168 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE 



it is wonderfully good if you can afford 

 all that — but if you have retained the 

 queen — though we don't know the why 

 of European foul brood — but if we have 

 kept the queen, in a large percentage 

 of cases we have kept the cause of the 

 trouble. 



In one of the counties in our state a 

 man decided he had European foul 

 brood. He had cleaned up American 

 years before. 



European broke out and in about two 

 weeks he had over 80 colonies showing 

 it. He had ordered a big surplus of 

 foundation; filled combs with sheets of 

 foundation, shook his bees from in- 

 fected comb on to sheets of foundation, 

 melted old comb into wax; shipped 

 that off to supply man. 



When I got there he had hatching! 

 brood on these new drawn out founda- 

 tions and I found in nearly every one 

 European foul brood again. I said, the 

 cause has not been removed; let's now 

 order new queens and take away the 

 queen, but not the combs. I did not 

 remove anything but the queen. The 

 new queen arrived, I think, about be- 

 tween two and three weeks after we 

 had taken these queens away; cells 

 had been removed that had been 

 started, and these new queens were in- 

 truduced, and he has had no trouble 

 since. The queen was largely at 

 fault; he had not removed the queen 

 and he had not removed the cause. 



Mr. Stewart — Did you cage those 

 queens in that colony that had foul 

 brood? 



President France — No, we killed 

 them. Doctoor Miller has caged the 

 queen from ten days to two weeks and 

 returned her. 



President France — I will give you my 

 experience of a few years ago; I went 

 to a convention; I wanted to have ex- 

 plained how can you stop swarming. 

 A man who had quite a lot of bees 

 said: Kill the queens and let them 

 raise new ones. All right, I said, I 

 had some queens I prized and it was 

 with much regret that I pinched their 

 heads. After killing about 200 I swore 

 off. I said I will cage that queen and 

 keep her at home in my own hive and 

 then release her. When released she 

 went on with her work. I did not have 

 swarming. I had 285 swarms the next 

 spring, queenless. 



Now let me draw an illustration: 

 You buy of me a choice fresh cow. She 



is three days on the road in transit 

 with nobody to milk that cow. 'She 

 will never produce for you what she 

 would if she had remained at home. 



A queen laying eggs, then caged — 

 that queen when I went to remove the 

 queen there was a wad of eggs in the 

 cage. 



Do. you wonder she failed me when 

 the right hour came? I would rather 

 pinch her head than to ever cage her. 



President France — We will now listen 

 to the resolutions. 



RESOLUTIONS. 



Resolved, That the Chicago-NortM- 

 western Bee-Keepers' Association ex- 

 tend their thanks and appreciation to 

 the Great Northern Hotel for- their 

 courtesy in extending to this Associa- 

 tion the freedom of this Hotel and 

 Room 138 for this convention. 



Resolved, That the Secretary of the 

 Chicago-Northwestern Bee-Keepers' 

 Association be instructed to convey to 

 the families of the Dadant's the deepest 

 regret that sickness has prevented 

 their atendance at this convention, and 

 the sincere hope of the members of this 

 Association is that all may very soon 

 be restored to health. 



Whereas, The Chicago-Northwestern 

 Bee-Keepers' Association have learned 

 with sorrow of the decease of their 

 brother and co-worker, Mr. H. C. 

 Ahlers, of West Bend, Wisconsin; be it 



Resolved, That this Association ex- 

 tend to his bereaved family its deepest 

 sympathy in their hour of sorrow and 

 that a copy of these resolutions be 

 transmitted to his family and also be 

 entered in the records of this meeting. 



Resolved, That the Chicago-North- 

 western Bee-Keepers' Association 

 present and support the matter of hav- 

 ing the food value of honey and its de- 

 sirability as a table sauce presented 

 to the proper city officers and ask 

 their recommendation for having it 

 placed on the course of instruction in 

 the Domestic Science Department of 

 the public schools. 



Resolved, That the Chicago-North- 

 western Bee-Keepers' Association pre- 

 sent and support the matter of secur- 

 ing a large and separate building for 

 the annual bee and honey exhibits on 

 the State Fair Grounds. 



Resolved, That the Chicago-North- 

 western Bee-Keepers' Association pre- 

 sent and support the matter of having 



