1048 



GLEANINGS IN BEt CULTURE 



Sept. 1 



per colony, so far. The best yielder has given, 

 so far, 216 sections. It will have to go 84 sec- 

 tions better than that if it matches the champion 

 of the year 1903. I'm a little afraid heartsease 

 will not do much this year, for the drouth was 

 not conducive to a good start. 



I WONDER if one of the signs of queenlessness 

 has ever appeared in print. Suppose you have a 

 colony thought to be queenless to which you 

 wish to introduce a queen. There is often a dan- 

 ger that, by some hook or crook, a virgin queen 

 may be present, perhaps reared from a cell that 

 has been missed, perhaps an interloper from else- 

 where. If you find honey in pretty much all 

 cells in the brood-nest not already filled with 

 brood, you may feel fairly safe to introduce your 

 queen. If, on the other hand, you find these 

 cells empty, and polished so they shine, ten to 

 one there's something in the hive that the bees 

 respect as a queen. If you find honey in work- 

 er-cells, and drone-cells empty and shining, the 

 bees are likely to have been queenless for some 

 time, and perhaps laying workers are in contem- 

 plation. [You are orthodox in all you say. We 

 use these signs in connection with other evidences 

 that may or may not be present in determining 

 the condition of the colony; but, strangely 

 enough, very little, comparatively, has been made 

 in print of the fact whether the worker-cells have 

 been filled with honey or are empty and polish- 

 ed up clean. If polished, and no eggs are in 

 them, it indicates that a virgin is present and will 

 probably lay soon. Or the condition may show 

 that a laying queen has just been let loose from 

 a cage and will soon deposit eggs. — Eu.] 



The lazy way of introducing queens mention- 

 ed on page 987 still proves successful, but begin- 

 ners should be warned that it will do only with a 

 strong colony, and in hot weather. A queen at 

 the entrance of a nucleus, or even at the entrance 

 of a strong colony in a cold spell, would be chill- 

 ed. An illustration of the convenience of the 

 plan comes very pat. After I had written the 

 first part of this Straw it occurred to me that 

 there were seven queens that had now been im- 

 prisoned three days at hive-entrances, and that it 

 was time to let the bees at the candy. The whole 

 job, from the time I left the house till I was back 

 in, took just 15 minutes. As the day is rainy, 

 no bees flying, to have opened up those seven 

 hives, taking off and returning their supers, would 

 have been something of an undertaking. [Intro- 

 ducing at the entrance may require more than hot 

 weather or a strong colony, to be successful. If 

 there is a dearth of honey the situation might be 

 complicated. Elsewhere in these Straws you say 

 that honey has been and still is coming in, or 

 was at the time of your writing. Under such a 

 condition a colony is very tractable, and almost 

 any plan of introducing will work. We would 

 not advise beginners, at least, to practice the 

 "lazy way" after the honey-flow, with a colony 

 weak or strong. — Ed.] 



"When the robbers are once trapped they 

 should be taken to an isolated location or brim- 

 stoned. Having once acquired the stealing hab- 

 it they will do tenfold more damage in a beeyard 

 than they can ever do good." That, on p. 989, 

 is in accordance with the general belief, " Once a 

 robber, always a robber. " There's something in 



it, but not nearly so much as 1 once believed. I 

 suppose theie are bees which have become so 

 addicted to robbing that the best thing to do with 

 them is to kill them. But the beginner should 

 not get the idea that it is a wise thing to kill any 

 bee he finds robbing. Any worker old enough 

 to be a fielder will rob if conditions are right. 

 But once robbing does not make an inveterate 

 robber. Given the right chance when no honey 

 is to be had in the field, and I suppose that any 

 field bee in my possession would rob. But I 

 doubt if a single bee of mine is such an inveter- 

 ate robber that its death would be a gain. In 

 the spring I've had more than one case of a weak 

 queenless colony attacked by robbers. If I let 

 it alone till all the honey is cleaned out, no harm 

 will follow, and the robbers will live honest lives 

 ever after — unless some fool bee-keeper puts 

 temptation in their way. If I should fasten the 

 robbers in the hive when it is filled with them, 

 and should brimstone them, it would simply mean 

 the practical loss of a colony of good bees. In 

 harvest time, if a sudden break comes, from rain 

 or otherwise, if there's any chance for it, a bad 

 case of robbing will be started, and robbers will 

 be trying all cracks all over the yard. Next day, 

 with a renewed flow of nectar, honey may stand 

 exposed by the hour, and not a robber trouble. 

 The robbers of yesterday are no longer robbers, 

 but honest bees. The great thing is to avoid 

 offering temptation to steal in a time of scarcity. 

 Same with folks. [What you say is true if a 

 honey-flow is soon to come on. But after the 

 flow, and there is a prospect of a long dearth, then 

 the statement that " a bee once a robber al- 

 ways a robber" still holds good providing, also, 

 there are hives to be opened often, or weak nuclei 

 in the yard. Experience teaches us in our queen- 

 rearing operations that a dead robber is worth 

 much more dead than alive. For the beginner, 

 at least, we still think that a robber-trap should 

 be used for all seasons — especially if his yard is 

 located near a highway. — Ed.] 



General Manager France, in a circular of 

 Aug. 10, quotes: " Prices asked for same, 15 cts. 

 fancy comb retail; 12% wholesale; car lots, 11 to 

 12; extracted fancy clover, 10 cts. retail; 8 whole- 

 sale; ~ Yz in car lots." I'm afraid, friend France, 

 that this pronunciamento was not sufficiently con- 

 sidered. I don't believe conditions warrant any 

 such tumble in prices. You've had a big crop. 

 So have I. But " there are others. " Those who 

 have had failures are not blowing like you and 

 me. Bro. Doolittle says basswood, their great 

 reliance in that locality, was almost a total fail- 

 ure. But the fact is not advertised in big head- 

 lines. There's no bumper crop in California. 

 When best comb is 17 in San Francisco, do you 

 think it ought to be only 12 '-2 in Chicago? Nor 

 do honey-market reports in bee-journals support 

 your figures. Look at Gleanings, page 976. 

 Those who give quotations there are not bulling 

 the market, for they are largely buyers. The 

 average quotation for best comb is 14^2, or 2 

 cts. above you. You see we all have a lot of 

 confidence in you, and I'm afraid that some, 

 trusting your figures, will get less for their honey 

 than they are entitled to. [In our opinion Dr. 

 Miller is right. Let the reader consult the hon- 

 ey market in this issue, as well as the reference 

 on page 976. Apparently, conditions at present 



