March. 1914. 



American l^ee Journal 



that the country is overstocked ex- 

 cept in some isolated spots. 



1 doubt very much if we can lay 

 much stress on the unprofitableness 

 of beekeeping when the industry is 

 carried on with any degree of desire 

 to succeed on the part of the bee- 

 keeper. At least it should pay a fair 

 interest on investment besides paying 

 for labor and other e-xpenses. 



I do not think that there is as 

 much danger from the spread of di- 

 seases at the hands of the beginner as 

 there is at the hands of the older, 

 but shiftless, beekeeper: the one who 

 never reads a bee book or bee paper 

 but who "knows all about robbin' 

 gums." The beginner is apt to read 

 thoroughly all he can get on the in- 

 dustry and be ready for the emerg- 

 ency, should it present itself. 



Let us now turn to the argument 

 advanced by Mr. Byer that "there is 

 an overproduction of honey." In the 

 first place I do not think that the so- 

 called i>ro<hictiou of honey is analog- 

 ous with the production of other food 

 stuffs from the fact that we do not 

 actually produce honey.. We simply 

 keep bees that they may gather it. 

 The nectar is produced by nature. It 

 is there whether it is gathered or not. 

 Why, then, not encourage the gather- 

 ing of this article which otherwise 

 goes to waste? Why not increase the 

 amount of honey available even if 

 such increase means a reduction in 

 price? The reduction should be bet- 

 ter for the people should it not? In 

 the second place, I do not think that 

 the prices of honey in Ontario war- 

 rant the statement that there is an 

 overproduction. There is at present a 

 stiff duty on honey importation into 

 Canada. In fact the price difference. 

 between the United States markets 

 and those of Ontario, ranks well 

 above two cents a pound on extracted 

 honey. At least some beekeepers in 

 the States are making headway at the 

 lower price. The solution for Mr. 

 Byer is to reduce the price at which 

 he is holding his honey, or else in- 

 crease the efficiency of the marketing 

 end of heekeeping. To my mind this 

 latter channel, proper marketing, will 

 entirely relieve any tendencies of over 

 supply. 



I see no reason, therefore, for not 

 encouraging beginners unless \re look 

 at the matter from a selfish stand- 

 point. If we look at it in this way, 

 then no one should be encouraged to 

 go into any industry. It is possibly 

 this reason which has led to the legis- 

 lation in Imperial County, California, 

 where tons of honey go to waste, yet 

 there is a strict quarantine against 

 bees coming in, be they healthy or di- 

 seased, as explained by Mr. J. E. Ross 

 in his article in "Western Honey Bee" 

 for December. 



There are reasons why we should 

 encourage beginners. There is the 

 humanitarian reason. The more hon- 

 ey there is on the market, the cheaper 

 it will be, and the better it will he for 

 the bulk of the people. I think very 

 few will gainsay that honey is better 

 for the human family than sugar and 



that it would be a blessing if it re- 

 placed the latter in a larger number 

 of instances. 



In numbers there is strength. The 

 more people you have interested in 

 beekeeping, the more apt they will be 

 to secure desired legislation. I 

 wonder if legislation is not apt to be 

 a little easier obtainable since Mr- 

 Pettit increased the ranks of Ontario 

 members from a few hundred to 

 considerably over a thousand? 



We would not have the beginner 

 take up territory used for vegetable 

 growing or cotton raising. We would 

 simply encourage him to make use of 

 some of the sweets deposited by na- 

 ture, to share with his family the 

 treat of a honey spread instead of the 

 commonly used Karo. He would in 

 fact aid the vegetable growers in- 

 stead of taking from their territory 

 since the added number of bees would 

 mean added chances tor proper ferti- 

 lization of blossoms. 



To my mind there are only two 

 strong: reasons for not encouraging 

 beginners in beekeeping: selfishness 

 and overstocking. We can skip the 

 first one. The latter I do not think 

 we are in danger of, at least for a 

 generation or two. Dr. Kramer of the 

 German "Verein" has 9.543 beekeepers 

 as his followers in Switzerland, and 

 they all seem to succeed too. In this 

 proportion, how many beekeepers 

 could Ontario have without becoming 

 overstocked? 



Then who wants to have the en- 

 joyment incident to beekeeping all to 

 himself? Just think on those warm 

 spring days how nice it is to get out 

 and "putter" with those bees, look for 

 the queen, watch the first drones ap- 

 pear; and how fine are those big full 

 combs of brood just before clover 

 time! What anticipation there is in 

 the coming harvest! Not encourage the 

 beginner? If you look at it from the 

 pleasure side, you ought to get a 

 donkey-engine and pnll him in. 



Doubling the Yield of Surplus 

 Honey 



BY G. C. GREINER. 



FOR YEARS it has been my aim to 

 emulate the average surplus honey 

 yields of such men as Geo. B. 

 Howe, G. M. Doolittle and other 

 prominent beekeepers, but in ex- 

 ceptional cases only could I reach their 

 figures. When Dr. Miller told of his 

 crops sometime ago, counting up so 

 many colonies with five supers, so 

 many with four, so many with three, 

 etc., when we lesser-light beekeepers 

 of second and third magnitude had to 

 be satified with one, two, occasionally 

 three and once in a great while with 

 four supers, I held locality responsi- 

 ble for this difference and to judge 

 from appearances, my opinion in this 

 respect is correctly formed. 



The fact that the above named gen- 

 tlemen laid great stress on breeding 

 up a "superior strain" of bees as a 

 means of increasing the yield of sur- 



plus honey, I could never consider of 

 as much consequence as they claim. 

 Their efforts in this direction may 

 have a tendency to produce vigorous 

 healthy queens by using improved, up- 

 to-date methods, but to breed a strain 

 of uniform heavy honey-gatherers, is 

 as impossible as to produce a race of 

 Jenny Linds, of Mozarts or of Schillers 

 and Goethes. These are freaks of 

 nature, beyond the reach of human 

 skill and ingenuity to produce. It 

 is the same with these extra heavy 

 yielders in the bee-line. What has 

 become of the progeny of those heavy- 

 yielding, high-priced breeders, of the 

 long-tongued clover queens, etc., of 

 which we have read occasionally? 

 They loom up on the horizon now and 

 then, illuminate the sky for a short 

 period and then like Halley's comet, 

 sink into oblivion. 



In my opinion, formed years ago, 

 the value of a queen in regard to hon- 

 ey gathering proclivities is governed 

 more by management and surrounding 

 conditions, than by breeding up a so- 

 called "superior strain." My exper- 

 ience of recent years strengthens my 

 position on this point. For instance: 

 On May 4th, when all the winter pack- 

 ing had been removed and the hives 

 arranged for summer handling, I 

 gave my bees their first thorough 

 spring examination. Among the 

 weaker ones I found one so reduced in 

 bees, that I considered them "beyond 

 help." In two comb spaces they cover- 

 ed a little patch about the size of a 

 person's hand, but the queen seemed 

 to be in fine condition; large, well de- 

 veloped, fine color, only one year old, 

 and, all in all, a desirable addition 

 to any apiary. I felt anxious to save 

 her, and as an experiment, I decided to 

 once more revive an old method by 

 exchanging this weak colony with a 

 strong one; a manipulation I practiced 

 more or less in former years, but not 

 always with satisfactory results. 



For this trial I selected a fairly 

 populous colony, but by no means an 

 extra good one, for I would not risk 

 one of my best swarms from which I 

 expected heavy yields, on uncertain- 

 ties. After the queen had been caged 

 48 hours she was readily accepted 

 when liberated and the way queen 

 and bees took the situation was re- 

 markable. Brood was started at 

 once; from day to day a decided pro- 

 gress could be noticed and about six 

 weeks later, when the white clover 

 flow began, it was one of my best 

 colonies. It produced during the 

 season 151 pounds of white and 63 

 pounds of dark, extracted honey, be- 

 sides 10 or l.T pounds in the conihs, 

 when the super was taken off at the 

 end of the season. 



If this queen had been left to de- 

 pend on her own resources it would 

 have taken her all summer, even un- 

 der the most favorable conditions, to 

 build up her little colony to wintering 

 condition, providing she had survived, 

 which was extremely doubtful. But 

 with the reenforcement of the flying 

 bees from the stronger colony and a 



