36 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE 



by feeding them enough and crowding 

 them they undoubtedly will swarm, 

 but under natural conditions and 

 proper management they would very 

 rarely swarm. 



Mr. Diebold — It has been my ex- 

 perience that conditions of pasture 

 have much to do with it, whether it 

 be field or timber. In a timber coun- 

 try, the pasturage is really good; 

 under those conditions, regardless of 

 race or color, the common honey bee 

 will swarm if they have not the room. 

 The room they have I think, has 

 largely to do ^bout swarming; if con- 

 fined to small hives and given no 

 supers, they will swarm; that is my 

 experience. 



Mr. Pyles — Not always; I just told 

 about a case at Mr. Duby's, at St. 

 Anne; they were down to small 

 patches of brood in the bottom of the 

 frame not larger than your hand, and 

 they didn't swarm. In 1900 as I re- 

 member it we had a fair crop of white 

 clover honey that year. 



My idea is that if the queen is able 

 to occupy the entire brood nest, the 

 entire hive body with brood, and they 

 start to crowd her down, it can crowd 

 her down and I don't think there is 

 a particle of danger; there is no rea- 

 son why they should swarm. 



President Baxter — Those conditions 

 are unnatural. You never saw an 

 apiary under normal conditions 

 crowded with honey gathered the 

 same year that had gone dowm that 

 way unless there was something 

 wrong. What was it? 



Mr. Pyles — American foul brood. 



Mr. Coppin — Mr. Diebold said that, 

 regardless of race or color, in good pas- 

 turage the bees will swarm if they have 

 not the room. I find, with me, that the 

 Carniolan bee will always swarm more 

 than any other. Early in the spring, 

 , before I am expecting any swarming — 

 it will be the Carniolan that will do 

 the first swarming. We always have a 

 pasturage of fruit bloom; and the Car- 

 niolans are liable to swarm then; the 

 others won't. 



Question— What can be done to se- 

 cure a special apiary building at the 

 Fair? 



Mr. Kildow — Leave it with the Com- 

 mittee to find out; w-e could not dis- 



cuss that here; we might discuss as to 

 whether "or not we need one. 



Mr. Dadant — I was the one who put 

 that question; my reason for it was 

 that Minnesota has a special building. 

 I had some correspondence with them 

 and they told me they had a well- 

 filled building and that it attracted a 

 great deal of attention; that they ex- 

 tracted honey during the whole week, 

 for six days, the bee-keepers of the 

 state brought enough honey to keep the 

 extractor busy. 



That is education, both for the bee- 

 keeper and for the consumer. A great 

 many consumers do not know what ex- 

 tracted honey is; a great many people 

 imagine extracted honey is adulterated 

 honey. There is nothing better for the 

 education of the people than running 

 an extractor for those who are not ac- 

 quainted with bee culture. 



Minnesota has a special building at 

 the Fair. Why cannot Illinois have 

 one? We ought to be able to get one 

 if Minnesota is. Our state is as rich 

 and our State Fair can certainly afford 

 as much as the state of Minnesota in 

 the interest of bee culture. 



Mr. Kildow — That is the information 

 we want to get before this meeting; 

 just such information as that, and I 

 think we can get something in the way 

 of a building, or get the rest of the 

 space in the building we have been 

 using. 



President Baxter — This is an import- 

 ant question. I believe we had better 

 hold this question over and discuss it 

 more at length and probably appoint 

 a committee to take any action in the 

 matter that is necessary; it might be a 

 good idea for some of us to have a talk 

 with Mr. Davison and enthuse him a 

 little and we may help along those 

 lines. 



We Avill stand adjourned until this 

 afternoon. Adjourned until 1:30 p. m. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



Meeting convened at 1:30 o'clock No- 

 vember 29th, 1915. 



President Baxter — The address by 

 Doctor Phillips is the first number on 

 the program this afternoon. We will 

 defer that until later and have Mr. Kil- 

 dow's report as State Foul Brood In- 

 spector. 



