1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



741 



The superintendent is Mr. M. V. Facey, one of 

 the best-informed bee-Iceepers in this country. 

 It ought to be noted that the Minnesota authori- 

 ties are broad and liberal minded, for they have 

 thrown open the competition to the entire world. 

 They surely deserve a splendid response to their 

 generous invitation. The bee-keepers' exhibits 

 ought to be one of the features of the fair. 



w. K. M. 



COMB HONEY LEFT OVER FROM LAST SEASON, AND 

 WHY. 



There would not have been a pound of comb 

 honey left on the market if producers had made 

 an effort to sell it before the holidays. A lot of 

 it is held over and is now begging a customer. 

 It will be sold as the season opens up again, but 

 at a very low price. Comb honey more than a 

 year old is usually a poor seller. 



parcels post. 

 Senator Carter has succeeded in having the 

 bill creating a parcels-post service set down as a 

 special order for December 14th, next. This in- 

 sures having the whole question come to a vote, 

 when we all shall see who is for and who against. 

 It was evident there would be no opportunity for 

 a discussion this session, so Senator Carter asked 

 for a special order with the before-mentioned re- 

 sult, w. K. M. 



what are prices going to be for the current 

 year.? 

 This is a hard question to answer. Early in- 

 dications showed prospects of a good crop of hon- 

 ey in Texas and California; but the realities are 

 reported to have fallen short of the expectation. 

 The clover district promises a big crop. The 

 conditions are certainly ideal for a fine flow, and 

 if there should be a heavy crop of white clover 

 and basswood in the rain-belt it may make prices 

 in the East ease up somewhat, especially if gen- 

 eral hard times hang on. 



KEEPING the CAUCASIANS UNDER CONTROL. 



We are having quite a time in keeping our 

 Caucasians under control at our south yard. 

 They raise drones as fast as we can trap them and 

 destroy them, even when they have nothing but 

 worker comb. We fear the consequences of let- 

 ting them get the start of us, if it should develop 

 later that they are not desirable. What do we 

 think of them at this time.? We don't know. 

 They are good honey-gatherers apparently, but 

 are great oropolizers and not as gentle as they 

 might be. The first importations seemed to be 

 much quieter than the later ones. 



MUST BE PURE BEESWAX. 



A committee of the Brooklyn Retail Grocers' 

 Association, headed by President Lohmann, held 

 a conference last week with the New York State 

 Board of Pharmacy with reference to their bees- 

 wax prosecutions of grocers. It was brought out 

 that the Board was desirous of stopping the sale 

 of "ironing wax" as pure beeswax, whenever the 

 ironing wax is merely a compound. The gro- 



cers' representatives made it clear that the trade 

 at large is innocent of any intent to deceive the 

 public in the matter, and it was pointed out that 

 the grocers' associations were ready to co-operate 

 for the purpose of securing honest methods of dis- 

 tributing groceries of all kinds. — American Grocer. 



WILL THERE BE ANY SAGE HONEY FROM SOUTHERN 

 CALIFORNIA.? 



The reports we have received from some of 

 our leading bee-keepers, especially in the vicinity 

 of Los Angeles, have been discouraging. The 

 following clipping sent us by a subscriber seems 

 to tell another story: 



HONEY CROP TO BE A BUMPER. 



The honey crop of this season in this county promises to be a 

 bumper. Estimates that have been made up show that the total 

 will be not less than 50 cars, and the figures may run consider- 

 ably above that figure. 



In fact, the bee-men report that it has been one of the best 

 seasons for honey-gathering that the valley has had for several 

 years past. It has been neither too hot nor too cold for the bees 

 to do their best work, and there has been an abundance of bloom 

 for the honey-gatherers to work upon all the latter part of the 

 winter and spring. 



The same story comes from all of Southern California. River- 

 side Co. is also expected to produce 50 cars, and San Diego Co. 

 will do as well. Other Southern California counties have good 

 crops, so that the total for the seven southern counties will foot 

 up 300 cars or more, it is believed. The average crop is consid- 

 erably below that figure. 



All together it has been a very prosperous year for the Southern 

 California bee-men. 



In view of the reports we have received from 

 bee-keepers direct, we are inclined to discredit 

 this somewhat. We are inserting it, however; 

 and if those who are in position to know any 

 thing about the real state of affairs in Southern 

 California will please write us at once we shall 

 appreciate it. 



DIFFERENCE IN TEMPERAMENT BETWEEN COLO- 

 NIES. 



What a difference there is in bees in regard to 

 temperament! Some colonies must be handled 

 with the utmost care, while others, without regard 

 to race even, will stand almost any kind of rough 

 treatment. The other day we struck one colony 

 that came near making us beat an inglorious re- 

 treat; but we stood our ground, using plenty of 

 smoke. The sun had gone down, and the at- 

 mosphere was dropping slightly. While bees 

 generally are more vindictive under such circum- 

 stances, this particular colony was exasperatingly 

 so. 



The very next hive we opened, the bees were 

 as quiet as kittens. We kicked and bumped it, 

 but it was still quiet. We ripped out the combs 

 and replaced them with a bang, and still the bees 

 were quiet. The funny thing about it was that 

 the queens of both colonies were reared from the 

 same blood. They were both well-marked Ital- 

 ians. We surmised from the tendency to run to 

 four bands that the queen of the cross colony had 

 been mated to one of those golden drones that 

 have been the cause of some of our peppery bees,'' 

 while the other queen was undoubtedly mated 

 to an ordinary leather-colored drone of imported 

 extraction. The cross queen we shall sell as a 

 hybrid if we sell her at all. We are wondering 

 if it wouldn't be a sin even to gi've her away. 



*We aim to keep our black and cross bees at one yard; name- 

 ly, the south yard. 



