April 4, 1907 



American ^ae Journal 



the minister asked all those that did 

 not want to go to Heaven to stand up. 

 The man didn't know exactly what the 

 question was, but said, "Parson you and 

 I are fearfully in the minority ;" so I 

 am fairly in the minority, and I do 

 not know what was talked about. 



I was a bee-keeper in the State of 

 Indiana, and moved from there in 1873 

 to Kansas, which was not adapted at 

 that time to bee-keeping. Many of the 

 flowers were non - honey - producing 

 plants. Now we have thousands of 

 acres of alfalfa in Kansas. The weeds 

 grow and the bees take possession of 

 it, and gather a good deal of honey from 

 it. Like Texas, Kansas is getting to 

 be one of the best honey-producing 

 States. 



I am certainly glad to visit the State 

 of Texas. It has been more than 40 

 years since I was here, and it is not 

 so warm as it was then. I have had 

 a warm reception, but not so warm as 

 I had then. I happened to be a soldier, 

 and was probably in the last engage- 

 ment of the war, at Brownsville, Texas. 

 There was one man killed. I was 

 in the medical department of my regi- 

 ment. Another soldier, a Texan, was 

 dangerously wounded. Both were 

 splendid men, and each had a wife and 

 six children at home, and I never will 

 forget the conversation I had with the 

 wounded rnan. ■ I went into the hospital 

 and he said, "I suppose you are one 

 of the doctors." Then he said, "Will 

 I be neglected because I am a Con- 

 federate soldier?" I said, "Not a par- 

 ticle, you and I are not responsible," 

 and that I was but one of those who had 

 to settle the great question, and that 

 we did not hold a personal grudge. 

 Since then the North and the South 

 have united. I never think of Texas 

 but what I think of that unfortunate 

 occurrence. There was a gulf between 

 the two sections of the country at that 

 time that seemed to be impossible to 

 fill up and bridge over. Now, tonight 

 I don't think there is a man here or 

 elsewhere but what would be willing 

 to concede that it is not only bridged 

 over, but almost entirely obliterated. 



The daughter of the Confederate sol- 

 dier falls in love with the son of the 

 Federal soldier, and they are mixing 

 up and making the grandest people the 

 world ever knew. No other country has 

 ever reached that high degree of civili- 

 zation that has built it up, but the end 

 has not come yet; everything, like bee- 

 keeping, is in its infancy. 'When bee- 

 keeping was introduced in this country, 

 it was my lot to buy the first queen 

 that was ever purchased in the State 

 of Indiana. The people did not know 

 what that meant,— the idea of sending 

 off and getting a select queen and in- 

 troducing it to a black colony of bees; 

 that it would change that colony to 

 a colony of Italian bees! Why, the 

 man that considered this idea was not 

 considered of sound mind, and they 

 laughed at me. I was a physician, and 

 several families refused to employ me. 

 But after I had succeeded they would 

 come 15 and 20 miles to see my bees. 

 and one man said, "the blamed fool 

 has ar*-'ally done it!" I paid $1000 for 

 that queen, and I paid $20.00 for the 

 second one. We have advanced in the 



matter of queen breeding so the finest 

 queens can be bred for $5.00. 



I want to say to you that I am not 

 engaged in the business of bee-keeping 

 with the hopes of making a single dol- 

 lar, but I do hope and e.xpect to bene- 

 fit somebody, and engaged in that pur- 

 suit for pastime. I. l^ve only about 

 30 colonies but they keep me busy. 



I want to say that a great many Italian 

 bees in this country are not so good as 

 the bees from Mr. Langstroth. We are 

 too careless as to how we handle them. 

 We take great pride in advising with 

 a man who wants to do the best he 

 can. If you can breed two superior 

 and distinct breeds, don't breed them 

 less than 20 miles apart. There is 

 something in the Carniolan blood that 

 makes them a little crosser than I want 

 bees to be. I have gotten from one of the 

 best queen-breeders in the United 

 States", and from a gentleman of the 

 South, too, a Carniolan queen. I vs^ent 

 on for some length of time, thinking 

 it was due to some imperfection of the 

 queen; the brood would begin to die, 

 and keep on from the time they began 

 to hatch ; many of the queens did not 

 fly. I simply pounded the life out of 

 that queen and gave them brood from 

 another queen that I got from a Ten- 

 nessee queen breeder. I say to you, 

 gentlemen, that there is great danger 

 of this thing happening in this country, 

 and in my opinion this has gone on 

 long enough. If the queens are worthy 

 of being introduced, let them be tested, 

 and don't you breed them less than 12 

 to IS miles apart. 



QUESTION-BOX. 



"Will a list of bee-keepers' names be 

 printed for distribution, as at Chicago?" 



Pres. Dadant — I make this explana- 

 tion, that it costs us a little each year 

 to make this distribution; our daily 

 papers are only too glad to report who 

 were at this convention. 



Mr. France — Last year there was a 

 motion that but two answer a question 

 briefly and decidedly. I don't think 

 that is the intent this year, but to make 

 the question-box the most important of 

 the whole meeting. 



Mr. York — That was done near the 

 close of the last session, and because 

 our program was long. We lacked 

 time. 



1906 HONEY CROP IN TEXAS. 



"How many carloads of honey did 

 Texas produce this season?" 



Pres. Dadant — That is a question for 

 our Texas bee-keepers to answer. I 

 would like to hear from them. 



Mr. Victor — Texas did not have a 

 heavy crop this year. I think it was all 

 shipped locally, and it would be hard 

 to say exactly. Some seasons we ship 

 a good many carloads, but I did not 

 try to make an estimate this year. Pos- 

 sibly Mr. Toepperwein could give us 

 the information. 



Mr. Toepperwein — Mr. Atwater is up 

 on this. He can tell us. 



Mr. Atwater — I can hardly answer 

 the question, because the season is not 

 quite over yet. I think at the close 

 of the season we will make a very 

 good report. 



FEEDING QUEEN-LARVAE. 



"How long do bees feed the larva 

 before the queen-cell is sealed? Does 

 the age of the larva have anything to 

 do with it?" 



H. Piper — I would like to say that in 

 Texas it takes only 4 days. Then again, 

 the age of the larva has something to 

 do with it. If 1 use a larva over 4 

 days, it does not take so long. 



Mr. Dadant— Mr. Root, let us hear 

 from you on this subject. 



H. H. Root — These queen-breeders 

 can answer this question better than I. 



Mr. Victor— I don't like to talk on 

 every subject. I think, though, in a 

 matter of this kind, it would be as the 

 first gentleman said. It is from the 

 time the larva hatches, or until it is 

 sealed as a queen. I would say from 

 the time it hatches from the egg into 

 the larva would be between 5^2 and 

 6 days, and usually about 4^ days 

 after it is transferred from the queen- 

 cell before it is sealed over. 



J. E. Chambers — I wish to say that 

 my experience is limited. I find that 

 a larva is used from 12 to 14 hours. 



Progress in Getting Better-Natured 

 Bees. 



"Has there been any real progress in 

 getting better-natured bees vifithin the 

 last ten years?" 



Mr. France — I think there has been 

 progress in the bee-keeper being better- 

 natured in handling the bee. 



Mr. Hilton — There is no question in 

 my mind but there has been progress. 

 The bee-keepers do not retrograde, and 

 they either advance or else they do 

 retrograde as do all institutions, and 

 from that standpoint I say there has 

 been progress. I know that I got good 

 results by introducing new blood into 

 the apiary annually. It is one of the 

 best investments a man can make, con- 

 sequently I answer in the affirmative, 

 that there has been progress made in 

 the bettering of the nature of our 

 queens and bees in the last ten years, 

 in accordance with the question asked. 



Mr. Aten — I do not believe they have. 

 I believe the gentleman was just talk- 

 ing about the people, that some people 

 get better blood amongst their black 

 bees, but I cannot see that the new 

 blood they are introducing is as good 

 as the bees we had ten years ago. 



Mr. Hilton — I certainly take excep- 

 tions to the gentleman's stand, and I 

 say that we do get more gentle bees by 

 introducing new strains of gentle blood, 

 and I am sure I can bring to bear the 

 experience of other men that have in- 

 troduced a more gentle strain. I am 

 glad the gentleman called me out, I 

 like discussions, and it is good for us; 

 it is good for us to dwell together in 

 harmony while there is harmony in 

 good, honest discussion, and there is in- 

 formation, and there are those of us 

 who have come 2,000 miles that don't 

 care to go home with empty minds, but 

 we may go home with empty pockets. 

 I want to say that I have been taught 

 something while here. 



Mr. Adkins — I believe that the intro- 

 duction of new blood has made our bees 

 better-natured. I was not a bee-keeper 

 20 years ago, but I heard my neighbors 



