204 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



unusual season, for the bees got pollen 

 the same day that they were set out of 

 the cellar, but the imported breeding- 

 queen direct from Italy that I received 

 June 7. 1909, has less than one-half as 

 much brood; so much for selecting and 

 breeding. 



ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS FOR A BETTER STRAIN. 



I will repeat what Editor Hutchinson 

 says in Gleanings, 1 will gladly give $100 

 for a queen superior to my stock. Let's 

 figure just a little bit on that one hundred 

 dollars for a queen: As 1 have nearly 

 400 colonies, say that they give me five 

 pounds more per colony; that would not 

 be much for one colony, but figure it on 

 even SOO colonies, that would be 1,500 

 pounds. Would not that pay for that 

 queen the first season and give me a 

 good profit besides? 1 will say that 



when you take this up in earnest you 

 will not stop at any price. 



I clip every queen, so as to know that 

 if I find any queen with wings that she 

 has been superceded. I do not see how 

 any one could swear that a queen had 

 lived so long, unless she had been clipped. 

 I know my queens better than most 

 farmers know their cows, yet I clip them 

 to make sure that I know what that 

 queen has done. I replace all queens 

 in my home-yard, where 1 rear and mate 

 all my queens, that I do not know their 

 pedigree. 1 clip the right wing in even 

 years and the left wing in odd years. 

 1 number all my queens, and that num- 

 ber follows each queen as long as she 

 lives. Thoroughness and persistency are 

 the price of success. 



Black River, N. Y., April 16, 1910. 



Cappings-Melters not Suitable for Out- Apiaries. 

 The Proper Place for their Use. 



E. D. TOWNSEND. 



UJHE cappi ngs 

 T melter for out- 

 yard work has not 

 been very much of 

 a success with us. 

 The two we have 

 used did their work 

 very well, but were 

 of too small capac- 

 ity. Even were 

 their capacity of 

 2,000 or 3,000 pounds daily, so they 

 would handle all the cappings that were 

 required of them, there is still tha' about 

 them requiring too much work, for the 

 results obtained. To illustrate: At two 

 of our out-yards, water for use is drawn 

 in 60-pound cans. This taking water to 

 the out-yards with which to run the 

 melter is not such a very serious matter, 

 but it is something: then there is the 



gasoline. One afternoon we burned all 

 of the gasoline we had with us, so had 

 to quit extracting earlier than usual. 

 The most serious drawback, however, in 

 using the melter at out-yards, is the 

 getting started in the morning. It takes 

 an hour or more to heat up the melter, 

 and get ready to begin work, using cold 

 water, as we have to in this case. 

 Then all burners on the gasoline stoves 

 do not work as well as we would like 

 them too. With the two melters we have 

 used, two burners were necessary to 

 keep them going, so as to accomplish 

 anything. Besides this, there was a 

 third burner with a teakettle of water 

 heating to fill the melter tank as the 

 water boiled away. There is much more 

 slum-gum in cappings than is generally 

 supposed; and the melter has to be 

 cleaned of this, once or twice a day. To 



