ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



173 



producers perhaps could give the in- 

 formation. 



Mr. Schlaefli — I think the main thing 

 that the consumer wants is the full 

 section. 



Mr. Hall — That has been my exper- 

 ience. I want to get just as much 

 foundation in there as I can. I be- 

 lieve it is economy. An extra thin 

 foundation is what I use altogether, 

 and I use a bottom starter altogether. 



The President — The next thing on 

 the program is the Question Box, and 

 I will ask Mr. York to read the ques- 

 tions. 



Question — ^Will a white clover plant 

 that has started from a runner, the 

 same as a strawberry plant starts a 

 new plant, and has become separated 

 from the parent plant and formed a 

 small tap root of its own, say two or 

 three inches long, be of value as a 

 honey producing clover next year? 



Mr. Hall — In our locality I would 

 say that it would. The runner pro- 

 duced this year would be a good 

 honey producing plant next year. 



Question — How to know for certain 

 that a colony is queenless without 

 opening the hive. 



Mr. Townsend — Well, I did not know 

 that I could see through a 7-8 inch 

 board, but I ought to be able to answer 

 the question for I have a queenless 

 colony here in my home yard. How 

 do I know? 



The bees told me. How? By their 

 panicky actions the day they lost their 

 queen, racing over front and sides of 

 hive and even hunting the ground 

 over for several feet away from hive. 

 Had I not been at home about that 

 time those indications would have 

 been lost to me, and I might have 

 failed to notice anything wrong from 

 outside appearances'. If the bees are 

 going out and in at an entrance with 

 a hustle, and a fair proportion are 

 carrying good loads of pollen Into 

 their hive, such an one has a queen; 

 but if no pollen or but very little can 

 be seen, it is queenless, or has a poor 

 or failing one, or else there are but 

 very few bees to care for the brood. 

 As far as I know, the only absolutely 

 sure way to know is to examine, by 

 opening the hive and seeing. 



Question — What is the best sign of 

 the failing fertility or energy of a 

 queen? 



Dr. Miller — The failure to have 

 combs evenly filled with brood under 



favorable oonditmns, or the appear- 

 ance of drolTSTJrood in worker cells. 



Question — How^ to keep young 

 queens and have them on hand when 

 needed for a colony which has be- 

 come queenless? 



Mr. Hutchinson — It is possible to 

 keep queens in cages, away from the 

 bees, for two or three weeks. Cage 

 them with a few workers and some 

 candy for food, the same as when a 

 queen is to be sent by mail, and they 

 can be kept in some comfortable, 

 quiet place much safer than when 

 sent by mail; but sudhi confinement 

 certainly does the queen no good, al- 

 though it is possible that it does her 

 little harm. Queens may also be kept 

 several weeks by simply caging them 

 in cylindi-ical cages, and laying them 

 on tihe tops of the fraimes of a popu- 

 lous colony of bees. I think a queen- 

 less colony might give them ^better 

 care, but of this I am not sure. The 

 best way, however, to keep queens is 

 in nuclei. Of course, we then lose the 

 use of the nuclei, but it is not nec- 

 essary to have very large nuclei. I 

 Ihave used the ordinary 4i4x4% sec- 

 tions for combs, having three in a 

 nucleus, and eight nuclei in an ordi- 

 nary super, iby putting in partitions. 

 It will be necessary to put a slip of 

 queen- excluding metal over each en- 

 trance, or the bees will swarm out. 

 They may swarm out just the same 

 with the entrance guard, . but the 

 guard w^ill prevent the queen from 

 following the bees. 



Mr. H9;ll — I wish to ask is that per- 

 taining to virgin queens or laying 

 queens ? 



Mr. York — It says "young queens." 



The President — ^We would naturally 

 infer he bought a laying queen. 



Mr. Hall — I would like to hear 

 something about ihow to keep a virgin 

 queen. 



The President — How long can you 

 keep a virgin queen and have her fer- 

 tilized? 



Mr. Hall — That is what I want to 

 know. 



Mr. Ramer — I don't know how long 

 they can keep them, but I know you 

 can't 4seep them over winter and have 

 them fertilized the next spring, be- 

 cause I 'bought six queens from a 

 queen-ibreeder last fall, and five of 

 them turned out to be drone layers, 

 and I found they didn't fertilize and 

 lay this spring. One of them did lay 



