(Entered as set'ond-class matter July 30, 1907, at the Post-Offlce at ChiuaKu, 111., under Act of March 3, 1H79.) 



Published Monthly at $1.00 a Year, by George W. York & Company, 146 West Superior Street, 



GEORGE VV. YORK. Editor. 



DR. C. C. MILLER, Associate Editor. 



CHICAGO, ILL., AUGUST, 1910 



VoL L--No. 8 



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Editorial Notes and Comments 



The Houey Crop of lOlO 



It is doubtful if the present genera- 

 tion of bee-keepers will ever experi- 

 ence a year so difficult as the present 

 in which to forecast what is likely to 

 take place with regard to the honey 

 crop. At least this is true of a large 

 portion of the country. Take North- 

 ern Illinois. In April colonies were 

 strong enough for the harvest, and 

 with the abundant showing of clover 

 there was every reason to expect a 

 crop. Afterward came a long cold, 

 wet spell, and in the first half of June 

 the bees reached the point of starva- 

 tion in many cases. Where the bee- 

 keeper was not on the alert, if colo- 

 nies did not actually starve, they were 

 likely to stop all brood-rearing, mak- 

 ing them too weak for the harvest. 

 Then came another sudden change, 

 and although it is almost unbelievable, 

 by the 1.5th of June second supers were 

 given in some cases where only a week 

 before it was necessary to feed. For 

 perhaps about 3 weeks the flow con- 

 tinued heavy, and the bee-keeper would 

 have said, "There is every prospect 

 that this will be the biggest year we 

 have had." But by July 10th the' drouth 

 got in its deadly work, and robbing be- 

 came the order of the day. Whether 

 in such an unguessable year the flow 

 may start up again, giving finally a full 

 crop, or whether the end has already 

 been reached, with only half a crop, 

 can only be told in the future. 



In a good many places the same 

 state of affairs seems to have existed. 

 R. L. Taylor, reporting from Michigan 

 in Gleanings in Bee Culture, graph- 

 ically expresses it by saying: 



■' The bad weather of the last part of May 

 and the first week of June, wlien the bees 

 pulled out their drones, and in some cases 

 worker-brood, gave honey prospects a black 

 eye." 



Gleanings for July 15th publishes 33 

 reports from different parts of the 

 countrv. In these there are a dozen 



complaints of drouth, and 4 of too 

 much wet. A little more than a fourth 

 of the reports are from good to excel- 

 lent; 15 percent fair; and nearly 60 

 percent from less than the average to 

 a fifth of a crop. 



The Colorado Honey-Producers' As- 

 sociation, Denver, says : 



"The prospects for a honey crop in this 

 locality are certainly very discouraging. 

 While a part of the State will have some 

 kind of a crop, the chances are that this 

 locality will have but a very small part." 



Telegraphic dispatches, dated July 

 12th, gave the following : Washington, 

 D. C, "Very poor crop." Wisconsin, 

 " General reports from one-third to 

 half crop." Fremont, Mich., "Not 

 more than half a crop." Lansing, Mich., 

 "Half a crop." Iowa, " A little below 

 the average." New York, " Fair to 

 medium." Philadelphia, "Twenty per- 

 cent average." Western Vermont, "One 

 of our best years." Eastern and Cen- 

 tral Massachusetts, "Light." Missouri, 

 Arkansas, and Southern States report 

 " a very light crop — below that of last 

 season." Indiana, "The central and 

 northern parts of the State have the 

 best crop that has been taken for years ; 

 but the southern part of the State has 

 not done so well." Zanesville, Ohio, 

 " Conditions are the worst I have ever 

 known." 



It certainly looks as if honey ought 

 to bring a fair price this year. But in 

 a year of such sudden and remarkable 

 changes, it can only be told later 

 whether the harvest is much below the 

 average or not. 



Unoappiug- Drone-Brood to Pre- 

 vent Swarming 



There is a more or less general be- 

 lief that the suppression of drone- 

 brood has a tendency to prevent 

 swarming. Certainly it is the regular 

 program for bees to rear drone-brood 

 in preparation for swarming. M. R. 



Kuehne reports in the Bee-Keepers 

 Review that he thinks bees are dissatis- 

 fied if they are not allowed to rear any 

 drone-brood, and so for several years 

 he has allowed each colony to rear 

 some drone-brood, and then he uncaps 

 it. If in sufficient quantity he thinks 

 this prevents swarming. 



Very likely uncapping this brood 

 does have its effect in preventing 

 swarming, but it might be hard to 

 prove that it is any more effective than 

 suppressing drones by keeping drone- 

 comb out of the hive. And what proof 

 is there that bees are any more dissat- 

 isfied with having no drone-brood 

 than they would be having it slaugh- 

 tered ? 



Now a Good Time to Reqiieen 

 Colonies 



In an apiary of any considerable size 

 it will generally be found that some 

 colonies have far outstripped others in 

 the amount of honey stored. Some, 

 indeed, will be found that have done 

 next to nothing, while others have 

 stored ten times as much. And yet too 

 often nothing will be done about it, 

 and the poor colonies will be allowed 

 to continue unmolested. The wise bee- 

 keeper, however, will see that these 

 ne'er - do - wells have their queens 

 changed for those of better stock. 



A'ozi' that the season is so far ad- 

 vanced that we know which are the 

 good and which are the poor colonies, 

 >t IS a good time lo riqurcn all that do 

 not come up to the mark. Those who 

 have not a well established strain of 

 their own will find this the best time of 

 the year to buy queens, and on more 

 than one account. Prices may be 

 lower than very early, while quality is 

 likely to be better. The change of 

 queens can be made without interfer- 

 ing with the honey crop as it might do 

 earlier. 



But the man with only 10 or 20 colo- 

 nies will be likely to say, "I'd like to 

 have the improvement, but rearing 

 queens is something I've never done, 

 and I can't afford to buy." Let us 

 figure just a little on that. Suppose 

 the average crop is 75 pounds, and that 

 his honey brings 10 cents a pound. If 

 he pays a dollar apiece for queens, it 

 will take 10 pounds of honey to pay for 

 the queen. If the queens he buys are 



