Mar. 21, 1907 



235 



out of competent speakers to meetings 

 all over the Province, such a loss could 

 perhaps be prevented in the future. 



'Jherc is no doubt that as beekeepers 

 you have an industry to be proud of. 

 The capital invested in Ontario in 1901 

 was given in round numbers as $800,000, 

 with a revenue that year of about $300,- 

 000, and a product of about 2,500,000 

 pounds of honey. There is no doubt 

 that this can be very largely increased, 

 and it seems to me that by working to- 

 gether through the local associations, 

 the members of the Provincial associa- 

 tion and the department, the markets 

 can be so increased that there will be 

 no fear of lowering the prices, as many 

 of you have expressed the opinion will 

 be the case. P. W. Hodgetts. 



Mr. Root— The Ontario Association 

 is to be congratulated in getting a man 

 like Mr. Hodgetts for a Secretary. I 

 feel like trying to induce him to come 

 over to our country. 



Mr. Holtermann — You have too many 

 of our good men over there now. 



Mr. Craig suggested an apiary meet- 

 ing in some yard near Brantford in the 

 spring. 



Mr. Holtermann — An individual effort 

 is necessary to help bring about the re- 

 forms outlined by Mr. Hodgetts, and 

 let us not forget the caution given by 

 that extensive dealer in honey, Mr. Bur- 

 nett, who says that unripe honey has 

 done more harm to the bee-keeping in- 

 dustry than has adulterated goods. 



A hearty vote of thanks was tendered 

 the bee-keepers of Brantford and vi- 

 cinity for the hospitality shown visitors 

 from a distance and a vote of thanks 

 was also tendered the American visitors 

 for their help in making the convention 

 a success. 



A Brief Report of the Illinois 

 Convention 



Held at Springfield, Nov. 31 and 22, 1906 



Tuesday morning. President Smith 

 said: "Members of the Association, I 

 have to congratulate you that we have 

 been permitted to meet again, in our 

 sixteenth annual session. While ^ the 

 year just past has been one of disap- 

 pointment to bee-keepers, we all look 

 for^vard to the coming year with hopes 

 that it may be a year of plenty and 

 success. I have met more bee-keepers 

 this year in the State of Illinois than 

 in any other year. They all seem en- 

 couraged in regard to wiping out foul 

 brood, wherever it has been known 

 to exist. As to black brood, I have 

 not seen it. Not having learned any 

 difference I call it all foul brood. Be- 

 ing doubtful about it, I sent a sample 

 of it to Washington and it was pro- 

 nounced, not black, but common foul 

 brood, as I had thought. While our 

 neighboring States — Michigan, Indiana 

 and Ohio — have it, it may develop with- 

 in our territory, sooner or later. 



•■I wish to thank you, gentlemen, for 

 courtesies in the past. We will now 

 proceed with the business of our an- 

 nual meeting. The Secretary will please 

 read the minutes of the last meeting." 



American ~Bae Journal 



Secretary Stone said that the pro- 

 ceedings of the previous meeting all 

 had been publislied in the Annual Report, 

 and it seemed unnecessary to read the 

 minutes since tlicy were already in the 

 hands of the members. 



Mr. Dadant moved that the printed 

 report be accepted as the minutes of 

 last meeting, which motion was sec- 

 onded, and, on being put by the Presi- 

 dent, was carried. 



The President called for the Secre- 

 tary's Report : 



Report of the Secretary. 



The Association expressed the wish 

 last year that along with the other 

 work of the Secretary he have printed 

 some cards to be used in an effort to 

 increase the membership. The first move 

 in this direction was to have prepared 

 some return postal cards and these were 

 sent to all the Crop Reporters through- 

 out the State. We received in this 

 way 1130 names of bee-keepers. We 

 also secured another list containing ii8b 

 names. After arranging the two lists 

 alphabetically, and comparing them, we 

 found only 94 duplicate names, and a 

 total of 2222 names. In all this num- 

 ber only 94 duplicates i^ an evidence of 

 thousands of bee-keepers still, whose 

 names we have not been able to get. 

 With 873 names received through the 

 Crop Reporters of the State after can- 

 celing duplicates, they reported -20,361 

 colonies of bees, which was an average 

 of 23 1-3 colonies per bee-keeper. 



Number of names reporting number 

 of colonies not known, were 163. In- 

 cluding the numbers recorded in our 5th 

 Annual Report as living in Illinois, with 

 the above-named numbers, we have a 

 list of over 2450 bee-keepers in Illinois, 

 and with an average of 23 colonies we 

 have a total of 56,350 colonies, which 

 with a very low average of 40 pounds 

 per colony would be a possible 2,254,000 

 pounds of honey in one year. 



In letting the bids for our 5th An- 

 nual Report, George W. York, of the 

 American Bee Journal, being the lowest 

 bidder, got the contract for 1000 copies 

 • — 300 of which were to be cloth- 

 bound — for all of the members of the 

 State Association as well as for those 

 who came through other affiliated as- 

 sociations of the State. 



As our 6th annual report is not like- 

 ly to be out in time to place copies in 

 the hands of the legislators, we do not 

 think that more than 500 copies can be 

 used, with as many of that number 

 bound in cloth as we are likely to have 

 members. 



In one or two cases our membership 

 blanks were returned to us, wherein 

 the writer said : "My bees have never 

 had foul brood, and I do not see any 

 use of a foul brood law." But when 

 this man's bees got foul brood he was 

 the first one to cry out ; "I have just 

 as good a right to protection as you 

 members of the Association have, for 

 I pay as much taxes as you do." To 

 be sure he has in the eyes of the law, 

 — does he get it? It is not reasonable 

 to expect the inspector to leave a man 

 who has done all he can to help pro- 

 cure a foul brood law till last, and go 

 first to the man who did not want the 



law, and did all he could to discourage 

 its passage. 



Some bee-keepers who live only for 

 self, and know nothing about foul brood, 

 have even told their representatives 

 that they did not care whether we had 

 a foul brood law or not, as their bees 

 had never had it, and they did not fear 

 it. 



In concluding, I wish to say, the ac- 

 tion which the National Bee-Keepers' 

 Association took when it passed a reso- 

 lution allowing all bee-keepors' associa- 

 tions throughout the United States (or 

 the entire continent, I believe) to join 

 them in a body through their respec- 

 tive secretaries on payment of 50 cents 

 per member, did more to promote bee- 

 keepers' organizations, and increase the 

 membership of those already formed, 

 than any act that we can do to help 

 ourselves. All bee-keepers are anxious 

 to be members of the National, as it 

 assists then when being imposed upon, 

 so long as they are in the right. And 

 every association should sacrifice one- 

 half its fees and thereby help their 

 own and the National Associations. 



We were told during the year by the 

 General Manager that our State stood 

 at the head in the list of members to 

 the National. (Later we see in the 

 Report of the National that Illinois 

 stands 2nd, with 282 members; Wiscon- 

 sin 1st, with 307 members; New York 

 3rd, with 210, and California 4th, with 

 206.) 



We have great faith that our mem- 

 bership will never be any smaller, but 

 hope for greater numbers as the years 

 of prosperity for bee-keepers come this 

 way. We can ask a bee-keeper with 

 the best of grace to join our Associa- 

 tion, because we are getting member- 

 ships in the National with the same 

 $1.00 fee. Jas. A. Stone, Sec. 



First Day — Afternoon Session. 



The afternoon session was opened 

 with the reading of the following paper 

 by C. P. Dadant, President of the Na- 

 tional Bee-Keepers' Association, on 



DRONE-LAYINQ WORKERS 



When a colony of bees becomes hope- 

 lessly queenless, it often happens that 

 a number of the worker-bees — some- 

 times only one or two, sometimes doz- 

 ens of them— begin to lay eggs in the 

 cells here and there. Scientists affirm 

 that the drone-laying ability is found 

 in bees that have probably received a 

 greater amount of the royal jelly than 

 the average larvae during the course of 

 their development. This jelly or pap, 

 produced by the salivary glands of the 

 nurses, is fed exclusively to the queen- 

 larvae during the entire time of their 

 development, while a coarser food, con- 

 taining pollen or bee-bread, is fed to 

 the larvae of the worker-bees during 

 the last stages of their larval existence. 

 It is asserted that those workers that 

 receive a little more than their share 

 have ovaries partly developed; and 

 while they are entirely unable to be- 

 come impregnated, owing to the rudi- 

 mentary condition of both spermatheca 

 and ovaries, yet the rudimentary ovar- 

 ies mav produce eggs in small quantity. 

 These eggs, like those of queens that 



