APRIL 1, 1913 



THAT SCHEME FOR BRANDING QUEENS. 



In this issue Mr. H. Bartlett-Miller tells 

 of a scheme for branding queens — that is to 

 say, painting them- with a brush so that 

 they may be instantly recognized on the 

 frames among other bees. The scheme looks 

 like a good one, and it will be especially 

 valuable where black bees or dark hybrids 

 are used. Where bees are put "on the run," 

 the queen is pretty sure to join in the gen- 

 eral " skedaddle," making it almost impos- 

 sible to find her. A little dab of color on 

 her back and wings would help out very 

 materially. With ordinary medium-strength 

 colonies of Italians, Caucasians, or Car- 

 niolans it seems to us that it would hardly 

 be necessary to go to the trouble of brand- 

 ing the queen. In the case of bees of quiet 

 behavior it is not difficult to find the queen- 

 mother. The ordinary practiced eye will 

 catch her almost as soon as she comes in 

 sight. 



According to our corresi^ondent it takes 

 considerable time and skill to do this brand- 

 ing. The time consumed in doing this 

 work in the first place apparently would 

 about equal the extra time that might be 

 required to find the queen without the col- 

 ored markings; so we should say it is about 

 an even stand off, with the advantage in 

 favor of no branding. While Mr. Bartlett- 

 Miller reports the marking with color seems 

 to have no bad effect, yet we should be very 

 much afraid that, in the case of valuable 

 queens, the bees later on might ball them. 

 And is it not true that the color would wear 

 off in the case of a good layer? 



OUR SYMPOSIUM ON EXTRACTING. 



We take pleasure in presenting in this 

 number our symposium on the subject of 

 extracting, in both a large and a small way ; 

 in fact, covering the whole field from the 

 standpoint of the latest developments. It 

 will be noticed that each of our correspon- 

 dents works in a slightly different way 

 from the others. There are some who pre- 

 fer small hand machines, and others who 

 recommend and use the large power outfits, 

 either centrally located or pcytable. Mr. 

 R. F. Holtermann has the largest extractor 

 in the world. Of course we haA'e not for- 

 gotten the 24-frame non-reversible machine 

 made for Mr. Osborn, of Cuba, some twelve 

 or fifteen years ago. But apparently this 

 was too much of a good thing. The ma- 

 chine used by Mr. Holtermann is as large 

 as is practicable to make a machine. 



The advantage of a large machine over a 

 small one is that the combs can be kept re- 



2&3 



volving for a longer period of time. The 

 longer the frames can be kept on a whirl, 

 the dryer they will become. Small ma- 

 cliines, unless the combs are kept in them 

 for the same length of time, would make 

 the process of taking a given amount of 

 extracted honey too slow. Combs that are 

 verj' wet contain too much honey to go back 

 into the hives. Some large producers be- 

 lieve that the residue of honey sticking to 

 tlie combs just extracted is not all put back 

 in the combs, but that much of it is simply 

 wasted by the bees eating more than they 

 require, just as their owners sometimes do 

 on Christmas and holidays. 



There was a time when many large pro- 

 ducers seemed to jirefer one large central 

 power extracting station, and carrying the 

 combs to and from the outyards. Apparent- 

 ly they are beginning to find that it is more 

 economical to carry the extracting outfit than 

 the combs. There are still others who have 

 a small maclrine and a complete outfit at 

 each outyard. But Mr. R. F. Holtermann 

 appears to be one of the large producers 

 wlio carries a big power outfit with him 

 from yard to yard, and he has made a suc- 

 cess of it. While a 12-frame machine is 

 more difficult to move, yet with the right 

 kind of planning it can be used at all the 

 outyards together with the requisite equip- 

 ments. Mr. Holtermann's article deserves 

 careful reading, as he is woi"king out a new 

 proposition — that is, whether a large 12- 

 frame power-driven outfit is more efficient 

 carried from j^ard to yard than two eight- 

 frame machines driven by one engine. This 

 is a big cpestion. Human labor is the most 

 expensive factor that the beekeeper has to 

 deal with. The larger the capacity of the 

 outfit relatively, the less the cost of remov- 

 ing the honey from the combs, providing, 

 of course, a plan has been carefully work- 

 ed out, so that there will be no false mo- 

 tions and no waste of time on the part of 

 several men waiting on one man. The se- 

 cret of managing help is to plan the work 

 so that all the men will be busy — so that 

 each one on arrival at the yard will know 

 just what his duty is, and a good boss will 

 see that every man makes every minute 

 count. 



There are several other equally good 

 articles in this number that will bear care- 

 ful reading; for we believe that we never 

 published any issue of Gleanings that has 

 had more real trade secrets in it than are 

 given in this symposium. The big men have 

 been big enough to tell their fellow-com- 

 petitors their own tricks of the trade. Of 

 course none of them will ever lose by it, and 

 each will be the gainer. 



