7 1 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



music. I did not get the queen, so tliey went on 

 another spruce tree, and settled in tliree bunches 

 near the ground. This time I took a wash-basket 

 and a hoe, and knocked the largest bunch into the 

 basket. I dumped them in front of the hive, but 

 that time they found a way through my hat, and 

 turned their artillery on my face. 



I do not think I need to be stung by any bees to 

 keep rheumatism away for .some time. I wish some 

 one would tell me why those bees were so cross. 

 We had a storm that night, and a cold rain for 

 several days. 



Lucinda, Pa. J. B. Vogelbacher. 



Field Meeting at Pembroke, N. Y. 



TJie field meeting a)id basket picnic held at J. N. 

 DeMuth's apiary at Pembroke, N. Y., under the 

 auspices of the Western New York Honey-producers' 

 ,\.ssociation, was very well attended in spite of the 

 rainy weather that prevailed in the forenoon. The 

 fore part of the day was mostly getting acquainted 

 and renewing old acquaintances, which always seems 

 to be a jovial reunion when beekeepers meet. 



Messrs. Vollmer and DeMuth removed several 

 supers of houey from the hives, brushing off the bees 

 with a brush of their own design, which certainly 

 has the old hand method stripped outright. 



Several colonies were examined and queens found. 

 Some present favored three band and some the gold- 

 ens. Mr. G. C. Greiner told of his victorious cam- 

 paign with European foul brood four years ago. Mr. 

 .1. Roy I/incoln also related his experience along the 

 same line. All seem to agree that a vigorous strain 

 nf Italians is needed to clean up the disease and 

 liold it in check. 



Mr. J. T. Rasch told of his method of rearing 

 queens and building up nuclei — a line in which he 

 specializes to quite an extent, as he usually seUs 

 bees every year. Mr. L. P. Wahl also exhibited 

 some of his handiwork in the queen line, which 

 was certainly fine. He also does quite a large honey 

 business, putting up considerable in quarter-pint 

 inilkbottles for the trade. 



While this was a basket picnic, Mr. and Mrs. 

 DeMuth deserve special credit for lunch and refresh- 

 ments they served to those who were inconvenienced 

 or forgot to bring some. Several members were 

 added to the a.ssociation. This field meeting is to 

 be an annual feature. 



Akron, N. Y. Wm. F. VoLTiMER. 



The Cost of Bees and Drawn Combs 



In some cases the answers to questions on bee 

 values, page 419, do not seem to cover the points 

 quite satisfactorily. Replying to 1 and 5 you say 

 tliat in the spring there would not be 30 or 40 lbs. 

 of honey in the combs. True; but I suggested that, 

 as a business man, if you wintered bees on this 

 amount of lioney, and then sold them in the spring, 

 you would naturally add the value of the food con- 

 sumed — in this case about $6.00. You cannot have 

 your pie and eat it too. 



Of course I was in each case speaking of "things 

 as they are'' in British Columbia. Beekeepers here 

 hav(! not yet accumulated large surplus stocks of 

 brood-frames, and there is always the risk of foul 

 brood in disused frames, which, generally, come 

 from hiv(^ whose former inmates have died. 



Somewhere (in the A B C, I think) I have seen 

 a certain l^eekeeper's success attributed largely to 

 the fact that he possessed some 2000 surplus brood- 

 combs. Now, at the low price of 25 or 35 cents 

 (your figures) each, one might easily procure a like 

 supply, and so swell the ranks of the successful 

 ones, but that is not feasible here. 



The market price of beeswax is admittedly low, 

 and I understand that the amount of honey con- 



sumed by the bees, in proportion to the wax secret 

 ed, is not definitely known (1905 edition of the A 

 B C, glossary, p. 407, says, "The production of 

 each pound of wax requires 10 to 20 lbs. of hon- 

 ey") ; but we will say it is 10 to 1 — that is, on our 

 values of honey at 17 V^ to 20 cts., wax should be 

 worth over $2.00 per lb., especially in view of the 

 time consumed by the bees in the cluster. This 

 brings me to my point — viz., I can buy foundation 

 at about 70 cts. per lb., but I cannot get the extra 

 wax added to it in the drawing-out and building 

 process for less than $2.00 per lb.; and I think 

 that this fact goes a long way to prove my conten- 

 tion, that 67 cts. is not a high value to put on a 

 good frame of worker comb. They cannot be man- 

 iifactured by machinery, and we do not care to try 

 importing them for fear of disease, which we are 

 especially anxious to keep out (or clear out) of 

 British Columbia, hence it looks like a corner in 

 combs In favor of the happy possessor. 



As a matter of fact I value my combs at $1.00 

 each. They are ready for any emergency, and would 

 be hard to replace. ]jet me whisper here that the 

 honey crop in this district is a practical failure ; and 

 it was for only a very short time, during fruit- 

 bloom, that the bees worked at drawing out founda- 

 tion. 



I know of folks who imported bees by weight, 

 put them on foundation, and lost them by starvation 

 for this very reason. 



liike so many problems in bee culture this seems 

 to depend largely on locality. Yours may be an 

 exceptionally difficult one. 



North Vancouver, B. C. Fred E. White. 



Old Story to Him 



The method of swarm control proposed by Mr. 

 Chalon Fowls, page 574, July 15, is practically the 

 same plan I have been following for the past two 

 years without knowing that Mr. Fowls or any one 

 else had been practicing it. 



The only difference is that I do not remove the 

 top super of brood unless I want increase. Further- 

 Miore, I work the bees on this plan even before they 

 start queen-cells. I seldom have a swarm, but se- 

 cure good crops of lioney. I keep the hives raised 

 up on small blocks. This plan works well with such 

 prolific breeders as Carniolans and Caucasians. 



The " I/ong-idea " hive appeals to me for the 

 following reasons : There are no supers or queen- 

 excluding boards to remove when one desires to ex- 

 amine the bro(.d-nest or requeen. It is very easy to 

 transfer frames of brood from side frames or to 

 side frames or supers. One can handle many more 

 Long-idea hives in a day than the present style, and 

 give better attention to each. There are no supers 

 to store away nor carry to out-apiaries. I expect to 

 test one the coming season before I purchase a 

 further stock of the present style. 



Andalusia, Pa. H. W. Fulmer. 



An Experiment to Get Rid of Laying 

 Workers 



Having found a hive containing laying workers I 

 first introduced a frame containing eggs and brooil 

 to see if queen-cells would be started; and on find- 

 ing the case hopel&ss I refei-red to the A B C and 

 X Y Z of Bee Culture without getting much encour- 

 agement from it. It occurred to me that the laying 

 workers probably develop the instincts of a laying 

 queen, and so would tend to remain in the hive on 

 the combs and not go abroad seeking nectar as do 

 tlieir fellows. Reasoning thus, I moved the hive to 

 an outof-the-way spot with its entrance facing in a 

 new direction, and there shook all the bees off the 

 combs into the liis-e. 1 then removed all the combs 

 except one containing drone brood which I left in 



