November, 1913. 



381 



American Hee Journal 



)>=^^m^ '\ 



tage in taking honey in the winter, but 

 there are many disadvantages. For my 

 part I had rather take it in the sum- 

 mer, when the thermometer registers 

 100 or more degrees. 

 Pearsall, Tex. 



Does It Pay to Make a Honey 

 Exhibit at County Fairs ? 







BY J. H. BERRY. 



CTOBER, 1910, I made my first 

 exhibit at the Rogue River Valley 

 Fair at Grants Pass, Oreg. Be- 

 fore that I had a problem on my 

 hands. It was to know how to 



Italians there. I took first prize on 

 both, and on extracted and comb 

 honey, beeswax and honey vinegar. 

 All these things attract attention. 



I have 2.50 colonies of golden Italians 

 run for extracted honey. This has 

 been the poorest year we have had for 



years. I only got about three tons 

 of honey. The bees are left in fine 

 condition for winter. We never think 

 of feeding bees in Rogue River Valley. 



1 started with 15 colonies 5 years ago, 

 and made an average of 1.50 pounds of 

 honey for 3 years. Last year averaged 

 only 100 pounds. I am not yet through 

 extracting this year, so I cannot tell 

 what the average will be. My increase 

 has been made mostly by buying bees. 

 The .")-band goldens are not inclined to 



Mr. Berry and His Exhihit at the Rogie River Valley Fair. 



sell what little honey I had secured. 

 This solved it for me. Now I do not 

 have to advertise. The hard thing to 

 do now is to get honey to supply the 

 demand, and I even get orders from 

 California. I also exhibited golden 

 bees and sold a number of queens. 



The golden bee is the bee for me. 

 At the fair these bees were the most 

 attractive exhibit there was, and I 

 would have to close them up at times; 

 the eager folks would block the gang- 

 way so no one could pass. If you 

 have never tried such an experiment, 

 try it once. You will be surprised how 

 much attention you can attract by 

 making a fine exhibit at the fair. Be 

 sure you have a one-frame observation 

 hive, for that holds the crowd while 

 you show your nice honey. Even for 

 a local trade it pays big. 



I had $75 worth of honey in my ex- 

 hibit, and I would have been glad if it 

 had been $700 worth. I could have 

 sold it all. I had goldens and 3-band 



swarm, if they have room to store 

 honey. What I have of the -3-band 

 always swarm and do not gather as 

 much honey as the 5-band goldens. 



I cannot say anything about the win- 

 tering problem, as our winters do not 

 compare with Missouri or Illinois. Our 

 bees had a flight every week but two 

 last winter, and had some brood all 

 winter. On Jan. 30 they had 5 frames 

 over half full of sealed brood. 



I notice prospectors, who come to 

 visit this country, always follow the 

 Southern Pacific railroad through the 

 center of the Willamette Valley. This 

 is not the part for honey at all. Along 

 thr. Coast Range, on the side of the 

 mountains next to the coast, is the best. 

 There the honey is gathered from white 

 clover, maple and fireweed and wild 

 blackberry. All these produce white 

 honey. We get our honey here from 

 alfalfa, sweet clover, and pear and ap- 

 ple. The honey is of fine quality, but 

 it candies quickly. 



Central Point, Oreg. 



Why Do Drones Go With a 

 Swarm ? 



THAT article on page 318, by 

 Prof. Bigelow, is something out 

 of the ordinary, and has no doubt 

 been read with lively inierest by 

 others as well as myself. 1 can 

 but admire the courage ot a man who 

 is not afraid to risk his pate, as he ex- 

 presses It, by boldly attacking vener- 

 able traditions well established and 

 universally accepted. So he will not 

 feel disappointed if I attempt to voice 

 some ot the thoughts that may arise in 

 the minds ot many, albeit 1 am gen- 

 erally none too conservative as regards 

 the traditions in general. 



To the question, "' Why do drones 

 go with a bwarm ?'■ his answer is some- 

 thing like this : " With every swarm 

 there are always to be tound a number 

 of drones, anU there being no other 

 satislactory explanation lor their pres- 

 ence, 1 am led to believe that in every 

 swarm there are several virgin queens, 

 and the drones go with the swarm lor 

 the purpose ot mating with these vir- 

 gins 



I icel pretty sure that Prof. Bigelow 

 will take it good-naturedly if 1 squarely 

 take issue with him, and say 1 don't 

 believe there are several virgins in 

 every swarm. More than that, 1 don't 

 believe the majority of swarms have 

 several virgins in them. More than 

 that, 1 don't believe that in the major- 

 ity of swarms a single virgin is to be 

 found. Leaving the negative, let me 

 give my positive belief, a belief that I 

 think IS entirely in the line of accepted 

 traditions 



1 believe that in a prime swarm there 

 is no queen except the old laying 

 queen. In these days I think prime 

 swarms out-number the after-swarms, 

 and so I believe that in the majority 

 of cases no virgin is to be found in a 

 swarm. There may be rare cases in 

 which"something has happened to the 

 old queen, and so a virgin goes with 

 the first swarm, but whether that can 

 be properly called a prime swarm is a 

 question. I believe that in an after- 

 swarm there will be found a virgin, 

 and only one, unless it be the last 

 after-swarm. Of course, the first after- 

 swarm may be the last, but so long as 

 further swarming is contemplated the 

 rule of the bees, with possible excep- 

 tions, is that only a single virgin will 

 go with the swarm. 



At the very outset Prof. Bigelow 

 questions the teaching that " the old 

 queen leads the swarm and leaves in 

 the hive several unhatched queens that 

 will in the future emerge and provide 

 for the continuance of the colony." If 

 " the old queen leads the swarm " is to be 

 taken literally, Prof. Bigelow does well 

 to object. I have seen many a swarm 

 issue, and have seen many a queen is- 

 suing with a swarm, and never yet did 

 I see the queen issue in advance of a// 

 workers. She may come out after only 

 a few workers have issued, or she may 



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