Dee Journal 



i Entered sit the Post-Offlce at Chicago as Second-Claas^Mail-Matterj 

 Published ^Veekly at 91. OO a Year by tieorge YV. Tork Sc Co., 334 ■>earboni St. 



QBOROB W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL., AUGUST 10, 1905 



VoL XLV— No. 32 



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(Sbitortal Hotcs ^ Comments 



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A "Post" that Needs Posting 



In Ihe Denver Post the tirst week in July 

 there appeared the following questions : 



1. Is there such a thing as manufactured 

 honey! It so, is it comb or extracted, and 

 where can it be obtained? 



2. Can eggs be manufactured? 



The Post gave the following answers : 



1. Yes. It is, both the comb and the ex- 

 tracted, and can be obtained from almost any 

 grocer. A great percentage of the honey 

 marketed now is of this class. 



2. They can be and are. 



Mr. R. R. Pdlterson, of Otero Co., Colo., 

 sent us the newspaper clipping from the Den- 

 ver Post, showing the above questions and 

 answers. 



As Manager of The Honey-Producers' 

 League we wrote the editor of the Post, call- 

 ing his attention to the honey misrepresenta- 

 tion, and requesting a correction, adding that 

 we would be pleased to enroll the Denver 

 Post in the list of newspapers that were help- 

 ing to undo the wrong perpetrated on an 

 honest industry by the starting of the manu- 

 factured-comb-honey libel some 2.5 years ago. 



We have not had any reply to our letter to 

 the Post's editor. If any Colorado bee-keep- 

 ers have seen a correction of the quoted mis- 

 representations in the Post, we would be 

 pleased to know it. Perhaps some Denver 

 bee-keeper can enlighten us. 



By the way, the poultry people ought to 

 look after their "manufactured eggs" ques- 

 tion and answer. We quoted it just to show 

 what a lot of valuable information f?) the 

 Post was giving its readers ! 



Future of One-Piece Sections 



Editor Root and Dr. Miller are at it again. 

 This time it's a scrap as to the outcome of 

 the growing scarcity of basswood lumber. 

 Editor Root entertains the idea that as a re- 

 sult of that scarcity producers of section- 

 honey will soon be driven to make a change 

 to bulk honey or something else. The Doctor 

 obstinately refuses to yield to such pessimis- 

 tic views, and insists that he is not going to 

 give up the production of section-honey, no 

 matter how far skyward the price of basswood 

 may soar. The following "stray straw" gives 



the situation at latest accounts from the seat 

 of war : 



"At last we have the whole dread truth. 

 After basswood lumber disappears it will cost 

 75 cents a thousand extra for 4-piece sections, 

 page 701. Pshaw ! if that's all, I'm not going 

 to lie awake nights fearing that I'll have to 

 give up the production of section honey." 



To which Editor RootmaktS this comment: 



" But, hold on. Doctor! When lumber ad- 

 vances labor will also advance somewhat. It 

 is the experience of the Root Co. that our 

 own laijor has increased, and is still increas- 

 ing in cost. Well, suppose we put the price 

 SI. 00 per 1000 extra, you will have to add to 

 that cost your own labor in putting the 4- 

 piece sections together." 



Clearly, Editor Root thinks 4-piece sections 

 do not count. It's either 1-piece or no section 

 honey. On the other hand. Dr. Miller will 

 take " aid and comfort "from the fact that 

 there are bee-keepers who used 4-piece sec- 

 tions before the 1-piece were known, and have 

 never been willing to give up the 4-piece for 

 the 1-piece. C. E. Woodward says in the last 

 Bee-Keepers' Review: 



" I have never yet seen a 1-piece section 

 that I considered worth putting the founda- 

 tion into. The 4-piece section, made from 

 white poplar, is the only first-class section on 

 the market." 



^ 



Injury to Queens In the Mails 



Most of the queens sent by mail, fortunately, 

 are untested queens that have only been lay- 

 ing a short time. These generally, not always, 

 may be expected to do as good work as if 

 they had taken no postal journey. On the 

 other band, there is much complaint that 

 tested queens turn out poorly under the same 

 circumstances, the purchase- sometimes feel- 

 ing that he has not been fairly dealt with to 

 have a queen prove a poor layer after having 

 paid an extra price. The following paragraph 

 from the Bee-Keepers' Review emphasizes the 

 matter. Kecouuting a visit to .J. P. Moore, 

 the Kentucky queen-breeder, the editor says: 



" Among the things mentioned by Mr. 

 Moore, one worth repeating is the injury that 

 comes to tested queeos from shipping them, 

 or, to be more exact, perhaps, from checking 

 their egg-laying so .'uddenly by taking them 

 from full colonies w hen they are at the height 

 of their egg-layinf- He says that a young 

 queen, that has jutt < 'mmenced to lay, stands 

 shipment much bftf '.and usually proves to 



be of value as an egg-layer after shipment, 

 while a tested i|ueen often turns out very 

 poorly. He says that a tested queen ought to 

 be shipped in a full colony or a nucleus, to 

 say the least. I have noticed the same thing 

 myself. This year I have bought several 

 tested queens of various breeders, and very 

 few of them have turned out well. One layed 

 worker- eggs for awhile, and then turned 

 drone-layer. Another layed a little while, 

 and then turned up missing. None of them 

 hive proved good, prolific layers. Young 

 queens, of this year's rearing, sent as soon as 

 they had commenced laying, turned out all 

 right. Still further, I bought nearly a dozen 

 full colonies having tested queens at least one 

 year old, and some are probably older, and 

 these queens, never having been out of their 

 hives, are splendid layers. As Mr. Moore 

 says, a choice tested queen ought to be 

 shipped in a full colony or a nucleus." 



It is no new suggestion that a sufficient rea- 

 son for the different results in mailing tested 

 and untested queens lies in the fact that a 

 tested queen taken right in the midst of heavy 

 laying carries a burden of eggs nearly equal 

 to the weight of her own body, while an un- 

 tested queen carries a lighter weight. Let a 

 man with a bag on his shoulder, nearly equal- 

 ing his own weight, attempt to stand in the 

 middle of a moving, swaying railroad car, 

 and he may judge something of the difficulty 

 to be met by the heavily laden queen. If 

 sent in a nucleus or a full colony, she has a 

 more secure footing upon her native heath. 



It is a question, however, whether, with 

 the proper precautions, the tested queen may 

 not be sent just as safely by mail as any other. 

 If she be taken from the hive and kept in a 

 cage for 24 hours or more before being 

 shipped, her burden of eggs will be greatly 

 reduced in weight. Surely she ought to travel 

 more safely for the lightening. Most likely 

 any queen would be a little better off to go in 

 a nucleus or full colony, but in cases of long 

 distance express charges are high, perhaps 

 amounting to mote than the damage accruing 

 to the queen when sent by mail. Safe advice 

 to the beginner would be to say : 



When buyiog a tested queen, either have 

 her sent in a full colony or nucleus, or else 

 stipulate that she be kept out of the hive a 

 day or more before being mailed. 



Size of Cells 



It may be convenient to remember the 

 figures 3, 4, and r> as applying to the size of 

 cells, that is, their diameters. The diameter 

 of a queen-cell at the time when the egg is 

 placed in ii is such that 3 of them placed side 

 by side nieiiMin an inch; 4 drone-cells meas- 

 ure an inch, uinl r> worker-cells. 



