June 28, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



409 



reared than can be produced by taking^ queens reared under 

 the swarming- impulse which so many formerly considered 

 the ne plus ultra of queens. 



Lately there has been a little discussion in the Aiiuii- 

 can Bee-Keeper as to the desirability of having queen-cells 

 constantly in the direct care of the bees, that is, haviiiL; 

 bees constantly in direct contact with them. Mr. Doolittle 

 says that he found from experience that virgin queens kept 

 caged from the bees were short-lived in proportion to the 

 length of time they were kept from the bees, and he now 

 advises the cells anfl young queens to be constantly in the 

 embrace of bees from start to finish. 



W. H. Pridgen favors a short time of caging, and gives 

 some good reasons for it. He says : 



"I never did much of this, as I soon learned that I 

 could get a laving queen from one just hatcht about as 

 soon ; but as I can gain from one to three days by giving 

 the just hatcht downy misses, with the assurance that as 

 few will be rejected as there are cells that fail to hatch and 

 are torn down, I would be glad for Mr. Doolittle to tell us if 

 he thinks they are realh* injured at all when allowed to re- 

 main caged onlj' a few hours at most, and especially if 

 kept at the temperature of a strong colony. 



" I keep my cells in immediate touch of the bees until 

 the time for distribution, and then keep them where the 

 queens emerge sooner than is often the case if given to 

 nuclei, and especially early in the season, and in nuclei 

 newly-formed." 



The problem is to keep as near to nature as possible in 

 the line of keeping cell and virgin queen at the best tem- 

 perature, unless it be that there is some special power resi- 

 dent in the actual touch of the workers — a supposition not 

 to be thrust aside too hastily. According to nature the cell 

 will be kept in a strong colon3' at a uniform temperature, 

 and if the weather be warm enough, or the nucleus strong 

 enough, there will scarcely be any departure from nature in 

 taking a sealed cell from the upper story of a strong colony 

 and giving it to a nucleus. 



Mr. Pridgen makes a point in favor of caging the cell 

 just before the young queen is expected to emerge, by sav- 

 ing- that if kept thus till the queen emerges, one can see the 

 queen, whereas when a sealed cell is given to a nucleus 

 there is danger that a defective queen may issue, and possi- 

 bly that no queen may issue. 



Let us be thankful that attention is nowadays so 

 strongly directed to the matter of good queens rather than 

 handsome ones. 



"Impure Food Must Qo." — This is the heading of an 

 item in the Chicago Record for June 18, which reads as 

 follows : 



Druggists, grocers, candymakers and packers come un- 

 der the ban of the new Illinois pure-food law which goes 

 into effect July 1. From that day forward every label on 

 every package of foodstuff must " tell the truth and tlie 

 whole truth " about the quality of the contents. The man 

 or firm responsible for falsehood will be liable to fine and 

 imprisonment. 



July 1 will be a " busy day " for every grocer in the 

 city. Old labels will disappear and new ones take their 

 places. The "pure maple syrup" of yesterday will be- 

 come plain glucose to-morrow. " Currant jelly " will have 

 anew label, and " apple butter," which never saw an or- 

 chard, will have a new name all its own with " apple " ex- 

 cluded. At the breakfast table will be " coffee," and not 

 coffee and chickory mixt, as heretofore. The latter prob- 

 ably will be known as " coffee compound." 



Circus lemonade is to suffer, for there is an absolute 

 prohibition of the sale of " lemon extract " which has less 

 thar»5 percent of pure lemon-oil. There will be no " honey " 

 unless it is "honey." The present bottled stuff labeled 

 " pure strained honey " will disappear, and " syrup of glu- 

 cose " will march to the front. There will be pure vanilla, 

 and the druggists will profit thereby. 



Next in line among the " interested " people are the 

 baking-powder dealers. After July 1 labels must give a 

 specific statement as to whether the boxes or cans contain 



an alum, alum phosphate or cream-of-tartar powder. Vine- 

 gar also conies under the ban, and dealers in candy must 

 discover if any impure materials have been used in the 

 manufacture of candies, ice cream or foodstuffs. 



When the law was past it gave the wholesale and retail 

 dealers 18 months to dispose of the " adulterated " stock. 

 That time is nearly up, and they are pushing the stuff' off to 

 their customers as rapidly as possible. 



Bee-keepers will watch with much interest the enforce- 

 ment of the new Illinois law against adulteration of foods 

 offered to the public. We believe it will be lookt after con- 

 scientiously by those whose duty it is to see that it is 

 obeyed, as they appear to be men that mean to try to do 

 their duty. We wish them every success, and would be 

 glad to aid them in every way we possibly can. 



Those Premium Dr. Miller Queens. — The following: 

 letter from Dr. Miller explains itself : 



Mr. Editor : — A correspondent writes requesting a 

 suspension of the rule so that his premium queen be sent at 

 once without waiting its turn. He is probably joking, but 

 there is no doubt that some are feeling that there is un- 

 warranted delay in receiving their queens. And those .send- 

 ing in the last are likely to be among those expecting- 

 queens first. It should be remembered, however, that time 

 is an essential factor in the rearing of queens, and when 

 there is a large list, those that come at the last end should 

 expect their queens in September rather than in June. 



It is only fair to say, however, that the first queens on 

 the list were sent out much later than I had anticipated — a 

 delay which no one regrets more than I. The chief culprit 

 in the matter is that all-prevailing, all-pervading individual, 

 the ivcatlit'y. In all my experience in bee-keeping, I think 

 I never knew so much April weather left over for summer 

 consumption. Days have been cold, and nights colder. 

 The first clover blossom was seen May 22, and supers were 

 put on in due season, only to be left unnoticed by the bees 

 til! about June 18, when some colonies began work slowly. 

 Ordinarily, when bees store nothing from clover within two 

 or three weeks of its first appearance, it may be considered 

 settled that it is one of the years when white clover doesn't 

 "give down" any honey. This year, however, I suspect 

 the trouble is all due to tlie weather, and that after waiting- 

 four weeks there may yet be a crop of clover honey, if the 

 clerk of the weather only sees fit to allow winter clothing 

 to be laid permanently aside. 



If summer really comes, extra effort will be made so 

 that those later on the list will get their queens as early as 

 could have been originally expected, each queen being sent 

 out in order as fast as possible. To those first on the list I 

 can only express my sincere regret — I can not honestly say 

 apology for that for which I am not really to blame — that 

 there has been any delay, the delay probably being more 

 annoying to myself than to any one else. 



While I have the floor I may as well say another word 

 as to the character of the queens. Some of them are fine 

 in color, more of them are not handsome at all. As to 

 a'o;-/E-cr progeny, there will probably be very little difference, 

 all being of the same stock. I confess to a real liking for 

 beautiful bees, and would rather have very yellow bees, if 

 at the same time they were the best workers. I prefer 

 utility, however, to beauty, and try to rear the queens that 

 will give me the most honey, and your subscribers will get 

 the kind of queens I rear for my own use. 



C. C. Miller. 



Several of those entitled to receive Dr. Miller queens 

 have written us enquiring ^^^ to the cause of the delay in 

 mailing them ; and one or two have written in a most dis- 

 courteous manner. Now, it seems to us that all should be 

 willing to believe, by this time, that Dr. Miller would get 

 those queens off at the very first possible moment. Surely, 

 every bee-keeper who is at all acquainted with Dr. Miller 

 would not question his honesty of purpose and effort to do 

 exactly as he agrees, every time. 



Please remember that to all will be mailed a postal card 

 notice a day before the queens are mailed, and that they 

 will be gotten off just as rapidly as Dr. Miller can do it, and 

 do it well. But he can't control the weather any more 

 successfully than other people have been able to do. 



