ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



75 



those who come here enjoy these dis- 

 cussions; you are at an expense of 

 from $10.00 to $50.00 to come here, and 

 you have a good time. I would urge 

 you all to join the Association and 

 pay your dollar, because you see it 

 does not really pay out, and it is a 

 very important matter that every one 

 should help a little. "We start in with 

 a deficit of $12.45. We begin all over 

 now at the beginning of this meeting; 

 you can join the National in a body, 

 or not; you can do what you did last 

 year, or you can do differently; the en- 

 tire matter is before you; you are 

 absolutely free to do or not to do, just 

 as' you please. 



On motion, President York appointed 

 an Auditing Committee of three, to be 

 ready to report by tomorrow morning, 

 as follows: Jacob HufEman, of Wis- 

 consin; Louis C. Dadant and R. W. L. 

 Boyden, of Illinois. 



Secretary Moore then read letters 

 from bee-keepers who could not be 

 present, expressing their regret over 

 their enforced absence. 



TIhe question-box was then taken up. 



Swarm Control. 



"Who ihas tried the Alexander meth- 

 od of swarm control, and with what 

 success?" 



Dr. Miller — Possibly, by that is 

 meant the Alexander method of in- 

 crease; it might be called that as well 

 as swarm control. I am not so sure, 

 but the one thing that Mr. Alexander 

 has that especially belongs to Ihim, is 

 the taking of an upper story and put- 

 ting all the brood in tlhat above an 

 excluder, leaving it there for about ten 

 days, and then taking the brood away 

 and using it elsewhere. 



Mr. HufEman — That method, I think 

 Mr. Allen, of Wisconsin, has tried 

 pretty tihoroughly, and he says it has 

 proved a success — putting the brood 

 above and the queen below the ex- 

 cluder — and he has no swarms to 

 speak of. 



Dr. Miller — Just as has been said 

 now, that is, perhaps, a ilittle different 

 thing, and, really, that is the Demaree 

 plan of prevention of swarming, given 

 a great many years ago. Put the 

 brood all over an excluder, and allow 

 the brood to hatch out there. For 

 years I tlhougttit there would never be 

 a case of swarming with that, but 

 some have had swarming with it. 



When working for extracted honey, the 

 plan is an execellent one, because you 

 have your force all kept together; but 

 it does not work so well for comb 

 honey, because you are sure to have 

 those up-stairs combs filled with honey, 

 and you don't want tlhat. 



Mr. Cavanaglh — That plan works all* 

 right, if you want to prevent swarm- 

 ing, but there is another feature that 

 is not so good, and unless you give 

 something to start the brood below, a 

 great many of those queens will turn 

 up missing. I have lost several 

 queens. with the Demaree plan. 



Dr. Mililer — ^Have you tried it with 

 hiving on one frajne of brood? 



Mr. Cavanagh — ^Yes; tlhat works aJl 

 right, but on just empty combs it does 

 not work so well. 



Mr. Hall — ^I tlhink that is a splendid 

 way to keep the foul brood in opera- 

 tion; it will keep it going nicley. if 

 you do that. 



Dr. Miller — Without any chance for 

 argument on that, I wili say I don't 

 agree with him at all. 



A Member — Amen! 



Mr. Hall — My bees have had foul 

 brood, and I failed to cure it, if I had 

 any combs left with the least bit of 

 foul brood in, by putting the queen be- 

 low. 



Mr. Cavanagh — He has anticipated 

 what I was working at. I found it 

 would not work along that line, either. 

 We were talking about prevention of 

 swarming. It will not kill European 

 foul brood when the disease is abive 

 the excluder. 



Prospect for White Clover. 



"Is the prospect good for a clover 

 honey crop in 1910?" 



President York — ^How many think it 

 is — raise your hands? (14.) 



Dr. Miller — How do they know? 



Mr. Thompson — Well, for one reason, 

 the ground being well filled with 

 water, the clover is in fine condition 

 to winter, and the prospect is very 

 favorable ; that is all we have to look 

 at at the present time. 



Mr. OfEner — There is lots of sweet 

 clover around our place; last summer 

 the fields were just covered with it. 



President York — I suppose, referring 

 to clover here, means white clover; 

 but it would be all right to mention 

 the other, also. 



Mr. HufEman — The question is a 

 .very hard one to answer. You can pass 

 your opinion on the present condition. 



