STATE BEE-KEEPERS ASSOCIATION. I23 



Dr. Miller — Can you get along without the royal jelly 

 at all? 



Mr. Stanley— Yes, sir; it can't be depended on, though. 

 Some colonies might do very well, and others wouldn't. You 

 might get along without it by putting the cells in first and 

 then supplying them with the larvae afterwards. By putting 

 the cups in the queenless colony for some time they accept 

 them better that way without the jelly. 



BOTTOM STARTERS IN SECTIONS. ;. 



"Are bottom starters in sections necessary or desir- 

 able?" 



Pres. York — I think they use them in Marengo. Now, Dr. 

 Miller can't say "I don't know" to that. 



Mr. Meredith — In two apiaries that contained over 50 ^ 



colonies, each with and without the bottom starters, 200 

 sections were put on the market cased up, and I found that 

 the ones having both top and bottom starters was honey that 

 was more salable than that produced where they had only 

 the top starter. I am very particular on account of the 

 quality, and if the starters were not very well toward the 

 bottom, many times the drone-comb would be there, and cus- 

 tomers object to it. 



Mr. Longsdon — Will Mr. Meredith please tell us a little 

 bit about the heft and form of the comb-honey package that 

 sells the best, that is, the most in demand, and that we can 

 do the best with, if he will? 



Pres. York — We will have that after the present question. 



Dr. Miller — So far as I know, I was the first one who 

 began the bottom-starter business, and I am at it yet. Pretty 

 often you find me five years afterwards throwing away the 

 things I have done before. Thera is this about a section 

 being filled : It is very much as Mr. Meredith has stated. 

 You are sure of having the sections built down to the bottom, 

 and under certain circumstances without it you are pretty 

 sure that it will not be built down to the bottom, and it will 

 have a passage-way under. One of the things that results 

 from the bottom starter, you will avoid what is sometimes 

 done — the comb in the section will be bent off to one side 

 and built up against the super, and I confess it was two or 

 three years before I found why I had gotten rid of that. 

 The bees would fill it in. If they had a heavy flow they 

 wouldn't do that, but after a light flow the sections near the ^ 



outside would be filled in. They work the most on the in- 

 side, and they would keep turning it over and get near the 

 super. One of the first things that the bees do if you have 

 a bottom starter, if you have a small starter — I have them 

 less than a quarter of an inch between the two starters — 

 and the first thing they do is to fasten the two together, and 

 then cannot be shoved off to one side, so there is a somewhat 

 important point about it there. The thing in a nutshell is, 

 you have it filled up even; it isn't fuller at the bottom or 

 fuller at the corners. 



Mr. Highet — How deep is the bottom starter? 



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