ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



101 



€ggs three days after, and there is a 

 new colony with a new queen. 



But the greatest benefit will come 

 to you from this fact: 



Your bees have been without brood 

 for part of your honey flow. 



I will give you my reasons for it, 

 if they are good enough, why — 

 - The moment you have removed your 

 old queen there is no more brood in 

 that hive; all those bees which have 

 been feeding the young brood, they 

 go out in the clover fields and carry 

 in honey and, when the honey comes 

 in, it is not fed to young larvae. 



Instead of that, honey comes into 

 your supers. 



But you will say, "The bees don't 

 move; they don't work well." They 

 do. With the bees it is all the same 

 whether they have a queen or queen 

 •cell and they will work with the same 

 energy. 



We find out when the old queen 

 swarms the hive left behind goes to 

 work because there are queen cells. 



You say: "It is too bad to lose that 

 beautiful brood. It will weaken the 

 hive!" 



What are those bees worth to you, 

 gentlemen? Let us figure. 



The 20th of June the queen lays 

 eggs. 



Twentj^-one days after, or the 11th 

 or 12th of July, young bees will hatch 

 from those eggs. 



Sixteen days after those bees that 

 go to work will go out. 



The 27th of July those bees will go 

 out in the fields. 



Gentlemen, what kind of honey 

 flow have j^ou around the 27th of July? 



A member — Sweet clover. 



Professor Jaeger — There are com- 

 munities and places where we have 

 not any; at the same time I will say 

 that the main flow in the northwest 

 is over by the 27th of July. 



Now the bees from young queens 

 will begin hatching sometimes in 

 August and should produce large 

 liatches of beautiful young bees. The 

 young bees will fill up the hive with 

 winter stores and there will be a 

 large amount of young bees to go into 

 winter quarters. 



In order to produce young queens 

 I had to make some hives queenless — 

 over forty I made queenless during 

 June. 



Those hives afterwards raised a 

 batch of queens — I left in one of those 



queen cells — so all of those colonies 

 were without a laying queen for three 

 weeks and last fall when we began 

 to remove honey from 125 hives I was 

 surprised to find in those colonies I 

 had been raising my queen cells loaded 

 with honey in the supers; produced a 

 great deal more than all my other 

 queens. 



I suppose you may have different 

 ideas, but I do believe to queen dur- 

 ing honey flow will produce larger 

 crop of honey than otherwise. 



Mr. Wheeler — Did you select your 

 strongest hives? 



Professor Jaeger — I selected the 

 strongest, but our hives are nearly all 

 alike. 



They were practically all alike; we 

 went down the row. 



Now this is a matter of course that 

 is based on our local conditions in 

 Minnesota. 



Moreover, young queens generally 

 will effectually stop European foul 

 brood. 



We introduce queens year after year 

 and bring new stock year after year. 



And it is of great value to you to 

 know that you do. not have to bother 

 or worry about foul brood ever get- 

 ting into the j'ard. 



And by this method you are prac- 

 tically free from all swarming. 



The problem of who is to raise your 

 queens? 



If I were better acquainted with lo- 

 cal conditions I might give you en- 

 lightenment. I believe your quefen 

 stock can be raised right here in the 

 state of Illinois; I don't believe here 

 in Chicago, because they could not get 

 mated; the drones could never see a 

 queen with the smoke! 



But around the country here there 

 are apiaries where your queens could 

 be raised. 



May be you have some state insti- 

 tution here. Would j'our legislature al- 

 low you a couple thousand dollars for 

 that purpose, and get a bright young 

 man to go to work and establish a 

 queen rearing apiary for the benefit 

 of bee-keepers? 



Why does the state spend thousands 

 of dollars to improve stock? 



In agricultural pursuits the conntry 

 is spending thousands of dollars every 

 year. Minnesota alone (and what is 

 Minnesota compared to Illinois? You 

 are known to be one of the biggest 

 and richest states in the Union) 



