650 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



SIFTINGS 



J. E. Crane, Middlebury, Vt. 



Recently I found a young queen laying 

 ■nothing but drone eggs; but later she laid 

 worker eggs all right. Whether she laid 

 the drone eggs before she had mated or 

 because of her inexperience I have not 

 been able to determine. 



* * * 



'That experiment of coloring bees and 

 letting them fly gives us some useful in- 

 formation as related by Dr. Miller on page 

 356, July 1. It accounts for the spread 

 of disease, as doubtless young bees go to 

 strange colonies more frequently than older 

 bees; and these young bees may have their 

 stomachs filled with larval food containing 

 more or less disease germs. I believe it 

 a good thing where there is danger of 

 disease; or, where it exists, to set hives 

 some distance apart. 



Mr. Byer somewhere speaks of blueweed 

 as a source of honey. This appears to be 

 the same as that known in Virginia as blue 

 thistle. It has become quite common in 

 some parts of Eastern New York and 

 Western Vermont. One beekeeper in the 

 first county south of me said he had 500 or 

 600 acres of it within range of his bees. It 

 is considered a very good honey plant, but 

 regarded by the farmers as an unmitigated 

 nuisance. We have found it in three places 

 this season in this county — the first I have 

 ever known here. Beekeepers have a right 

 to raise what they will upon their own land 

 providing they do not let anything spread 

 to their neighbors that will injure them. 

 Honey produced by such means Avill in the 

 end be bitter honey. An approving con- 

 science is more to be desired than the finest 

 honey in the whitest combs. 



* * * 



Mr. Walter S. Ponder is a brave man to 

 write as he does on page 379 of the modern 

 claptrap outfit for the ordinary plain 

 farmer beekeeper. And he sells supplies 

 too ! The facts are, or appear to be, that 

 only about one beekeeper in ten who at- 

 tempts keeping bees in improved hives is 

 fit to do so. An improved movable-comb 

 liive is all right in the hands of an im- 

 proved intelligent beekeeper; but as the av- 

 erage farmer keeps bees I believe the old 

 box hive is far preferable for him and 

 everybody else unless his neighbors are 

 anxious he should go out of business, as he 

 is fast doing. A "bee inspector" has a 

 chance to see all sides and kinds of beekeep- 

 ing; and of all the absurd things is an im- 



proved hive in the hands of the careless 

 farmer who does not look into a hive three 

 ■times a year, or even once. It is difficult to 

 get into most of such liives, even with a 

 hammer and chisel. I can not express 

 my disgust. There should be, as Mr. 

 Ponder suggests, two kinds of outfits 

 for beekeepers — one kind with every desir- 

 able device for scientific beekeepers; and 

 another kind, made in the simplest way, for 

 those to use who will not do any tiling but 

 put bees into them and put on and take off 

 supers — a sort of "letalone" hive, as my 

 friend Latham calls his. 

 * * * 



Dr. Phillips' statements on page 451, 

 July 15, in regard to the success of the 

 Colorado Honey-producers' Association, 

 set one to wondering if the same methods 

 could not be used to jDrofit in other States. 

 I have given the subject some thought at 

 one time or another, but have so far been 

 unable to see how such an organization 

 could be made to work here in New Eng- 

 land. Colorado beekeepers have a distant 

 market, while we have one near at hand. 

 Their honey must or should be shipped in 

 carload lots to save freight. Here not 

 infrequently the buyers come from the city 

 and look over the different lots of honey 

 produced by different beekeepers, and the 

 grading is arranged between them. Then, 

 again, each beekeeper has his name on his 

 goods, and they are bought by the city 

 dealer on its reputation, or, as is often 

 the case, is sent to the city to be sold on 

 commission. Take our own crop as an 

 illustration. We found time in July to 

 pack over 150 eases ready for shipping 

 at a moment's notice. By August 2 every 

 case was gone. Orders came in for from 

 two to twenty-five cases, and it went to 

 half a dozen or more places, and more 

 will be wanted as soon as we can get it 

 ready. Now, suppose we had a honey- 

 producers' association. We would have 

 had to wait until others had honey enough 

 for a carload, wliich might be SejDtember. 

 Then the honey would have to be sent to 

 some central station to be inspected and 

 graded, and finally shipped to some cen- 

 tral distributing city where it would be 

 broken up into small lots and shipped 

 again to jobbers, and perhaps again to 

 retail dealers. We ship directly to job- 

 bers and retail dealers, and I can not help 

 tliinking our way is better for us, and 

 I have no doubt the Colorado method of 

 marketing their honey is better for them. 



