98 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



President France — On the point of 

 bee diseases, as the program is nearly 

 all on that subject tomorrow, it would 

 be well to defer that part of it; but 

 the subject, the value of young queens, 

 as suggested by our Secretary, is 

 worth our time. 



Please bear in mind one thing: 

 When we are speaking of bee diseases, 

 we' should designate American or Eu- 

 ropean, for they are decidedly differ- 

 ent, in that one spreads rapidly and 

 the other does not, but American foul 

 brood is one which has no favor for 

 the best of blood or weakest. In fact 

 the stronger colony will reach far- 

 ther away from home and is more 

 likely to find infection and bring it 

 home; but European foul brood, that 

 is another proposition. 



I am of the opinion that a young 

 queen, if of better blood than what 

 they have already sustained in the 

 hive, more of the disease resisting, is 

 one of the things to eradicate the dis- 

 ease. 



We should have the best in our 

 yards and not scrubs. 



I call to mind a queen breeder who 

 makes a circuit several miles from 

 his home every year, and, if he finds 

 a man who has scrubs where it would 

 be possible for his bees to come, he 

 offers to give him the best he has. 



This man guarantees that the mated 

 queens he sends out are true mated. 

 There is one of the lines of careful 

 breeding we have overlooked. 



I acknowledge that the best of us 

 are not getting the best returns. I 

 know of some queen rearing yards 

 where they were doing all in their 

 power but near to them was some or- 

 dinary scrub stock. 



Again, as to the buying of tested 

 queens and having them shipped 

 through the mails: It is only recently 

 we have learned that a queen that is- 

 laying heavily, when caged and sent 

 by mail, is almost a guarantee of ruin. 



Let me give you an illustration: 



You buy of me a fresh cow, and I 

 ship her, without having some one to 

 milk her and care for her, you would 

 not expect her to be as good as when 

 she left home; it is the same with a 

 tested queen; unless she receives 

 proper treatment, if you send her 

 through the mail, she is soon dead or 

 never reproduces as she used to. 



I believe the largest queen breeder 

 in the United States, if he were to 



/ 



guarantee the best queen he had, he 

 would take chances of injuring her if 

 sent through the mail. 



Only a short time ago, not far from 

 Chicago, I was asked to investigate 

 Why shipments of queens made by a 

 certain party failed, on arrival, to re- 

 produce while others went through all 

 right, and we found after investiga- 

 tion: 



At . his home station, some trains 

 went through rapidly, and the mail 

 bag was caught with a flying arm; 

 those queens failed; and others which 

 he took to the station and put in the 

 mail bag, where they were handled 

 carefully, went through all right. 



How would .^t do to ship a comb of 

 brood with the queen you wanted to 

 preserve? 



President France — That is all right. 

 Years ago when the bee business had 

 not got down to such economic condi- 

 tions as now prevail, when I paid Mr. 

 Grimm $18 for a queen, he would no 

 more think. of letting me take a queen 

 home in modern cages, and it must 

 have a comb of brood, and honey, and 

 all necessaries. 



And he said to me: "Hold on, don't 

 you get it chilled; put it under your 

 clothes next to your heart." When I 

 gpt it home, I had something I was 

 proud of, and, out of that queen, pro- 

 d,uced bees that have given me return 

 for future years; but I was foolish, I 

 kept her until she was four years old 

 and then got scrubs from the same 

 queen. 



We had exhausted her; I question if 

 it is advisable to so crowd a queen. 



As we go farther north, especially 

 in our Wisconsin latitude, where the 

 winters are severe, I have decided T 

 don't want to have a queen over a 

 year old; there are exceptions. But, 

 in order to have something as a guide 

 to go by, I don't want a queen to ever 

 go through two winters. 



Mr. Rohr — How would you requeen 

 your bees? It seems that question 

 comes right in here now. Would you 

 kill off your old bees after the honey 

 season is over, or would you rear your 

 young queens and introduce them to 

 separate hives? 



President France — Well, as Mr. Stew- 

 art suggests: From the best ones 

 I select a few, but the larger part 

 from some queen that has been prov- 

 en from outside blood to be still bet- 

 ter, and requeen from that. There is 



