June 20, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



391 



to be said on that subject; but if there is enough interest 

 to start one in Wisconsin, there will then be time enoug^h 

 for plans of organization. Richland Co., Wis. 



Can a Queen-Bee Be Worth $30, $100, $300, 

 or $1,000? 



BY G. M. DOOI.ITTLE. 



OF late years there seems to have sprung-, from the minds 

 of some, the idea that if they would let the world 

 know about a certain queen-bee which they have, the 

 only way in which this can be done is to give the estimate 

 they place on her in dollars and cents, that, apparently, 

 being their highest idea of expressing value. And from 

 this it comes about, that we frequently see in print that 

 some have queens which they value at $25, $50, $100, and 

 some even as high as $200 ; and so the question has arisen 

 in the minds of some, if there is such a thing possible as 

 that any queen-bee can be worth these figures ; and 

 whether such expression should be an inducement to buy- 

 ers. 



Commenting on this matter, the editor of the American 

 Bee-Keeper wrote as follows : 



" When a queen-breeder offers as his greatest inducement to buy- 

 ers to send out queens from a mother valued at .51*, 100, 200, .500 or 

 1,000 dollars, he should be rej^arded with suspicion. If he is not a 

 fakir pure and simple, he is not what he appears to be in the eyes of 

 the honest business world." 



And what is a fakir? The Students' Standard diction- 

 ary says a fakir is " a street vender." But coupled with 

 this is the idea, in the minds of most people, that this street 

 vender does not scruple about recommending his goods in 

 such a way, or in any way, which will enable him to dis- 

 pose of them at a large margin of profit, relying on his 

 ability to " hawk them up," rather than on the real value or 

 merit there is in his goods, in proportion to the price asked 

 for them. And this is the light in which the editor of the 

 American Bee-Keeper looked at the matter of selling 

 queens from a mother having only a dollar-and-cent value 

 attached to her, according to my opinion, in reading that 

 editorial. There is no value in a dollar. It is only a 

 medium by which we can exchange values. 



Commenting on this editorial from the American Bee- 

 Keeper, Gleanings says among other things ; 



" Suppose at the beginning of the season some one should say to 

 him [having a queen valued at from S200 to $1,000], ■ I'll give you $50 

 for that queen.' He might reply, ' I'll get §1.00 extra on each queen 

 of that stock. I expect to sell 1000 queens this season at that 

 advanced price. It I hold on to her I shall be worth $1,000 more at 

 the end of the season than to let her go and breed from another queen. 

 I should be foolish to take ^50 now for the prospect of .?1.000 at the 

 end of the season.' '' 



If we take that comment alone, it is just such an argu- 

 ment as any fakir would use, and it was just the point Edi- 

 tor Hill was striking at, if I read his editorial aright. And 

 such an argument does not rise much above the definition 

 of what a " fakir " is, as given in that same editorial in 

 Gleanings. 



But, happily, Mr. Root comes to the rescue near the 

 close of his comments where he says : 



'' The laurels of our [$300] breeder do not rest solely on the long 

 tongues of her bees. But long tongues or no long tongues, she [her 

 bees] rolled in the honey last year, and is doing the same thing this 

 spring in a way that eclipses everything else in the yard." 



In this we have something of value expressed, while 

 the simple saying that this queen "is worth $200," without 

 any qualification, (save that, because she has been 

 "hawked" upas worth $200, "I can sell $1,000 worth of 

 queens from her "), expresses no value, save that which 

 comes from the wear and tear of the lungs doing the hawk- 

 ing. 



But let us take this value part and look at it a little, 

 and see if it is possible for a fine breeding queen to produce 

 value enough, (that may be exchanged for other vaUiesi, 

 which can be represented in terms as high as $50, $100, 

 $500 or $1,000. 



CZ) Take a queen in any of our apiaries which gives bees 

 that do as Mr. Root says do the bees from his " breeder," 

 and if they store 10 pounds more honey than do other colo- 

 nies having common queens, that extra 10 pounds of honey, 

 according to present prices, would represent $1.25 as food, 

 or to exchange for value some one in some other calling 

 may have produced, which we desire. Then, if that quccu 

 lives three years, her bees do equally as well each year. 



then she has a value, speaking in common terms, of S3. 75, 

 over and above the average iiueen in the apiary. If the 

 average queen is worth SI. 00 at producing values, then this 

 queen is worth S4.75 for the real value of her bees, just for 

 honey-gathering. So, then, we have it possible that a 

 queen may approach nearly or quite to the $5.00 point of 

 value, just from the honey her bees may gather. 



Now let us suppose that we use this queen for the pur- 

 pose of rearing other queens, that we may increase on the 

 value there is in her bees over and above others for honey- 

 gathering purposes. And to be fair we will say, (accord- 

 ing to the way I find it in my apiary), only one queen 

 in four will prove as good as her mother. If we rear 40 

 queens from this one, and 10 of them prove of equal 

 superiority over the average queens in our apiary, as did 

 their mother, we have the value of that mother-queen esti- 

 mated in dollars and cents as $37.50. Now suppose we 

 have 4,000 colonies we wish to requeen, (or we go out into 

 the world to bless it with that number), and one out of 

 every four proves as good as the mother, then we have 

 $3,750 as the worth of that queen, from the extra value in 

 honey the bees from her daughters bring in for the mouths 

 of those famishing with "honey-hunger" in the world. 



But can 4,000 queens be reared from a single mother ? 

 Oh, yes. With our present methods of queen-rearing, it 

 would be easy for some of our largest breeders to rear 

 10,000 or even 20,000 queens from a single mother. Then it 

 is possible, by keeping this mother-queen in a nucleus of 

 bees the most of the time, to prolong her life to five, and 

 even six, years, as some of our breeders can testify. And 

 thus it will be seen that the value there is in a really good 

 queen — one that is head and shoulders above the average of 

 those in the country — may go even much above $l,tOO, as 

 we commonly express ourselves. 



But not to appear as a fakir, we should know that the 

 queen has real value in the work accomplished by her bees 

 and those from her queen daughters, putting that work out 

 to the world as her real worth, rather than saying that " we 

 value her at so many dollars." Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



The Afterthought. * \ 



'Old Reliable" seen through New and Unreliable Glasses. 

 By e. E. HASTY, Sta. B Rural, Toledo, O. 



BEES AND PEAR-BLIGHT. 



That the bee might have carried the blight 

 Is a doctrine that some will indorse ; 



But between " might " and •' did " 



Quite a chasm lies hid. 

 The saint migld have stolen a horse. — Page 294. 



RUBBING A STING OFF QUICKLY. 



I think Dr. Miller deserves credit for telling a questioner, 

 297, to dash out a sting instanter by striking the spot against 

 the leg with a sliding motion. By not pinching the poison- 

 bag, according to the directions usually given to beginners in 

 the art of getting stung, one saves a little (imaginably) on the 

 amount of poison received. But he gets a .jolly increase of 

 the amount by the time which following directions inevitably 

 consumes. The sting, it should be remembered, is built on 

 the model of a fire-engine, and keeps squirting as long as 

 there is anything to squirt. And when there isn't anything 

 more to squirt, why, then, what profit can there be either in 

 baste or in methods of removal ? People who remember and 

 try to obey the injunction to remove a sting speedily, and to 

 do it with a sharp knife-edge, I think they generally do so 

 long after it is too late to gain anything by so doing. 



ATTRACTIVE API.^RIES. 



"The Home Circle," on page 298, suggests among other 

 things this inquiry : How much pains would I take to have 

 my apiary looli nice if it stood so isolated that I was sure no 

 Qne but myself would look upon it? If my power of accom- 

 plishment is small, and every day finds me compelled to choose 

 between several things whicli seemingly must be done, and 

 the one which " must be done" the most, well, then the mere 

 looks of the apiary will probably "get left." But we will 

 suppose tlie conditions are not tjuite so trying as that. For 

 our own sokes we should cherisli .ind keep alive the capacity 

 to take real pleasure and comfort from having our things look 



