556 



American Ttee Journal 



June 28, 1906 



we are likely to rear a lot of bees during the honey har- 

 vest, by having a large amount of this comb filled with 

 brood to be fed during the harvest, and then emerge 

 into bees later on, to become consumers of the harvest 

 after that harvest is past. Consequently, the most of our 

 best apiarists of the present time use a queen-excluder 

 between the lower hive, or brood-chamber, and the hives 

 above, thus shutting brood out from all but the lover 

 hive, or the one in which the colony wintered. By thus 

 shutting the queen down to only one hive for her breed- 

 ing, the prospect for swarms is enhanced, and with bees 

 thus worked I find that from one-third to two-thirds 

 of the colonies so worked are inclined to swarm, just in 

 accordance with the season, and just in accordance with 

 how nearly the bees are forced to near the sealing-point 

 with the honey in the first story above the brood before 

 another story is added. 



I find honey is better ripened, if the first story put on 

 is allowed to become sealed a little before another is 

 added, and for this reason it is better to allow such 

 sealing even if we do have to do a little work to prevent 

 swarming, especially as such work saves a lot of useless ' 

 consumers just after the harvest of white honey has past. 

 In view of all this, I cage the queens at the time there 

 is a desire to swarm on the part of many colonies, which 

 is generally when the white clover harvest has reached 

 its height, leaving them caged for to days, at the end of 

 which time all queen-cells are taken from the brood- 

 chamber and the queen released. 



This course does not have the same effect when work- 

 ing for extracted honey, that it does when working for 

 comb honey, especially where the bees must build a part 

 or all of the comb in the sections, for with the caging 

 of the queen a tendency comes to cease the building of 

 comb as freely as is done when the queen is at liberty in 

 the hive; while with combs already built, so that the bees 

 have plenty of storing room, there seems to come no 

 slack in nectar-gathering, as long as the bees have a 

 queen, no matter whether she is at liberty or not. And 

 if we clip the wings to all of our queens, if a few colo- 

 nies begin to swarm before we think it time to make the 

 general caging, the bees will not go away, and this swarm- 

 ing on the part of the few will be detected at the gen- 

 eral caging, before any young queens will have time to 

 emerge from their cells. So I leave this stopping-of- 

 swarming part till I think it wise, according to the sea- 

 son to cage all of the queens, when the work is done 

 and all over with at one visit to the out-apiary, and the 

 queens all let out at one visit io days later. 



Of course, where any colony has swarmed, the 

 queen-cells used for this purpose must be taken off at 

 the time of caging the queen, and then again at the 

 expiration of io days, else we shall have swarming while 

 the queens are caged, through these cells hatching, and 

 a young queen leading off the swarm. 



All who are familiar with the inside workings of the 

 colony will see that the eggs which the queen would have 

 laid during the time she is in the cage would give emerg- 

 ing bees just about the time the harvest from basswood 

 would close, hence they would become consumers instead 

 of producers, and for this reason we save more than 

 enough from the consumption of honey to pay us for our 

 trouble of caging the queens, cutting of cells, etc., while 

 the colonies become ready for the buckwheat harvest just 

 as well as though the queen had been laying all the time. 



Of course, all will see that this is written from the 

 standpoint of a locality giving a yield of honey from 

 white clover, basswood. and buckwheat. In any locality 

 where there is a steady, continuous yield of nectar from 

 the beginning to the ending of the season, this cutting 

 off of io days of eggs by the queen would result in a 

 loss in honey rather than a gain, and should not be done 

 In such a locality, it is best to allow the queen to have 

 access to all the combs given, and then extract from 

 those not having brood in them, or from those having 

 only sealed brood and those having only honey; for the 

 extracting of honey from combs containing unsealed 

 brood is a vexation of spirit to the one doing the work 

 and nauseating to any consumer of honey who is an 

 onlooker. Borodino, N Y 



Chrysanthemums and Perfumery Offered 

 With Comb Honey 



BY G. C. CEEINER. 



YES, Air. Hasty, for 2 cents a pound — which I am well 

 satisfied I realize now by extra care in handling my 

 goods — I would be willing to put your kind suggestions 

 (page 408) into practice, and furnish a blue ribbon in the 

 bargain. Always bear in mind that it is the fancy article, 

 presented to the consumer in fancy style, that brings the 

 fancy price. The job would not be finished, if we take pains 

 to produce a fancy article and then handle it in a slipshod 

 way; we would fall short of the most desirable part of all 

 our toil's reward — the expected fancy price. It would be 

 like the man who gets on board the vessel to take a journey 

 across the ocean, and when in sight of the other shore, jumps 

 overboard. 



A great many failures in making satisfactory sales arc 

 directly due to this very point : The producer spends his time 

 and labor, puts forth every effort to produce a fancy article, 

 and then neglects the most important part of his business — 

 of turning his crop into money at top figures. Make light 

 of these points, if you please, but we are the losers by it. 



Last fall, while standing in one of our city markets, per- 

 sons came to my wagon repeatedly and inquired the price of 

 my sections. I sold them at that time for 16 cents apiece, 

 and the inquirer would say: "Well, your neighbor, a little 

 ways down the line, asks only 15 cents for his." 



In this case I would say: "I am not here to run my 

 neighbor's goods, but compare them with mine, and then 

 make your own selections; buy wherever you can to your 

 best advantage." The inquirer would invariably take some 

 of my fancily-put-up sections before leaving. 



To be sure, the difference of one cent is a small affair, 

 but the point is right here : I was all sold out before I left 

 the market, and my neighbor had his honey left on his 

 hands. 



After I sold out I took a walk down the line to have 

 a neighborly chat with my rival (?), and* found him fully 

 disgusted with the honey market. He said he had sold only 

 one or two sections all the forenoon, and it would be the 

 last time that he ever brought any more honey to that mar- 

 ket. 



It was plain enough to see the cause of this difference 

 in our day's experience. The quality of our friend's honey 

 was in every way as good as mine, but his sections were un- 

 sightly, covered with propolis — just as they were taken from 

 the hive, and no provision was made to furnish a safe way of 

 taking them home. If this friend had been a little more 

 particular in preparing his honey for market; if he had kept 

 one eye on Mr. Hasty's suggestions along the line of 

 chrysanthemums and perfumery, he would undoubtedly have 

 fared a little better in disposing of his goods. 



La Salle. N. Y. 



Southern 

 Iteedom 



Conducted by Lovis 11. Scholl, New Braunfels, Tex. 



Bee-Keeping 1 in Georgia 



Mr. Scholl: — I am a native of Texas (was brought up there), 

 and was connected with bee-keeping there 4 or 5 years about 26 years 

 ago, and it was there I learned to love bee-keeping, and at that lime I 

 was familiar with bee-keeping in many sections of that State, as we 

 traveled and lived mostly in an ox-wagon. 



I am to be in Texa6 some time this year on business, and if I have 

 a chance I want to visit many of the bee-keepers. The greatest thing 

 we are doing over here is keeping quiet. In regard to myself and my 

 business, I will say I am not much of a bee-keeper, but my business 

 is a paying one. I operate every line of bee-keeping. Other bee- 

 keepers are doing well, and in all we have about 1900 bee-keepers, 

 mostly old style, but get good returns from their apiaries. Our bees 



