112 



FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



know what the prospect is for next 

 year. The country is pretty dry this 

 year. 



Mr. A. Coppin — I live 108 miles 

 southwest of here. My average yield, 

 ahout 5 lbs. per colony — 175 colonies. 

 Nothing in sight for next year in the 

 way of white clover and that is about 

 all we have. Marshall and La Salle 

 Counties. 



Mr. H. C. Ahlers — Wisconsin. Nearly 

 80 lbs. of extracted honey per colony — 

 325 colonies. Prospects are good. 



Mr. John Klein — I live 80 miles 

 southwest of Chicago, La Salle County. 

 I have now 15 hives of bees. I aver- 

 aged about 60 to 65 lbs. per hive this 

 last season. I am solely dependent on 

 white sweet clover. The largest yield 

 was brought in the months of August 

 and September. I am almost depend- 

 ent on sweet clover; we have a very 

 little small white clover. There is 

 plenty of sweet clover and my pros- 

 pects are good for next season. 



Mr. Coppin — I will say — That this 

 gentleman spoke of having gotten 

 honey from sweet clover. I have one 

 yard of bees that were in reach of 20 

 acres of clover that was grown for 

 seed or else I would not have gotten 

 5 lbs. 



Mr. W. A. Warman — Indiana, about 

 40 miles southeast of here. My average 

 this year was about 40' per cent of what 

 it was last year and amounted to about 

 55 lbs. per colony. Have 5 yards — 

 about 350 colonies. One yard gave less 

 than 10 lbs. per colony. Another yard 

 ran over 100; most of fall honey. No 

 clover in sight for next year. 



Mr. G. E. Bacon — Yield in our locality 

 was about 50 lbs. comb honey, average 

 per colony. Watertown, Wis. 



Mr. W. C. Lyman^Dupage County, 

 this state. I will say, about 25 per 

 cent crop, all extracted. I averaged 

 perhaps 15 lbs. per colony. Prospects 

 for another year, on clover — about 50 

 per cent. 



Mr. F. J. Rattig — Mr. Chairman, I am 

 from Wabash County, Indiana, and am 

 almost ashamed to come up here and 

 give my experience in bee-keeping. I 

 got .started in bee-keeping in a queer 

 wav My wife attended a sale of bees 

 and bought six stands. Just after that 

 we had the Ohio flood and three of 

 these were drowned. She tried to 

 straighten the hives up and the bees 

 got all over her. After she did get 



things straightened up she looked like 

 the fat girl in the side show. 



That is the first experience. She said 

 she never would do anything more 

 with bees, and I kind of took a hand 

 in it. 



How I formed a liking to that I don't 

 know but she says I have gotten them 

 in my bonnet. 



Last year we had three stands left, 

 and to three stands fed 200 lbs. of 

 sugar, and got about the same amount 

 of honey. 



I got all the Bee Journals and every- 

 thing I could get and commenced to 

 study bee culture. I commenced to 

 niso queens. 



I traded a lot of them for three other 

 stands — and out of the six stands I got 

 about 30 stands including the nucleus, 

 and this fall when I put them up I fed 

 400 lbs. of sugar and got 40 to -45 

 pounds of honey, but I have 24 swarms 

 of bees left and the prospects for next 

 season are about 400 lbs. of sugar^ and 

 if it takes twice that I will never give 

 up the bee business because I like it. 



I try to keep my bees sweet and I 

 surely do. 



Mr. Dadant — You'd better sow clover. 



Mr. Rattig — I have 2% acres of 

 ground and am in the wholesale mill 

 supply business and my wife says that 

 I am going into bankruptcy. Bees are 

 the only enjoyment I have, and I really 

 do enjoy it. But the State Inspector 

 vv^as up there. I thought I had a case 

 of foul brood, but it was not. He said 

 not to worry, it would turn out all 

 rigljt, which it did. The bees are do- 

 ing tine. Because I have made such 

 an increase from so small an amount 

 is probably the reason of no honey. 



I don't know anybody near me who 

 has made much of a success in hon£y 

 producing. There is a preacher i!ix 

 miles east of us who has i.iees in his 

 bonnet but he did get a bunch of honey. 



Pres. Kannenberg^DoTi't have tbe 

 Pure Food Inspector come there or he 

 may say the honej- was adulterated. 



Mr. Rattig — We don't get nearly 

 enough for ourselves, so if it is adulter- 

 ated it does not make any Oifference. 

 I get pleasure out of the bee business 

 if I do not get honey. 



Pres. Kannenberg — You keep on, but 

 buy clover and sow flowers so that you 

 do not have to buy so much sugar. 



Mr. Aspinwall — I think the trouble is 

 he has had more bees than honev. 



