32 



SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



did. the middle of June, in that latitude, 

 the latitude of Belleville, the white clover 

 crop is pretty well along, if not pretty 

 nearly over. 



Mr. Pellett — One thing more should be 

 mentioned, and that is that packages with- 

 out queens almost invariablj' come through 

 in bad condition. One shipper told me in 

 the South that he expected to discontinue 

 furnishing them without the queen, they 

 were rfo restless. He showed me bees that 

 had been caged only a short time, even 

 bees that had been prepared within an 

 hour for shipment, those with queens were 

 all perfectly quiet and fairly contented, 

 while those without queens were roaring 

 and restless and were tearing around that 

 box in an effort to escape. When they 

 continue in that condition for three or 

 four days, you can naturally see that they 

 will arrive in bad condition. From what 

 I saw last spring I certainly would not 

 order any package of bees without queens 

 and expect to get them in condition to 

 produce. 



Mr. Erbaugh — That is the way the 

 colonies behaved that I had under my 

 observation, with queens and without 

 queens. With queens they seemed very 

 satisfactory. 



The President — I have had no experience 

 along that fine, but I think it would be 

 foolish to order bees without queens, 

 because I would have to order queens 

 separately. Certainly at that stage you 

 could not raise queens. 



Mr. Warber — I ordered the queen with 

 the bees. 



Mr. Kildow — A year ago this last May 

 I bought ten two-poxmd packages from 

 Louisiana and put them on full drawn 

 combs. That makes all the difference in 

 the world, whether you put them on foun- 

 dations, or on drawn combs. I want the 

 queen inside of the cage where the bees 

 can get all around the cage and get ac- 

 quainted with her. Then you will have 

 no trouble about the bees killing the 

 queens, because the majority of the queens 

 are strangers to the bees and must get 

 acquainted some way. 



Mr. Pellett — I would haye them re- 

 leased in the package before they are 

 shipped. 



Mr. Kildow — She comes to strange bees 

 then. 



Mr. Pellett — The most successful ship- 

 pers I know, that is, the ones that are 

 following that method, are getting the 

 largest percentage of satisfactory results 

 from the queen inside the cage of bees, 

 I have had part of my colonies swarm the 

 latter part of June and I got on the average 



almost two supers per colony. I got an 

 exceptionally good shipment, that is, they 

 seemed to come through in the finest kind 

 of shape. 



Mr. Warber — I ordered the queen with 

 the bees, but the season down South was 

 so backward that the bees failed to arrive, 

 or the white clover season and the bees 

 arrived at the same time, so that there 

 was no chance to get ready only for fall. 



The President— We will pass thia 

 question now. 



The Secretary — Mr. President, before 

 another question is put, I should like to 

 say that if any are here who paid their 

 fees at the Fair, do not be backward about 

 coming up and getting your badges. You 

 are entitled to them just the same as the 

 members who paid here to-day and you 

 are a member through 1918. I move that 

 the editors of the three Bee Journals, 

 American Bee Journal, Domestic Bee- 

 Keeper and Gleanings in Bee Culture, and 

 also Dr. Miller and Dr. Phillips, be made 

 honorarj' life members of this Association. 



The motion was seconded by Mr- 

 Troutmer and carried unanimously. 



Mr. Dadant — I am the only one of the 

 parties named present here and I want to 

 thank the meeting for this kindness. It 

 makes one feel very kindly and very proud 

 to be elected an honorary member of this 

 Association. Last year Michigan gave us 

 that honor and I felt very proud, especially 

 in the company of Dr. Miller, who is 20 

 years my senior and certainly has had more 

 experience than I have had. 



Dr. Baxter — Mr. President, the Illinois 

 State Bee-Keepers' Association by law is 

 required to have a seal and they have 

 never fulfilled or obeyed the law and have 

 never had a seal made; so the Exhibition 

 Committee in getting up a certificate for 

 the people who so generously brought 

 honey, had to have a seal made for the 

 certificate and I ha^^e asked an artist to 

 make a seal and he presents this. (Ex- 

 hibiting drawing.) The artist is not a 

 bee-keeper. He had an issue of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal to get his design of the 

 honeycomb, and I gave him the date of 

 the charter, so 'this is a drawing of the 

 seal. I shall leave it here for your examina- 

 tion and we will bring it up before the 

 meeting as to whether it shall be adopted 

 or not. Of course you will understand 

 that when the seal is made it is not so large 

 as that; it will be reduced to something like 

 the size of a silver dollar and it will look 

 slightly different. The honeycomb will 

 look much better and will not look like 

 foul brood. 



