1909 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 11 



AS THE ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT SEES IT 



QUEEN-REARING IN 1909. 



This season so fai- has been an unusually oood one for queen-breeders in 

 point of orders, but somewhat discouraging for the production of stock. A cool 

 backward spring has been pretty general all over tlie country, and southern 

 breeders have suffered almost as much as those further north. Bee-keepers 

 needing early stock have usually been able to get queens from the South, but 

 this season it has been impossible to get queens from any source until within 

 the past two weeks or so. One of the largest breeders in the South reported 

 that all the cells of his first batch were chilled and lost, and similar reports have 

 reached us from time to time from many of the large breeders who are usually 

 able to supply hundreds of queens during April and May. One of the largest 

 (jueen-breeders in the North wrote us a day or two ago that he was losing a 

 large per cent of his queens in mating. Such conditions are absolutely beyond 

 control, and yet it is exasperating to the bee-keeper and queen-breeder alike. 

 The warm days of the past week or ten days will probably relieve the situation 

 to a great extent, and we anticipate that breeders will soon be able to supply 

 queens by return mail as usual. 



Now, while you may have waited for your queens until your patience is 

 very nearly exhausted, we suggest that you do not cancel your order with one 

 breeder in the hope of getting your stock more promptly from another source. 

 This is especially true if you have placed your order with an established breed- 

 er who is usually prompt in filling orders, and who, you have reason to believe, 

 is doing the best he can to get to your order. It may be that the breeder was 

 planning to mail your cjueens on the very day your cancellation is received; and 

 to place your order with some one else and take your turn would, perhaps, mean 

 a delay of a week or two. In most cases, if you need a queen or two to save a 

 colony you can get them by return mail by ordering tested stock. This costs a 

 little more, but the extra expenditure is warranted if one wants to save an es- 

 pecially fine colony. 



To the breeders we want to say that, while we appreciate their difficulties, 

 we must urge that every effort be made to fill orders promptly at this season of 

 the year. It is useless to depend upon getting extra stock outside of your yard; 

 for with the scarcity of queens this means more delay; and it is better to return 

 the customers' remittance at once with a frank statement of your inability to fill 

 the order promptly than to accept the order if you do not have plans which vvill 

 enable you to fill the order within a reasonable time. Barring further disap- 

 pointments, we presume all breeders will be well caught up on orders by the 

 2.')th of this month. 



