262 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



August 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY AT 



Ist Nat'l Bank Bldg., Hamilton, Illinois 



Entered as second-class matter at the 

 Hamilton, Illinois. PostoflRce. 

 C. P. Dadant. Editor, 

 Dr C. C. Miller, Associate Editor. 

 Frank C. Pellett, Staff Correspondent. 



IMPORTANT NOTICE 



THE SUBSCRIPTION PRICE of this 

 Journal is (loo a year in the United States 

 of America and Mexico; 3 years. J2.25; 5 

 years. S^.oo; in Canada. 10 cents extra, and in 

 all other countries in the Postal Union. 25 

 cents a year extra for postage. Sample 

 copy free. 



THE WRAPPER-LABEL DATE indi- 

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 of December. 1Q17. 



SUBSCRIPTION RECEIPTS.-We do not 

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Copyright: IQ17 by C. P. Dadant. 



THE EDITOR'S VIEWPOINT 



Prices of Bees 



Some of the shippers of bees in 

 combless packages talk of raising 

 prices another year. We believe that 

 those who do will find that they have 

 made a mistake. At present bees are 

 selling at about a dollar per pound 

 with transportation and cost of 

 queen extra. This we believe to be 

 about all the traffic will bear. In 

 most of the northern states bees sell 

 at from $3 to $5 per colony, which in- 

 cludes bees, queen, hive and drawn 

 combs. This year there has been a 

 very great demand for bees. This Is 

 largely the result of last year's won- 

 derful crop. The crop this year will 

 fall far short of that of last year and 

 many localities report a very poor 

 prospect. The southern shippers 

 should bear in mind that this year's 

 demand is not a safe guide on which 

 to base plans for future business. We 

 firmly believe that the package busi- 

 ness has come to stay and that con- 

 ducted on a business basis it will 

 prove dependable for many years to 

 come. However, boom prices for 

 honey and big crops are seldom to be 

 expected, and neither the honey pro- 

 ducer nor the package man should be 

 deceived by these extraordinary con- 

 ditions. Beekeeping is a safe enter- 

 prise for a long series of years, but a 

 period of depression is quite likely to 

 follow a period of undue expansion, 

 the same as in other lines of busi- 

 ness. 



The Ooutrol of Fertilization 



Under the heading "We Have Not 

 Done It," Gleanings bravely acknowl- 

 edges that, after great expense in 

 preparing a large hot house for fer- 

 tilization of queens, the attempt was 

 a failure. We take off our hat to the 

 man who knows how to tell of his 



ill-success as well as of his achieve- 

 ments. 



Two methods have been tried fof 

 fertilization of queenbees under the 

 control of the apiarist, confinement 

 in a large room or cage with plenty 

 of drones, and forced copulation by 

 what might be called a surgical op- 

 eration. 



Both of these methods have been 

 claimed successful by leading api- 

 arists at different times, Mrs. Ellen 

 S. Tupper, who for a time was co- 

 editor of the American Bee Journal, 

 in 1874, with the Rev. W. F. Clarke, 

 claimed success by the cage method, 

 and told the writer personally that 

 she had had hundreds of queens fer- 

 tilized in this way. Whether she was 

 deceiving herself or trying to deceive 

 others is a question. 



N. W. McLain, who was appointed 

 by the General Government in the 

 eighties for experiments in beekeep- 

 ing, claimed success in forced copu- 

 lation, and published an article upon 

 this subject in the American Bee 

 Journal of May S, 1886. Mr, McLain 

 was apparently a very active worker. 

 He had his headquarters at Aurora, 

 Illinois. 



Although it is quite probable that 

 an occasional success was achieved, 

 perhaps with each of these two 

 methods, we believe it is well to 

 warn the prospective experimenter 

 against too much confidence. We do 

 not mean to say that success is im- 

 possible. No one knows what the 

 future has in store, and impossible 

 things have been achieved; witness 

 wireless telegraphy and human air 

 travel. But the simple thing of bee 

 matings seems to baffle the most 

 sanguine experimenter. 



Controlled fertilization of queens 

 would be worth while. Until it is 

 achieved no certainty may be placed 



upon thorough breeding of a race. 

 Tlic nearest that may be secured is 

 by isolating the colonies used for 

 breeding or by allowing the queens 

 and drones to fly only late in the 

 day, when other drones have re- 

 turned. This has been secured fairly 

 well by placing the colonies in ques- 

 tion in the cellar until late in the day. 



Are We Iniproviug 



The bee journals of twenty-five 

 years ago are very interesting read- 

 ing. The most animated discussions 

 run through successive issues. Many 

 things that were holding the atten- 

 tion of the beekeepers then have been 

 discarded, while other questions have 

 been so thoroughly settled that there 

 is no longer room for question. For 

 months the question of whether the 

 beekeeper could honorably and 

 profitably feed sugar to be stored 

 and sold as honey was debated with 

 great heat. The high price of sugar 

 has long since made such a question 

 impossible, even had not the pure 

 food laws settled it otherwise. 



Self hivers received a surprising 

 amount of attention for a year or 

 two, and some beekeepers even went 

 so far as to declare that they were 

 the greatest invention of the age, 

 not excepting the movable frame. 

 Who has even heard of a self hiver 

 during the past ten years? Dozens 

 of similar utilities were put forward 

 with great expectations only to be 

 proved impractical. 



Comb foundation is now regarded 

 as absolutely essential to successful 

 beekeeping, yet there were heated 



arguments about its value for a long 

 period of time before it finally dem- 

 onstrated its usefulness. 



After reading the spirited and some- 

 times bitter controversies of other 

 days, one cannot but contrast them 

 with the journals of the present and 

 wonder whether we are making as 

 mucb progress as we think. Such 

 debates indicate the liveliest interest 

 on the part of the readers. Possibly 

 the difference is only that we lack 

 the new ground to break which goes 

 with pioneering in any country or 

 any business. 



Is Swarmiug Wasteful 



The "Weekly News Letter" of the 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture for 

 June 6 contains an article concerning 

 the "wastefulness of swarming," We 

 had never thought of it in that light. 

 But swarming is really very wasteful 

 when it takes place at undesirable 



