in this country, 

 traveling from ocean to ocean, from 

 Minnesota to Missouri, and those bee- 

 keepers who have made the most 

 money have kept bees in large num- 

 bers. W. Z. IHiUTCHINSON. 



Mr. Wilcox — Tihat exactly agrees 

 with my sentiments. I was about to 

 express them before the paper was 

 read. I have tried both plans; I kept 

 300 colonies of bees, and finally went 

 down to 30, with tihe idea that I was 

 going to keep them exceedingly well. 

 When I had 300 colonies, I gave them 

 better care and had a better yard per 

 colony; when you get down to a very 

 few colonies, your mind is on some 

 other business; you are not thinking 

 of yotir business, and not taking care 

 of your bees as you should. If you are 

 going to devote your whole time to 

 bees, you want enough to occupy your 

 time. If you have but a few colonies, 

 you will have your attention and time 

 diverted to som6thing else. 



Getting Extra Combs. 



"What is the best method of get- 

 ting extra combs?" 



Mr. Wilcox — The presumption is, 

 that they want extra combs in order 

 to Change from comb to extracted 

 honey; that is usually the case, or they 

 would not wish extra combs, and I 

 have advised using full sheets in the 

 brood-chamber; put the bees on tihat, 

 and set the combs on that to extract 

 from, placing the queen below until 

 well establis'hed. In that way you have 

 your old combs, if they are strong 

 enough, to extract from. The objec- 

 tion to that is, that the old combs are 

 supposed by many to give poorer grade 

 of 'honey tihan clean white combs. I 

 am not sure that is a fact, but, at any 

 rate, I know people some times object 

 to it on that ground. 



Mr. Lathrop — I have a great many 

 extracting combs in comparison to the 

 number of colonies I keep. In accu- 

 muaatiing those combs, I often do it by 

 putting two full siheets of foundation 

 in the extracting super, right in the 

 honey season; instead of giving them 

 a super of comb, I put in five combs 

 and two sheets Of foundation; that 

 would be seven combs to an eigiht- 

 frame super. In that way I have ac- 

 cuimulated a great many combs — nice 

 combs, too. I think there Is no capital 

 that pajys better than to have a nice lot 

 of extracting combs, in good shape. 



Mr. Holtermann — There is a way I 

 have used. We often have extracting 

 combs, and want to get more. Now, 

 we spoke this morning of spacing; that 

 is, to use ten combs in space of twelve 

 (for instance); if I want to get more 

 in the honey- flow, I put, say, six 

 combs in a super, and then the re- 

 maining ones, foundation. The bees 

 w^ill not work on foundation, and draw 

 out that foundation as readily as 

 where the spacing is beyond the nor- 

 maJ. I suppose most of us know, but, 

 for the edification of any one who 

 might read this later, it is n6t advisa- 

 ble to put alternate foundation and 

 drawn-out comb; the tendency is for 

 the bees to draw out the comb into 

 space where the foundation is, so we 

 like to keep together the foundation. 

 There is a point there in connection 

 with that spacing that is important; 

 as I said before, the bees will not work 

 on foundation and draw out that foun- 

 dation as readily where the space is- 

 beyond the normal, so that when I want 



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