43d YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, JULY 30, 1903. 



N0.3L 





Editorial Comments 



) 



The Honey Crop of 1903, Prices, Ktc— Editor Root, ot 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture, 6ums up the honey prospects and prices, in 

 the United States, as follows: 



This has been a peculiar season ; but taking all things into consid- 

 eration, there will be more white-clover honey this year than last. 

 The season has been exceptionally good in a great part of the white- 

 clover region, particularly in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, 

 Indiana, and Ohio. In some of the Southern States the season has 

 been poor. In the New England States there has been an almost com- 

 plete failure; but recent rains have toned up the situation so that some 

 honey will be secured. The yield of white honey has been light in 

 many parts ot New York; but as in the New England States, the re- 

 cent rains have improved the conditions, but not quite enough to af- 

 fect materially the crop of white honey, but sufficient to make, prob- 

 ably, a fair flow from buckwheat. 



In Pennsylvania the season has been poor to fair. In Nevada and 

 Utah the season has been good, and the honey is of first quality. In 

 Arizona the flow has been less than the average. In Kansas and 

 Nebraska the crops have been light in most sections. In Washington 

 the season has been poor. Texas will not come up to the average. 

 Idaho has had a severe loss of bees. In Colorado there may possibly be 

 the usual crop, but the season was unfavorable in the early part of it. 

 In Southern California, notwithstanding the early prospects were so 

 tlattering, there will be only about a third of a crop. In the central 

 part of the State the season Is little if any better. 



As to the quality, the honey will be extra-fine this year; and even 

 if there should be more of it this year than last, it will be so much bet- 

 ter that the prices ought to hold the level of last year, especially if 

 we take into consideration the general advance in other things during 

 the past year. In the Eastern markets, where production has been 

 light, there ought to be a general toning-up of prices. There will not 

 be a large amount of California honey shipped east this year, prob- 

 ably ; so what little honey is produced ought to bring good prices. 



After writing the foregoing the weather turned cold, and this 

 seems to be general over a great portion of the United States. If this 

 cool weather continues it will chop the flow from white clover almost 

 square off. That being the case, the expected crop will not be as 

 large by considerable as seemed likely on the surface of things three 

 days ago. 



Our own contribution to the reports as published in the July 1.5th 

 issue of that paper is this, dated July 1 : 



Our reports show that the far East has practically no honey, and 

 the far West perhaps not more than half a crop. The central portions 

 of the country seem to be having an enormous flow ; especially is this 

 true of the locality within, say, : 00 miles of Chicago. The demand for 

 bee-keepers' supplies has not been so grea» in ten years. It seems 

 that everybody wants a lot of supplies, and wants them right away. 

 There seems to have been a great deal of swarming, and a good yield of 

 white clover. Personally, we have never seen such a perfect mat of 

 white clover bloom as there is in this locality this season. 



We doubt if it is necessary for the price of honey to be lowered 

 very much, if any, from the price of last season. We think the peojjle 

 are ready to buy honey more freely than ever before. This, we think 

 will be especially true as the bulk of the honey produced is of white 

 clover, and that seems to be the kind preferred by the majority of the 

 jieople; at least they //a'«i- that is the kind they ought to have. The 

 joke is usually on them, as they are apt to cail nearly all kinds of 

 honey clover honey. There is practically no new honey on this mar- 

 ket as yet, but we suppose it will begin to come in very soon. 



A Kobber-Cloth is one of the things that costs so little and is so 

 useful that no beginner should be without one or two. It is very 



easily made. Here is what D(. Miller, the inventor, says about it in his 

 book, " Forty Years Among the Bees;" 



I take a piece of stout cotton cloth (sheeting) large enough to 

 cover a hive and hang down four inches or more at both sides and at 

 each end. This must be weighted down at the side with lath, and for 

 this purpose I take four pieces ot lath about as long as the hive. I 

 lay down one piece of lath with another piece on it, and one edge of 

 the cloth between the two pieces ot lath. I then nail the two together 

 and clinch the nails. I use the other two pieces of lath for the opposite 

 edge ot the cloth. This makes a good robber-cloth just as it is, but it is 

 better to have the ends also weighted down, especially on a windy day. 

 For this purpose I made a hem in each end, and put in it shot, nails, 

 pebbles, or something of the kind, stitching across the hem here and! 

 there so the weighting material will not all run together at one side or 

 other. • 



In any case where one wants to cover up a hive quickly against 

 robbers, as when opening and closing the same hive frequently for the 

 sake of putting in or taking out combs, this robber-cloth will be found 

 a great convenience. No careful adjustment is needed, as in putting 

 on a regular hive-cover, but one can take hold of the lath with one 

 hand, and with a single throw the hive is covered securely, with no 

 killing of bees if any should happen to be in the way. 



Working for Beeswax as the Chief Crop, with honey as 

 a secondary product, is a matter often discussed, but seldom tried in 

 real practice. It is not impossible, however, that in some localities it 

 may yet prove practicable. The following upon the subject appears 

 in the Australasian Bee-Keeper; 



In connection with the production of beeswax in the West Indies, 

 a suggestion has recently been made that — inasmuch as Muscovado 

 sugar can now be purchased throughout the West Indies in wholesale 

 quantities at from 3s. to 4s. per cwt., while beeswax is worth about .£8 

 cwt., and taking into consideration the fact that the honey-flow does 

 not exceed four months of the year in the most favorable localities — it 

 would pay well to feed the bees nearly all the year round either with 

 dry sugar, syrup or molasses, making the honey produced a by-product 

 and the wax the main product. It is said that it takes about 10 

 pounds of sugar to make 1 pound of beeswax, therefore should the 

 suggestion prove a practical one, it would be a great boon to West In- 

 dian bee-keepers, who would no doubt then import a species of bee 

 from India which is especially suitable for wax-production. 



A Cure for Moths in Hives is often asked for, and the usuaJ 

 answer is strong colonies and Italian bees. But such a cure cannot be 

 applied in a minute, and in the meantime some help may be obtained 

 with trifling cost and trouble by rolling into the entrance ot the hive a, 

 mothball. This is recommended in the Australasian Bee-Keeper. 



Direct Introduction of Queens is a desideratum worth 

 working for, and the following letter from Dr. Miller seems to give- 

 promise that it may yet be reached : 



Mr. Editor: — lam sorry I cannot remember who it was that 

 gave us the hint that introduction ot queens was made more sure by 

 wetting the queens. He certainly deserves thanks. I tried it in a 

 considerable number of cases, and was successful in every case. But 

 in each case the bees to which the ciueen was introduced has been, 

 queenless a longer or shorter time, and a flood of honey was on, so. 

 that I could not be certain there would have been a failure if. the. 

 queens had not been wet. 



I then determined to go a little farther, and drown the queen till' 

 apparently dead, and to put it to the severest test by giving a queen 

 to a colony immediately upon the removal of its own queen. I took 

 from a strong colony a queen that was in full laying, and gave it a 

 laying queen from a nucleus, with no delay except the time spent in 

 drowning the queen introduced — possibly three or four minutes. The 

 queen was kept in water till she curled up as if dead. Then I laid her 

 on the top-bar of the colony from which I had just removed the queen. 

 The bees went to licking her just as they would their own queen, and 



