178 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



them, I do not remember who, stated that 

 Mr. Mclntyre, the well-known Californian 

 beekeeper, made it a point to buy queens 

 from queen-breeders who use large hives, as 

 he held that queens in such hives are likely 

 to be more prolific, and are likely to throw 

 progeny with better laying powers. 



Brantford, Ont. 



[The plan here described is similar to the 

 Alley method that was given some 25 or 30 

 years ago. The principal difference is in 

 the manner of giving the prepared comb to 

 the bees. Alley hung the comb in the reg- 

 ular way in the hive; but in the plan here 

 described, it is suspended ho7'izontally a,ho\e 

 the brood nest. 



If we are correct. Dr. E. F. Phillips, of the 

 Bureau of Entomology, gave this plan to 

 the York State beekeepers some two or three 

 years ago. Whether he or they originated 

 the idea of placing the comb horizontally 

 above the bees, we can not say. In any 

 event, the plan has the merit of avoiding 

 the use of queen cups and of grafting; and 

 in the hands of the average beekeeper it 

 would probably give better results than the 

 grafting plan with queen cups. 



A caution should be entered against try- 

 ing to get too many cells at one time from 

 a colony. We have raised a good many 

 thousands of queens; but our experience 

 teaches us that the average colony will not 

 take care of and feed ivell more than two 

 dozen cells. They will build as many as a 

 hundred; but queens from such cells are apt 

 to be short-lived or poor layers. 



This method was described by Mr. Fried- 

 man Greiner on page 170, 1911; but the very 

 fact that it is giving such general satisfac- 

 tion to our friends in New York would indi- 

 cate that another description, as given above, 

 will not come amiss. — Ed.] 



HONEY- CROP R EPORTS 



BY WESLEY FOSTER 



While attending the National Board 

 meeting, some one (I think it w^as Mr. Pet- 

 tit) asked me why Western beekeepers held 

 back their report on crop conditions. I an- 

 swered in an offhand way that it was, no 

 doubt, because they hoped to get a better 

 price by so doing. I have been looking 

 over the honey reports that were sent in, 

 and I do not find many that are very mis- 

 leading. I am surprised that my report in 

 the September 1st Gleanings, 1911, came 

 as near being right as it did, for it was sent 

 in before August 15. It is not possible to 

 lell accurately about the alfalfa crop in this 

 latitude until after August 1. Often the 

 bees will do nothing, scarcely filling their 

 hives and doing no swarming; then the sec- 

 ond growth of alfalfa comes in bloom about 

 August 1, or perhaps a little earlier, and a 

 fair surplus is made in August and Septem- 

 ber. I should not want to give a report on 

 the honey crop until the middle of August; 

 and then if the weather remains hot, and 

 the alfalfa is yielding well, the crop may be 

 doubled in the last ten days of August. 



In Gleanings for September 1 a good re- 

 port was given of the California crop, al- 

 though the crop was not as good as was ex- 

 pected. Was the trouble that the beekeep- 

 ers did not offer their crop for sale? I re- 

 ported that the Colorado crop was larger 

 than for some years, and I now think that 

 was a little strong, although we still have a 

 good deal of alfalfa honey (extracted) to dis- 

 pose of. Without doubt more extracted 

 honey was produced than the market could 

 handle, and altogether too little comb hon- 

 ey for the demand. Again, in Gleanings 

 for October 15 a bountiful crop is reported 

 from California. Was not part of the trou- 

 ble because the producers did not offer their 

 honey for sale soon enough? Idaho had a 

 light crop in the west-central part, while in 

 the Twin Falls and Idaho Falls districts it 

 was good. The crop seems to have been 

 good in Utah and Wyoming. 



The production of honey is increasing 

 rapidly in the West, and new districts be- 

 come of shipping importance almost every 

 year. Many of these beemen are new, and 

 do not look for a market until the honey is 

 all harvested. A study of conditions in 

 marketing should be made before rushing 

 extensively into beekeeping. There are, 

 undoubtedly, many inter-mountain regions 

 which would produce a fine white article of 

 comb honey, and there would be more mon- 

 ey in comb honey than in extracted with 

 market conditions as they are at present. 



I think that Fasteners are, perhaps, as 

 much to blame for market conditions right 

 now as are the Western producers. In the 

 East, on account of the poor crop they put 

 the price up; and just as they got things 

 started at high prices then Western honey 

 began to come east and knocked the bottom 

 out of the market. 



In regard to Western market reports as a 

 whole, nothing definite can be given before 

 September or October. Many of the pro- 

 ducers do not finish extracting until No- 

 vember, and itishard to judge of the amount 

 the supers will yield. Then we never think 

 of offering much of our honey, especially 

 the extracted, before the harvesting is pret- 

 ty well out of the way. In case of comb 

 honey some of us have learned to get it off 

 as soon as possible, and often that is not 

 early enough for the best price. 



As an example I figured that one apiary 

 would run close to 100 pounds of extracted 

 honey, per colony, spring count. I estimat- 

 ed so much for each super on the hives. 

 We did not finish extracting until Novem- 

 ber, and found it was only about a 70-lb. 

 crop. We shall have to figure on our crop 

 reports not being in until later, if we want 

 to know the conditions more definitely. 



There is nothing more necessary for the 

 stability of the honey market than accurate 

 reports, and a central head to direct the dis- 

 tribution of the carload shipments of honey. 

 The West is big, and its product so large 

 that something will have to be done to hold 

 things steady. This is a need that the new 

 National Association can supply. 



Boulder, Col. 



