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136 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



August 



remain, she would be killed when •'the 

 time came for the young queens to 

 take charge. M. W- Shepherd says I'm 

 wrong. I'll not arbitrate the case, for 

 he has the facts on his side, having had 

 25 per cent of such colonies swarm with 

 the young queen while the old queen 

 remained in the hive- I had never had 

 his experience, and so far as I remem- 

 ber his is the first experience of the 

 kind I have known to be reported. 

 Thanks, friend Shepherd, for making 

 me know better. , 



Mr. Shepherd says we are told in the 

 American Bee Journal "that queen cells 

 were always left by the retiring que_^n, 

 and about a week after the swarm had 

 issued, the cells would begin to hatch/' 

 but he often found that no cells were 

 started. The statement in the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal is all right except the 

 "always,'' for there are exceptions, es- 

 pecially since .' introduction of 

 Italians. 



Possibly I don't understand him cor- 

 rectly about swarms issuing with a vir- 

 gin while the old queen remains un- 

 harmed. Pm a little puzzled to under- 

 stand where the virgin comes from if 

 he has cut out all cells. Or does he 

 mean that a virgin will be reared and 

 the swarm issue with that virgin with- 

 out any swarm having first issued with 

 the old queen? In either case it is 

 something that has not been given be- 

 fore to my knowledge. 



Marengo, 111.. July 8. 1902. 



Philadelphia Bee=Keepers Have an 

 Outing. 



(M. F. Reeve.) 



MR. HAROLD HORNOR, a 

 young and energetic New Jer- 

 serseyman who combines the 

 business of a nurseryman along with 

 bee-keeping outside the town of Mt. 

 Holly, N. J., invited the members of 

 the Philadelphia Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion to take their July field outing at 

 his place on Saturday, July 5. 



As Hornor's name is a symbol for 

 hospitality and as his apiary is regard- 

 ed as not only the largest but the best 

 kept one anywhere around Philadel- 

 phia, twenty-four men and women 

 availed themselves of the invitation. . 



Mr. Hornor is up-to-date in all his 



methods and appointments and is very 

 fond of making experiments in testing 

 new methods of queen rearing, etc His 

 queens are raised by the Pridgen sys- 

 tem with Hornor's improvements, and 

 the samples submitted wer^ certainly 

 of fine coloring and said to be of good 

 honey gathering quafities. It was a 

 treat to the spectators to inspect the 

 hives tiered up five stories high and 

 filled with heavy sheets of white clover 

 honey, so heavy that a filled box was 

 a good lift for a man. These were ready 

 for the extractor. Mr. Hornor said 

 that he expected to get 3000 pounds of 

 extracted from upwards of forty col- 

 onies. He uses a Cowan No. 15 ex- 

 tractor. 



One of the sights that attracted most 

 attention was a couple of diminutive 

 hives illustrating the Swarthmore plan 

 of queen rearing. 



These hives each contained two little 

 frames about the size of honey s,ec- 

 tions. 



E. L. Pratt, of Swarthmore, who de- 

 vised the system and who was a pupil 

 of Alley, the Massachusetts breeder, 

 happened, by good luck to be along 

 with the party as the "baby" member 

 and he had to explain the whole thing 

 to President Townsend and the oth- 

 ers. After the inspection the members 

 held a business m'eeting under the shade 

 of the maple trees surrounding Mr. 

 Hornor's home and discussed "loul 

 brood" and Vice-President Flower's 

 "queen breeding in confinement under 

 a tent"' and other topics and after a 

 rousing vote of thanks to Mr. and 

 Mrs. Hornor, for their generous hos- 

 pitality were driven to the train for 

 Philadelphia. 



The June meeting was held at the 

 apiary and home of W. A. Selser, at 

 Jenkintown. and the next one will be 

 at Vice-President Flowers's apiary, at 

 Ashbourne. 



Rutledge. Pa., July 6, 1902. 



Forecasting the Honey Crop — A 

 Good Season for White Clover. 



(J. H. Andre.) 



FOR several years past I have been 

 wondering if a good maple sugar 

 season was also a good honey 

 season. There has been no good sea- 



