ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



141 



and we ihave to take them out and put 

 in honey instead. 



Mr. Holtermann — What system? The 

 swarming system? 



Mr. (Huffman — No, sir, no swarms at 

 all; I tried to avoid that all that I 

 can, "but it seems that, in our section 

 of the country, we have so much dan- 

 delion; that is where they get this 

 pollen. We have prolific queens, and 

 all that, yet, in spite o^f it, they will fill 

 that comb. I saw an article that said 

 to soak those combs in water, and then 

 give them to the bees; I don't know 

 whether that is effective. 



Mr. Wheeler — It has been my expe- 

 rience, by putting the toees in the win- 

 ter in a damp cellar, the pollen would 

 ferment; in the spring wlhen you take 

 them out, it becomes dry, and the 

 bees take it out and empty the combs. 

 I don't see that it hurts them at all. 



Mr. Thompson — I find that the pollen 

 stored in good honey-comb comes in 

 a season of dearth; some seasons we 

 have only about six weeks or two 

 months of honey-flow, tihen we have a 

 dearth, and the bees want to get ac- 

 tive, and thiey get all the pollen they 

 can find and fill up the combs. 



Mr. Wilcox — ^I always have an excess 

 of pollen; it comes after the honey- 

 flow is over; I never trouble myself 

 about it further than to see tfhat I 

 have honey instead of pollen to put 

 in wintering colonies; I look out after 

 that, and give them honey enough. 



Mr. Huffman — What do you do with 

 the comb that has pollen in? 



Mr. Wilcox — The toees will take it 

 out in t/he spring, when they go to 

 rearing brood. 



Mr. Cavanagh — The presence of pol- 

 len in the brood-chamber has a great 

 bearing on fcees in the spring; I be- 

 lieve Mr. Huffman spoke of taking that 

 pollen out in the tall of the year. I 

 came to grief last spring by not having 

 the pollen in, at a time when the bees 

 did not fly, and thy wanted that pol- 

 len. I believe my colonies went down 

 on account of Uhe lack of it. 



Mt. Huffman — I don't want you to 

 undersatnd that I took it all out; I 

 took it out in part. I leave a couple of 

 frames with pollen in; but I would 

 have hives that, four out of five, were 

 nearly full of poller;. You know that 

 is detrimental. 



Divisible Hives. 



"Has any one present had any ex- 

 perience with divisible hives, as per 

 Mr. Heddon?" 



Mr. Wilcox — ^I want to say that I am 

 not authority on this subject. I tried 

 it in the days w'hen Mr. Heddon first 

 invented the 'hive, and then abondoned 

 it, because, all things considered, I 

 didn't like it. It had some advantages, 

 but more disadvantsiges; I completely 

 ahandoned it. 



Mr. Wheeler — I wish to say that I 

 have used the Heddon hive for over 

 twenty years, and have at present 500 

 colonies of 'bees in them. I would un- 

 der no consideration change and go 

 back to the old style. 



I>r. Bohrer — In the summer, it may 

 be well enough to use it, but, for out- 

 door w^intering, I never have found it 

 satisfactory at all. Mr. Heddon sent 

 me one from Michigan some forty odd 

 years ago, and I didn't like the hive at 

 all; I could not use it, and I think the 

 majority of bee-keepers who tried it 

 feel the same way. I don't say not to 

 try it; I believe in trying a whole lot 

 of things, and then you can see which 

 you like the best. 



Mr. Cavanagh — In view of tfoe fact 

 that management and hives go to- 

 gether, I would like to have Mr. 

 Wheeler tell us something about his 

 management of the Heddon hive. 



President York — The question Is, 

 how do you keep bees, Mr. Wheeler? 



Mr. Wheeler — That is a pretty deep 

 question; tlhat is too much for me. 

 You would not have the time nor the 

 patience to listen to mie. 



Mr. CEJoltermann^ — Before we leave 

 this question, I may say that I, too, 

 tried the Heddon hive, and didn't find 

 it satisfactory; but w^e must always 

 remember this: I realize it, that we 

 may have made a failure of a thing 

 because we didn't know how to run 

 it. I found the same thing witttii the 

 Camiolan bees. I pronounced them a 

 failure once. I don't like to say so 

 very often, but I have a sort of sneak- 

 ing affection for that divisible brood- 

 chamber system; I have not one, but 

 consider the subject a question well 

 worth studying. 



Mr. Wheeler — I wish to say that I 

 went into the Heddon hive rather ex- 

 tensively to start with; by years of 

 careful work and study, my plan Is 

 entirely different than Ihe gives in his 

 hook of handling hives; I would not 



