ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



171 



I have had about as much experience 

 in putting- foundations in sections as 

 perhaps any other party in the room 

 of my age, or of my time of bee-keep- 

 ing, perhaps about fourteen years. I 

 have in the back room here a founda- 

 tion machine that was built by the 

 Lewis Company that I have gone to 

 work and fixed over into a bottom 

 starter foundation machine, and before 

 you leave the hall entirely I want 

 you to examine it. There is no patent 

 on it. The Lewis Company have 

 promised me to p'ut the process on the 

 market. Their buildings were burned 

 down this summer, and they have not 

 gotten around to it, but probably they 

 will get the machine on to the market 

 in time. They told me to send the 

 machine to them two years ago and 

 to let them examine it, and shortly 

 after that the elderly gentleman died. 

 The young Mr. Lewis at that time 

 was in Florida, and he came home 

 shortly after this and took the mat- 

 ter up with me, and they have agreed 

 to put the machine on the market in 

 the manner in which I have got it ar- 

 ranged in the back room. Anybody 

 can easily fix a machine as I have 

 fixed it for a bottom starter machine 

 in a very few minutes, and by ex- 

 amining it you can see how it is done. 

 It will cost you nothing. I was the 

 originator of it, and consequently 

 there will be no patent on it. 



Mr. Poppleton — ^I hope no one will 

 credit me with advising the use of 

 the Given Press foundation. I should 

 condemn it entirely for all use except 

 it taught me that one lesson, the use 

 of the upper half. The instant I saw 

 this description iby this man from 

 California I saw it solved tne very 

 thing I had been working at for fifteen 

 years. Another thing, the wax put on 

 there being cast is a little softer and 

 I think the bees will work it out a 

 great deal more quickly than after it 

 is pressed hard. That is simply theory. 



Mr. Manz — I would' like to ask Mr. 

 Poppleton if he does anything to keep 

 the wire in the centre of the frames? 



Mr. Poppleton — I don't use wire. I 

 leave about a quarter of an inch space 

 all around, 



Mr. <xOddard — How do you fasten it 

 at the top? 



Mr. Poppleton — Different from any 

 other ibee- keeper here, except one. I 

 saw a little groove in the end of the 

 side iboardte, and in that put a narrow 



strip, and let that down, and take a 

 knife and press the wax into that lit- 

 tle strip. 



M-r. Ramer — I would like to ask 

 Mr. Poppleton if, in putting this thin 

 coat of wax on there, it spoils the 

 cells ? 



Dr. Jones — I would like to reply that 

 it does not if you smear it en there in 

 quite a big chunk. That is what I 

 was afraid of, that it would, but it 

 doesn't. If you get a chunk of wax 

 on there, you will be surprised how 

 the ibees take that off. 



Mr. Ramer — I w^ould like to sug- 

 gest one thing, and that is, that I al- 

 ways (have new frames drawn out 

 above full colonies, then they always 

 build that comb down tigiht to the bot- 

 tomi bars. They won't do that if you 

 put therm in the body. And you Ihave 

 a very solid frame for extracting, that 

 will never drop out, because it is fas- 

 tened all around perfectly. 



Dr. Bohrer — I learned to handle 

 frames in the apiary of Mr. Langstroth- 

 and I took particular notice how he 

 handled them. In those times,- tlhey 

 did not have the frames wired. He 

 would raise his frame and look at it, 

 so that it wais always held upright, I 

 can handle combs today without any 

 wire. The more wire you have the 

 better, unless you handle your frames, 

 afteh the fashion of Mr. Langstroth, 

 that is, raising them perpendicularly 

 and keeping the.m 'that way all the 

 time. 



Mr. Dadant — ^With reference to the 

 question of putting in full sheets in the 

 sections, I was twice Judge of the 

 Honey Exjhibit at the State Fair of 

 Illinois, and one time there were three 

 large exfliibits, and I was awarding 

 premiums to the best grade of comb 

 honey. I examined the honey from 

 three large exhibits, and' I was about 

 to award tttie premiuimi, when I found, 

 on looking on the list, there was a 

 fourth exhibit. It was just one case of" 

 sections, hut it was so far above the 

 others that I had to give the premium 

 to that. Those sections were put up 

 by Mr. Aaron Coppin, of Illinois. His 

 sections were split in the center be- 

 fore putting in the foundation, then 

 one-half of the section laid over, 

 and then four sections together, and 

 then a sheet of foundation laid on that^ 

 and then the other half of the section 

 on top of the sheet. When the sec- 

 tion was examined, you could see the- 



'jk^*lf'^**tffe.;"IJfeSiit.: '■ 



■,'j^3Sk 



