ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



33 



and perhaps it will be of a great deal 

 mors interest at that time. 



Pres. Dadant — ^It is now ten minutes 

 of twelve; it might be a good plan to 

 adjourn until such time as you desire. 



Motion to adjourn. to 1:30 P. M., made 

 and carried. 



FIRST DAY— AFTERNOON 

 SESSION. 



The convention was called to order 

 by Pres. Dadant at 1:45 P. M. 



Pres. Dadant — The first thing on the 

 program this afternoon is the paper 

 of Mr. Moore. 



Mr. Moore — When I got word from 

 the secretary that he wanted me to 

 speak, I was very busy and had very 

 little time to prepare anything. 



I thought I would talk , a little in 

 regard to our experience during the 

 year, and ascertain if we could get 

 some lessons that would be helpful 

 during the coming year. 



When I woke up this spring with a 

 loss of 60 per cent of my bees, I was 

 nearly discouraged — until I began to 

 get in reports from over the State, 

 and got out on inspection work, 

 and found that bee-keepers who had 

 had years and years of experience had 

 similar conditions — I began to feel that 

 I was lucky. 



' All writers of bee-keepers' magazines 

 and books have always told us that 

 the first essential to successful win- 

 tering of bees was a good quality of 

 stores. 



I knew last fall — and I guess all 

 other bee-keepers realized this — that the 

 bees -were getting a very poor quality 

 of stores — the juice from grapes, 

 peaches and apples — and the Ijees be- 

 ing confined so long during the ex- 

 tremely cold weather, it gave them 

 dysentery, and this caused the heavy 

 winter losses. 



The thing that was impressed on 

 my mind-^and I would like to impress 

 it on the mind of every toee-keeper — 

 for experience is a good teacher — is to 

 have a good quality of stores, and If 

 we do this we can save a great share 

 of these heavy losses in the winter. 



In the territory I inspected this sea- 

 son — In Henderson, Warren, Knox, 

 Mercer and Rocfc Island Counties — ■ 

 amongst the larger apiaries, I found 

 the loss would aggregate close to a 

 thousand colonies, and I presume if 

 we could get reports from all the small 



~8 



bee-keepers, it would run up to two 

 or three times that many in those five 

 counties. 



When we think, not only of the great 

 loss of the bees themselves, but of the 

 honey they would have produced this 

 season, it counts up into a good sum. 



If we can save this loss "by taking 

 this lesson to heart, we will be con- 

 siderably ahead. 



Now that is a matter of education. 

 I am a crank on education; I have 

 talked the education of 'bee-keepers at 

 every opportunity given me; I did last 

 year; I brought up the question of 

 putting in a course of bee-keeping in 

 our State University, or working to 

 that end. 



Bee-keepers, as a general thing, are 

 not posted. 



If they were, much harm could be 

 done away with — as in a locality I have ' 

 in mind, where foul bTood was prev- 

 alent, for years; one place especially, 

 in the Southern part of Knox County, 

 around Abingdon; I was informed there 

 were at least 500 colonies of 1 ees in 

 the vicinity of Abingdon — and I put 

 in nearly three days there; I worked 

 the territory for four or five miles in 

 all directions; I found not to exceed 

 one hundred colonies of bees that were 

 all diseased; I found only one apiary of 

 three colonies that had American Foul 

 broodi. 



If those men a few years ago, having 

 from 100 to 250 colonies of bees, had 

 been posted, or paid any attention to 

 their bees except to have swarms, and 

 get honey, theyl could have saved a 

 big loss. They have a splendid locality, 

 and there is no excuse for the losses, 

 except neglect and ignorance; and I 

 find this condition exists all over. 



I want to urge again, this season, 

 that we go before our legislature, and 

 before any one . who has any voice or 

 control in the management of the State 

 Universities, and try to get a course 

 of study on bee-keeping in our State 

 Universities. 



Teach these farmer boys the im- 

 portance of bee-keeping, and how to 

 handle bees; teach them to diagnose 

 diseases, so that we may wipe out 

 this foul brood. 



I would like to also have something 

 done to educate the public. 



This claim of manufactured comb 

 honey has been run for years, and is 

 still creeping out every now and then. 



