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ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



133 



wish you to think that I acquiesce that 

 you can set bees down near a school- 

 house or where people hang their wash- 

 ing out. I think if you have 150 colo- 

 nies -in the city you would better move 

 into the country. 



Mr. Moore — I was brought up in 

 Evanston with bees. In the eyes of bee- 

 keepers it is a kind of joke for any- 

 body to get stung. At our house we 

 have two boys, and I take a frame out 

 and say to the boys, "Look here. Run 

 for your life!" They get stung 3 or 

 4 times a week and they take it as a 

 joke. I was out at my brother's the 

 past summer, and he and I went in and 

 took the honey out and we got stung 

 10 or IS times around our ankles. We 

 did not mind it because it did not af- 

 fect our blood at all. It did not poison 

 us. But I want to tell you I have in- 

 spected bees around Chicago a good 

 deal. The public think they are like 

 snakes; they are deadly afraid of themj 

 and although it is a joke with us it is 

 serious to those folks. I want to bear 

 down hard on this : A pound of honey 

 will smooth over a whole lot of bee- 

 stings, and whenever anybody complains, 

 you want to do the right thing, and do 

 it quick. Then you won't get unpopular 

 in the cities. Otherwise you will, and 

 they will put you out of the cities if 

 they get after you really in earnest. 

 You may say you have the Supreme 

 Court of Arkansas, and all that, to 

 show that you can not put bees out of 

 the cities, but I say they will put you 

 out quick if they set their minds on it. 



Give them a pound of honey; keep 

 them good-natured. Use your judg- 

 ment. Some places you must be 80 rods 

 away from the highway. Other places 

 you can have them close to the high- 

 way. Have their flight the other way. 

 Some bee-keepers are foolish enough to 

 have their flight towards the road. 



Dr. Miller — One point Mr. France 

 made, I am afraid possibly might be 

 misunderstood, and might be misused. 

 As I remember, he said with a few 

 colonies it is one thing, but with many 

 colonies it is a different matter. Some one 

 might take from that, that as long as he 

 had one, two or a half-dozen he might 

 put the bees up close. I remember one 

 year my bees seemed to be very cross — 

 stung a great deal. A very close watch 

 discovered to me that it was one par- 

 ticular colony in the apiary, and only 

 that one, and of course Mr. Franc* 



knows that as well as I do. When I 

 changed the queen of that colony the 

 cross bees disappeared in a little while. 

 Suppose I had only had one colony 

 and it had happened to be that cross 

 one, I would have been as bad off with 

 one colony as with a hundred. So don't 

 count too much on it that you are safe 

 because you have only a small number. 

 Mr. Pease — I wish to answer one 

 question of Mr. Kimmey's in regard to 

 the apiary I spoke of a few minutes ago 

 being across the street from a school- 

 house. That particular yard is not run 

 for comb honey. It is run for the pro- 

 duction of bees, the colonies being, you 

 might say, weak.- I do not suppose there 

 are over a half-dozen colonies contain- 

 ing the full number of frames (8) in 

 the whole yard. Another thing, I do 

 not tolerate a cross colony. I simply 

 pull off the head of the queen, and re- 

 queen, and I find that eliminates the 

 trouble. I find also, or I verily believe, 

 that 100 colonies of bees can be taken 

 care of in a manner which will be a 

 far less nuisance to a locality than under 

 some conditions a half-dozen colonies 

 improperly treated. In regard to the 

 school, -and in regard to the present 

 locality, the very best friends I have in 

 that neighborhood are the scholars and 

 the teachers, and there are no com- 

 plaints, and have not been, from the im- 

 mediate neighbors, who, I might say, 

 are a half a block away. 



I have trouble sometimes by bees 

 being made cross by boys. Boys like 

 to shy stones at the bees, and very often 

 that makes them very ugly, and I think 

 you have an ugly colony of bees when 

 stones have been thrown at the hive, 

 just as they would throw at bumble- 

 bees' or hornets' nests — just throw quick 

 and then run. 



Mr. Thompson — I would like to ask 

 Dr. Miller how he is able to locate a 

 cross swarm in a yard of 150, for in- 

 stance. 



Dr. Miller — I never had 150 in one 

 yard, but I owned one j^ard of 125. 

 When I go along and come close in front 

 of a particular hive and 15 or 20 bees 

 come out full blast at me, I think they 

 nre cross with me; and when I find 

 that the same thing occurs every time I 

 go by that hive for a week or two, I 

 settle down that that is the one, and 

 that queen suffers. 



Mr. Kimmey — I bought 5 nuclei and 

 I put them in the yard. They were the 



