: .;!■■ 



78 



SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



Dr. Bohrer — Does anybody know the 

 name of the editor that published the 

 paper shortly before the American Bee 

 Journal was resumed? 



Mr. Jones — I can not tell you now 

 who published it, but I have all the 

 numbers at home. I can tell you when 

 I get home. 



Pres. Dadant — These are reminis- 

 cences of our old members, and we are 

 glad to hear from them. 



Mr. York — I think it ought to be 

 made a matter of record that Mr. P. D. 

 Jones, of New York, and Dr. G. Bohrer, 

 of Kansas, who were present at the 

 first meetings of this Association, are 

 attending this meeting. 



National Office-Holders! 



"Is it true that some office-holders 

 of the National Association are abusing 

 the_ confidence of the membership for 

 purely personal gain? A charge of this 

 kind has been made against supply deal- 

 ers. 



Dr. Bohrer — I will inquire who the 

 officers are, except it be the President 

 himself. If they are swindHng anybody 

 it has not hurt me. 



Mr. Muth — I should think that such 

 sorry questions should be thrown in the 

 wastebasket. 



Dr. Bohrer — I want to say this: We 

 ought to be pretty certain that it has 

 been abused, and if anyone knows of an 

 officer that has been abusing this con- 

 fidence, he ought to speak out. 



Distance to Breed Pure Queen-Bees. 



"How far should a breeder of pure 

 queen-bees be isolated from all other 

 bees?" 



Dr., Bohrer — I don't know of my own 

 personal knowledge how close queen- 

 breeding apiaries are situated to each 

 other, but my own idea has been this: 

 As different races of bees are being 

 brought into the United States, these 

 apiaries should be 12 or 15 miles apart. 

 I know this, that bees will go 7 miles. 

 I have timed queens that have left a 

 hive and have been out 54 of an hour. 

 Now how far they have been I have 

 no knowledge. How far the drones will 

 go I don't know, but I have reason to 

 know that queens and drones will go a 

 greater distance than 12 miles. I have 

 known of two races being bred in the 

 same yard and sent out over the coun- 

 try. Now, whoever these bee-keepers 



are, they have not been sending out 

 pure queens, and they ought to quit the 

 business. Now, I have no ax to grind; 

 I have no queens for sale and don't 

 intend to have any. I am not in the 

 bee-business to make much money out 

 of it, but for pastime, and I don't want 

 to quit it now. I am not going to give 

 any names, but there are parties here 

 who know something about it. If they 

 are sending out different queens from 

 the same hive, they ought to be noti- 

 fied to quit business, or be exposed. 

 I know of one man that I understand 

 had foul brood in his apiaries, and con- 

 siderable mon€y was sent in for queens, 

 and he had the honor to notify them 

 that he had foul brood and would not 

 send out a queen. I don't believe that 

 he is the only man that would do this. 

 But these are matters that we want to 

 hunt up. If you have foul brood in 

 your apiary, you need not be scared 

 about this matter, nor ashamed of it, 

 but it is harmful to keep it. It may be 

 your fault, it is a misfortune, but go to 

 work and get rid of it. The man who 

 is sending out different races of bees, 

 and breeding them side by side, is not 

 working for the interest of the bee- 

 keeping of this country. I don't know 

 the names of these parties, and especial- 

 ly those who are sending out four dif- 

 ferent varieties of bees bred in a small 

 apiary of 24 or 25 colonies, all kept in 

 one yard. We should work together 

 and find out who those parties are, and 

 quit patronizing them until they do bet- 

 ter. I don't want queens badly enough 

 to get them from a man who will do 

 business in this way. 



Pres. Dadant — Are there members 

 who have any experience in this mat- 

 ter, in regard to distance? 



W. H. Laws — I have been wondering 

 who in the world such charges could 

 be brought against. Dr. Bohrer is very 

 earnest in what he says. Since the in- 

 troduction of the baby nuclei, I have 

 known an honest man who breeds the 

 Carniolan, Caucasian and Italian, and 

 keeps them all in one yard. But he 

 takes 200 or 300 of these baby nuclei 

 and goes out far in the country with 

 them, and these queens are mated to 

 those drones. A few days afterwards 

 he brings those drones in, and those 

 bees come from the same yard. He is 

 doing a good business, and a man that 

 buys queens from him is getting fine 

 stock. He has a few bees all kept in 



tSii^^j^j^fS^isSt 



