GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



A BONANZA COLONY 



BY K. J. T. MUCKLE 



It may interest and encourage some be- 

 ginner to see the photograph of a " Corner 

 in Honey " in Manitoba, where " Our Lady 

 of the Snows " is supposed to hold eternal 

 court. The background is oak, poplar, wild 



A corner in honov. 



plum, and nut-hazel; the foreground, 

 Grim's alfalfa and popcorn. The whole 

 takes me back to Honolulu of fifteen years 

 ago. 



On May 26, 1914, I received a nucleus 

 and queen from an advertiser, and by feed- 

 ing and the switching process I had, by 

 July 27, not only tiered up as shown, but 

 produced and sold at $11 each two strong 

 swai'ms. 



On Aug. 20 I extracted from the three 

 center boxes 142 lbs. of a honey wliich our 

 Ottawa authority, on testing a ten-pound 

 sample, declared was the finest he had ever 

 come across — that it was in a class of its 

 own, and that we might put our own price 

 on such an article. I then divided this im- 

 mense colony into three heavy stocks. I fed 

 ten pounds of sugar, made into thick syrup, 

 to each, and, though strong for my years, 

 being a " forty-niner " (not gold seeker but 

 born in 1849), I found them a heavy lift 

 to put in the cellar. They were in ten- 

 frame hives, and weighed 76, 83, and 90 

 lbs. respectively. 



For over 40 years an enthusiastic student 

 of the grand cult, I have absorbed so much 

 from various sources I cannot tell whether 

 I learned that which I tliink I know from 

 reading or experience. 



Clandeboye, Manitoba. 



SOME KINKS IN THE QUEEN BUSINESS 



BY W. S. M^NAIR 



The first queens I bought I ordei'ed from 

 a reliable firm, using an old price list. The 

 price was six for $5. They sent me three 

 queens and an invoice at the rate of $1.75 

 each. I wrote them to cancel the rest of 

 the order, also sending a money order for 

 the difference, 25 cts. In a week I got the 

 three queens, according to the original or- 

 der, and I had to pay $1.75 each for these 

 also. When I sent the money for the last 

 three queens I asked if they did not receive 

 my letter canceling my order, to which I 

 got no reply. Now this was very unbusi- 

 nesslike. They should have canceled my 

 order when requested. 



I ordered three golden Italian queens 

 from a man who advertises extensively. 

 They were untested, which means (or is 

 supposed to mean) mated queens not kept 

 long enough to show if they are purely 

 mated. T also bought eight more queens 

 from this breeder, and successfully intro- 



duced nine of the total number. I have not 

 got a colony of golden bees yet. I do not 

 know whether or not these golden strains 

 have become fixed in color yet ; but I do 

 know that I have some queens that were 

 supposed to be leather-colored that are as 

 yellow as these famous goldens. I have 

 come to the conclusion that some queens 

 sold as untested are tested and found mis- 

 mated. 



The breeder of these queens wrote me 

 that the only danger of getting cross-bred 

 queens was from an apiary of Carniolans 

 not far from his queen-breeding yard. As 

 a matter of fact, all my queens were crossed 

 with three-banded, the queens being beauti- 

 ful in color, yellow to the very tip. Their 

 offspring varied from three-banded to gold- 

 en, not more than 25 per cent of each hive 

 being golden. In one or two of them the 

 only golden bee was the queen. 



These queens also were supposed to be 



