106 



THE AMERICAN APWULTUEIST. 



Perhaps the time will come when 

 honey will be quoted along with 

 other groceries, and travelling mer- 

 cantile agents will carry honey ev- 

 erywhere in their schedule of arti- 

 cles, and the people will become 

 posted as to the price of honey. 

 This would make the price of honey 

 much the same everywhere, as is 

 the case with other groceries. 



Some people imagine that be- 

 cause great railroad corporations, 

 iron dealers, millers, etc., can force 

 artificial prices for their products, 

 honey producers can do the same. 

 They forget that these gigantic 

 concer)is are in the hands of com- 

 paratively few in number, who can 

 be wielded as one man, and with 

 their combined wealth the\' are 

 able to do anything but shut the 

 portals of the heavens. 



The very nature of the agricul- 

 tural business precludes any such 

 power in combination. Perhaps 

 people who depend on the cit}^ 

 markets might be benefited by 

 knowing the supply on hand as sug- 

 gested by Dr. Miller, but it would 

 do me, and I guess many others, 

 no good. Just let the berry crop 

 fail and I will sell all my honey at 

 good prices. You see the point : 

 we must have demand for our pro- 

 duce or it will not sell, whether we 

 have much or little on hand. 



Men, like the bees, are creatures 

 of habit, and we can habituate our 

 neighbors to the use of honey, and 

 we may spread out business till 

 we find sale for all the honey we 

 can produce. The whole country is 

 before us and unoccupied except a 

 few cities that have been over- 

 worked. Permit me to say here 

 that any man who expects to get 

 rich by selling a few pounds of 

 honey at an extravagant price will 

 fail at anything he goes at. Such 

 men as Messrs. Forncrook and 

 Hatch of Wisconsin have become 

 well off by producing honey cheaply, 

 and turning it into money at prices 



that consumers can afford to pay 

 for it. Such men succeed because 

 they have the pluck to work and 

 wait. 



Christiansburfj, Ky. 



QUEEN CELLS: HOW TO 

 CARE FOR THEM AT « 

 SWARMING TIME. 



Macedon, N. Y. 

 Amkkican Apiculturist: 

 Mr. G. U. Doolittle in reply to A. T. Trow- 

 bridge's question on page 56 in March niini- 

 ber of ''A))iculturist" tells very clearly and 

 satisfactorily how he manages his bees at 

 swarming time. 



Now, some of the beekeepers who do not 

 rear queens and who consequently have no 

 young queens to ])Ut into the old hives, would 

 be'veryglad to havejiini tell i/tem what is the 

 best way for them to' manage at sucli times. 

 A. J. W. 



ANSWER BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Well, A. J. ^V.. ihisis just what 

 I would do if I wi're in the place 

 of those "beekeepers who do not 

 ^'■rear queens;" by a little coaxing, 

 by means of stimulation, by feeding, 

 spreading of the brood, or better 

 still, by giving brood from other 

 colonies, I would get the colony 

 having \n\ best queen to swarm a 

 week or so in advance of the rest. 

 Having done this I would hive the 

 swarm on a new stand leaving the 

 old hive undisturbed for eight days, 

 during which time or previous I 

 would procure, by making or other- 

 wise, one of Henry Alley's queen 

 nurseries. At the end of the eight 

 days (by which time the first young 

 queen will be hatched), 1 would 

 open the hive and cut out all the 

 queen cells in the hive, fitting them 

 in the cages according to directions 

 in Alley's queen book. ,Ygu will 

 want to put each cell in a cage as 

 fast as cut out ; for doubtless sev- 

 eral will be ready to hatch at once. 

 If you do not find that any (jueen 

 has hatched, of course a cell is to be 

 left to furnish a queen to the old 



