1901 



CLEANINGS IN BER CULTURE. 



345 



you can do what you please with it. IMost of 

 those using this new method prtfer to put the 

 old combs from this box hive into the solar 

 wax-extractor, thus getting out the honey and 

 wax from them, and separating the same so it 

 is in fit shape for use." 



" Well, this plan sounds nice, and had I the 

 foundation I think I should prefer it to the 

 other. But it is nearly dark, and I must go 

 back. Good night." 



Mr. Calvert tells me that your honey was 

 probably from alfalfa grown by irrigation. 

 He also adds you are something like 125 miles 

 from any railway station. How do you get 

 this great crop of honey all this long distance 

 in order to get a market for it? — A. I. R.] 



BREAKING THE RECORD ; 21 % TONS OF 



HONEV BROUGHT INTO ONE APIARY IN 



O.NE SEASON. 



I want to furnish an item for A. I. for 

 Gleanings. In the Mar. 1st number, page 

 198, he says : "More than 22 tons of honey 

 was brought into that one spot in one season, 

 and all collected from flowers within range of 

 the bees' flight. Can the world furnish a 

 parallel?" (From 680 stands ) You send 

 Gleinings to Birt Birtlett. He, one broth- 

 er, and a bro her in-law, work under its firm 

 name of Bartlett Bro & Merkly. A year ago 

 this spring they came through with /60 laying 

 queens, and from those queens atd their in- 

 crease, in one yard, in one season, they ex- 

 tracted 55,000 lbs. of A No. 1 white honey, or 

 27^ tons. Now, this is what I did last sea- 

 son, in one yard of 152 colonies. I extracted 

 42,000 lbs. ; but on account of sickness I got 

 behind and lost one extracting of 7000 or 8000 

 lbs. Now, can you beat that ? 



Vernal, Utah. C. C. BarTlett. 



[Friend B., I am exceedingly obliged to you 

 for the item you furnish, especially as a much 

 smaller number of colonies did the work. 

 You say 160 lajing queens. These queens 

 probably all had exceedingly strong colonies, 

 and there might have been some queenless 

 colonies to help out — probably not, however, 

 the way you state it. This would be over 313 

 lbs. per colony, spring count. It would be in- 

 teresting to know what the increase was. If 

 the firm can give us further particulars in re- 

 gard to the matter we should be very glad in- 

 deed to get them ; and I suppose a good many 

 of our readers would like to inquire whether 

 there is unoccupied territory in your vicinity 

 that will give any such yield as this. And 

 you, my friend, did a wonderful thing also. 

 If we take into consideration the 8000 lbs you 

 lost, then your bees brought or might have 

 brought into that one spot 50,000 lbs., or 25 

 tons. This amount, from 152, spring count, 

 would not be quite equal to the former, but a 

 stupendous achievement for all that. Now, 

 instead of stampeding to Wewahitchka, hadn't 

 we better turn about and investigate around 

 about Vernal, Utah ? I think your locality 

 must be well named, friend B. Rest assured, 

 if I ever make another trip to your State I 

 shall try to hunt you up. 



CLIPPING QUEENS ; HOW MANY AND HOW 

 MUCH OF THE WINGS SHALL WE CLIP? 



On page 838, Nov. 1, S. E. Miller says : " I 

 am a little surprised by a late number of 

 Gleanings to see that you and Dr. Miller do 

 not know the correct way to clip a queen's 

 wings, so I suppose I shall have to tell you 

 both, as well as the other readers of Glean- 

 ings." 



Now, Mr. Editor, as I am one of those read- 

 ers you will surely give me a chance to pro- 

 test against any such way. I have clipped a 

 good many hundred queens — about 100 the 

 past season, and I want to say that, if Bro. 

 Miller's object in clipping queens is to keep 

 them from flying, it is positively unnecessary 

 to clip more than a third of one of the large 

 or top wings, and that a small pair of sharp 

 and pjinted scissors is the proper thing to do 

 the cuLting with. The position of the knife 

 across the wings in the illustration covers 

 the four wings just above, so that the sight 

 of Bro. Miller's queens with four stubs and a 

 naked back can more easily be imagined than 

 admired ; but the single-wing method of clip- 

 ping leaves that side of the wings apparently 

 rounded oflF by the perfect or lower wing, 

 which is a little shorter than the top ones. 



Manistee, Mich., Feb 4. W. Harmer. 



[Referring to the article on page 838, last 

 year, it is evident that you misunderstood the 

 doctor and myself. We have not recommend- 

 ed that all four of the wings be cut off, leav- 

 ing " mere stubs." The plan illustrated con- 

 templated cutting only the two wings on one 

 side. If the other two are left intact, the de- 

 formity is not so very noticeable. 



You claim " it is positively unnecessary to 

 clip more than a third of otie of the large or 

 top wings." Are you sure about that? Why, 

 friend Harmer, I have seen queens flv when 

 clipped as you describe. They will fly just 

 far enough to get clear away from the hive, 

 becme exhausted, drop down, and get lost. 

 Possibly they will crawl into some other hive 

 where they will be destroyed. We have also 

 had quite a number of reports where this 

 scant clipping of one wing has resulted in a 

 whole swarm of bees getting away with the 

 queen. To make sure, it is better to cut quite 

 c'ose the one large wing, or cut both wings 

 about half way up on one side. — Ed.] 



A correction. 



Mr. E. R. Root: — In commenting on Prof. 

 Rankin's article on page 84, you are mistaken 

 in saying that these are the same bees men- 

 tioned on page 924. The only bees of which 

 both Prof. Rankin and yourselves had a sam- 

 ple were those mentioned on page 844 of the 

 Nov. 1st issue. J. H. GerbrachT. 



Spring Grove, 111. 



