130 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 27. 



which to elect officers and a general manager. At this meet- 

 ing, which assembled in the Chamber of Commerce Feb. 5, at 

 9:30 a.m., W. T. Richardson, of Fremontville, was elected 

 President ; Geo. W. Brodbeck, Vice-President ; The Los An- 

 geles National Bank, Treasurer ; and H. H. Youugken was 

 unanimously elected Secretary and General Manager, and the 

 California Bee-Keepors' Exchange was declared permanently 

 organized. 



The committee who formulated the Exchange, and bee- 

 keepers generally, felt the necessity of getting a thorough 

 business man for General Manager, and iu selecting Mr. 

 Youngken they went outside of the ranks of bee-keepers. Mr. 

 Youngken comes highly recommended by the bee-keepers of 

 Ventura county. He has been a bookkeeper from youth up, 

 has a practical knowledge of banking, and a wide acquaint- 

 ance with monied interests. He is the successful manager of 

 a Building and Loan Association, and has successfully built 

 up other organizations. Mr. Youngken thinks that if the 

 honey interests of California are handled in a cooperative 

 and businesslike manner, there are great possibilities before 

 it for the mutual benefit of all concerned. 



Bee-keepers seem to be alive to the benefits to be derived 

 from a thorough organization, and before it was three days' 

 old, the Exchange had enrolled upward of 70 members, 

 among them such honey-producers as W. T. Richardson, with 

 his 60 odd tons ; M. H. Mendleson, with his scores of tons; 

 Mr. Touchton, a large producer ; and others too numerous 

 to mention, who produce honey by the carload. 



At this writing, meetings are being held in the various 

 counties, and the ball is rolling. It cannot be expected that 

 great things can be accomplished immediately, but by sticking 

 everlastingly at it, great good will result. 



It is the intention of the Exchange to get supplies for all 

 of its members, at the lowest wholesale price. This feature 

 alone would be of sulBcient importance to cause every Califor- 

 nia bee-keeper to belong to the organization. Readers of the 

 American Bee Journal may expect to see more in relation to 

 this movement iu the near future. J. H. Martin, Sec. 



Bloomington, Calif. 



Some Subjects Reviewed and Commented Upon 



BV DR. C. C. MILLER. 



California Bee-Kkepers' Exchange. — Whether the com- 

 petition of California honey in the Northern markets is a good 

 thing for Northern bee-keepers may be questioned, but on 

 page SI, Prof. Cook has put the need of Californians so plain- 

 ly and forcibly that one cannot help wishing them full success. 

 On the whole, if the plans of the Californians succeed, how 

 can it fail to be a benefit even to Northern producers '? For is 

 it not better to have the competition of honey that is sold at 

 living prices than to have that of honey that is sold for almost 

 nothing? Possibly the success of those Southern men may be 

 an example for others, and the market throughout may be im- 

 proved. At any rate, they seem to be in dead earnest, and 

 that counts for a good deal. Success to them. 



Out vs. In Wintering. — In reply to Bee-Master, (page 

 84r) I would say that his first guess is not far from right, that 

 is, for me out-door wintering is many times more unsafe than 

 in-door. If, however, there may be a plan of out-door winter- 

 ing by which I could be fairly successful, I should very much 

 like to practice it, if for nothing else because in that way the 

 bees are always surrounded with pure air. So I try occasion- 

 ally wintering in the open on some plan a little different from 

 anything I have previously tried. But it would be foolish to 

 try any large number until I first succeed with a smaller num- 

 ber. Should the one colony that is now on its summer stand 

 come out with flying colors in the spring, the experiment will 

 probably be repeated another winter on a larger scale. 



Selling Honey on Commission. — On page 87, Mr. Ab- 

 bott takes very radical ground — a little too radical, it seems to 

 me. His idea is all right, that ifs a risky thing to send honey 

 to men you know nothing about. That's true, and the fact 

 that commission men have things so largely in their own 

 hands makes it all the more important to know about the man 

 you deal with. But if you know your man, and are sure that 

 he's straight and honest, I don't see why there's anything 

 wrong in the principle of selling on commission. Why is the 

 principle any different from hiring a man to peddle honey for 

 you ? In either case it is doing business on your capital, and 

 so is the man doing business on your capital who uses your 

 saw to saw your stove-wood. 



" Most commission men are honest and honorable," 



says Mr. Abbott. Then find out which they are, and ship to 

 them, if you've no better way to dispose of your honey. 



There's just a bit of moonshine in the idea that there's no 

 risk about selling for cash. If a man is dishonest it may be 

 safer to send on commission than to sell for cash. For if you 

 sell to him for cash and he fails to pay ou receipt of the honey, 

 you have no recourse at law if the man is not financially re- 

 sponsible ; whereas, if you ship to him on commission, and he 

 pockets the proceeds, you can proceed against him as a crimi- 

 nal. Don't comdemn the whole commission business just be- 

 cause the minority of men in it are bad. 



T Supers and Pattebn-Slats. — C. C. Parsons, (page 

 87) takes such a reasonable view of things that I am sure 

 he'll not take it amiss if I say that I think he would prefer T 

 supers if they were made right and used right. His supers 

 are made after the old way, having the bee-space at the bot- 

 tom. I'm pretty sure he'd like the improved way better — the 

 space at the top. He'd also find it an improvement to have 

 sections narrow enough to admit a follower. I don't know 

 how he takes sections out of T supers, but I know he can do it 

 very easily if he does it the right way. 



Numbering Hives. — Several have lately given their plans 

 for numbering, and some seem to think it an advantage to 

 have the numbers permanently attached to the hives. Proba- 

 bly that's all right with their management, but it wouldn't 

 work in my apiary. The same stand must always have the 

 same number, for it wouldn't do to have a hundred numbers 

 in confusion so a number could not readily be found. Then 

 when the hive is changed to another stand its number must be 

 changed. 



Losing Queens by Doubling. — Isn't the experience of S. 

 M. Robertson, on page 110, quite exceptional? If I am not 

 mistaken it is a common practice to double up swarms just as 

 he did, leaving the bees themselves to settle their little differ- 

 ences as to queens, and generally all ends well. If the swarms 

 doubled were all second-swarms, having young queens, it is 

 possible that the queens were lost on the wedding-trip. Even 

 then, the loss of queens was unusual. Marengo, 111. 



A Queen-Clipping Implement Described. 



by c. monbtte. 



Although this might be called the age of machinery, when 

 a person claims and advertises that he has invented a ma- 

 chine that will catch and clip a queen any way desired, and 

 that it is impossible to injure her with said machine, either in 

 catching or clipping, the bee-keeping public is apt to be some- 

 what skeptical about it, and on this account I have asked to 

 be allowed to explain what the machine or device is. 



I keep all laying queens clipped, and consider it a great 

 advantage to have them so, but it was always a good deal of 

 trouble for me to catch and clip queens by hand without dan- 

 ger of injuring them. A laying queen is a very delicate thing 

 to handle without injury, and in spite of myself I would al- 

 ways become nervous and excited when trying to catch and 

 clip a queen by hand ; and the more valuable the queen, the 

 more nervous I would be. I have injured a good many. Some- 

 times I would do it in catching them, and sometimes, after I 

 had caught them all right, I would clip off a leg or two with a 

 wing, it was on this account that I made the clipping de- 

 vice. At first I had no thought of getting it patented or offer- 

 ing it for sale, but I was so much pleased with it myself that 

 I gave, or sent, one to a number of my bee-keeping friends, 

 and in every case they were so pleased, and spoke so highly 

 of it, that I made arrangements to offer it to all who might 

 need it. Although it is said that nothing is perfect, I believe 

 this is so nearly so, that it can never be improved in any way, 

 for it is utterly impossible with this device for the operator to 

 injure a queen, either in catching or clipping, unless he does 

 so purposely. One does not have to touch the queen with his 

 hands whatever, and on this account the scent of a queen is 

 not changed, and she is never balled when she is re- 

 turned to the bees, as is sometimes the case when a queen is 

 caught and clipped by hand. 



The main part of the device consists of a spiral wire cone, 

 made out of small, polished steel wire ; it is large at one end 

 and small at the other. In catching, the large end of the 

 cone is placed over the queen, then a tin bottom that is fast- 

 ened to the wire cone is brought into position under the large 

 end of the cone ; the queen is then securely fastened in this 

 cone, and, if one desires, the cone and queen can then be put 



