184 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



Novemhet 



successful bee-keeping. The queen 

 being tlie foundation, we want one that 

 is solid. Then there is no branch of 

 apiculture that needs more thorough 

 organization than that upon which 

 apiculture is built. Let's make the 

 foundation solid. 



In a further correspondence with the 

 party quoted from, he says: 



"The queen breeders can almost be 

 counted on the fingers of one hand. If 

 they represented a large number, up in 

 the thousands, then such an associa- 

 tion would come in play." 



To satisfy myself, I picked up a num- 

 ber of bee papers and in less than ten 

 minutes counted forty-four advertise- 

 ments of different parties offering 

 queens for sale, besides twenty-seven 

 supply dealers, most of whom sell 

 queens. These may not all be breeders, 

 but to the purchaser of queens they are 

 all the same. But if we numbered only 

 a half dozen, why not organize? Well, 

 we have organized, and now would ap- 

 preciate the encouragement of all en- 

 terprising bee-keepers and breeders. 



All worthy breeders are welcomed to 

 our Union, and when you get in we will 

 see to it that you walk just right, and 

 if you don't you might as well "take 

 down your sign." 



I have already written more than 

 was my purpose, but hope you will bear 

 with me, and if there is any further in- 

 formation that any of us can give, we 

 will gladly do so. 



Byrdstown, Tenn. 



COMMENTS 



Suggestions and Notes Called Out 

 bygthe August Issue. 



Written for the American Bee-Keeper. 



^^TB AM in receipt of a sample copy of 

 Ws The American Bee-Keeper, for 

 ^ ® which I hereby subscribe for one 

 year. 



You say it is published in the inter- 

 est of bee-keeping. 1 see it is not de- 



voted entirely to your goods. I notice 

 an article in the August issue, page 

 131, 'The Market Problem;" then 1 

 turn to page 147, the same issue, and 

 see you publish honey market reports 

 from commission men. These com- 

 mission men ruin our markets. They 

 are the ones who set prices on our 

 honey and make it a difficult task to 

 get remunerative prices. I think it all 

 wrong for bee papers to insert the 

 commission taerchants' price list. The 

 editors could state what honey is 

 bringing at the different marts, but not 

 the names of the firms. You see, it is 

 like this: The commission merchant 

 gets one profit, the grocer one profit, 

 before it reaches the consumers. Thus, 

 the bee-keeper supports the commis- 

 sion merchant and the grocer. See? 



I see also on pages 129 and 130 in the 

 same issue "How to Introduce a Valu- 

 able Queen." Now, that is all right, 

 but I have a better way — a way that I 

 have never lost a queen by introduc- 

 tion. It is this way: I remove the 

 "whole business," bees, hives and all, 

 to a new stand, place a new hive on the 

 old stand, return to the old hive, hunt 

 up the old queen and the frame upon 

 which I find her I place in the new hive 

 on the old stand, give her some empty 

 drawn comb and a frame or so of 

 honey. While doing this, you see, the 

 old bees go home to the new hive. The 

 object is to draw off the old bees so as 

 to introduce the valuable queen to 

 the young bees and hatching bees only. 

 Young bees will take the new mother 

 readily. As the old bees are the ones 

 that would kill the new queen, 1 mere- 

 ly readjust the brood nest and place 

 ihe caged queen on top of the frames, 

 giving the bees access to the food in 

 the cage. 



This plan saves time and an im- 

 mense lot of unnecessary fussing as 

 per article on page 129. 



On page 133, "Prevention of In- 

 crease," by f". Theilmann, T observe 

 th:it he allows his bees to swarm once. 



