

43d YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, APRIL 16, 1903, 



No. 16, 



The Honey and Beeswax Imports of the United States 

 during 1901 and 1903 were as follows: 



Honey in 1901— 1S3.196 gallons ; value $ 83,599 



1903—167,301 •■ " .56,383 



Beeswax in 1901— 213,773 lbs. '• 55,884 



1903—408,706 •' '• 115,937 



Carpet-Grass has been highly spoken of as a honey-plant. In 

 the Rocky Mountain Bee Journal, W. A. H. Gilstrap says that while 

 it is a good yielder of fine honey in some favored localities, it is dis- 

 tinctly a swamp growth. " It can stand a dry climate if the ground is 

 wet enough. Any of our upland grain-land is too dry for carpet- 

 grass." 



AVax-Production. — If there is any place where the production 

 of wax at the expense of honey might be made to pay, one would 

 think it would be in some parts of Cuba. A. I. Root reports from 

 there that wax brings 35 cents spot cash, while honey scarcely nets 

 the bee-keeper, who is away from the railroads, more than two cents a 

 pound! 



Los Angeles, Calif., has been selected by the Executive Com- 

 mittee as the place for holding the next annual meeting of the 

 National Bee-Keepers' Association, and August 18, 19 and 20, 1903, 

 are the dates. 



The main reason for deciding on Los Angeles was on account of 

 the low railroad rates in force at the time of the Grand Army meeting 

 at San Francisco, which is held the same week, and the same rates 

 apply to Los Angeles. 



Further particulars will appear in the regular official notice to be 

 issued by the Secretary of the Association later on, as soon as definite 

 arrangements can be made as to hall for holding the meeting, hotel 

 accommodations, etc. 



We may say that San Antonio, Tex., and Salt Lake City, I'tah, 

 made honorable and strenuous efforts to secure this year's meeting of 

 the National Bee-Keepers' Association, but those who have had the 

 most experience know that in order to have the best and fullest 

 attendance, the meeting must be held when low railroad rates all 

 over the whole country can be taken advantage of, and the Grand 

 Army beats them all in that line. So that fact had great weight with 

 the committee in deciding the matter. 



Pear-Blight Treatment.— Those who are familiar with the 

 trouble bee-men have had in California, will be glad to learn that Dr. 

 M. B. Waite, of the Department of Agriculture at Washington, is re- 

 ported to have found a solutioD that will be a relief to the bee-keepers. 

 An editorial in Gleanings in Bee-Culture says: 



According to a newspaper report (a source which we do not 

 always credit, but which seems in this case to bear the appearance of 

 genuineness), Dr. Waite has discovered a plan by which '■ colonies of 

 the bacilli" already existing in pear-blighted trees can be located and 

 removed from the tree before it comes into bloom. Dr. Waite is 

 quoted as saying, referring to the pear-growers, " Let them put the 

 diseased part of the tree out of the way before insects begin to fly, and 

 before the blossoms come out for them to alight on." Very simple. 

 And now Dr. Waite is to be sent by his department to Colorado, to 

 show the orchardists how to discover the '' colonies of bacilli." iind 

 get them out of the way before bees and other insects have an oppor- 



tunity to carry the infection. According to the same report, the 

 " colonies of blight bacilli live in green bark where the blighted 

 discolored portion blends off gradually into the normal bark." The 

 Doctor simply recommends a little common-sense and some tree sur- 

 gery. He says the pruning-knife or shears must be dipped in some 

 disinfecting medium every time it outs off a limb of a tree. It would 

 be monstrous foolishness to scatter the blight from tree,to tree in the 

 very act of preventing such spread. 



Courtesy Beverly Evening Times. 



" Improved Queen-Rearing, or How to Rear Large, Prolific, 

 Long-Lived Queen-Bees," is the title of a neatly-printedi^pamphlet 



written. ,by^Henry Alley. 

 Mr. Alley is a veteran 

 bee-keeper, and probably 

 the Nestor among those 

 engagedr[in queen-rear- 

 ing. 



He will, no doubt, pro- 

 voke opposition by say- 

 ing that no better queens 

 can be reared by starting 

 cells in a full colony than 

 in a nucleus of one Lang- 

 stroth! frame of brood 

 and two of pollen and 

 honey with adhering 

 bees. But Mr. Alley's 

 three-frame nuclei are 

 really stronger than that 

 term usually implies, for 

 they are materially 

 strengthened by the addi- 

 tion of young bees afte,. 

 being formed. On three 

 or four successive even 

 ings, about sunset, he 

 takes a comb of bees 

 from some strong colony 

 and brushes the bees down on the ground in front of the nucleus. 



After forty years' experience he prefers for rearing queens nn a 

 large scale small nucleus hives containing five frames about five inches 

 square. 



He does not favor rearing queens over a colony with a laying 

 queen except at swarming-time, unless the colony is about to super- 

 sede its queen. 



The well-known Alley plan of starting cells with strips of comb 

 containing eggs is given in detail, with some new features, and the 

 whole pamphlet is written in a practical and compact manner. The 

 price is $1.50; 50 pages. 



AVorking Bees with Few Visits.- A few years ago the 

 noted French bee-keeper, Geo. de Layens, practiced and advocated a 

 plan whereby he established apiaries at some distance, and visited 

 them only a few times in the year— perhaps three times. Of course, 

 he worked for extracted honey. For some reason little was said aljout 

 it on this side the water. Now, there appears in the Bee-Keepers' 

 Review the account of something in the same line by a Michigan bee- 

 keeper, E. D. Townsend. The following particulars are ot interest: 



The bees are wintered on the summer stands in packing cases. 

 About Oct. 1 I make a trip down there, look them over, feed any light 

 ones until each colutiy has at least 20 or 30 pounds each, and then 

 pack them for winter in from two to six inches of chaff. They are 

 not disturbed again till I put the upper stories on, the first of June. 



As our honey season does not open until about June 1.5, it will be 

 seen that the bees have plenty of room previous to the flow, hence do 



HENRT ALLEY. 



