ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



111 



we will run a chance of getting a good 

 crop of honey for the next season. 



Mr. Van Wingarden — Lake County, 

 Indiana; secured 40 lbs. to the hive, ex- 

 tracted honey, prospects good for next 

 year. 



Mr. W. B. Blume — My average is 

 45 lbs., comb and extracted; suburb 

 of Chicago. 



Mr. H. Roehrs — I am located about 60 

 miles straight west of Chicago. My av- 

 erage crop has been about 75 lbs. per 

 colony of extracted honey. I might have 

 gotten more honey but bees are a side 

 issue with me. I put my .time in with 

 my poultry. I have fruit and poultry, 

 and the bees go well in taking care of 

 the fruit. 



Nine years ago I brought about 40 

 colonies from Wisconsin; they were in 

 fine shape, but my neighbors had foul 

 brood right here close to Chicago, and 

 I have been up against it ever since. I 

 lost nearly all, and now I have 20 to 22 

 colonies. I got rid of foul brood last 

 year; last year I averaged 125 lbs. per 

 colony. 



Going back to foul brood — I have 

 made that a study. I subscribe to 

 what Mr. Aspinwall has said; we are 

 going to have foul brood with us be- 

 cause I believe the germ is there with 

 every colony, and as soon as a colony 

 is out of shape it will develop, other- 

 wise the bees take care of it them- 

 selves, but we are going to have to 

 fight foul brood as long as we live. 



Mr. Dadant — What is your future 

 prospect — for next season ? 



Mr. Roehrs — I hope it is good. 



Mr. Aspinwall — Mr. President, I had 

 about 30 lbs. — I have not weighed it 

 up, but as near as I can get at it — per 

 colony, against 200 sections last year 

 per colony. Of course my bees are 

 non-swarming hives and you would 

 naturally suppose they should have 

 given me a little more this year than 

 those that have given their statement. 

 But the bees cannot get honey where 

 there is none. We cannot dig potatoes 

 with a machine where there are no 

 potatoes. 



Referring to the honey source — a 

 year ago last autumn the prospects 

 were never better for clover but the 

 continued thawing and freezing, and 

 no snow on the ground until February, 

 completely destroyed the roots and 

 also affected the roots of autumn 

 flowers, so that there was nothing at 

 all on the flowers. Although the 



plants lived and have done well, there 

 was no honey. 



Referring to the gentleman who has 

 just spoken, Mr. Roehrs — that foul 

 brood is here to stay : I did not mean 

 that it was in the individual yards, but 

 that there would always be some care- 

 less bee-keepers around who would not 

 take the proper care of their bees — 

 farmer bee-keepers, for example, who 

 did not understand how to properly 

 care for bees, and in this way the bees 

 of the bee-keeper near by would be 

 contaminated. But if we look at our 

 combs carefully and there are no foul 

 broody cells to be seen, you can count 

 on those being exempt. 



I look at mine in the autumn. And 

 in this way I find it the finest way to 

 eliminate it possible. Go over them 

 in the autumn and get rid of those 

 colonies at that time that are ques- 

 tionable and you will not lose colonies. 



The prospects for next year are look- 

 ing fairly good. There is quite a good 

 deal of white clover, though not as 

 much as the year before. It takes 

 about one year to overcome failure by 

 destruction of clover before we can get 

 right again. 



1895 was the last of four years of 

 terrible drought, and clover was all 

 dried up. In 1896 there was a little; 

 didn't yield any honey, hardly. . 



In 1897 was the greatest yield of 

 honey I ever saw. I wrote an article 

 for the Bee-Keepers' Review in which 

 I said that the clover completely cov- 

 ered the ground in most places, and it 

 seemed as if an angel had come down 

 and sowed seeds everywhere, the fields 

 were so white. The seeds had accumu- 

 lated for years, it seemed, and pro- 

 duced a yield for 1897. 



Mr. C. J, Wuetig— I live about 16 

 miles south of here. I had only six 

 colonies in the spring and I got 40 

 lbs. of honey altogether, a little over 

 half section honey and the rest in 

 shallow frames. 



Mr. A. G. Woodman — In the immedi- 

 ate vicinity of Grand Rapids. About 

 one -fourth of a crop. The entire state 

 of Michigan yielded a little above nor- 

 mal crop. Prospects fair for next sea- 

 son. 



Mr. Edward Hassinger — Average 

 yield 115 lbs. of extracted honey per 

 colony. 76 colonies. Prospect next 

 season good. I live in Greenville, W^is. 



Mr. C S. Know — ^Whiteside County, 

 111. Comb honey — failure. I do not 



