ILLINOIS STATE BEiE-KBEPEeS' ASSOCIATION 



201 



the President's Address, appointed In 

 his place, Mr. Jacob Huffman, of Wis- 

 consin. 



BEST HIVE STAND. 



"W'hat is the best foundation for a 

 hive to rest on?" 



Mr. Huffman — Cement foundation. 



Mr. Latham — I made a foundation 

 for my hive last spring' that has 

 proven very satisfactory; I made it 

 in this way: A board form was laid 

 on the ground, and coal ashes mixed 

 six to one with Portland cement 

 poured into this form. It is very 

 cheap. Twenty-six hive-stands took 

 only seven bags of Portland cement. 



Mr. Huffman. — ^I have used the one 

 the last gentleman has described, and 

 I wouldn't have any other. 



iMr. Stone — I asked that question 

 because of a discussion that occurred 

 in the Chicago-Northwestern Associa- 

 tion last year. When I read over the 

 proof I saw that it ended with a slab 

 of concrete two inches thick laid flat 

 on the ground, and Dr. Miller said. 

 "That won't do because it will rot the 

 hive;" I was at the same time mak- 

 ing foundation oif concrete for my 

 hives; the form is a "U" shape. It is 

 a delight to me to go to a hive with 

 that shape and sort of foundauon. 



Mr. Huffman^ — ^With regard to the 

 hive rotting on cement foundation, I 

 don't think it will when you have a 

 reversible bottom to the hive, because 

 there is an air-space around that. If 

 there is any danger of that, all you 

 need to do is to cut a couple of slabs. 

 When you have your hive-stand per- 

 manent, and you want to move the 

 hive you can't do it. It is all right 

 if you want it to stay in the one place. 



FOUL BROOD TREATMENT. 



■ "The treatment of foul brood, to 

 be answered by Dr. B. N. Gates, and 

 Mr. Charles 'Stewart. 



Dr. Gates — I have had only six or 

 eight weeks' experience as inspector 

 and Mr, Stewart has had years, and 

 I would prefer to allow Mr. Stewart 

 to speak on my behalf. 



Mr. Stewart— 'I didn't know I had 

 been slated to give a talk on bee-dis- 

 eases; it was totally unexpected, but 

 in as much as there is a call for some- 

 thing of this kind, I might make a 

 few pertinent remarks, and one Is 

 this, that sooner or later the bee-dis- 



ease seems to be destined to reach 

 to every apiary; it is hardly possible 

 to check its spread. A man said to 

 me the other day, one of the members 

 of this association, "The bee-disease 

 has appeared in a totally unexpected 

 place; there has been no traffic in 

 bees in that section; there has been 

 no exchange of anything whereby this 

 disease could have been brought 

 there." Now the question is, how did 

 it come there? To the man that has 

 studied this thing closely, that is a 

 comparatively simple matter. There 

 may have been various ways in which 

 it may have been brought there. For 

 instance a man may ship some honey 

 that is a little diseased; it may have 

 been shipped to New York or Buffalo, 

 or wherever you choose, and when it 

 was unloaded there may have been a 

 little pool of honey inside of the car, 

 and that car may have been brought 

 into any State, and the bees may go in 

 and visit that car and carry the honey 

 out. Or, some person may have had 

 a box of lioney, or sent it to a friend, 

 and this honey may have come from 

 the diseased colony and been thrown 

 out. So that it is a hard matter al- 

 ways to follow up this thing and find 

 out where the trouble originated. It 

 is well for every man to be prepared. 

 The best preparation I know of today 

 is to Italianize. Italianize all your 

 colonies. This may seem to be quite 

 a task. It is not necessary, unless 

 the disease is at your door, to Italian- 

 ize all at once. You may buy some fine 

 queens and breed your own queens. 

 There is no reason why you should 

 not be master of this branch of the 

 business just as well as the produc- 

 tion of honey. If you are going to 

 be a bee-keeper you must be what we 

 call an all-round bee-keeper — a, man 

 who is ready to do any and- all parts 

 of the work. One of the first things 

 you should learn is the rearing of 

 fine queens. 



Another fiact I want to emphasize, 

 and that is ttie strain of the Italians; 

 they vary greatly as to vitality and 

 vigor in cleaning up disease. The 

 head inspector for Canada has just 

 been discussing that thing ~ "on the 

 side;" and you will find some strains 

 of bees are almost immune to this dis- 

 ease. The assertion has been made 

 in this State, by a man ihired to come 

 here and attend our institutes, that he 



