»/^rW?5?*^*^^rr' .' 



State Bee-Keepers' Association. ii7 



J. C. WHEELER, PLANO, KENDALL COUNTY, ILL. 



I and 2. Eighteen years; a specialty for five years. 

 3. From one to three hundred. 

 4 and 5. Use the Heddon divisible and 8 simplicity. 

 6 and 7. Half for comb and half for extracted honey. 



8. Sections 4Xx4Xxr>^ inches. 



9. Use both wood and tin separators, prefer wood. 

 10. Clover and linden. 



II and 12. Cannot tell exactly. 



13. Sell at home and in neighboring cities. 



14 and 15. I do not increase only as I want more colonies. Have 

 doubled my number in five years. 



16 and 17. Comb 14 cents, extracted 8 cents. 



18. A little more honey without separators. 



19. I consider alsike clover superior to red both for hay and for the 

 honey. 



20 . Work on second crop red clover often. 



21. A dry season that shortens the corolla of the clover. 



22 and 23. Have spared no pains in testing Italian queens from differ- 

 ent parts of the United States and of all shades of yellow. The golden Italian 

 is superior with me, especially in her ability to work red clover. 



24 and 25. Cellar. Not one per cent, from wintering, but of course 

 more colonies become hopelessly queenless in winter then in summer owing 

 to the fact that there are no eggs then from which to rear young queens 

 when the old ones die. 



26 and 27. Put in November 15 and set out April i, owing to season. 

 Put in when it freezes up and out when trees start. 



28. Not near, but at Aurora, fifteen miles away, it is very bad. 



29. Spraying fruic trees is not practiced to any extent here. 



31 . I keep about 60 colonies m each apiary. 



32. The policy followed by some people to induce farmers, and every 

 one else for that matter, to purchase hives, etc., and enter the bee business 

 expecting large returns from small investments, has led to disappointment. 

 Much money has been spent on bee-boxes that were afterwards inhabited by 

 the festive hen. I can think of fifty farmers about here who at different times 

 have had the fever. Such men I find are the worst enemies successful bee 

 men have. They are naturally jealous of him who prospers at what they failed 

 in, and then havingthe reputation of being a great bee master back in the 40's 

 any yarn about the freaks of the little worker by them is taken as gospel by 

 the ignorant. These men are soured. They will not help to make laws for 

 the protection of the pursuit and even stoop so low often as to accuse their 

 brothers of dishonest practices in order to succeed . People must be edu- 

 cated by all possible means in the nature and habits of the bee, but new bee- 

 keepers are not needed only to take the places of those who step out . It 



would be as logical for doctors and lawyers to send men to fairs to induce 

 others to enter their professions as for us. 



^ 



