^ 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE 



Mr. Bowen — Mr. Dadant says there 

 are some men whom the bees won't 

 sting. If I should run across a man of 

 that kind I think he would be better 

 calculated for a wooden Indian in front 

 of a oigar store; I never saw a man 

 that the bees would not sting. 



Now in regard to the sting of bees 

 and what was stated about going at 

 theihvin a nervous way and that would 

 makeythern sting you: I know I had 

 occapon to go to one of my good yellow 

 bees/; they did fine work and lots of it. 

 If I had a friend I wanted to show 

 something extra nice I would show him 

 those bees. I went to them at this 

 time; I wanted to do some work and 

 was in a hurry and they fought like 

 tigers; I went back an hour after that 

 and they never paid any attention to 

 me. I worked among the same bees. 



Mr. Dadant — They were filled with 

 honey, perhaps. *. 



Mr. Bowen — Last summer I ''Under- 

 took to do a little work for a neighbor. 

 I drove a team up in front of his house 

 and took out a few extracting frames of 

 honey; I smoked them first; I thought 

 they were very docile; before I got the 

 second frame out, they came out like 

 a swarm of hornets. I tried to protect 

 myself. I hardly ever work with 

 gloves, but I put on gloves; they not 

 only droX'eme out of the yard but Went- 

 after my horses and tore them away 

 from the fence and followed n^e for 

 two hundred yards. 



That man said he never knew those 

 bees to get cross. 



It makes a difference if you are used 

 to handling the same bees. There is 

 something about bees getting ac- 

 quainted. 



My horses pay no attention to the 

 bees, but a stranger's hor-se going in 

 there makes a difference. 



Mr. Pyles — There have been a great 

 many things said here and I think some 

 of them should be corrected. I have 

 been inspecting this year and only once 

 have I put on a veil. 



I can't work easily or Slowly and I 

 can't take time to let them fill them- 

 selves up with honey before I open the 

 hives, but I do take time to give them 

 a puff or two of smoke and get them 

 busy and then I go on with my work; 

 only once this year did I have, to put 

 jon-a "veil. A man took me out in his 

 apiary; I said I did not need a veil, but 



I found I did. The bees were very 

 cross. 



They told me that boys had been in 

 the orchard stealing cherries and ap- 

 ples and he had kept the bees in the 

 orchard most of the time. 



I think if no one else would come 

 into the apiary I have never seen a 

 colony of bees I could not handle with- 

 out a veil at any season when it is 

 warm enough to open the hives; that is 

 when you are not doing damage- to the 

 hives by opening them. I would not 

 care to go in the winter time, but I 

 mean any time of the year when It is 

 fit to open the hives. 



Some one said something about his 

 bees having sometimes one and two 

 and sometimes three bands in the 

 same hive. Maybe they were working 

 for color. 



One sure way of knowing your bees 

 are full' blood is they must have three 

 bands; when you find a colony of bees 

 that has not got three yellow bands, 

 make up your mind they are hybrids. 



I think the best colony of bees I have 

 seen this year were Golden Italians. 



If we want to produce queens that 

 give good results, you cannot be sure 

 when you are buying from somewhere 

 else you are getting any better stock 

 than in your own apiary. 



You must commence with your own 

 stock and you can have as gentle bees 

 as you want if you breed that way; 

 you can have as cross if you breed that 

 way; you can have just as good work- 

 ers as any other man if you breed that 

 way; you can have some of all these 

 things if you try. 



Some one said Dr. Miller's bees were 

 cross. Dr. Miller is breeding mow, I 

 understand, from good Italians; his 

 bees are always good Italian a^es and 

 not so cross as they "used to be. He 

 said his bees used to be hornets and 

 t-hey would follow him forty yards to 

 get to sting him. ' 



President Baxter — I agree with the 

 last statement of Mr. Pyles but not 

 with the other, i I have, been working 

 with bees for thjrty-'eight years. I had 

 . some Cyprian queens that Mr. Dadant 

 imported from the Isle of Cyprus, and 

 had experierjpe with them thirty or 

 more years ago. W^en I went to open 

 one of those ^^olonies in the morning, 

 and I am careful in working with bees 

 -^I know ho^ to work with them' — 

 those bees would follow me around the 

 place all day, no matter, how far, I 



