December, 1912. 



363 



American 16gc Journalj 



'-^-'ih^ ^P I 



with lioney and sealed over, so that 

 the pollen vvou'd escape detection un- 

 less the sections were held up to the 

 light, when a dark spot would be shown 

 when one tried to look through ; but 

 it is not so very likely that there were 

 any cases of this kind, for when pollen 

 is present in sections there will almost 

 surely be some of it left unsealed. We 

 generally have very little trouble with 

 pollen in sections, but an entire ab- 

 sence of that trouble is something de- 

 cidedly unusual. Could it in any way 

 be connected with the unusually late 

 season, .with tlie harvest beginning late 



in June? 



^ * »■ 



Improving by Requeening 



Perhaps in no other case does so 

 great a responsibility rest upon so 

 small an atom as the weight that rests 

 upon the queen-bee. She has to an- 

 swer for the good or bad qualities of 

 the whole colony. If the bees are 

 good honey-gatherers, if they are gen- 

 tle, if they are non-swarmers, if they 

 seal their honey with extra white cap- 

 pings, etc.. all these good qualities are 

 credited to the queen. .'\lso she has to 

 answer for all the bad that is due the 

 colony. If the bees are lazy, good for 

 nothings, if they are regular little vix- 

 ens as to temper, if they persist in 

 swarming, swarming, swarming, if they 

 seal their honey with greasy cappings, 

 she is the one who is blamed, too. Is 

 it right to lay all the blame on one 

 small bee ? 



If she is a hne looking queen and a 

 good layer, and yet the work of her 

 colony is below the average, don't you 

 hate to pinch her head ? Don't you 

 feel like pleading for her life, saying, 

 " Oh, let's try her a little longer, may 

 be she will do better next year ?" Well, 

 if you do, just steel your heart and 

 bravely pinch her head, for she is 

 surely the culprit, and it doesn't pay 

 to keep poor stock when you can just 

 as well have the best. If you have 

 never tried weeding out your poor 

 queens and breeding from your very 

 best colonies, just try it, and see what 

 a difference a few years will make in 

 results. 



Take the item of temper alone. One 

 very cross colony will make the whole 

 apiary appear cross, and it may take 

 you some time to locate the real cul- 

 prit, but once located lose no time in 

 pinching the head off of the queen. 

 Naturally you would not expect any 

 improvement in the temper of the bees 

 until the progeny of the old queen 

 were all dead, and the new bees had 

 taken their places. That would be nine 

 w-eeks from the time the old queen was 

 killed. The strange thing about it is 

 you don't need to wait that long, at 

 least not in all cases. This summer 

 we had one exceedingly cross colony. 

 We knew it was somewhere in the 

 lower part of the apiary, but it took us 

 some time to locate it. When we 

 finally did locate it a new queen was 

 given. We didn't have to wait nine 

 weeks for an improvement in temper, 

 for within a week after the new queen 

 began laying we noticed a decided 

 difference, and long before the new 

 bees were old enough to tly, that col- 

 ony appeared to be as good tempered 

 as any in the apiary. Xeither is this 



case solitary. In several other cases 

 the same thing has been observed, and 

 the conclusion seems to be almost irre- 

 sistible that the queen in some myste- 

 rious way has an influence upon the 

 progeny of her predecessor. It hardly 



seems a reasonable conclusion, but 

 these are the facts. 



An interesting query arises: If a 

 queen from a cross colony should be 

 given to a gentle colony, would the 

 gentle bees turn cross ? 



John S. Harbison. 



Biography of the Largest Honey-Producer 

 in the World 



The following biography of the late 

 John S. Harbison was kindlyfurnished 

 to us by his daughter, Mrs. Hinkle, 

 together with the picture which we re- 

 produce herewith. She has our thanks 

 for this kindness : 



"John S. Harbison was born in 1826 

 in Beaver Co., Fa. He came to the 

 Sacramento Valley in 1854. He found 

 that many of the men who were raising 

 food products were making more 



money than the average gold prospec- 

 tor. He worked for wages in Sacra- 

 mento until he had enough money to 

 start for himself. In 18.J7 he went back 

 to Pennsylvania and prepared a ship- 

 ment of honey-bees, consisting of (57 

 hives. These made the trip by way of 

 New York, then via steamer to San 

 Francisco and up the Sacramento 

 River. On arrival he was offered 

 over $100 per hive. -At this time there 

 were no bees west of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. In 18-50 a second shipment of 

 bees was made from Pennsylvania, also 

 fruit and ornamental trees, and he es- 

 tablished a nursery along the Sacra- 



