GLEANINGS IN BEE CtTLTtTHE. 



WHAT IS A HIVIO OF Itl I s WOHTH! 



f r"-|WIi NOVICE why cannot we sell bees 

 iLZflUoo ? We liave been selling Hives, 

 Frames, Queens, and in fact almost everything 

 pertaining to Bee Culture except Bees. Now 

 \\e certainly have no objection to selling a 

 whole hive, bees and all, if they are willing to' 

 pay what they are worth tons. Now what is 

 a fair colony of Bees worth? That is, how 

 much shall 1 charge a friend of mine for one?" 



"Truly, the point you mention needs con- 

 sideration. If our bees are valuable to us 

 they would probably be so to others, and to 

 those who prefer buying a colony all in work- 

 ing order rather than to undertake the task 

 of transferring, Italianizing, etc., it certainly 

 is no more than proper that we should have 

 some kind of a regular valuation for them ; 

 but our queens — we dare not warrant them 

 pure, how about that ?" 



"Oh, we can make our estimate with 'dollar 

 queens' and then if the one under consideration 

 should have proved herself extra we can add a 

 proper amount for desirable qualities; Messrs. 

 Shaw & Son offer tested Queens for $2,50. and 

 should one have proved herself extra prolific 

 besides, estimate her at from $:J to $5,00. as the 

 case may lie." 



"Very well, then we have only to decide how 

 much a colony's bees, combs, and contents of 

 the combs are worth, and add them to the 

 value of Hive (one story) Quilt and Queen, 



and — here, give us a pencil, 



List three items, from our price list are 



worth $2.2.-) 



Ten frames of comb, metal corners and 



fair average of worker com!), each 



75c 7.50 



Four quails of Bees worth per quart 1.00. ..4.00 

 Pollen and brood etc. contained in comb 



say 2.2."» 



Total $16.00 



Should the queen prove equal to the task of 

 rearing three banded workers 'every time,' call 

 it about $18.00 and if extra prolific' $20.00 per- 

 haps. If in addition to all of these the hive 

 should contain sutlicent bees to occupy an up- 

 per story at a season when these bees would 

 be available for honey gathering or Queen rear- 

 ing perhaps $25.00 would not be an extrava- 

 gant price, in our own locality." 



"There, Mr Novice you have gone and con- 

 sidered the "bright side" of the subject only, 

 but 'tis for all the world just like you. 



If a "quart" of Italians are worth a dollar, 

 how much are hybrids and even black bees 

 worth V and then suppose the queen does not 

 rear three banded workers but only two, one or 

 possibly bees without "ary" stripe, what iss7ie 

 worth? and supposing that combs should be 

 black, and crooked, and nearly all drone, or 

 or not built half way down; or supposing our 

 colony had neither honey or pollen, and that 

 there wasn't even one quart of bees, how much 

 would a swarm be worth then? Be frank now 

 for even in our Apiary we occasionally have 

 Hive-- having some, if not all of these faults." 



"Well, well, give us a little time and a better 

 pencil and we'll take all the 'dark shades' into 

 consideration too, let us see, to go back to 

 $10.00 and take the 'down grade,' we shall 



have to li\- a value on dollar Queens that turn 

 out hybrids, and as we have repeatedly pinch- 

 ed the heads oft' some fine ones, we will value 

 them at only 25c. and as to black queens, well 

 really, we never heard of selling them at all. 

 until Mrs. Cotton's circular quoted them at Jin 

 tloUurx each, but as we promised not to 'com- 

 ment' we will only say that we could only con- 

 sider a black queen tolerable until we could 

 replace her with an Italian. Hybrids we will 

 rate at 75c. per quart, and blacks at 50c, drone 

 combs ( as good for extractor) at 50c, and we 

 really can't rate old dark colored combs any 

 less if you women do persist in thinking new 

 white ones most valuable; if the frames are 

 only partly tilled, we'll say 25c each, and now 

 (Where's that pencil again,) we have value of a 

 poor swarm of bees thus : 



Hive and Quilt $1'.25 



Black Queen 00 



Ten frames of comb partly tilled at 25c . . .2.50 



Half a 'quart' black bees at 50c 2."> 



Contents of comb 00 



$4.00 



There, how will that do ?" 



"But Mr N. we don't often have such a colo- 

 ny (all bad) in a simplicity hive, it would more 

 likely be found in a box hive, or what is it they 

 call 'em at the south ?" 



"Gum ?" 



"Yes 'Gum.' Had'nt you better subtract$1.85 

 from the four dollars for hive quilt and frames, 

 and call a— the " 



"Gum ? 'Tis really too bad that your educa- 

 tion has been neglected so much that you have 

 never seen one. We should not value them 

 any higher than common Queens, but Mrs 



Lizzie Cot ." 



, "But you are not to mention her any more. 

 yon know." 



"Well our colony of Bees we mean, and at 

 two dollars and fifteen rents we really think you 

 cannot accuse us of not having considered the 

 value of poor stocks as well as good." 



"But do you really mean Mr N. to value the 

 combs of such a colony at $1.00 and the Bees 

 and Queen at only 25c?" 



"We do ; for a very small colony of Black 

 Bees even in the hands of an expert would be 

 very uncertain property ;but empty comb can be 

 kept any length of time and we fear has never 

 been properly valued. As 'tis a tedious job to 

 fasten pieces of comb into frames we shall it 

 possible endeavor to have all comb made in 

 such frames as we prefer in the first place, and 

 if not tilled out they are always ready for the 

 bees to take it up right where their predecessor 

 left off." 



Before closing it may be as well to consider 

 that many large sales of Italian Bees have been 

 made at figures considerably less than the es- 

 timate, for instance, Adam Grim sold R. Wil- 

 kin, we think something like 50 colonies of 

 choice Italians in good movable comb hives for 

 $1 1.00 each, in the spring of 1872. Transport- 

 ation from Wisconsin to Ohio cost a little more 

 than $1.00 each only. As the above was given 

 from memory it may not be exact, but we think 

 is not far out of the way. 



Bees like other stock or merchandise, should 



be sold at lower rates in large quantities, per- 



j haps it would be fair to estimate that a Bee- 



