354 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 7, 1900. 



ing-, there indirectly occurs a saving. The cases need not 

 be glast, and the paper trays and the little strips now used 

 in the non-drip cases may be omitted. When we further 

 take into consideration that the new carton, as stated 

 above, when sold by weig'ht, sells for more than cost of the 

 carton, and that the honey, when put up in these, sells 

 quicker, and probably brings more than honey without the 

 cartons, it will be seen that it is a good business to invest 

 in "glast cartons." We shall use some, if — we have any 

 honey to sell I The patent is held by N. N. Betsinger, who 

 exhibited the carton at the last New York State bee-keepers' 

 convention at Geneva. 



For the purpose of supplying the trade with fancy ex- 

 tracted honey, glass packages, such as we already have, are 

 probably best ; at least I know of nothing better. Many 

 years ago I put up my best extracted honey in the square 

 one-pound Muth honey-jar. The cases I made cheap and 

 strong, holding 24 jars with pasteboard partitions between 

 the jars — egg-crate-fiUer fashion. Thus they carried nicely, 

 and the prices obtained then were entirely satisfactory, 

 being 35 cents per jar; but the time of high prices is past 

 and gone, and we will be satisfied with half of that price; 

 we are therefore looking constantly for cheaper packages. 



Where extracted honey can be sold to consumers in 60- 

 pound lots not at fancy prices, a wooden pail answers our 

 purpose quite well. Enough of second-hand candy-pails 

 may be pickt up during the summer at our different grocery- 

 stores to store several tons of honey. Their cost is only 10 

 cents, and they need but little cleaning. Mr. Chas. F. Dodd, 

 a New York bee-keeper, sold all of his extracted honey, put 

 up in such candy-pails, to a Pennsylvania firm for their 

 trade in a mining town. 



I have used regular butter-tubs for the same purpose. 

 The wooden pail I would not fill until the honey is about 

 ready to granulate. As soon as it is solid the covers may 

 be nailed on, and the net weight markt on each package, 

 when they will be ready to ship. Ontario Co., N. Y. 



General Directions for Finding the Queen. 



BY ERNEST R. ROOT. 



IF the bees are Italians, queens can usually be found at 

 least on the third or fourth frame taken out of the hive. 

 A practical bee-keeper will first pull out the center 

 frame, and look for freshly laid eggs. Failing to find these 

 he will take out another frame from another portion of the 

 brood-nest. If he finds the eggs, then he has reasonable 

 assurance that the queen is somnvhere in this part of the 

 hive. He looks the frame over carefully, and, failing to 

 find her, he takes out the next one, each time following in 

 the wake of the eggs. While it is no sure rule that the 

 presence of freshly laid eggs in any portion of the brood- 

 nest is evidence that the queen is in that part of the hive, 

 yet, generally speaking, she will be found near them. If, 

 for instance, I have found no fresh eggs in the center 

 frame, and none in the next frame that I may have out on 

 one side of the brood-nest, then I take the opposite side till 

 I find the eggs. But suppose I have found them, and I do 

 not find the queen. Well, it sometimes happens that a 

 queen will suddenly leave a large fresh patch of eggs in one 

 portion of the brood-nest, and then go clear across the 

 whole hive to the other side, and begin operations there. 



It not infrequently happens that one has to look over 

 every frame, not once, but twice. If she is not found on 

 the frames, then she may be on the bottom-board or inside 

 of the hive. If the bees are black, and the queen of the 

 same race, she will be more than likely to be in a bunch of 

 scrambling bees in one corner of the hive. 



If the queen is not found at the first or second going- 

 over of the frame, I shut such hive up and go back in the 

 course of an hour. This time I use very little smoke, and 

 proceed as quietly as possible so as not to disturb the bees. 

 If the queen once gets frightened she will run and hide. If 

 the bees start to running and buzzing again, better shut 

 the hive again, to be visited later, for there is no use in 

 wasting time. 



I remember I had once been hunting for a black queen 

 for perhaps 15 or 20 minutes. I finally called to one of the 

 boys in the apiary, and we together scanned both sides of 

 the frames at once — he on one side of the frame and I on 

 the other, for I thought I had caught a glimpse of her going 

 on the other side of one comb just the moment the frame 

 was turned toward me. Having caught sight of her, we 

 watcht her for the fun of it. My friend got back of a 

 clump of bushes where he could not be seen. Curiously 



enough, this queen would hover around in a little space be- 

 tween the bottom of the comb and the bottom-bar. When- 

 ever I turned one side of the comb toward me, she would 

 quickly go on the other side. Upon my word, if she did 

 not dodge back and forth as I turned the comb ! No won- 

 der I could not find her, for she had learned her trick of 

 dodging, and kept it up. I have seen this with other black 

 queens, and perhaps with hybrid queens, but I do not know 

 that an Italian queen among Italian bees would ever do 

 this. One very valuable quality of the Italians is their per- 

 fect at-homeness on the combs, whether the hive is open or 

 closed ; and one verj' mean trait of black hybrids and 

 blacks is their fashion of running and scrambling over the 

 combs, scaring the queen in their general rough-and-tum- 

 ble confusion, one bee over the other. Whenever I have 

 occasion to find black queens in populous black colo- 

 nies, I always feel that I have a "job" on my hands. About 

 the first thing I do is to tuck my pants down my stockings ; 

 and then if I can have an assistant, he is askt to use his 

 eyes. 



Some bee-keepers, when they desire to find black 

 queens, take all the combs out, take the hive and dump it 

 in front of the entrance, set it back, and clap an entrance- 

 guard over the now empty hive. The bees are all shaken 

 off the combs, and the entrance-guard is eagerly scrutinized 

 to see when her majesty strikes the obstruction. I do not 

 know but, all things considered, this is about as quick 

 a way to find black queens among black bees as to under- 

 take the very uncertain and laborious method I have 

 already described. 



Some of those who use shallow brood-chambers advise 

 shaking the black bees out of the combs by shaking the 

 whole chamber, and then watching the bees as they crawl 

 toward the entrance. It is said that the queen can be easily 

 seen among the bees, and pickt out. I have tried this a 

 number of times, but have never been successful. In the 

 first place, it took more strength than I had, to do a thoro 

 job of shaking ; and in the second place it takes a pretty 

 sharp pair of eyes to see the queen among a lot of bees an 

 inch or so deep, all of them working toward the hive. 



Unless one wishes to clip a queen's wings, to replace or 

 sell her, it is a waste of time to try to find the queen. If 

 one sees eggs regularly laid, and brood in all stages, suffi- 

 cient stores, there is no need whatever of hunting a queen. 

 Beginners often spend a lot of useless time in this way, 

 sometimes leaving the combs exposed to the sun. Robbers 

 start in the meantime, and there is a " general row." — 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture. 



Giving- a Queen to an Old Colony Immediately 

 After It Has Swarmed. 



BY G. M. DOOUTTLE. 



QUESTION. — " A friend tells me if I wish to be success- 

 ful as a honey-producer I should give the old colony a 

 queen immediately after it has cast a swarm. Is this 

 right ? I wish to know so I may prepare hives for nuclei 

 for the rearing of such queens this winter if this is the best 

 way. Please tell us about it in the American Bee Journal." 



Answer. — This is a theme much harpt upon some 

 years ago, but of late not so much has been said about it. 

 At that time wc were told that the bee-keeper who wisht to 

 secure the best results from his bees should have a laying 

 queen ready to give to each colony as soon as it casts its 

 first or prime swarm, as the time lost to the old colony in 

 rearing a queen was equivalent to a swarm of bees. I went 

 to experimenting, and the truth of the statement that the 

 time lost by the bees in rearing a queen was equivalent to 

 a swarm of bees was just the thing which made the plan 

 unsuccessful with me. If it were bees that I had wisht, it 

 would have been a success. 



In this locality white clover yields only enough honey, 

 as a rule, to keep the bees breeding nicely, and thus swarm- 

 ing is brought about from June 20th to July 1st. Our main 

 honey harvest is from basswood, which blooms from July 

 4th to the 16th. All who are familiar with natural swarm- 

 ing know that bees are comparatively few in the spring, 

 and increase by the rapidly increasing brood produced by 

 the queen until a swarm is the result. By giving a laying 

 queen to a colony immediately after it has cast a swarm, 

 the same conditions are brought about as before — natural 

 swarming. The only difference is, that having plenty of 

 brood at the time the queen is given they build up faster, 

 so are prepared to swarm in a shorter time. Now this last 

 swarming, brought about by the giving of the queen, will 



