JANUARY 15, 1916 



There was but a small attendance at the 

 meeting this year. Old-timers have dropped 

 out, and 3'oung blood has not shown up as 

 strong as desired. Secretary Bruner said 

 that when he took the position last year he 

 had a list of 150 members. He undertook 

 to round them up, but was able to find only 

 twenty members who could be depended 

 on to attend a meeting. The others, in 

 most part, were either dead or had moved 

 away. 



Despite this discouraging report there 

 was much life in the meeting, and commit- 

 tees have been appointed and are to work 

 up a plan by which it is hoped to make this 

 old association take on the life of olden 

 times. It is proposed to encourage mem- 

 bership and attendance at meetings by 

 adopting the Michigan plan of awarding 

 medals for fine exhibits of honey and honey 

 products at future meetings. 



It was also resolved to get a line on those 

 who are promoting the work of domestic 

 science and carrying on cooking demonstra- 

 tions in schools, to the end that honey may 

 be recommended as pure food, listed along 

 with numei'ous other articles as desirable 

 and healthy food for the human family. A 

 committee was appointed to see the heads 

 of instruction of state and city, to the end 

 that the product of the bee may get a fair 



61 



show in the schools along with other pure 

 foods. 



The beekeepers also passed a resolution 

 asking the state fair officials of Illinois to 

 provide a separate and adequate building 

 for the use of the beekeepers of the state so 

 that demonstrations in the use of honey as 

 a food may be properly made, and the 

 honey-producers thus get a fair advertise- 

 ment. 



One of the members said that he had 

 succeeded in getting his neighbors to take 

 up the work of beekeeping by inviting them 

 to witness his own operations. 



One of the beemen of the Fox Valley, in 

 Illinois, said that it is a mistake that the 

 associations do not hold meetings more fre- 

 quently. His own local association held a 

 meeting every two weeks when important 

 business made it necessary or desirable. 



The Chicago-Northwestern Association 

 voted to sever affiliation with the National, 

 but decided again to affiliate with the Illi- 

 nois State Association. 



Officers were elected as follows: Presi- 

 dent, N. E. France, Wisconsin; vice-presi- 

 dent, E. S. Miller, Valparaiso, Ind. ; secre- 

 tary and treasurer, J. C. Bull, Valparaiso, 

 Ind.; delegate to Illinois State meeting, J. 

 C. Bull, Valparaiso. • 



Chicago, 111. 



WINTERING BEES IN SUPERS 



BY JOHN E. ROEBLINQ 



I did not wish to imply in my article, 

 page 863, Oct. 15, and as mentioned by 

 Grace Allen, p. 969, Dee. 1, that twenty 

 frames with honey scattered around in each 

 is an ideal winter brood-nest. Our plan is 

 to fix up for winter late in the fall, after 

 the first cold spell of heavy frosts, at which 

 time the bees will have formed their Avinter 

 nest. Then on some cold day when the 

 thermometer registers slightly above freez- 

 ing -we start in and take off all the supers, 

 both comb and extracted, note amount of 

 winter stores, and location of brood-nest. 



The comb-supers will be free of bees at 

 this time, and also do away with all trouble 

 from robbers. If we note the bees have 

 located the winter nest in the extraeting- 

 supers immediately above the brood-body, 

 and this super seems to be light of stores, 

 with nothing below, we get another super 

 containing some stores, enough combined 

 with the two to carry them safely thru the 

 winter, and place it under the one contain- 

 ing the brood-nest. This i^lan has always 

 succeeded well with us. 



I much prefer, however, to find the bees 

 prepared to winter in a super containing an 

 abundance of stores, and then take one of 

 the empty supers, or nearly empty, and 

 place underneath for the queen to get busy 

 with in the spring, I believe this to be the 

 ideal condition for wintering, at least in 

 this locality, as they breed up fast and come 

 out strong. My theory is that it is much 

 dryer and warmer in the upper super than 

 it would be if this super were placed direct 

 on the bottom-board, surrounded by snow, 

 water, and ice the greater part of the win- 

 ter. 



Some of the brood-nests run for comb 

 honey are very heavy, practically honey- 

 bound; hence very little headway will be 

 made in the spring for lack of room. Many 

 of these are treated to a set of the extra 

 extracting-supers undei'neath, and will pro- 

 duce a surprising number of bees early in 

 the season. Shallow-frame supers are also 

 used, above and below. This plan also does 

 away with opening of the hives to put on 

 supei-s too eai-ly in the spring. Sometimes 



