1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



159 



up this WO' k again next spring. I have long 

 since founci that bees can be manipulated 

 with less annoyance early in the season, par- 

 ticularly during fruit-bloom, than at any oth- 

 er time, and possibly I may succeed then in 

 mating queens separated from the laying 

 queen by perforated metal. 



THE MATING-BOX NOT ALTOGETHER SATIS- 

 FACTORY. 



So far I have had all my queens mated in 

 small mating- boxes during the clover-honey 

 season. This is somewhat expensive, as 

 a number of colonies will have to be broken 

 up to form the small swarms necessary, and 

 we do not obtain any surplus from them. 

 What I desire is a perfectly safe method to 

 rear queens in upper stories or within the 

 hive somewhere with the old queen present 

 and doing business. The very fact that bee- 

 keepers and queen-breeders everywhere 

 make use of nuclei and mating- boxes proves 

 that they have not been any more successful 

 than I have been in rearing queens without 

 them. If a sure method were known, the 

 mating-box system would be abandoned. It 

 is perfectly practical to have the queen cells 

 built over an excluder in good strong colo- 

 nies, but with me only a few queens begin to 

 lay eggs. They come up missing generally. 

 When the queens needed are reared in the 

 same yard, even when the mating-box sys- 

 tem is used, the introduction of them to oth- 

 er colonies during the honey season is sim- 

 ple, and reasonably sure. All we have to do 

 is to remove the old queen and allow the new 

 queen (fertile) to run from the comb of the 

 mating hive over into a brood-comb from the 

 other, right in among the bees. A queen 

 heavy with eggs is accepted very readily, 

 while one with a reduced or shrunken abdo- 

 men is objected to. The bees detect the 

 difference between their old queen heavy with 

 eggs and the one which has been kept out of 

 the hive for even an hour or two. Such 

 queens I can not introduce without caging; 

 and the longer the queen to be introduced 

 has been kept out of the hive the longer she 

 will have to be confined in the cage before 

 the bees may be expected to treat her kind- 

 ly. If it can be so arranged that the queen 

 is liberated by the bees during the night, all 

 the better. The bees are so accustomed to 

 the fact that strange bees nsver enter their 

 hive and home during the night time that 

 they take it for granted every thing must be 

 right, and so they accept the new queen 

 without molesting her. 



Naples, New York. 



THE JANUARY MEETING OF THE 



MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY OF 



BEE-KEEPERS, 



BY X. A. REED. 



At the January meeting of the Massachu- 

 setts Society of Bee-keepers, in the absence 

 of any regular speaker several topics were 

 brought up for discussion. 



Honey of different Havors was mentioned. 

 A distinct flavor of spruce was noted where 



the bees had visited the buds of spruce-trees. 

 An acid taste in apple-blossom honey had al- 

 so been found. 



A very interesting account was given by 

 Mr Chase concerning the origin and use of 

 the pound and two-pound section boxes in 

 Massachusetts. In the 60'3 he took a frame 

 of excellent honey to Boston, calling to see if 

 more was wanted. He found that even that 

 was not sold. No one would buy five or 

 six pounds of honey at once; and, realizing 

 the fact that, if bee-keepers in Massachusetts 

 wanted to sell their honey, it must be in some 

 convenient form, he and Mr. Gould, of Ips- 

 wich, made suitable one and two pound sec- 

 tions, and in 1»63 Mr. Gould sold a ton and 

 a half of surplus honey. 



Miss Cutter, of Princeton, gave her experi- 

 ence with the seventeen-frame Latham hive 

 from which she obtained 111 lbs. of honey 

 while her other colonies gave her no surplus. 



As a result of his observations on weather 

 conditions, Mr. Small, of Waltham, stated 

 that the bees in spring and in early summer, 

 and even in the fall, when asters are in bloom, 

 work better when the nights are cold (almost 

 frosty) if the temperature rises rapidly in the 

 early morning. His theory is that the nec- 

 tar is secreted by the flowers more rapidly, 

 and is of a better quality under such condi- 

 tions. The weather that, in early spring, 

 causes a good flow of maple sap will, later, 

 make the nectar more abundant. 



A discussion as to the best kind of bees for 

 both comb and extracted honey resulted in 

 no agreement. The only point of harmony 

 was that the Italians surpass the blacks and 

 hybrids in gentleness. 



This was our third meeting and it showed 

 an increase over the first afternoon, there 

 being twenty-one members present. 



Our next meeting will be the first Satur- 

 day in February, in the evening, at the Ford 

 Building, corner Ashburton Place and Bow- 

 doin Street, at 7 :30. These meetings should 

 be attended by all members, as there are 

 only three more "unless otherwise ordered." 

 We expect to receive some new members at 

 this meeting, and hope to see a lot of the old 

 ones. 



Belmont, Mass. 



THE NEW YORK PURE-FOOD SHOW. 



A PURE- FOOD show will be held in the 

 Lenox Lyceum, March 26 to April 16. It 

 will be managed and financed by the New 

 York Retail Grocers' Union under the per- 

 sonal direction of Mr. L. J. Callahan. This 

 show ought to be a great success, as the 

 forces benind it are of a solid and reliable 

 kind, not easily discouraged or defeated. 

 Besides, New York is the best place in the 

 country for such a show, and the Lenox Ly- 

 ceum is central to the wealthiest class of 

 buyers in America Fancy honey ought to 

 be very much in evidence at this show, as it 

 gives a unique opportunity to impress the 

 public with the superlative value of honey 

 as a food. w. k. m. 



