41st YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL,, MAY 16, 1901, 



No, 20, 



\ ^ Editorial. ^ \ 



Heavy Rains in California the last 

 week in April give almost positive assurance 

 of large crops. It seems that the rains were 

 iiuite general over the State, anj particularly 

 in the central and southern parts. Mr. W. A. 

 Pryal, of Alameda Co., has kindly sent us 

 clippings from local daily newspapers which 

 speak almost gleefully over the hopeful pros- 

 pects for farmers of the State. This, of 

 course, means much for the bee-keepers as 

 well. 



But what if Old California should come up 

 to her old-time record as a honey-producing 

 State this year ? And if all the rest of the 

 country should also have a large honey crop, 

 this whole nation ought to be well sweetened. 

 And yet, unless there is a proper distribution 

 of the crop of honey, there will be glutted 

 njarkets and losing prices. There ought to 

 be something done to handle the crop in a 

 manner that will realize to the producers fair 

 and just prices for their honey product. And 

 now is the time to think about this subject — 

 before the crop is ready to market, and not 

 ajterwaril, when it is too late. 



Buckwheat Comb Honey, according 

 to Henry Segelken, of Hildrethtt Segelken, in 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture, is in so much 

 greater demand than extracted buckwheat 

 that it would be well for producers to change 

 from extracted to comb. 



Queen-Rearing is discussed by L. Stach- 

 elhausen in a very able article in Die Deutsche 

 Bienenzucht. His manner of securing the 

 work of queenless bees seems especially com- 

 mendable. On one of his strongest colonies 

 (several such colonies may be used) he places 

 an excluder, and over this a hive-body in which 

 he puts four or live frames of brood from 

 other colonies, filling up with empty combs. 

 In eight or nine days nearly all the brood in 

 this upper story will be sealed, and a large 

 number of young bees will have emerged. At 

 this time, in the afternoon, he takes out one 

 of the broodless combs, and moves the frames 

 in this upper story so that a vacant space shall 

 be left in the center, in which a frame may 

 afterwerd be hung. This upper story is then 

 moved bodily to a new stand. So large a pro- 

 portion of the bees being young, few will re- 

 turn to the old stand, and in the evening they 

 will show full signs of qucenlessness, when 

 the frame with prepared cells is carefully 

 pushed down into the vacant space with full 



expectation that prompt work will be started 

 to rear queens, and that they will be found 

 well under way the next morning. This hive, 

 with its contents, can now be returned and 

 jilaced over the excluder from which it was 

 taken, when the cells will continue to com- 

 pletion. 



Editor Pender, of the Australasian Bee- 

 Keeper, makes a practical point by saying 

 that when he takes the frame of prepared cells 

 from the queenless bees (which he says need 

 onlj' two hours to give the cells a good start) 

 he makes sure to take with the frame all the 

 adhering bees, and puts this frame in an 

 upper story over an excluder, between two 

 frames of young brood placed there at least a 

 day before. He says: 



I do not disturb the bees on the cups any 

 more than I can help when, carrying them to 

 the upper story. I want the work to go on 

 without any check. If I had removed those 

 bees hanging on the frame and put the frame 

 into the super without any bees, it would be 

 some time before the bees in hive ~ would find 

 the started cells, because the hive is not over- 

 crowded, but by taking thecUnging bees, too, 

 the building of the cells goes on as if the 

 change had not been made, and the bees in 

 the super soon assist in making the cells per- 

 fect. 



Time for Development of a Queen. — 



In the Australian Bee-BuUetln Mr. Doolitt'le 

 is credited with saying that from the laying 

 of the egg to emerging from the cell the 

 queen requires 15 days. It is doubtful that 

 Mr. Doolittle would be willing to father that 

 statement, altho there is some good authority 

 for it. In the past 40 years there has been a 

 material shortening of the time taught. In 

 the first volume of this journal, in the year 

 1861, between 1? and IS days was given as the 

 right time. At the present day, some say 15, 

 some 16. The 1? to 18 days formerly taught 

 was probably true for a weak nucleus, and 15 

 may be the normal time for a strong colony. 



Shipping Drone-Eggs by Mail.— One 

 difficulty in the way of rearing queens early 

 at the North is that early drones can not be 

 secured. " Swarthniore," in the Rocky 

 Mountain Bee Journal, tells how he has over- 

 come this difficulty. By way of caution it 

 may be said that even if drones were plenty it 

 remains to be proven that good queens can be 

 reared ahead of their usual time. "Swarth- 

 more " says in part: 



Last season I was prompted to do some ex- 

 perimenting with ilione-eggs, sent to me from 

 many distant points by post, and the result 

 was so highly satisfactory that I hasten to 

 give the long-sulferiug Northerner the benefit 

 of these experiments. 



A number of Imtihes of fresh-laid drone- 

 eggs, in dry comb, were forwarded to me by 

 mail nii'ely packed in tissue paper and en- 

 closed in 4'4X4|4 section-boxes. 



Immediatelj" on receipt of these bits of 

 drone-comb they were fitted into frames and 

 placed in the center of the brood-nest of a 

 strong colony previously made queenless for 

 the occasion. 



Very few of these eggs were removed by 

 the bees, and the number of dislodgments in 

 transit was hardly worth mentioning. 



The queenless bees readily accept these 

 drone-eggs, and each and every one will be 

 properly cared for, reared and sent forth in 

 handsome, healthy, flying drones long before 

 any other colony in the yard has given a 

 thought to drones or the need of them. 



Thus the Northern breeder may gain from 

 six to eight weeks' time in getting under way 

 with his breeding operations for the season, 

 and as soon as the traflic is well understood by 

 both shipper and receiver, I warrant both will 

 wonder why they did not do the simple thing 

 many years ago. 



3Iust Bait Sections be Cleaned in 



the fall by the bees J A discussion in one of 

 the foreign bee-journals as to whether it was 

 best to put away extracting-combs in the fall 

 without first having them licked out by the 

 bees showed a division of opinion and prac- 

 tice. The claim was made that if the combs 

 were left wet there was danger that the small 

 quantity of comb left would sour. On the 

 other hand, it was urged that giving back the 

 combs in the fall was likely to induce robbing, 

 and that worms were not likely to trouble the 

 wet combs so much as the dry ones. Strangely 

 enough, little or nothing was said about the 

 chief objection urged in this country — the 

 effect of the granules of honey inducing 

 granulation in the fresh honej' stored in the 

 cells. 



It has been held that the need for fall clean- 

 ing by the bees was more urgent in the case 

 of sections than extracting-combs. But (i. M. 

 Doolittle comes forward in Gleanings in Bee- 

 Culture and stoutly asserts that it is all a mis- 

 take to suppose that honey left in bait-combs 

 will granulate any quicker than it would have 

 done if the sections had been full. He claims 

 as good results by using baits that have not 

 been cleaned out by the bees in the fall. Sev- 

 eral others have reported, some on one 

 side and some on the other. So far from 

 agreeing with Mr. Doolittle, Mrs. A. .1. Barber 

 reports that even when cleaned out by the 

 bees, her bait-sections are very slow in being 

 sealed. Others say that bait-sections when 

 properly cleaned out in the fall by the bees 

 and used the following summer are the first 

 to be sealed. A call for more reports is made, 

 and the end is not yet. 



" The Wax from the Cappings of a 



ton of boni-y I find to be usually about :.'5 

 pounds; when all completely cajiped, about 

 HI) pounds." So says R. Beuhne, in the Aus- 

 tralian Bee-BuUetln. 



