(Entered at the Post'Office at Chicago as Second-Class Mail-Matter.) 

 Published Weekly at $1.00 a Year, by George W. York & Co., 334 Dearborn Street. 



GEORGE W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL., OCTOBER 4, 1906 



Vol. XLVI— No. 40 



diforial ^Alofes 

 and Comments 





tt 



•V 



— -tr- — - 



Keeping Queens for a Short Time 



It sometimes happens that one may wish to 

 keep a number of queens for a week or more. 

 Generally there will be no trouble in keeping 

 a queen in a shipping-cage a week or so, there 

 being enough candy present for that purpose, 

 if the cage be kept in a cool, dark place with 

 pure air. For a longer time, one would nat- 

 urally think of giving the cages to a queen- 

 less colony, and in some cases that has been 

 successful, but so experienced a man as W. 

 H. Laws says in the Canadian Bee Journal: 



I lost the larger part of 40 queens once 

 caged in the upper story of a queenless hive, 

 the bees selecting a few, which they nursed 

 and fed up to the egg-laying degree, while the 

 others they treated as strangers, tormenting 

 and pulling at them through the screen, 

 where I found them dead a few days later. 



The be6t success I have known in keeping 

 laying queens outside of the nucleus hives 

 from which they were mated, was by placing 

 them on unfinished sections of honey, placing 

 a solid board on one side and a wire screen on 

 the other, with a little wad of queenless bees 

 to each queen. In this way I have kept them 

 confined in a perfectly healthy condition until 

 the brood from each queen reared in the sec- 

 tion was hatching. 



■• 



Some Heavy Combs of Honey 



On page 769, Mr. W. D. Soper reported that 

 he had harvested 93 pounds of honey in 11 

 combs, and said, " If there is any other bee- 

 keeper who can show a greater weight of 

 honey in 11 combs, I would like to hear from 

 him." One of the Bee Journal family having 

 made a request to that effect, Mr. Super has 

 kindly furnished these particulars: 



In answer to your inquiry about heavy 

 combs, I will say the size of the frame is 10x12 

 inches inside. Most of the tombs were 

 bulged— about 2 inches thick. The hive is 22 

 inches inside. It is an old " Michael " hive — 



a very good one for extracted honey, but poor 

 for comb honey. W. D. Sopek. 



It should here be said that this explanation 

 was not necessary in reality, for all that Mr. 

 Soper wanted to know was whether any one 

 had secured 11 combs of greater weight, no 

 matter what the size or proportion of the 

 combs. It must be confessed, however, that 

 without the additional information given, 

 one is at a loss to know whether there is 

 something unusual about the size of the 

 frame, or whether the combs are of unusual 

 thickness. If, for instance, the combs were 

 lOxlS inches, m greater thickness would be 

 necessary to make 11 combs weigh 93 pounds. 

 In reality, the combs were smaller than those 

 in the Langstroth frame, being 10x12, inside 

 measure, and spaced nearly 2 inches from 

 center to center. No matter, however, what 

 the size of frame or thickness of comb, the 

 question is, Who has secured more than 93 

 pounds of honey in 11 combs* 



Co-operation Among Bee-Keepers 



We have received the following from Arthur 

 C. Miller, of Rhode Island^ in response to an 

 editorial recently published in the American 

 Bee Journal : 



Editor York:— The editcial on page 733, 

 bespeaks an imperfect conception of the scope 

 and form of the present co-operative move- 

 ment among bee-keepers, commonly called 

 the "Independent Movement." Perhaps I 

 may be permitted to give your readers a little 

 light on the subject. 



For several years bee-keepers have felt that 

 certain individuals, directly or through papers 

 or corporations controlled by them, have been 

 working against the bee-keepers' best inter- 

 ests. The straws became heavy timber, and 

 the honey-producers proceeded from 'rumb- 

 ling to action. Individuals cast about for 

 local sources of supplies, societies tried to 



buy for their members, individual and asso- 

 ciated effort was made to get honest honey- 

 market reports and accurate knowledge as to 

 crops. Unrest spread all over the country 

 until finally at theSt. Louis convention, action 

 was taken looking to the formation of a 

 '■ Honey-Producers' Exchange of America." 

 Before this new body (to be composed solely 

 of honey-producers, and excluding all inter- 

 ested in the manufacture or sale of supplies) 

 could be organized, there sprang into being 

 in Chicago, a "Honey-Producers' League." 

 This latter body was ostensibly for much the 

 same purpose as the Exchange previously re- 

 ferred to. Owing to the fact that among the 

 organizers were representatives of supply 

 firms and trade papers, and men who did not 

 have the confidence of the honey-producers, 

 the League was looked upon with suspicion, 

 and, finally, instead of winning the confidence 

 of the bee-keepers, aroused their anger and 

 hastened action among themselves. 



The Editor has called this action " co-opera- 

 tion," but it is not co-operation in the com- 

 monly accepted meaning of that term. In 

 some instances local societies acting alone; 

 in others, the county societies of a State act- 

 ing together, have sought and secured special 

 prices for supplies for their members. The 

 goods may be purchased in nearly any quan- 

 tity, and are ordered and paid for by the in- 

 dividual. The co-operative part, if, will be 

 noted, extendsonly to securing special prices, 

 not to pooling of funds or any other of the 

 forms of co-operative concerns. It is at once 

 positive in its results, and free from oppor- 

 tunity of internal dissension over financial 

 matters. It possesses immense and growing 

 strength, in that beingor becoming a member 

 of one of the modernized societies secures to 

 the individual special discounts and oppor- 

 tunities. So long as he is for and with his 

 fellow members, he can remain in the society 

 and secure the same benefits as the rest, but 

 if he works against them, then his 60journ 

 with them is certain to be decidedly unpleas- 

 ant, even if he is not expelled; and, if he 

 leaves, he forfeits his right to participate in 

 the various benefits. There is every reason 

 for a bee-keeper to become a member of and 

 work with and for the society, and no induce- 

 ment to work against it, unless he is so venal 

 as to accept pay from some manufacturer or 

 publisher. 



The various societies are taking up different 

 plans for the obtaining of special prices, gath- 

 ering information, conducting investigations, 

 and, in a few cases, joint buying and selling. 



Together with a firm determination to run 

 their own affairs, there is a spirit of cheer and 

 hopefulness that bodes well for the future 

 progress and success of the craft. 



Arthur C. Miller. 



It will be noticed that Mr. Miller starts out 

 by 6aying that the editorial on page 733, " be- 

 speaks an imperfect conception " of what he 

 call6 the " Independent Movement." It is 



