ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



189 



becoming- more and more advanced ir 

 mechanical flig"ht, T\-e r.re approach- 

 ing it. 



Mr. A. I. Root — 'We have got there. 



Mr. Aspinwall — And there hb some 

 dang-er attached to it at present, ibut 

 those thing-s will all be eliminated. 



As to the next possibility of the 

 future of bee-keeping, it is (hard to 

 say what it will be. When we have 

 increased the size of the bee by se- 

 lection for a series of years, so that 

 we are able to reach the honey in 

 clover that we cannot today, w^hat does 

 it mean? I can't tell. Possibly honey 

 will be at a price so that the majority 

 of people can take it a.s an everyday 

 luxury. It is now to the majority a 

 luxury perhaps once a month. I know 

 people who come to me and buy a 

 section or a few sections, and not 

 more t)han a case, and that lasts them 

 over a year. We use in our family a 

 section every day or &o througliout 

 the year. When honey can be sold 

 i^tail for ten cents a card, as we call 

 it in Jackson, and the production so 

 great that millions and millions of 

 pounds are produced where ihtindreds 

 of thousands are today, we will cer- 

 tainly be in the land of milk and 

 honey. We have plenty of milk, and 

 this will make it the land of honey 

 also. 



There are other possibilities in bee- 

 keeping, and anotlher one is on the 

 line of successful wintering. There 

 was a gentleman present who told me 

 he lost nearly all his bees in open air 

 wintering. He complains of the local- 

 ity and of the poor quality of the flow 

 that the bees have to subsist upon in 

 the winter, and therefore the result. 

 We know we can feed anything in the 

 spring, and the ibees will live upon it. 

 So long as they can maintain their 

 fligihts to discharge the poison, they 

 are all right, but this accumulation in 

 thfe intestines during the winter is 

 something that is fatal to bees where 

 long confinement under the present 

 methods of w^intering make it impos- 

 sible to carry the colonies through. 

 Give them good clover honey, or, in- 

 stead of taking it all from them, give 

 them the refuse, and bees will winter 

 all right. Of course, tlhis method of 

 wintering I refer to will enable a 

 colony to subsist through a long pe- 

 riod of confinement in the open air. 

 I have wintered ibees where I got lots 

 of honey-dew from maples, where the 



winter did not admit of a flight for 

 117 days, and that is pretty long for 

 Jackson county, and lots of times 

 for 90 days; and three year§ ago, when 

 the mercury went beloiw zero for 11 

 days in succession in the month of 

 February. The last part of the win- 

 ter is the worst, when the colony is 

 charged with an excess of poison. In 

 my experiments I have found that 

 bees can subsist upon what they hold 

 in their sacks about seven days. That 

 is why a swarm goes from the parent 

 colony with sacks full of honey to 

 provision themselves against a rainy 

 spell, which some times comes right 

 in the 'honey yield for three days. In 

 the olden times in this State and in 

 New York State I have seen it rain 

 three days in succession in June and 

 July. In eight days they will begin 

 to die off. Hive protection should be 

 such that it will enable the colony 

 to uncap the honey. The temperature 

 has got to be such, no matter whether 

 zero or not, that they can uncap 

 their honey. The bees at the outer 

 side of the cluster adjoining the honey 

 become chilled where the zero weather 

 goes beyond seven days, so that it 

 is fatal to .the colonies in almost all 

 hives. The future of bee-keping will 

 enable the colony to live through six, 

 eleven or twenty days of zero weather, 

 if it is necessary. 



I might enumerate some other 

 things in bee culture but I think I 

 have occupied my time. 



Mr. McEvoy — You are doing all 

 right. 



Mr. McEvoy reminds me of another 

 point that is worthy to be sought 

 after, and our esteemed Manager, Mr. 

 France, spoke in reference to the leg- 

 islation on that very point. Mr. Mc- 

 Evoy is our Foul Brood Inspector for 

 Canada. Mr. France looks after the 

 interest of the bee-keepers of the en- 

 tire States and Canada, and he spoke 

 of the difficulty in moving -a legislative 

 body to the co-operation that is neces- 

 sary among bee-keepers. Now, let us 

 see if we cannot, by the proper study 

 of our American Bee Journal, Glean- 

 ing in Bee culture, and Be'e-keepers' 

 Review, and with the co-operation of 

 the men that are versed in the science 

 of foul brood, so to speak, if I may 

 use the word, obtain knowledge so 

 that every bee-keeper will be intelli- 

 gent enough to eradicate that disease 

 himself, and there will be no need 



