Gleanings In Bee Culture 



Published by The A. I. Root Co., Medina, Ohio 



H. H. Root, Assistant Editor E. R. Root, Editor A. L. Boyden, Advertising Manager 



A. I. Root, Editor Home Department J. T. Calvert, Business Manager 



Entered at the rostoftlce. Medina. Ohio, as Second-class Matter. 



VOL. XXXVII 



OCTOBER 15, 1909 



NO. 20 



Editorial 



By E. R. Root. 



In our locality the frost has held off; in 

 fact, we have not had any worth mentioning 

 up to this date, Oct. 11. This is rather un- 

 usual. It may mean a severe winter when 

 it does come; for nature seems to have a 

 fashion of balancing up one extreme with 

 another in this matter of weather conditions. 



HONEY-CROP CONDITIONS AND PRICES. 



There is nothing new to report beyond 

 what we have already given in these columns, 

 except that there is a light crop of clear white 

 Kastern honey. Western alfalfa may be 

 shorter than the first reports showed. The 

 market should rule firm. The weather is 

 becoming a little cooler, and now is the time, 

 if it ever does, that honey ought to reach its 

 maximum price. 



A SCHEME FOR RELEASING A BALLED QUEEN. 



At this time of the year a good many queens 

 will be introduced to replace old and failing- 

 ones; and it sometimes happens that the new 

 queen will be balled. Mr. Pritchard, of our 

 north yard, has practiced with considerable 

 satisfaction the scheme of squirting sweet- 

 ened water from a spring-top oiler on the 

 mass of angry bees. This so disconcerts 

 them, he says, that the ball begins to melt 

 away, and the bees begin to lick off each 

 other and the new queen also, apparently 

 forgetting their matricidal intent. All goes 

 on well thereafter. 



IS HONEY-DEW FIT FOR A WINTER FOOD? 



A COUPLE of our correspondents inquire 

 why we condemn honey-dew for winter food. 

 One of them, a prominent bee-keeper, says 

 he will take his chances on it for his bees. 



What would be a safe policy for an old 

 veteran to pursue might be a dangerous one 

 for a beginner. In offering the advice to re- 

 move the dark honey-dew and feed sugar 

 syrup we had in mind beginners. The vet- 

 erans, we always consider, will use their 

 own judgment as to whether it would be 

 good policy to follow the line of our recom- 

 mendations or not. Whether honey-dew of 

 the dark sort will bring on dysentery in a 

 wholesale way this coming winter and spring 

 \^iIl depend largely on tne winter and the 



kind of housing or protection the bees have. 

 A severe winter with poor conditions would 

 mean a greater probability of dysentery with 

 honey-dew than with a good quality of sugar 

 stores. In a good many cases the honey-dew 

 can be sold for the price of sugar syrup; and 

 there can be no question but that the latter 

 is a much superior food, and at a fairly even 

 trade it should be by all means given. 



THE SHAKE-OUT METHOD OF INTRODUCING 



QI'EENS. 



In our issue for September 15, p. 556, we 

 spoke of the fact that Mr. Mell Fritchard, 

 who has charge of our north yard, had been 

 very successful with the shake-out method 

 of introducing queens; namely, by shaking 

 the motherless bees off the combs in front 

 of the entrance, and dropping the queen to 

 be introduced among them as they rush for 

 the hive. We have been testing this plan at 

 our south yard. On the first three or four 

 queens the scheme worked admirably; but 

 on the next lot, another day, three out of 

 four of the queens were subsequently found 

 missing. Until we can try it further we 

 would suggest caution, not using it on queens 

 of any great value. 



Later. — Since writing the foregoing we 

 have had a talk with Mr. Pritchard. On com- 

 paring notes we find that he used this meth- 

 od only on colonies that had long been queen- 

 less; while we, on the other hand, killed the 

 old queen, and at the same operation shook 

 all the bees out and released the new queen 

 as they ran in. While it proved successful 

 on the first lot of queens so introduced it 

 was a practical failure on the next lot. Per- 

 haps tne average reader will say we ought 

 to nave known better; but as it was gettmg 

 late we wished to put the method to a severe 

 test. If it stood this test it ought to be good 

 at any time. 



NEARLY THREE THOUSAND QUEENS FROM ONE 

 YARD. 



At our north yard, our Mr. Mell Pritchard, 

 with a boy to help him during the heaviest 

 part of the season, raised 2873 queens, begin- 

 ning about the middle of May and ending the 

 first of October. Of this number, 2574 were 

 laying queens; the rest, 299, virgins. The 

 cells were raised in full colonies under what 

 might be called the swarming impulse pro- 

 duced artificially. The queens were mated 

 in what are called twin baby nuclei. A tight- 

 fitting division-board separates two sets of 



