ESTABLI5HEC 

 ; OLDEST BEE-PAPER 



Fulylialiod WeeUly, at ^1,00 x>er aimuin 



Sample Copy sent on App//cnf /on. 



36th Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., DECEMBER 10, 1896. 



No. 50. 





Proceedings of the Illinois State Bee-Keepers' 



Convention Held in Chicago, Nov. 18 



and 19, 1896. 



BY A SPECIAL BEPOKTEK. 



The Chicago meeting of the Illinois State Bee-Keepers' 

 Association was held Nov. 18 and 19, in the pleasant club- 

 room of the Briggs House, northeast corner of Randolph 

 Street and Fifth Avenue. The first session began at 11 a.m., 

 on the 18th, with Pres. Dr. C. C. Miller in the chair, and was 

 opened with prayer by George W. York. 



Pres. Dr. Miller — I am not sure whether we can do any- 

 thing better fcr the start than to have just a short report 

 from each one. I have been greatly surprised to find the dif- 

 ference in short distances. For instance, within about 20 

 miles, the season is quite different from what it has been with 

 me, and we may learn something from that ; at any rate, we 

 will be interested in knowing about the results. So let one 

 after another give a short report of the number of colonies he 

 has, what he started with in the spring, and what the crop of 

 honey has been. Like all the other bee-keepers' meetings we 

 have had in Chicago, we have no program. You"have slips on 

 which to write questions for discussion, and the members are 

 a "committee of the whole " on program, and I doubt whether 

 there is any better way. We have always found good work 

 come from that. We will now begin in order. 



Mr. Chapmam — Living in Chicago in a stone and brick 

 locality, mainly, I think I have done very well. I had one 

 colony which swarmed once and produced 52 pounds of white 

 clover comb honey, but where they got it is a mystery to me. 

 A few vacant lots near us have a little white clover, but my 

 bees went away for a short period, about Sf^ miles from our 

 house. 



Mr. Baldrldge— I had 14 colonies, I think, in the spring, 

 and 18 now ; and my average was only about 60 pounds of 

 extracted honey per colony — about half a crop. No white 

 clover to speak of; nothing but sweet clover, and no basswood 

 to speak of. 



Dr. Miller — How is the outlook for white clover? 



Mr. Baldrldge — It is grand for both white and sweet 

 clover. I never saw it better. 



Mr. Kennedy — I had 25 colonies in the spring, and 40 

 this fall, and about 25 pounds of comb honey per colony, 

 spring count. Part of it is white clover, perhaps some bass- 

 wood, or perhaps some sweet clover. There is some basswood 

 in my locality (Winnebago county). The outlook for white 

 clover is good — better than it has been for a good many years 

 with me. 



Mr. McKenzie — I am from Hammond, Ind. I had 44 col- 

 onies last spring, and I increased to 80, not including de- 

 serters — five in number. Our locality is not very good. We 

 have very little white clover. We had considerable fruit 



growing, and we depend upon a crop from the fall flowers. 

 The crop was about half what I expected it should have been. 

 I get five times more surplus from fall flowers than from 

 clover. I got about 1,500 pounds of honey, most of it comb, 

 a little extracted. 



Mr. West — Well, I have not as good a report to make^as 

 the others, but I suppose it is necessary to make it just the 

 same. I have been in the bee-keeping business for some time. 

 I think I got my first colonies in '69, although I got a few 

 a little previous to that, but then I commenced and have had 

 bees ever since, more or less. Last spring I had about 60 col- 

 onies, and at the present time I think I count 40, so you can 

 see my bee-business is going down. In '91 I had 120, but 

 since that the seasons have been very poor with us, aud in the 

 early part of the season, especially near the time of swarming, 

 which occurred, we got very little honey. We have taken 

 very little honey since '89. Last spring the honey was cut 

 off. During the season I lost about 20 colonies. I thought in 

 the first place that they had foul brood, but afterwards I con- 

 cluded it must be the new disease — " pickled brood." I com- 

 menced to treat them as I would foul brood. I nearly doubled 

 them up. I took the old frames from them, put them into 

 new hives and new frames. I left them on the old frames one 

 or two days (I thought that was long enough to get rid of all 

 the old honey that was in them), and then I gave them new 

 frames with starters. The first lot I cleaned up that way 

 gave me good honey, and then I dropped it ; and the latter 

 part of August I cleaned up a few more, but they were too 

 late, and one or Iwo I lost altogether, and I had one or two 

 that got weak, and the robbers cleaned them out. That is the 



The Brig(js House, Chicago, III. 



way I lost them. I put four colonies into one, but I don't 

 think that it was foul brood. Some of them gave olT no odor 

 at all, but not being a good judge, I took the frames to the 

 house and had my wife and niece smell them, and they could 

 not smell anything, so I concluded there was no smell there. 

 I have marketed about 800 pounds of honey, making about 20 

 pounds to the colony. 



Mr. Schrier— I took 17 colonies out last spring, sold one, 

 and two of the 16 swarmed, and from these two I got about 

 24 pounds of honey. Neither of the young ones gave any 

 honey, but are full enough for winter. The 14 averaged 75 

 pounds of comb honey to the colony, aud the bulk of that I got 

 In September, mostly Alsike clover. They filled the cases full 



