February, 1908. 



American ^ee Journal 



to fall in line with "modern methods," 

 an-d stop this awful waste at once. 



Seriously speaking, I wonder if that 

 $25,000,000 worth of honey, is anything 

 near a correct estimate of the value of 

 a year's production of honey in the 

 United States. While the statement 

 seems to bear a semi-official stamp, yet 

 it is proverbial that reporters often take 

 liberties with figures, and as a rule are 

 inclined to exaggerate rather than un- 

 der estimate, especially so when any- 

 thing pertaining to bees is being writ- 

 ten up. If allowed to make a guess, I 

 would be inclined to think that in this 

 case there is no exaggeration, although 

 $25,000,000 at a wholesale price— say 7 

 cents — would represent about 360,000,- 



000 pounds^truly a lot of honey — but 

 divided among 700,000 bee-keepers, it 

 would mean only a little over 500 

 pounds each. 



As to the 150,000,000 pounds waste, 



1 hardly think that claim to be tenable, 

 as I believe there is no question, but 

 that only a very small percentage of the 

 bees in the United States and Canada 

 are run by out-of-date methods. Still, 

 the percentage may be much larger than 

 the writer is aware of, yet I know that 

 such is not the case as far as the Prov- 

 ince of Ontario is concerned. 



Bumble-Bees to the Philippines. 



From the same paper I clip the fol- 

 lowing, relative to the sending of bum- 

 ble-bees to the Philippine Islands : 



"The Indiana bees recently shipped 

 to the Philippine Islands by the Bureau 

 of Entomology' at Washington for the 

 purpose of fertilizing clover in that 

 country, were packed in small refrigera- 

 tor baskets and placed in cold storage as 

 soon as caught. They will be kept in 

 cold storage until they arrive in the 

 Philippines. Thus they were put to 

 sleep in Indiana and will wake up in 

 Manila." 



Earlier in the season the writer no- 

 ticed the Government's intention of 

 shipping these bees, and quite often 

 since, have I wondered as to the suc- 

 cess of the venture. Of course, it is 

 too soon to know as to the benefit the 

 bees will be to the clover, but judging 

 from New Zealand's experience, there 

 is not much likelihood of any disappoint- 

 ment. As is well known, previous to 

 introducing bumble-bees into New Zea- 

 land, it was impossible to raise any 

 clover seed, but now, thanks to the bees' 

 usefulness as pollinators, that country 

 can produce seed equal to any in the 

 world. _ 



Camiolau Bees. 



Perhaps no other prominent writer on 

 apiculture has given the Carniolan race 

 of bees as bad a name as has G. M. 

 Doolittle at different times. He even 

 condemns them as being slow to build 

 up in strength for the honey-flow, and 

 if there is any particular time when 

 these bees "shine," more than at other 

 times, it is in the matter of building 

 up strong in the early spring, regardless 

 of weather conditions. While I have 

 met quite a few extensive apiarists, who 

 did not like the Carniolans in some re- 

 spects, yet all were a unit in agreeing 

 that for building up in the spring they 



were without an equal. But according 

 to Mr. Doolittle's experience, these bees 

 have not a single redeeming trait, and 

 are "no good" in the strictest sense of 

 the phrase. 



Having for quite a few years past, 

 handled with pleasure and profit, a 

 goodly number of Carniolans and their 

 crosses, and knowing Mr. Doolittle's 

 opinions of them, I naturally concluded 

 that our Borodino friend had something 

 out of the ordinary in Italians, for, be 

 it understood, I have had at the same 

 time, Italians from some of America's 

 best queen-breeders, in the same }-ards 

 with the Carniolans. However, this 

 opinion of mine received a rude jolt, 

 when reading, on page 751, what Mr. 

 Doolittle has to say relative to how 

 his bees acted during the very trying 

 spring of 1907. He says : 



"The bees came out of the cellar in 

 fine condition, as good as I ever knew 

 them to do, but after a few warm days 

 it turned cold, and it kept that way till 

 near the middle of June, so that on June 

 10 — at a time when the hives should 

 have been full of bees and brood — 

 there was not a single colony that was 

 as good as it was the day it came from 

 the cellar, while many colonies were not 

 half as good." (Italics mine). 



We are somewhat further north than 

 Borodino, and I believe all Ontario bee- 

 keepers will bear testimony that our 

 spring weather was literally as described 

 by Mr. Doolittle; in fact, it was impos- 

 sible to get a day fit to open hives, 

 before the month of June. The result 

 was that when a few fine days came in 

 apple-bloom, which was abnormally late, 

 when we started to clip the queens, we 

 found about one-third of the colonies 

 with queen-cells started, and fully three- 

 fourths of the colonies literally jammed 



with brood and bees ; and this in hives 

 equal in capacity, to from 12 to 16 

 Langslroth frames. Instead of doubling 

 up weak colonies, it was a case of head- 

 ing off swarming by forming nuclei, 

 and a number of these same nuclei were 

 in grand condition for the honey-flow. 



Now all the attention these bees had 

 received throughout all the cold spring 

 weather was simply being left warmly 

 packed, with the knowledge that they 

 all had an abundance of stores to draw 

 upon. Although there were only about 

 half a dozen days that pollen came in, 

 yet the great quantity of honey that each 

 colony had, was literally turned into 

 brood and young bees before fruit- 

 bloom came on. 



But nearly all these colonies had a 

 dash of Carniolan blood in their make- 

 up. Nor was my own experience any 

 exception, for in visiting a great number 

 of apiaries on inspection work, when- 

 ever I found any Carniolans the fact 

 would be attested to by colonies over- 

 running with bees. No, I do not sell 

 queens, but if such were the case, I 

 would insist on giving a dozen to Mr. 

 Doolittle to show him what he has 

 missed in the past. 



By giving such expert attention, as 

 Mr. Doolittle is so exceedingly well 

 qualified to do, he was able to get from 

 each colony run for comb honey an 

 average of 61 pounds — this after doub- 

 ling up and otherwise manipulating a 

 lot of bees that by his own account 

 were in a miserable condition to take 

 advantage of a honey-flow. One can 

 not help but wonder, what might have 

 been the yield, if his bees had been at 

 least part Carniolans, and at the begin- 

 ning of fruit-bloom, boiling over, and 

 with "coats oflf," ready for anything 

 that might come along. 



Age of Queens and Super- 

 seding 



BY C. P. DAD.ANT. 



There has been considerable discus- 

 sion, from time to time, regarding the 

 length of life of queens, and the ad- 

 visability of superseding them artificial- 

 ly before they become too old. Some 

 recommend annual requeening, others at 

 the end of 2 years, others at 3, and 

 others still affirm that the bees attend 

 to this matter properly. 



The purpose of this article is to ex- 

 amine the different methods and opin- 

 ions of noted writers, which will help 

 in drawing conclusions. 



To get a very safe statement from 

 writers on bee-culture, it is best to go 

 to the text-books. Articles written for 

 the bee-papers give many new things 



but there is less guarded thought in con- 

 tributions to the press than in books, 

 for the reason that the writers of books 

 are aware of the permanency of such 

 works, and read and re-read their state- 

 ments before allowing them to go out 

 of their hands. Contributors to the 

 papers, on the other hand, are apt to 

 launch assertions that may prove incor- 

 rect. We see it daily. A very good 

 instance of it is to be found in one 

 of our bee-papers for January. A writer 

 having stated that beeswax to be di- 

 gested must "melt in the stomach," the 

 editor, who is on-e of our brightest men, 

 corrected him by saying that beeswax 

 melts at about 130 degrees, which is 

 much higher than the temperature of 

 the stomach. The fact is, that it is a 

 poor grade of paraffin which melts at 

 about 130 degrees, and that pure bees- 

 wax does not melt below 144, and is 



