96 



FOURTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THfe 



in super and by the 18th of August I 

 got three more natural swarms. 



Now the fall flow was the best I 

 have had for years. It was heartsease, 

 Spanish needle, boneset, goldenrod and 

 asters which the bees gathered — all 

 told 500 lbs. of honey, 300 of which was 

 in comb and 200 extracted, in 1913. 



I went into winter quarters with 50 

 colonies, strong, healthy colonies, and 

 came out in the spring with 50 colo- 

 nies, in 1914, and sold 17 colonies in 

 May. Increased again to 53, and pro- 

 duced 700 lbs. of honey, 400 in comb 

 and 300 extracted. 



This was all gathered from August 

 the first to October the first, 1914. 



I fed. in 1913 only 100 lbs. of sugar 

 syrup at a cost of $4.65 per 100 lbs., 

 and I only fed 50 lbs. of sugar at the 

 rate of $5.00 per 100 lbs. in 1914. 



And now I have gone into winter 

 quarters (November, 1914) with 53 

 colonies, with plenty to winter on and 

 about 50 extra combs to be used to 

 feed in the spring if found necessary 

 to use. 



This is my 38 years of practical bee 

 culture since I began in 1877. 



LOUIS WERNER. 



Pres. Baxter — Mrs. Harry L. King of 

 Springfield has an essay on 



A FEW THINGS ABOUT BEES. 



Bees are the smartest of insects and 

 are useful to man, as they store up 

 honey, which is food for man as well 

 as well as for themselves, but it has 

 been found that they -must have the 

 care of man as well as other domestic 

 animals for they are, as others, sub- 

 ject to disease and must be looked 

 after in time of a honey flow, that they 

 have plenty of room to store in honey, 

 for when they are crow^ded they are 

 more liable to swarm, and when they 

 are swarming they do not make as 

 much honey, many bee-keepers are 

 careless in obtaining the wax. 



They will throw small bits and 

 sometimes large pieces of comb on the 

 ground where if they would keep a 

 box for such purpose it would amount 

 to several dollars worth of wax in 

 one season. 



Bees require salt, and a great quant- 

 ity of fresh and pure water in reach, 

 for if they have to go far they are liable 

 to swarm and settle nearer to water. 



The management of the apiary In the 

 spring is to see that the bees have 



plenty of store left and feed a little 

 sugar syrup to encourage early brood 

 rearing, that we may have plenty of 

 bees when the honey flow Is on. 



When the honey flow starts, the next 

 step is to put on super and divide the 

 hive to make increase as we see fit; 

 see that the queens are all layiny and 

 renew all failing queens. 



When the honey fiow Is well on, raise 

 up super and put on others, as they 

 are needed — then take off the full 

 supers to avoid travel stains. 



After the honey flow ig over in the 

 fall, the next thing to do is to see 

 that they have plenty of store to live 

 through the winter. If they have not 

 enough, feed them enough to keep them 

 through the winter. After the feeding 

 is well over and the weather is getting 

 cool, we pack them with straw and 

 leaves to keep them warm as possible 

 during the winter. 



There are many different ways of 

 handling bees, because we may talk to 

 one hundred bee-keepers and find as 

 many different ways of keeping bees 

 as there are bee-keepers. 



MRS. HArIrY L. king. 



Pres. Baxter — Mrs, Kildow has an 



Essay on: I 



APICULTURAL EDUCATION. 



Mrs. A. L. Kildow, mitnam, 111. 



Bee-keeping as a business requires 

 talent, and comparativfely few persons 

 succeed in making it profitable as an 

 exclusive line. 



This is not the fault of the business, 

 nor the locality, but of the men. It 

 looks ""so easy that men are not willing 

 to take the necessary time to become 

 fully familiar with the business, as they 

 would other lines. 



Our best and most successful bee- 

 keepers are those that have given api- 

 culture special study; and it behooves 

 us to form organizations to awaken In- 

 terest on the part of the bee-keepers. 



One great object of these organiza- 

 tions, or field-meets, is to glean, from 

 our up-to-date bee-keepers, knowledge 

 which they have acquired by long ex- 

 perience. By conversation with themi 

 we may fortify ourselves against many 

 errors. 



It is surprising ^yhat a diversity of 

 hives, utensilg and methods are to be 

 found among bee-keepers. 



At present there Is an apiary near 

 Fancy Prairie that has 22 stands of 

 bees, all In old gums. These gums are 



