A Happy New Year to all Our Readers, 



41st YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ELL, DECEMBER 26,1901, 



No. 52. 



i * Editorial. ^ I 



The Annual Index will be found in 

 this issue of the American Bee Journal. As 

 many readers preserve everj- number, the 

 index will be found a very valuable thing. 

 In tact, if there were nothing else in this copy 

 but the index, it would still be worth a good 

 deal, as it shows the wide range of apiarian 

 subjects treated in a single year. 



Breeding from the Best has been the 

 motto for so long a time, that when F. B. 

 Simpson advocated in the Bee-Keepers' Re- 

 view that a queen of very exceptional quali- 

 ties being in the nature of a freak could not 

 be relied upon to reproduce herself, therefore 

 it was better to breed from a queen whose 

 progeny were only a little above the average 

 as to results, but showing greater constancy 

 in her royal progeny — when Mr. Simpson 

 advocated this doctrine, it seemed a little like 

 the explosion of a bomb-shell. No one has 

 proved that Mr. Simpson's position is wrong, 

 and yet the fact remains that good results 

 have been obtained — or at least seem to have 

 been obtained — by following the old rule, to 

 breed from the best. 



Mr. Doolittle says in Gleanings in Bee-Cul- 

 ture that he has followed that rule for 30 

 years — breeding always from the queen that 

 gave workers most valuable in bringing in 

 nectar from the fields, rather than from those 

 of the most uniform markings or purity, 

 mentioning especially one remarkable freak 

 from which he reared nearly all of his queens 

 as long as she lived. Not only has his aver- 

 age yield per colony increased, but the uni- 

 formity of yield from his colonies has been 

 constantly on the increase. 



Comb Honey by the Case. — On another 

 page, Mr. D. W. Working, the secretary of 

 the Colorado Bee-Keepers' Association, has a 

 reply to both the recent article by K. A. Bur- 

 nett & Co. and our editorial on the same 

 subject. 



We fail to see how Mr. Working can expect 

 to convince any one that it is a fair way to 

 Sill honey at wholesale by the case — simply 

 lump it otr — instead of by weight. We wonder 

 if he'd like to buy coal in that way — by the 

 box full— may be box even full and shaken 

 down, and may be not. 



It is certainly more nearly fair to retail 

 sections of honey by the piece than to whole- 

 sale it by the case (no weighing being done 

 in either), for the consumer, if he thinks he 



is not getting enough for his money, can 

 have his grocer weigh it right before him. 

 But the wholesaler has not that advantage 

 when buying by the case at a distance. 



Tes, sir; it was "quite fair'' touse the.?400 

 illustration we did. The dealer in question 

 was not guilty of any " smart dealing." But 

 the people from whom he bought that par- 

 ticular car-load of honey simply euchred 

 themselves out of .5400 by not selling their 

 honey by weight instead of by the case. 

 Surely, any one, if he desires to do so, can see 

 the point in our illustration. The only fair 

 way, as we see it, to all concerned, is to sell 

 honey by weight, and not lump it off by the 

 case. The wholesale buyer will sell by 

 weight to the retail grocers, then why 

 shouldn't he (the wholesale buyer) buy by 

 weight ? 



What reasonable objection can there be to 

 selling honey by weight ? We know of none. 



Later. — One of our good Colorado sul> 

 scribers seems to be quite upset over this 

 matter, and, in fact, becomes somewhat per- 

 sonal and sarcastic in a private letter. He 

 seems to think that we were the ones who 

 made that .*400. Not at all. We never 

 handled any honey by the case, except about 

 a halt car-load, and that was sold at the same 

 price we paid for it — was sold before it was 

 shipped, as we didn't care for it ourselves. 

 We don't care to buy or sell honey by the 

 case, as we don't think it is the correct 

 method, with all due deference to our Col- 

 orado friends, aad others who sell by the case. 



We could give some more good illustrations 

 on this subject, but think it unnecessary just 



now. 



♦- 



The Cost of Orones is considerable. 

 Dr. Bachner estimates that 1000 dones con- 

 sume a little more than 4 ounces daily. A 

 Straw in Glearings in Bee-Culture says- 



" That means that the drones reared in 28 

 square inches of comb will, in five weeks, con- 

 sume about '.) pounds of honey.'" 



But the Straw man estimates only a single 

 generation of drones, whereas there may be 

 two or more generations, although all the 

 drones are not allowed to live five weeks. A 

 considerable amount of honey should also be 

 figured in what is used to feed the drone- 

 brood. 



■* — ■ 



Injury to Queens in the Mail is a 



subject of some discussion In Gleanings in 

 Bee-Culture. Two of the somewhat numer- 

 ous Miller family are not in entire accord as 

 to the reason why it is that after a queen has 

 been sent through the mail she will some- 

 times "go bad.'' although having been all 

 right before being mailed. Arthur C. Miller 



says the trouble is that the cincen has suflered 

 for want of proper nourishment. He says : 



Remember that a queen in the full exercise 

 of her functions is developing two and a half 

 times her own weight of eggs every 24 hours. 

 It is not the sudden taking of the queen from 

 a place in which to deposit her eggs that in- 

 jures (for she can and will continue to ex- 

 trude them as they develop), but it Is the 

 lack of sutHcient proper food to restore the 

 drain on her system. If such food is not 

 available in sufficient quantity, she starves, 

 and on the duration of such starvation 

 depends the extent of injury to her vitality. 

 Knowing these things, and knowing that 

 a queen free in her hive can ask and obtain 

 food from thousands of bees, is it irrational 

 to believe and assert that she must suffer 

 when compelled to depend on tweloe bees, only 

 a few of which may be able to supply her 

 needs * These statements may be readily 

 verilied by any one who cares to take the 

 necessary pains. 



Dr. C. C. Miller thinks that when a queen 

 hea%'y with eggs is put in the mails, her great 

 weight is such that she can not hold on to 

 her place, and is injured by severe concus- 

 sions. He suggests the advisability of caging 

 a queen 24 hours before mailing, so that she 

 will not be so heavy. 



Whichever one is right, or even if both are 

 right, might not the previous caging be a 

 good thing ? If the trouble comes from star- 

 vation, because the queen demands such a 

 large quantity of food, certainly the caging 

 ought to help, for after 24 hours cessation of 

 laying she would not demand so much food. 



Educating Tastes in Animals. — At 



the Chicago convention there was a decided 

 difference of opinion as to the liking of stock 

 for sweet clover, some saying that cattle 

 would not eat it, and others saying they 

 would eat it greedily. Both were no dqnbt 

 correct, the fact being that there is more 

 than is generally supposed in the matter of 

 having the taste educated. With no thought 

 of reference to sweet clover, A. I. Root, in 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture, tells about poultry 

 having educated tastes, so that they greedily 

 ate raw beans. 



It is also said that Texas cattle that have 

 never eaten corn will refuse to eat it at first. 

 It is well known that cows in a state of 

 naiure are quite dainty in their tastes, yet the 

 family bossy may be trained to eat almost 

 anything, including dishwater. If sweet 

 clover hay be fed dry, it will in many cases 

 be accepted more readily than the green fod- 

 der, and perhaps in all cases a little persis- 

 tence may succeed in having stock eat sweet 

 clover either green or dry. 



The Ijaws of Breeding, it is pretty 

 safe to say, have never before had the atten- 

 tion they are having from Ijee-keepers and 



