XMB^ mmimmiQmM mmm j&VRnrLi^, 



745 



ton, Iowa, I made it my business to in- 

 quire as to the condition of the honey 

 market, and as I went from store to 

 store, I found a goodly amount of this 

 sort of honey which was selling at 

 from 8 to 9 cents per pound ; of course 

 this honey was dark in color, but if the 

 sections had been nice and clean, it 

 would have been better in appearance, 

 and would, without a doubt, have sold 

 for a higher price ; for who is it that 

 has money in his pocket, that can pass 

 by a lot of nice, clean sections full of 

 comb honey, and not be tempted even 

 ■^11 much as to buy at least one ? 



The " Honey Almanac,"' in my opin- 

 ion, will prove to be a grand success, 

 and will aid much in consuming our 

 health-giving sweet. I would suggest 

 that where one bee-keeper thinks that 

 he cannot atTord to get 1,000 Almanacs, 

 he can get two of his bee-keeping 

 neighbors to send with him. They 

 should then be scattered all through 

 the land, and when we have educated 

 the people of the United States to eat 

 a little over half a pound apiece per 

 annum, our honey market will an- 

 nually be in a better condition. 



Welton, Iowa. 



^■^-■^^— ■*■*■*— ■■^-^'-^-Tini 



OLD COLONY. 



The " 



Queen of Roscndalc,"- 

 Colon)^ SO Years Old. 



Written Jor the American Bee Journal 



BY J. S. BARB. 



On page 316 is a short letter de- 

 scribing an old colony of bees that we 

 have on our place here in Oakfield, O. 

 1 thought that this was a pretty old 

 colony — it is an old colony, at least for 

 this section of country ; but while I 

 was on a visit to Virginia this fall, I 

 saw a colony of bees that is a little 

 older than the colony we have. This 

 colony belongs to Mr. George W. Ros- 

 enberger, of Rosendale, Rockingham 

 Co., Va., and is called by him "The 

 Queen of Rosendale " — a name which 

 is quite ajjpropriate. 



I will give the history of this " Queen 

 of Rosendale," and will first give a 

 copy of an article in the Bee-Keepers' 

 Magazine, of August, 1880, which was 

 written by Mr. Rosenberger, describ- 

 ing the " Queen of Rosendale." The 

 article is headed, " Lessons from an 

 Ancient Bee-Hive," and is as follows : 



Dear Sir:— I thought that it might be 

 some pleasure, as well as some information, 

 to give a short sketch of an old colony of 

 black bees that I own. Just forty years 

 ago this June, there came out of my father's 

 hives at this place, a second swarm, con- 

 taining about half a gallon of bees; he said 

 to me, then a boy, if I would get a hive and 

 put them into it, I might have the bees. I 

 did so, and put them on a plank on one 

 side of the yard, where they remained un- 



til the commencement of the late war. 

 They were then moved to the attic of my 

 dwelling-house at Rosendale, where they 

 remained four years, flying in and out of 

 a window, and storing from 20 to 40 

 jiouuds of surplus honey per year. 



As soon as the war was over, they were 

 brought down from the attic, and placed 

 on a stand under a pear-tree in the yard, 

 where they are to-day, in an average pros- 

 I)erous condition. I call this old mother of 

 all my bees, hived forty years ago, the 

 "Queen of Rosendale." She and her suc- 

 ceeding daughters down to the prestnt 

 time, have been swarming until they are 

 now the mother of a lai-ge number of colo- 

 nies. How often this old mother has 

 swarmed, I know not, but very frequently, 

 I assure you ; and she has always given me 

 from 20 to 40 pounds of nice surplus comb 

 honey annually. I have from her, so far 

 this year, 20 pounds; the second box is 

 nearly full, and will be completed in a few 

 days, which will make 40 pounds for this 

 season. 



I have never kept an account of the 

 amount of honey that they have produced ; 

 I am sorry now that I did not, but if this 

 could be given, it would atl'ord both pleas- 

 ure and information that would be worth 

 knowing. I think that I might state, with- 

 out fear of exaggeration, that this colony 

 of bees has produced 25 pounds of surplus 

 comb honey per annum; this would be in 

 the forty years, 1,000 pounds, and say at 

 18 cents per pound, it would be worth 

 $180 ; andif all the surplus honey produced 

 by her daughters, or colonies originating 

 from this old queen, was computed cor- 

 rectly, it should amount to the nice little 

 sum of $1,000. This goes to show what 

 can be done by the keeping of a few bees, 

 requiring no loss of time. 



The hive in which the bees have resided 

 for the last forty years, is made of pine 

 lumber, one inch thick; the outside meas- 

 ure of the hive is 12x14 inches, and 19 

 inches high. There never has been any 

 comb removed from this hive since the bees 

 were first put into it, consequently the 

 combs are as old as the hive. I am unable 

 to see any difference in the size of these 

 bees, as compared with any others in my 

 apiary, although some have been reared in 

 new combs less than one year old. 



G. W. RO.SENBERC.ER. 



New Market, Va., June 25, 1880. 



The above is given just as Mr. Rosen- 

 berger had written it. I remember 

 reading it, and knew I had the paper 

 containing it among my bee-papers, 

 but I did not think, when reading the 

 article, that I would ever* get to see 

 this old colon)', which I did see on 

 Sept. 28. This old colony is still alive, 

 and in good condition, and is 3'et in 

 the same old hive, and the same comb 

 that was built the first season. 



Mr. R. has a very nice home, sit- 

 uated near the grand old Massannutton 

 Mountains, and is in a very good sec- 

 tion of the country for keeping bees. 

 When I was there his bees were work- 

 ing on the wild asters, which are quite 

 plenty in that locality. 



I will now give you a few items in 

 regard to the "Queen of Rosendale," 

 which were given to me by Mr. R., 

 while I was at his place : 



yearly, making at least 1,200 pounds in 

 49 years, whieh, at 15 cents per pound, 

 would make .<ilSO; has swarmed nearly 

 every year, and on one occasion it swarmed 

 three times, aud the third swarm had five 

 queens. The comb in the hive is the same 

 made first 49 years ago, and the bees are 

 just as large as they ever were. The queen 

 is l)Iack — the common bee of the country. 

 If any one has an older colony, I would be 

 pleased to hear from him. 



This year I have 65 colonies, and will 

 have about 1,200 or 1,400 pounds of comb 

 honey, which is worth 16 cents per pound 

 here at home. Several years ago I had 27 

 colonies, and ])roduced 1,727 pounds of 

 comb honey, which I sold for $12.52 per 

 colony, on an average. 



We had a very poor season here this year 

 for bees, especially the forepart, but 

 through September, bees did better than 

 ever before during the fall. I have sold 

 over 100 pounds of fall honey, and still 

 have some left. G. W. Rosenberer. 



WISCONSIN. 



Satisfied with tiie Results- 

 Ool den-Rod Honey. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY ALBERT H. LIND. 



The " Queen of Rosendale " was hived in 

 1840, put in a common box-hive, and is 

 still in the same hive, and doing as well as 

 any colony in hisyard; has stored regularly 

 from 20 to 40 jjounds of eomb houey 



I have no reason to complain about 

 the honey crop this year, as my aver- 

 age is about 125 pounds per colony, 

 spring count. I sold all of my comb 

 honey at home at 14 cents per pound, 

 while grocers at Fond du Lac (our 

 nearest market) were buying good 

 honey for 11 and 121 cents. 



A certain bee-keeper in this vicinity 

 sold his honey at 11 cents per pound 

 to " get rid of it," as he said; and 

 after awhile he came out to my apiary 

 and bought honey for relatives or 

 friends in Chicago, and paid 14 cents, 

 when he had sold his honey for 11 

 cents. The above shows the folly of 

 rushing honey into market, at ruinous 

 prices. 



HONEY FROM GOLDEN-ROD. 



On page 036 a general opinion as 

 to the value of golden-rod as a honey- 

 plant, is asked for. With me it has 

 never been a total failure, as bees 

 could always be seen working upon it ; 

 but I also think that it is at times over- 

 rated as a honey-plant, for the honej- 

 is dark, and must be sold at very low 

 figures. 



I send a clipping from the New York 

 Sun for Sept. 22. It reads thus : 



It is a B.iD Year for Bees. — New Haven 

 county and the adjoining county of Fair- 

 field, are the two gi'eat honey sections of 

 Western Connecticut. Thousands of pounds 

 of honey are shipped from here to the New 

 York market, aud New Haven county buck 

 wheat and clover honey are very popular. 

 This j'ear, however, the shipments of this 

 concentrated sweetness will be small. The 

 present season has been the worst for a 

 long time past, and the bee-keepers will 

 barely get enough money to pay them for 

 the bother of taking care of their bees. 



The long-continued wet weather has 

 spoiled the honey of the flowers, diluted it. 



