5a 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



'safer is because you feel safer; you 

 are more self assured. 



Mr. Stone— My hands, they sting 

 them every chance they get, when I go 

 after them with iny_ve.iLready to put 

 on. Mjr-grana^^^aughter was sitting on 

 a hive; I kept warning her she had 

 better get away; she sat th-ere with 

 her legs bare up to her knee except 

 stockings; I said: "The bees will get 

 after you;" pretty soon one tried to 

 rcravvl in her ear; it stung her pretty 

 badly. 



Mr. Kildow — I am one of those fel- 

 ^-laB:&„tiifi_beeshardly ever sting. . It de- 

 pends- on~wEo~Ttandles the bees, how 

 they are handled" and the conditions 

 around. I dorl't want some one to pre- 

 pare an apiary for. me to go to because 

 I will probably get stung. 



I foiind^a place in Peoria where I be- 

 lieve the "bees were flxed for my com- 

 ing, because I everlastingly got it. I 

 had a veil off at- first; but the fellow 

 persuaded me to put it on, and I didn't 

 tak« -much persuasion. 



As a rule, bees hardly ever sting me 

 if I can have the handling of the 

 apiafy; it is summed up in this: The 

 way you handle them and the time, I 

 think, more than anything else. 



President Baxter — We will close this 

 now- • 



Mr. Dadant — I would suggest we take 

 up the matter of the building at the 

 State Fair. 



President Baxter — We have one 

 essaS', 'After-Thoughts of the Hamil- 

 ton and Keokuk Meets," by Mr. Pyles. 



AFTER-THOUGHTS OF THE HAM- 

 ILTON-KEOKUK MEETS. 



(By Mr. I. E. Pyles.) 

 I suppose that some may think this 

 a. queer subject for a paper to be read 

 at^ a Convention of this kind, but, be 

 that' as it may, I think it will bear a 

 little thought and perhaps cause a 

 little discussion, and, after all, that is 

 the desire of the writer. 



Of course there has been a writeup 

 of the meets in the two leading bee 

 journals but such writeups are usually 

 done for tfie sole purpose of handing 

 bouquets to some one. Such need not 

 be my aim. 



I will say that the meet at the 

 Dadant yard and the home at night 

 ■was conducted in a very creditable 

 manner, although some of the teach- 

 ing I don't think will bear the light of 

 day. 



I think, however, the most space 

 should be given to the Keokuk plan. 



It had been my idea that a Con- 

 vention should study, discuss and 

 bring out that kind of information 

 that mefst interests that body of peo- 

 ple meetifi.^, whether it be a farmers' 

 institute or\,convention. Then the dts-- 

 cussion is taken up and carried along 

 lines that interest the farmer, and at 

 Medical Conventions the study of dis- 

 ease and the best way to treat the 

 same is the subject matter for dis- 

 cussion. 



At a Bee-Keepers' Convention the 

 study of bees, their care, the manipu- 

 lation of^' hives and fixtures, the prep- 

 aration for and securing of the crop 

 of honey and, last but not least, the 

 marketing of the finished product, are 

 and should be the one theme. 



What, then, shall we say of a meet- 

 ing of bee .Inspectors? Should they 

 not be along lines xtf inspection, such 

 as the proper diagnosis and treatment 

 of diseage, the knowledge of handling 

 bees and, last but not least, the hand- 

 ling of the be€-keeper? Such, how- 

 ever, was not the case in instance. 

 I, at least, could only go out the 

 next day doing work as I had done the 

 entire summer before, nothing new to 

 spring upon the unsuspecting public; 

 it- was not necessary, in my opinion, 

 to take fully half the time allotted to 

 the Inspectors .for a lecture on the 

 honey flow 'of Iowa. 



It may have been quite interesting 

 to a student of botany but to the aver- 

 age bee-keeper it would be like read- 

 ing that great narrative written by the 

 man Webster commonly called the 

 dictionary. 



It would do to while away an idle 

 moment, but rather dull and badly dis- 

 connected, taken as a whole. 



What I am trying to gfet at is it was 

 not what the Inspectors needed. It is 

 not necessary for the average bee- 

 keeper to know the botanical names of 

 all the plants that yield a very little 

 nectar occasionally in his community. 



What the man who makes his bread 

 and butter out of his bees needs to 

 know is those plants that yield to him 

 that great harvest that he needs and 

 is working for; we all know that it 

 requires a great force of workers to 

 gather that harvest when it comes 

 and his main effort should be put forth 

 to have on the stage of action at the 

 right time and of the right age a 



