318 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



ical preparation which can be applied 

 to the back of a young queen before she 

 is introduced to a stock and which will 

 leave such a plain and indelible mark 

 upon her that she can be afterwards 

 readily found. There are several prep- 

 arations which will mark, without harm, 

 animals, not excluding human beings, 

 and I should certainly think there is 

 something that can be as well applied 

 to bees — only it has to be found. Per- 

 haps some of our chemist bee-keepers 

 will be so kind as to bring their knowl- 

 edge to bear upon this problem, the so- 

 lution of which will be a boon to their 

 fellow honey-growers." 



Quarantine Stations. 



After telling at length the difficulties 

 he has in getting small bee-keepers to 

 properly treat their diseased colonies 

 for foul brood, David Chalmers advo- 

 cates in the Canadian Bee Journal quar- 

 antine stations as follows : 



To overcome these and other dangers, 

 I have for some years been an advocate 

 of "quarantine" stations, say one in each 

 township or district, where diseased bees 

 could be treated b}' competent persons. 

 Last winter I hammered away at Mr. 

 Hodgetts and Mr. Pettit, asking them to 

 let some of us try if, and I might say I 

 almost gained their consent. The latter, 

 however, writing on January 24th, 

 stated that ''beees cannot be quarantined 

 in the same sense as animals," and went 

 on further to state that "he considered 

 quarantine stations would be a menace 

 to the apiaries in the "neighborhood." 

 As far a.s I am concerned, a quarantine 

 station may be established across the 

 street from my apiary, provided it is run 

 during June and July. There would be, 

 however, no need of locating a station 

 so close to any apiary. Why not adver- 

 tise a demonstration to be held at a cer- 

 tain place on a stated day, convenient to 

 a railroad depot and an hotel ; have the 

 bees in a given radius inspected before 

 this comes off. and the diseased ones, 

 together with one or more box hives, or 

 hives of any kind, with fixed combs, 

 carted to said station by the owner 

 at his or her expense, i. e., give 

 the ow-ncr of diseased bees the choice of 

 carting their bees thither and home again 

 when cured, as well as paying the cost 

 of curing, if any, or having them burned 

 up on the spot. Then we would know 

 just what we were doing. 



The Marketing Problem. 



It seems that Ireland, as well as Eng- 

 land, has had a bumper crop of honey 

 this year, and now doesn't know what ta 

 do with it. A little organized effort, 

 brothers, will do wonders in developing 

 a marketing system. When we remem- 

 ber that probably not more than one out 

 of fifty producers are salesmen, we can 

 hardly expect the best prices so long as 

 each is trying to do his own marketing 

 irrespective of the others. Read what 

 the Editor of Tlie Irish Bee Journal has 

 to say : 



The letter from !\Iiss S., Essex (page 

 89) and our comments thereon last 

 month, have brought us many commun- 

 cations from aggrieved honey producers. 

 These all admit that they have had a 

 bumper season, but they are up against 

 the marketing problem, and most of 

 them are at a loss to know what to do 

 with their bumps. The Devonshire cot- 

 tager, who made £2, 18. 4d per hive, but 

 had to sell at 7d. per I'b, has many com- 

 panions in misfortune. A beginner, wha 

 started with a cheap stock this year, 

 tells us that he is disappointed w'ith his 

 profits ; he took off six crates of sec- 

 tions, gave away four and sold two ; net 

 results 24/6. That is sad. Yet if he 

 gives away his milk and calves also, 

 stock raising will pay him no bettter 

 than beekeeping. There is no satisfying 

 some folk. We like the man with the 

 wooden leg who daily congratulates 

 himself upon the fact that since his ac- 

 cident he has fewer corns to pare. Life 

 is made up of compensations. 



Introducing Queens Without Des- 

 troying Cells. 



For years we have been taught to de- 

 stroy all queen cells before attempting- 

 to introduce queens. J. L. Byer tells 

 us in the Canadian Bee Journal that for 

 years he thought the same, Init now he 

 says : 



As to tearing out all cells before al- 

 lowing the queen her liberty, up till this, 

 fall I fully believed in the necessity of 

 such a method of procedure, but at the 

 present am more than sceptical as to its 

 Ijeing the best thing to do. If bees are 

 inclined to rob, certainlv leave the cells. 



