1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



66,'^ 



I acquired this knowledge without expect- 

 ing ever to make any practical use of it; but 

 now when I open one of my queen-raising 

 nuclei, in which I have previously placed 

 an unprotected cell to hatch, and find a hole 

 cut in the side of it. I do not close it at once 

 and mark it for a nev,' cell, for I know that 

 the virgin may have hatched and cut the 

 hole in the side later, and the bees for their 

 part may have stuck the little swinging 

 door back; so it does not show that the 

 queen ever cut her own way out. With a 

 penknife it is an easy matter to determine 

 whether or not this is the case. If the cell 

 is solid and tough on the point, no time 

 need be wasted hunting for that virgin. 

 She has been dragged out dead through the 

 side opening; but if the little door opens 

 when you pick at it you can bet that the 

 queen got out all right. So much for know- 

 ing the habits of virgins, but that is not all. 



One day I opened a hive to see if the bees 

 had released a queen I was giving them in 

 an introducing-cage. They had not releas- 

 ed her, and she was nearly dead. I tried to 

 feed her honey on the end of a straw, but 

 she barely tasted it and crept away. She 

 was a fine queen. I hated to lose her, and 

 I did not lose her. I bethought me that the 

 young queens liked royal jelly better than 

 honey, and decided to try it on her as a 

 stimulative food. It worked like magic. 

 No sooner had I offered it to her than she 

 began to lick it up eagerly. She ate a quan- 

 tity equal in size to half a grain of wheat, 

 and in half an hour she was quite lively. I 

 then introduced her successfully to another 

 colony. Afterward I tried the plan again 

 with some success. If you have a fine queen 

 arrive half dead in the mail, try it. 



DOES THE FIRST HATCHED TEAR DOWN THE 

 OTHER CELLS? , 



One more thing about queens cutting open 

 queen-cells. On page il9 Mr. Holtermann 

 raises the question as to whether or not the 

 first virgin ever cuts open the other cells 

 from which a rival queen might come. I 

 have seen just one case where the evidence 

 would convict the virgin queen beyond a 

 doubt. One boiling-hot day this summer a 

 young man by the name of Wayne, who 

 has worked for us this season, sat with me 

 for three-quarters of an hour right out in 

 the sun while our dinner was waiting for us 

 three miles away, and watched a virgin cut 

 open a queen-cell from the beginning to the 

 point where she could get her head in to 

 bite the young queen. The workers stood 

 around and took no part whatever. I had 

 heard that the virgin cut a hole in the cell 

 and stung the young queen. This one 

 made no attempt to sting the victim, but 

 she went after her with her jaws as hard as 

 ever she could. 



Mesilla Park, N. M. 



My boy is in the bee business here. Two years 

 ago his bees averaged over 100 lbs. to the colony. 

 He moved most of them where fireweed was plenti- 

 ful. Last year they did not do so well. 



Gate, Wash., May 27. J. S. Blaik. 



WHAT SHOULD BE THE PRICE OF HONEY? 



The Cost of Production Should Not be Taken 

 into Consideration. 



BY OREL L. HERSHISER. 



Under the caption of "What is the Cost 

 of Honey to the Producer?" the subject of 

 "What should be the Price of Honey?" is 

 also discussed by Mr. F. L. Pollock, page 

 552, Sept. 1. 



Mr. Pollock certainly makes some start- 

 ling statements, and expresses himself as 

 being satisfied, as aj^pears from his discus- 

 sion, with a wholesale price of from 5 cts. 

 per pound for dark honey to 7 to 9}4 cts. for 

 light, deijending on the extent of the crop, 

 and as to whether there is a fall flow, the 

 fixing of such price being determined solely 

 by adding 20 per cent to the value of the 

 investment, including interest on capital, 

 owner's labor, maintenance of hor.se, and 

 miscellaneous, and dividing the total by 

 the number of pounds of honey produced. 



Mr. Pollock seems doubtful of the wisdom 

 of the publication of his doctrines, and well 

 he might be if there were any likelihood or 

 possibility of their adoption. Fortunately 

 such a scheme of making the price of honey 

 is impossible of accomplishing in a general 

 way. It is at once apparent that each indi- 

 vidual bee-keeper would have a jjrice of his 

 own as the result of the computation. The 

 labor account of different bee-keepers would 

 not always agree, for some opera" ors will 

 accomplish more in a given time than oth- 

 ers. The capital invested per colony va- 

 ries with difTerent bee-keepers, and some 

 have more expense in keeping up a horse 

 than others. Some have to hire horses. 

 Moreover, the keep of the horse varies in 

 different years according to the price of feed. 



Suppose an apiary of from 75 to 100 colo- 

 nies. The equipment for running the 

 smaller number of bees is certainly nearly 

 as great an expense as for running 200 colo- 

 nies, for nearly every item of expense in the 

 one outfit will be found in the other — the 

 difference of a little larger and more com- 

 plete equipment for the larger number be- 

 ing inconsequential, and not at all in pro- 

 portion to the greater number. < )n the oth- 

 er hand, the apiarist with from 350 to 400 

 colonies will have an expense account but 

 slightly larger for his greater number of col- 

 onies than the man with 200. It will cer- 

 tainly require a gi eater number of hours in 

 labor per colony for the season, to operate a 

 small than it does for a large number; and 

 if the bees are in out-apiaries the time re- 

 quired in going and coming would be the 

 same in one case as in the other. An ex- 

 amination of a few colonies in an apiary is 

 frequently all that is required to give an 

 idea as to the condition of all the others; 

 but such examination requires as much 

 time to show the condition of an apiary of 

 100 colonies as for one of 200. So it is plain- 

 ly apparent that the expense per colony is 

 greater for the smaller number. Mr. Pol- 



