44 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE 



I advise you not to take a chance in 

 treating diseased bees, unless your ex- 

 perience has been a long one. One, 

 who is perhaps our greatest living bee 

 man, tells us that he finds ten days 

 of queenlessness sufficient in treating 

 European foul brood, or even putting 

 the diseased combs over an excluder 

 to hatch out. I say unto you, he has 

 not European foul brood, as it exists 

 elsewhere in the state. From the re- 

 moval of the tiueen until the new queen 

 begins to lay, nothing less than three 

 weeks is safe, in bad cases. If the 

 combs are not clean and sweet at the 

 end of three weeks it is best to shake 

 the colony on foundation, requeen, and 

 feed. Th6 combination of dequeening 

 and shaking has not been emphasized 

 enough. If bees are kept queenless ten 

 or twelve days before shaking, the 

 chance of a cure is much increased, 

 even with American foul brood. 



The short space of this paper does 

 not allow a discussion of the details 

 of treatment, of diagnosis, of mixed 

 epidemics where the nature of the dis- 

 ease is doubtful. You can get a free 

 diagnosis and a pamphlet giving de- 

 tails of treatment, either from your 

 state Inspector or from Dr. Phillips at 

 Washington.-^I have only tried to sup- 

 plement these by outlining a plan of 

 management that long experience has 

 proven to be good. 



C. F. BENDER. 



President Baxter — The paper is now 

 open for discussion. Are there any 

 remarks? This paper is a good one; 

 there are some good things in it; some 

 good advice. 



Mr. Dadant — Who is the writer of it, 

 Mr. President? 



President Baxter — Mr. C. F. Bender, 

 of Newman, 111. 



President Baxter — The next number 

 "Will be a paper by Mr. Kennith Hawk- 

 ins, of Plainfleld, 111. 



Mr. Hawkins — In giving this paper, 

 I expect it to bring out some dis- 

 cussion. It is rather an original plan 

 and in coming here and giving it I 

 don't want you bee-keepers to get the 

 idea that a young fellow like I am is 

 trying to put anything over on you. 

 But it is a fact, as all of you know 

 who have bought queens— there are 

 some breeders who are selling queens 

 who do not do much to give you value 

 received, and even some who sell 

 queens who do not give value received 



who do not seem anxious to settle the 

 matter. Some of the bee-keepers in 

 this country have gone so far in that 

 direction they have been refused 

 further advertising in some of the bee 

 journals; I noticed it to be the case 

 in Gleanings; don't know whether it 

 has come to that with Mr. Dadant or 

 not. ^ 



A PROPOSITION TO INSURE GOOD 

 QUEENS TO BUYERS. 



Kennith E. Hawkins, Kt^fleld, 111. 



Every buyer of queen ' bees has the 

 right to receive full value to the best 

 of the ability of the queen breeder, 

 when he buy^' a queen. ;)This is be- 

 cause every purchaser has the right 

 to get value received. Because some 

 unscrupulous queen ^ breeders have 

 foisted unfit queens on the buying 

 public, I submit the following propo- 

 sition to the 1915 meeting of the Illi- 

 nois State Bee-Keepers' Association 

 with the suggestion that it be sub- 

 mitted to the National Association. 



During the past year several queen 

 breeders in various parts of the coun- 

 try have been refused the privilege of 

 advertising in the columns of some of 

 our bee journals because they have 

 been found unreliable. They send out 

 unfit queens, refuse to back up their 

 guarantee and proceed in so high 

 handed a manner that they are not 

 allowed to advertise now. One of the 

 editors of an American Bee Journal 

 recently visited the breeding yard of 

 one of this country's big queen breed- 

 ers and found this man cutting out 

 celss from any colony where he found 

 them, without considering as to the 

 impulse they had been reared under, 

 and using them to produce queens in 

 his mating nuclei, for sale to American 

 bee-keepers. These two frauds cited 

 will give you an idea of why you get 

 fooled on your orders at times and 

 can get no satisfaction. Also they 

 give you the reason for the existence 

 of 'some supervising medium, which 

 will insure proper methods in rearing 

 queens for you. 



Why not have the National Bee- 

 Keepers' Association become supervis- 

 ors of the methods of queen breeders 

 in America? Each queen breeder 

 could be asked to submit to such a 

 board a statement sworn to before a 

 Notary Public, as to the method he 

 uses in breeding queens, and also that 

 he will not use certain methods which 



