IS 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



209 



attractive as tinted mosquito-netting im- 

 proves a basket of peaches when spread over 

 them. 



R. F. Holtermann says, p. 1494, "If I had 

 honey dew once outside of a hive I would 

 keep it there." Hold a moment, my friend. 

 I want to tell you something. That honey- 

 dew is worthless — yes, worse than worthless 

 — to sell for honey for food. I should not 

 want to sell it even to the bakers; and as to 

 making vinegar, it will be honey-dew vine- 

 gar, aud you had better not sell that. Some 

 twelve or fifteen years ago we hnd a season 

 here in which the bees the last of August and 

 early wSpptember filled their hives almost sol- 

 id with honny-dew (insect) honey. Of course, 

 I lost heavily the following winter, and had 

 the next spring thoi:s;inds of pounds of this 

 dreadful honey-dew out of their hives. What 

 did I do with it? Why, I just saved it care- 

 fully and fed it in spring for several years to 

 colonies that were short of stores, or for 

 stimulating brood-rearing. I don't see but it 

 was worth as much as other honey for that 

 purpose. 



All honor to Gov. Frank Hanly, A. I. Root, 

 and a host of men and women who are fight- 

 ing to overthrow the liquor-traflBc. For many 

 years they have been the butt of ridicule for 

 politicians, saloon-keepers, and fools; but the 

 tide has turned, and now half of our coun- 

 try is under wholesome prohibitive laws. 

 Soon it will be very respectable to be on the 

 side of tfmperance. Already saloon-keepers 

 are tolling bells as they close their saloons 

 for good, and I have read of one who actual- 

 ly committed suicide, as the outlook for his 

 business was so bad. The strongholds of the 

 enemy are falling thick and fast. 



Well, what has all this to do with bee-keep- 

 ing? Just this: When the hundreds of thou- 

 ands or millions of women and children who 

 now go hungry because of this wicked traffic 

 shall have bread enough to supply their wants 

 they will want honey to go with it, and there 

 will be money enough to buy it. There will 

 then be no lack of market for all the honey 

 we can produce, and at good prices too. 

 Shall we not discern the signs of the times? 



ANOTHER BEE-PRESERVE. 



President Roosevelt has just signed a 

 proclamation which will have the effect of 

 creating the Verde National Forest. It is 

 situated in Maricopa and Yavapai Counties, 

 Arizona, on the west side of the Verde River. 

 It has been deemed wise to set aside this 

 land with a view to protecting the flow of 

 water in the Verde River. It has been in- 

 dorsed by the Reclamatitm Service. The 

 "trees" are said to lie valueless oy lumber- 

 men; but bee-keepers are probably well sat- 

 isfied wiih them, seeing they are mostly nec- 

 tar-yielders of no mean order. It is also 

 probable some valuable timber tree will be 

 found to thrive there, very likely one of the 

 eucalypts. w. k. m. 



QUEEN REARING. 



Should the Honey producer Rear his Queens 

 or Buy them? Using Extra Cells from 

 Colonies that Cast Swarms only Perpetu- 

 ates the Swarming Tendency. 



BY E. W. ALEXANDER. 



Frequently I am asked whether it pays a 

 producer to rear his own queens. This is a 

 rather hard question to answer, for so much 

 depends on the ability of that producer, and 

 on his experience in rearing good queens. 

 Many circumstances also have a bearing on 

 the subject, such as the number of quejrs 

 required annually, the kind of honey pro- 

 duced, whether comb or extracted, the time 

 the surplus is secured, and the liability of 

 the young queens mating with undesirable 

 dnmes. All these circumstances and many 

 more should be well considered before the 

 producer decides to rear his queens. If he 

 has but few colonies, and is anxious to learn 

 all he can about bee-keeping, without any 

 regard to the amount of surplus he may se- 

 cure, then I would advise him to purchase a 

 good breeding-queen and learn as soon as 

 possible how to rear choice queens. In that 

 way his experience will be worth much to 

 him as long as he continues to keep bees. 



One of the worst troubles in rearing a 

 large number of choice early queens here at 

 the North is our cold backward spring 

 weather. We use about 400 young queens a 

 • year in our apiary, and have tried many 

 times to rear them during the latter part of 

 May and fore part; of June, so as to have 

 them laying about June 10; but it is almost 

 impossible to rear so many good queens at 

 that season of the year. If we wait till the 

 latter part of June to rear them, then the 

 bees from these queens are of but little use 

 as honey- gatherers until after the best of the 

 harvest is over. So we find it much better 

 to pay considerable money each year for 

 our queens instead of trying to rear them. 



About the first of December we gave a 

 noted queen breeder our order for 400 queens, 

 to be sent us between the 1st and 20th of 

 June next. It requires time, bees, skill, and 

 honey to rear good queens; and when they 

 can be bought for from $65 to $75 per hun- 

 dred, and extracted honey is worth 7 and 8 

 cents per lb. by the carload, it does not pay 

 to sacrifice much surplus in order to rear 

 queens. 



When the ordinary honey-producer at- 

 tempts to rear his queens he is very apt to 

 make some serious mistakes, partly through 

 ignorance and partly through a lack of time 



