596 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sept. 17. 



saturated a sponge with sulphuric ether, placed it in the 

 smoker (of course I had no fire in the smoker), and blew the 

 fumes into the hive. I do not know whether it was the cold 

 blast caused by the evaporation of the ether, or whether it 

 was the fumes that conquered them. It's an expensive pleas- 

 ure to use ether. But if you ever saw a lot of bees piled up in 

 a heap, you will know how those were. 



They are good for profit, but poor for pleasure. Who can 

 tell the race they belong to, to cause them to be so vicious ? 

 Charlton City, Mass., Aug. 18. 



Prolific Queens— Queen-Rearing, Etc. 



BY WM. S. BARCLAY. 



On page 4.51, I gave a description of a prolific colony of 

 bees, and their work in the summer of ia95. I will merely 

 state here that the same colony (No. 3) repeated their work 

 this summer in a similar manner, except from the fact that 

 this being a very wet July (we had only five days on which 

 rain did not fall), I did not get nearly so much honey from 

 this colony, aud that I permitted it to give two natural 

 swarms, whereas last year it only gave one natural swarm. 

 Aside from these facts, the product of this colony, and also 

 some of the colonies made from it last season, was nearly 

 equal to the results published at that time. 



In writing the article spoken of, I failed to say (which I 

 fully intended to do) that I had neither bees nor queens for 

 sale; the consequence was that I have received many in- 

 quiries as to prices of bees, queens, etc. My principal object 

 in writing the aforesaid article was in the hope that I could 

 learn of some one who could furnish me with pure Syrian 

 queens, by the crossing of which I could keep up to its full 

 capacity the strain of bees which I valued so much. 



In breeding queens this season, I reared two from a val- 

 uable comb-honey-producing Italian colony ; these queens 

 were both dark-colored, one of them entirely black without a 

 single yellow ring, and only a slight shade of yellow could be 

 detected on the abdomen, and that required the closest in- 

 spection to observe it at all. As I had always thought the 

 queen-mother had a light trace of Oarniolan blood, I thought 

 the progeny of this dark queen would surely be hybrid, and 

 yet when her young bees hatched (which they did about 10 

 days ago), every bee possessed the three distinctive yellow 

 bands. 



I have bred Italian queens for 35 years, and as I thought 

 with great care and close observation, and I think my surprise 

 at the purity of the progeny of this queen has never been 

 equaled but once, and that was many years ago, when I saw 

 a young queen fly from, and return to, the hive with evident 

 signs of impregnation after she had filled two combs with 

 eggs. I should here relate the particulars of this last strange 

 circumstance, but that this communication has already at- 

 tained too great length. I may, however, do so at some 

 future date, and call out Dr. J. P. H. Brown, who related a 

 similar experience in the American Bee Journal many years 



ago. 



I cannot close this article without thanking Mr. Doolittle 



for his excellent communication on page 530, on " Queeu-Rear- 

 ing," every line of which I can endorse from practical experi- 

 ence in the same line of observation. 



Beaver, Pa., Aug. 21. 



Homey as Food an«1 51e«Ilciiie. — A new and revised 

 edition of this 33-page pamphlet is now issued. It has 5 blank 

 pages on which to write or paste recipes taken from other sources. 

 It is just what its name indicates, and should be liberally dis- 

 tributed among the people everywhere to create a demand for 

 honey. It contains a number of recipes on the use of hopey as 

 food and as medicine, besides much other interesting and valuable 

 information. Prices, postpaid, are : Single copy, 5 ets. ; 10 copies 

 30 ets. ; 50 for $1.00 ; 100 for $1.75. Better give them a trial. Send 

 all orders to the Bee Journal office. 



Tije Questiot;)'Box^ 



Honey Market of the United States for 1896. 



[Gleanings recently sent out a list of six questions to be 

 answered by honey commission-men in various cities, and the 

 replies from many of them were published in the number of 

 that paper for Sept. 1. Editor Root says: "No bee-keeper 

 who expects to send his honey away to market can afford to 

 do so without first reading these replies." Both the questions 

 and the replies thereto follow :— Editor.] 



1. What style and size of shipping-case is best suited for 

 your market ? 



2. What style of package for extracted honey in bulk — 

 that is, whether square cans or barrels and kegs ? 



3. What weight of sections seems to sell best ? 



4. What time in the year do you secure the best prices? 



5. What effect will the absence of California honey have 

 on the price of Eastern honey ? 



6. From your receipts so far of honey, how does this sea- 

 son compare with that of last year ? 



Buffalo, N. Y., Aug. 10. 



1. Best whits comb honey should be only in 20-pound 

 cases of 20 one-pound combs each as nearly as can be, and to 

 run under 20 pounds net rather than over, and the cases with 

 two glass fronts, but no glass on the comb frames. 



2. Extracted should be in 1 or 2 pound tin cans, same as 

 canned goods, as they can then be readily retailed to con- 

 sumers. 



3. One-pound combs, light weight, or not to exceed one 

 pound, sell best. 



4. Honey sells best usually, from September to December, 

 and drags some at other times. 



5. Buffalo has never been seriously affected by California 

 honey, except occasional seasons. Its absence should favor- 

 ably affect our markets. 



6. Receipts somewhat earlier than usual, and a surplus 

 of fruit causes moderate demand as yet, although perhaps 

 slowly increasing. B. & Co. 



Detroit, Mich., Aug. 8. 

 1. 12-pound, 3 row. 2. Square cans. 3. One pound. 4. 

 Fall. 5. Can't tell. 6. Much better. M. H. H. 



Boston, Mass., Aug. S. 



1. Neat new basswood, 20 combs, 18 to 20 pounds net ; 

 two-thirds cartons, one-third glass fronts. 



2. Five-gallon square cans. 



3. One-pound, but not over. 



4. September 1 to Jan. 1. 



5. Very little, as Eastern honey is plentiful. 



6. About the same. E. E. B. & Co. 



Kansas City, Mo., Aug. 10. 



1. We prefer the 24 sections, single tier. 



2. The square cans, and barrels or kegs for cheap grade 

 of honey. 



3. Some dealers prefer light sections, and some fu I 

 weight. 



4. In the fall. 



5. Will have a tendency to make prices firmer. 



6. Our receipts are lighter this year than they were liit, 

 up to this time. C. C. C. & Co. 



Philadelphia, Pa., Aug. 14. 



1. 24-pound single-tier, glass one side. 



2. For grocer trade, 5-pound cans; for manufactu ers 

 kegs. 



3. One-pound, full weight. 



4. October and November. 



5. None whatever ; cheaper this year than ever. 



6. I do not class myself as a commission-man. I always 

 feel sorry when I hear of any goods being consigned to nu'. I 

 desire to buy outright, and desire to quote market so goods 

 will be offered to me. W. A. b. 



Minneapolis, Minn., Aug. S. 

 1. We think that large cases for shipping comb houpy to 

 hold, say, IS 24-pound sections, is perhaps the best arrange- 

 ment that has come under our observation and experience, isy 



