.ILLINOIS STATE BE'E-KEEPERS" ASSOCIATION 



39 



pened to be buckwheat; and in a little 

 toast I referred to their New York Gilt 

 Edge Cbmb Honey; — splendid article 

 of buckwheat — 'but if I were back home 

 I would be alarmed' at trying to winter 

 my bees on such food. 



The most extensive bee-keeper in 

 the State called our atention to the 

 fact that they had wintered their bees 

 for years on buckwheat and consid- 

 ered it ideal. I asked him if he would 

 please report to me next meeting what 

 his loss was; he said — "Why do j'ou 

 suspect any loss?" — Because my fingers 

 are tender on the ends, and if you roll 

 your fingers through that honey, you 

 could detect grains of pollen in it. He 

 reported to me 82 per cent of loss, and 

 since then he has been paying a little 

 attention to that point. 



Pres. Dadant — In the olden time 

 — in the time of Mr. James Hed- 

 don (now dead) — he often reported 

 great losses which in his opinion 

 were due to too much pollen 

 in the honey — especially in the fall 

 honey. I believe there is a point there 

 that should be emphasized. 



Mr. Baxter — T believe that the lasses 

 are not due to any one single cause. 

 Last year the bees had poor honey. 

 The honey, as a rule, was not so poor 

 as the year before, but the winter was 

 very long; in the year of 1910 we ex- 

 pected a loss of from 50 per cent to 60 

 per cent of our bees, tout it did not 

 materialize; the winter was mild; they 

 had a chance to fly out and it minim- 

 ized the bad effect of the food; those 

 conditions did not prevail last winter. 



Mr. Dadant said that out of those 

 23, — 22 wintered all right, and one of 

 thein died. They were well packed; 

 suppose they had not been Avell packed 

 — what would have been the result? 

 Can you conjecture? They would have 

 died; that has been my experience. 



I think it is very important, in pack- 

 ing bees, to have the absorbent above; 

 I have tested that for years and years; 

 and not only is it necessary to have 

 the absorbent above, but to have plenty 

 of ventilation. I lay two little sticks 

 above the frames, and lay my mat on 

 them, so after the -bees reach the top, 

 they can go sideways and can reach 

 the honey wherever it is,- no matter 

 how cold the weather is; but if the 

 frames are sheets of ice on both sides, 

 they can't penetrate the ice, and are 



bound to starve to death, with hives 

 full of honey. 



Therefore, the principal cause of the 

 losses last winter was the long con- 

 tinued cold, so that the bees could not 

 have the flight necessary under the 

 prevailing conditions. 



Mr. Moore — I do not want to convey 

 the idea that the poor stores was the 

 entire cause of this winter loss, because 

 I realize that it was not; it was a 

 combination of- circumstances — both of 

 poor stores and a long, cold winter. 



I know that I took a gambler's chance 

 — and I guess the majority of bee- 

 keepers did; we rea'.ized we had poor 

 stores but we thought we might have 

 a winter like the winter before, and 

 that we would get through all right. 



Pres. Dadant — We have now with 

 us the Secretary of the National As- 

 sociation, Mr. Tyrrell, and although we 

 want to discuss with him some sub- 

 jects that seem more vitally important 

 to us than the present, yet I know he 

 will be willing to give us his opinion 

 on this. 



Mr. Tyrrell — So far as my opinion 

 gees, if that is of vaaie — 



I heartily concur in the statement 

 just made — that it Avas a combination 

 of the poor stones and the long, cold 

 winter. The two combined worked out 

 to the disadvantage of the bee in the 

 end. Had they had excellent stores to 

 begin with, they might have stood the 

 long, cold weather better than they did 

 with ]-)oor stores; that is merely my 

 opinion. 



Mr. Kildow — I find, in regard to 

 packing — in a winter like last winter — 

 you must get packing over your bees 

 so that ice will not form over them; 

 and j'ou must have enough on to do 

 that. 



The cause of the losses of last winter 

 was, I believe, a combination of the 

 cold winter, bad stores and insufficient 

 packing; and still I run across lots of 

 bees this summer that were wintered 

 out of doors in an old box hive, with 

 no packing whatever, and one side was 

 split up so that you could see the bees 

 — maybe that is the exception — but 

 they Vvintered all right. Throughout 

 the country you will often find this, 

 and why it is so, I don't know. 



Mr. Baxter — Simply because they 

 had ventilation. 



Mr. Stone — Do you put burlap or 



