ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



105 



And the Queen Excluding Zinc is 

 another important piece of furniture 

 In the be'ehive, so to speak; that was 

 In 1865 by L'Abbe Collin. I quote 

 Father Langstroth — and I want to say 

 in this connection you can get more 

 data on the Langstroth device in this 

 work than any other published in the 

 United States and probably anywhere 

 in the world. 



The Bee Escape, by Rufus Porter of 

 your own state, in 1893. 



Lots of attempts were made before 

 with various devices but this is one 

 that has proved such a success and is 

 that used today. 



I want to refer more especially to 

 the developments and its bearing on 

 the future: 



The future of bee-keeping as I men- 

 tioned a moment ago is going to be 

 in the hands of the few — those that 

 are specialists, for you cannot very 

 well attend to bees and another busi- 

 ness and attend to the other business 

 well at the same time. 



There are some things that are 

 closely allied to it — poultry raising for 

 example. Most of the work in the 

 poultry yard can be attended to after 

 hours when it is too dark to attend to 

 the handling of bees. It will not do 

 to handle bees when it is too dark 

 for them to see very well; they are 

 apt to be a little cross. You can spend 

 a few hours in the morning and even- 

 ing and can accomplish a great deal. 

 Now we have bee-keeping of the future 

 in the hands of a few, but it will be 

 in the hands of those who can also 

 attend to some pursuits in connection 

 with it. This will enable the bee- 

 keeper to become more scientific and 

 guard against the inroads of foul 

 prood; in the meantime the small man 

 cannot make bee culture profitable and 

 his foul broody apiaries will die out. 



Bee-keeping of the future, further- 

 more, will be on more scientific lines 

 and the anatomy of the bee will be 

 better understood; and with these 

 lines of knowledge we are able to 

 build up practical bee-keeping much 

 better. 



Now as to the production of drones 

 and the value of drones by the pro- 

 duction — we know just where to get 

 the best drones and we know how to 

 get the best queens. 



I have bees that are much larger 

 than the average bee, through the se- 

 lection of the very best. I attribute 



some of my large yields of honey to 

 that in a great measure. 



Furthermore, the controlling and 

 jnating of queens will enable us ,to 

 have purely mated ones. 



We have made great strides but we 

 have some to make yet before we are 

 on a fixed, intelligent basis of bee cul- 

 ture. 



The next will be — and it will prob- 

 ably be in advance of the mating of 

 queens — the perfect, control of swarms. 

 We have not had that for a quarter 

 of a century. 



I have been working on inventions 

 for 53 years. I want to state in this 

 connection, the man who can live to 

 convey his thoughts and labors to his 

 fellow man will do a lot of good in 

 the world. This is notably true of 

 Mr. Quinby; he was a prolific writer, 

 and Father Langstroth, and Mr. Doo- 

 little, and there are a lot of good writ- 

 ers today. When a man can not only 

 benefit men by the production of his 

 industry but can transmit it in writ- 

 ing, he has doubled the benefit to be 

 received by his fellowmen. 



Referring back again to the non- 

 swarming hive, we must have control 

 of our bees in that respect as much as 

 we have over our domestic animals, 

 poultry and the like. Why should the 

 bee be an exception? 



I am not going to give j'ou a descrip- 

 tion of what I have but at the same 

 time I will state, as some of you know 

 what I have said: That in the 1913 

 experiments I made an advance which 

 was greater than in the ten years 

 previous to that. The result was per- 

 fect control of swarming under a high 

 tension yield of honey. 



In 1913 I obtained from one colony, 

 the one that had the hive constructed 

 the nearest perfect, 308 sections well 

 sealed over; that colony yielded me 

 over $30, you see. Of course my hive 

 cost $10; the hive paid for itself the 

 first season with good interest. 



Another thing: An investment of 

 that kind becomes an asset in the 

 yards; it is a durable hive. W^e buy 

 machines, binders, harvesters and 

 such things — and potato machinery 

 that cost us more than by working by 

 the old method — why not what is 

 needful for bee-keeping? 



I sold six of them to one man from 

 Madison, Wisconsin. I do not know 

 whether he is present today or not. 

 They bought two of them last season 



