698 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



George Edward Newborn, graudsuii of J. L. New- 

 born, Snow Hill, N. C. The baby's diet is oat- 

 meal, milk, and houey. He was just 

 two months old when the picture 

 was taken. 



lay in the iiuoleus hive if given an empty 

 comb, and need only be out of the hive 

 for four days. 



COMMENTS ON THE FOOTNOTE. 



The statement is made that, when more 

 than two dozen cells are raised in one 

 colony, the queens are likely to be short- 

 lived. I say yes, most certainly, if they 

 are raised in small colonies with few nurse 

 bees ; but as we raise them in extra-strong 

 two-story colonies in the height of the 

 season, with numberless nurse bees, then 

 there will be 60 or 80 cells containing lots 

 of unconsumed jelly after the queens have 

 emerged, and these queens will be healthy 

 and long lived. Why should they not be? 

 The bees are not unnaturally forced to 

 build cells beyond their inclination by 

 this method; but it is optional with them. 

 Under the conditions mentioned, in the 

 j)ro])er season for queen-rearing, there will 

 be a larger number of fine cells built in a 

 natural manner by this jalan than by any 

 other I know of. 



You say it may be advantageous for 

 beginners and honey-producers who haven't 

 time to learn the intricacies of grafting. 

 I really don't see that there are any dif- 

 ficulties in grafting that can not be over- 

 come in a very short time. There is cer- 

 tainly more trouble withov^t any gain that 

 I can see, unless you count economy in the 



number of bees used in raising cells a 

 gain. In my opinion, the grafting sys- 

 tem, taken generally, is responsible for 

 more worthless queens than it is possible 

 to calculate. It is possible, no doubt, for 

 as careful a breeder as Doolittle to get the 

 best out of the system; but how many 

 Doolittles are there? Where good eggs 

 are provided, and the cells built over them 

 by the bees in a natural manner in the 

 proper season, one can not fail to get 

 good queens with a minimum of liandlmg 

 and risk. 



Auckland, New Zealand. 



WHY GRADE HONEY BY ITS COLOR? 



The Darker Grades Often the Best 



BY HENRY REDDERT 



I have often wondered why honey is 

 graded according to the color instead of the 

 flavor. I notice, page 638, Oct. 1, C. W. 

 Ludlow recommends blending to get a uni- 

 form color every year. 1 should think 

 flavor should always be given the prefer- 

 ence to color. Why not designate honey 

 as white clover, sweet clover, buckwheat, 

 catni]^, dandelion, fruit blossoms, or the 

 name of whatever blossoms it is gathered 

 from? Is it a fact that dark honey is in- 

 ferior to light honey? Let us analyze it. 



The year 1911 was a poor honey year 

 in our district. The spring was cold and 

 wet. Fruit bloom yielded very little. Lo- 

 cust was in full bloom, but the bees had 

 but a few days to work on it, barely 

 enough to keep up brood-rearing. Clover 

 amounted to almost nothing. Dandelion 

 was the only plant yielding a surplus. 

 Now we all know that this plant secretes 

 nectar having the color of the flower, a 

 dark golden hue, called amber, as I under- 

 stand it. This color brings a second-gTade 

 price in the grading rules. But how about 

 the flavor? I have about 90 pounds left, 

 which I would not trade for the best white- 

 clover honey; but remember, I left this 

 honey on the hives until the end of the 

 season, which means that it was thoroughly 

 ripened. Those that had the good fortune 

 to test it, pronounced it the best honey 

 they ever tasted. Color was no object; the 

 flavor is what they wanted. 



Locust honey is amber colored, yet I have 

 heard expressions like this : "Honey for the 

 gods." Buckwheat has a dark syrupy color, 

 yet who will say that the flavor is not fine? 



Four years ago, all sources failed in this 

 section except catnip, which was very abun- 

 dant. This honey is very dark — in fact, so 

 dark that a so-called honey expert re- 



