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SEVKXTEEXTTI AXXUAL KErOliT OF THE 



Mr. Williams — Modesty prevents me 

 from telling from whom I got the bright 

 golden Italian queen. I have not had 

 long experience as yet. I started with 35 

 I think, in the spring. I had one hive 

 that made me 160 pounds of nice comb 

 honey, as nice as j^ou ever saw. One of 

 mj' neighbors came one day admiring those 

 bees for their beautiful color. I said to 

 him, '•! would not take ten dollars for 

 that queen unless I knew where I could 

 replace her. " That was a beautiful queen, 

 but the foul brood got into the hive and I 

 lost her last winter. I want the golden 

 Italian with the leather band.-?. 



jMr. Root — When you speak of the 

 golden, maybe you have in mind just the 

 king of bees that I calj the ordinary 

 Italians. There are Italians that are so 

 dark that a good many would call them 

 h.ybrid. The kind that I speak of was the 

 kind the Senior Mr. Dadant imported from 

 Italy. My father had some of that strain 

 We called them leather colored plain three 

 banded bees. Very often we are confused 

 by what we say on a matter of color. 



Mr. Baxter— My golden bees are just 

 as yellow as gold when the sun shines on 

 them, the}' are almost transparent and I 

 believe those bees have been bred up for 

 color. They are as cross as can be and 

 they will follow j^ou up all day long and 

 that is about all they know. What I call 

 the leather colored, the bees themselves 

 have three yellow bands, the abdomen is 

 rather dark, and they do not shine like 

 gold The queen has the abdomen of 

 leather colof, she is dark; while the queens 

 of the goldens are just as bright as they 

 can be and the drones are beautiful, but 

 they are no good as far as work is con- 

 cerned. I have been breeding for results. 

 I had many colonies that produced me over 

 350 pounds per colony. I never had any 

 light gold ones that did that. I had one 

 apiary of 72 colonies that produced 28 

 barrels of honey, 550 to 575 pounds net 

 each, but there were very few golden bees 

 in them and those 'goldens did not produce 

 hardly anything. That has been the re- 

 sult with me, not onlj' last j'ear. but I 

 have had that experience a good many 

 years. 



Mr. Kildow — I have not taken pains to 

 select out the goldens There are good 

 ones in both. We select the best and get 

 akmg all right. 



The President — In the fall when I go 

 throught my be^s to prepare them foi 

 winter, do my fall extracting, I make 

 preparations and select the colonies I want 

 for next year's breeding and those must be 

 the ver}' best ones on the place and they 



never happen to be the light colored ones. 

 If they had been light colored ones, I 

 would have taken them, the same as dark, 

 but my object is to get results. I never 

 breed from cross colonies, no matter what 

 the good qualities are. I want lesults as 

 the fiist requisite. 



Mr. Pellett— I think it i. quite true that 

 most of the strains of golden in this 

 country are quite i.iferior to the three 

 banded strains. There are one or two who 

 have developed stniins of golden that have 

 given pretty good results, but unless a man 

 knows the strain he is buying, the chances 

 are less in favor of getting good results 

 from the golden than the three bands, 

 because there are three band'?d strains that 

 are giving very good results. I never got 

 more than one strain of golden that were 

 worth their board. Several of them were 

 not hardy and generally thej'^ are inferior 

 a? honey storers. I am speaking generally. 

 There are strains of golden that are very 

 satisfactory and have good honey gathering 

 qualities. It is a difference of opinion 

 which is largelj' due to different strains. 



Question — Why do not more women 

 attend the bee-keepers meetings? 



Mr. Pellett — I can speak for one woman, 

 and that is Mis. Pellett. I can tell j'ou 

 four good reasons why she does not attend 

 and that is, four children. 



Dr. Baxter —I can speak for one who 

 does not attend for the same reason. 



Mr. Dadant — I have one very good 

 reason, at least my wife has. She says 

 so rarely does she find ladies at a bee- 

 keepers" convention that she has quit. 

 ^\ e traveled all over the country attending 

 many of the meetings and there were 

 mostly men. It was onh' where thej' knew 

 that a ladj' was coming and they took 

 particular pains to have ladies wait on her, 

 or welcome her, that there were ladies 

 pres';nt. I am sorry that the ladies do 

 not come out more, yet we havo to-day 

 probably as many as we usually have. I 

 saw more in Toronto, Canada, than I did 

 at aoy other place. 



The Secretary — I want to saj"^ one thing 

 that we do to encouiage the attendance of 

 ladies. We ^Iways have a shorthand re- 

 porter that is a lady, and if we advertise 

 that we are going to have a lady for a 

 reporter, the women will know that they 

 are not going to be alone if they come. 



The President — Ladies and Gentlemen — 

 Our program having been completed this 

 afternoon, and no more questions, I will 

 say that %ve have with us Mr. Erbaugh of 

 the State Department of Agriculture, who 

 has come to Illinois to cooperate with us 

 in inspection work along bee-keeping lines, 



