ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS ASSOCIATION. 



73 



because the conditions were different, but 

 the 100 colonies outdoors averaged 165 

 pounds, the 100 cellar colonies 95 pounds, 

 and the 2 pound packages 85. That is 

 away up in Wisconsin, understand. 



The President — In regard to my own 

 crop, I can't say just how much I got per 

 colony. It wasn't very much. I had to 

 feed one yard by taking honey from 

 another yard, so that in the four hundred 

 colonies of bees, I probably have about 

 two thousand pounds of honey to sell. 



Mr. MacNeill — Mr. Secretary, what Is 

 the average? 



The Secretarj' — Fifteen pounds. 



The President— WTiile Mr. Wheeler is 

 getting the questions ready, suppose we 

 consider the prospects for next year. We 

 might call the roll again. What is the 

 outlook for white clover next year, in 

 your locality? 



Mr. Simmons — Mr. President, I really 

 don't know, but I am hoping for a crop 

 next year. It seems to me that conditional 

 must be ripe. 



The President — Have you observed the 

 clover stand, is it greater or less than it 

 was last year? 



Mr. Simmons — I have not, no, sir. 



Mr. Haan — I haven't noticed the crop 

 this year. 



Mr. Stewart — Didn't pay any attention 

 to the matter, at all. 



Mr. Rhoehrs— No. 



Mr. Sievert— No. 



Mr. A. Coppin — I don't think it looked 

 quite as favorable this fall, as it did last 

 fall, for clover. I expected a good crop of 

 clover this last spring, fronj the looks of 

 things, but we didn't get the crop I ex- 

 pected, and I don't think it is quite as 

 favorable this fall as it was last. 



Mr. H. T. Fisher — I haven't noticed. 



The President — In my locality there is 

 apparently a good prospect for clover next 

 year. I remember a year ago this last 

 summer, there was no rain for a long time, 

 and clover didn't get started. Clover is a 

 biennial, it takes two years to mature. 

 The. first year it starts to grow and the 

 secotid year it blossoms. This fall I have 

 noticed in a great many places that there 

 is considerable clover. Not nearly as 

 much as there was in the fall of 1915, but 

 a great deal more than there was last year, 

 and I am hoping for a crop next year. 



Mr. Wheeler — Did you ever see a bee- 

 keeper that didn't hope for -a crop next 

 year (laughter)? 



Mr. Stewart — Can you eat that hope 

 this winter? 



The President — The Secretary has sug- 

 gested that we ask the question, what was 

 the cause of last season's failure? 



Mr. Stewart — You will have to ask the 

 Lord that. 



The President — ^Any one else a sugges- 

 tion? 



Mr. MacNeill — I believe it was because 

 the hot sun and the dry weather of a year 

 ago killed out the clover, and there wasn't 

 anything to start the clover with, except 

 the seed from the previous year, and that 

 seed, as you say, hasn't produced anything 

 this year. 



Mr. Wheeler — I don't think we had the 

 weather, Mr. President. We had lots of 

 honey for a week or ten days, here in 

 Cook County, in Julj^ when that hot 

 spell of weather was on, but that is really 

 the only hot spell we had the whole sum- 

 mer; while it was hot nights and days 

 we got lots of honey, and we didn't get a 

 thing during the rest of the summer. 



The Secretarj"^ — That is what I am trj'- 

 ing to get at. In my locality and Mr. 

 Miller's locality, if we had had some hot 

 weather we would have got some honey. 

 It wasn't because of a lack of clover, but 

 because we didn't have any hot weather. 

 All through June, and up to the Fourth of 

 July we didn't get a thing. July fifth was 

 the first hot day that came. 



Mr. MacNeil — Was it because the bees 

 couldn't fly? 



The Secretary — It was cool and wet, not 

 good weather for making honey. 



Mr. Coppin — ^W^hite clover was not very 

 plentiful for the bees to make any very 

 great showing on, and they didn't make any 

 show until the sweet clover commenced to 

 bloom, with the white clover. That is 

 where they got what little they did get, 

 from the sweet clover. 



The Secretarj-^ — I think last year dem- 

 onstrated the value of preparing for small 

 yards. I had thirty or forty colonies in 

 a yard. If you only get one-third as 

 much clover as you do in a big year, 

 you are going to get the honey if it is 

 there. It will give you just as much, 

 providing honey is in the blossom. 



The President — If I were to answer this 

 question, I would say there were three 

 main reasons why we didn't get honey. 

 The first was, the clover did not get a good 

 start and contained very little nectar. 

 What clover there was, contained very 

 little nectar. In the second place, the 

 weather was against us. In the third place 

 we got an early frost. On the night of 

 September tenth, we had a killing frost, 

 which ended the honej' flow in most of the 



