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AMERICAN BEE lOURNAL 



May 29, 1902 



Mr. Miller, of Cache County, and Thos. Neilson. of 

 Sevier County, gave good reports of their respective coun- 

 ties ; they also reported that the present honey-crop indica- 

 tions were flattering. 



J. N. Elliott, an old Iowa bee-keeper, gave an interest- 

 ing sketch of the industry in that State. He said the bee- 

 prospects there were not very bright ; that honev often sold 

 for 20 cents or more a pound. He praised the Utah honey 

 as being the finest in quality that he had seen. He thought 

 we should exhibit at the St. Louis Fair. 



Marketing Honey. 



Very few bee-men are able to market their honey suc- 

 cessfully, but many can produce it. There are certain quali- 

 fications necessary to be able to put it in shape to get the 

 best results. It should be put in shape first to supply the 

 local market, which is always the best ; and, nest, tliat it 

 be in proper shape and condition to ship to any market. 



All packages should be scrupulously clean and attrac- 

 tive. The packages should be uniform, and the contents 

 exactly as represented. Under these circumstances the 

 market will hunt the honey instead of the honey having to 

 hunt the market, and command prices that will'be remuner- 

 ative. 



Bee-men can be the best judges of the package, accord- 

 ing to the locality and prospects in marketing conditions; 

 they vary with localities. If you want the top price for 

 your product see that it is in the very best shape and condi- 

 tio"- T. R. G. Welch. 

 President's Address. 



I take pleasure in greeting so many of you at this time. 

 While we meet, and greet many new faces we still have 

 many of the old true and tried friends with us. And while 

 all of our bee-keepers, as a rule, are kind, generous and true 

 in their sympathies for each other personally, many of them 

 lack interest in a unity of purpose necessary to the building 

 up of the bee-industry ; while manv express a hope and a 

 willingness that the bee industry may be built up and be- 

 come a grand success, they wait'for others to do the building, 

 and the great trouble has been that there have been too many 

 in the waiting column. 



We should form a co-operative exchange for the benefit 

 of all concerned. In union is strength, and if we would suc- 

 ceed we should form a strong bond of union. 



I have received a number of letters of late from several 

 bee-keepers in different parts of the State favoring the 

 adoption of an exchange for the general benefit of our bee- 

 keepers, and we hope to see it pushed to a successful issue. 

 A strong organization should be formed, and the best possi- 

 ble plan or method should be adopted for the purchase of 

 supplies, and for the disposal of all bee-products. We find 

 that organization for general protection is the order of the 

 day among all orders and classes, and why should not bee- 

 keepers? It needs but little argument to prove that when 

 each is striving alone to push his product on the market, 

 the result will be a demoralized market and low prices. 

 Thus the best way to avoid these difficulties is to ship all 

 products collectively to the market where it is required. 



I have in view the publishing of a treatise in the inter- 

 est of the industry as soon as our financial condition will 

 allow us, on the general management, the protection of 

 bees, etc.; and also as to the benefit to the health of the 

 people in the general use of honey. 



I find some very crude ideas exist in regard to honey, 

 some believing that nearly all honey is adulterated, even the 

 very purest and the best white alfalfa, which is said to be 

 the peer of all honeys. Even this peerless honey, in its 

 granulated condition, which is a general test of its purity, 

 some claim is adulterated. These mistakes need correcting. 

 We do not believe there is a bee-keeper in the State that is 

 guilty of adulterating, and Utah honey has a name which 

 it justly deserves, of being par excellence. 



Shall Utah bee-keepers exhibit at the fairs ? We can- 

 not afford to miss the great World's Fair at St. Louis. 

 Utah honey has carried off the honors on all occasions 

 where it has been properly exhibited, and if we send a good 

 exhibit to St. Louis we need have no fears for the result. 



From present indications over the greater portion of 

 the State the outlook for a good honey-flow is encouraging. 

 and thus if the results of the season prove satisfactory it will 

 be beneficial from every standpoint to put in a good exhibit 

 at our own State Fair this fall. 



Our bee keepers should take pains to protect their bees 

 from ants, wasps, and other bee-enemies, and also from dis- 

 ease. If there should be any trouble of this nature in any 



part of the State, steps should be taken to get the law en- 

 forced, and thus try to eradicate the disease. 



E. S. LovESY. 



I Contributed Articles. | 



No. 1.— Longevity of Bees— Rearing Sliort-Lived 

 Ones. 



BY DR. K. GAUUP. 



WHEN I read in the report of the Chicago Convention 

 Mr. Riker's account of longevity of bees, I felt like 

 hurrahing for hira. He has struck the right key. I 

 have been watching the discussion about long tongues. 



Allow me to tell how to rear short-lived queens, and 

 short-lived workers, so that the merest novice can run an 

 apiary for profit in two seasons, and never make a mistake. 

 Understand that I have been "through the mill" — it is no 

 guess-work or theory with me. Now we are ready to com- 

 mence. 



Take a small box, say 6 inches square, fit in some comb 

 containing a few eggs and larvje just hatched. Now get a 

 small quantity of bees and place them in the box with the 

 comb ; place them in a dark room or cellar, and in about 

 three days set them out and let them go to work, and if they 

 succeed in rearing a queen you will have a short-lived one, 

 and she will rear short-lived workers. Don't bother your 

 head about whether your nucleus contains old workers or 

 nurse-bees, it won't make so much difference only the fewer 

 nurse-bees the nearer you come to starving the embryo 

 queen. 



I obtained my first Italian queen from W. W. Gary, of 

 Massachusetts. Queens were then selling from $5 to S20 

 each, and I was going into a fortune <»t once (in theory), 

 and it was " just as easy as rolling off a log." But in prac- 

 tice it was a failure. I did not sell any queens, but I was 

 learning, all the same. 



When I went to the first Cincinnati convention I roomed 

 with Adam Grimm and we discussed the queen-breeding 

 theory thoroughly, and when I bade him good-by, he said, 

 "Galliip, next summer I will send you a queen that is a 

 queen." And he did. She was one of the very best queens 

 1 ever owned — prolific, long-lived, and reared long-lived 

 workers. She lived to be 6 years old. Those bees were 

 extra honey-gatherers. When I got ray first large hive, 

 whose colony produced 600 pounds in 30 days, I hived a 

 large prime swarm on the 10th of May from my Grimm 

 stock. As soon as they commenced to build drone-comb I 

 filled out the balance of the hive with ready-made worker- 

 comb — 48 combs, all on the ground floor, and the queen 

 spread herself grandly. 



I made other large hives containing 36 combs each. 

 None of my large colonies cast a swarm the second season, 

 so I thought I had a non-swarming hive. But the third 

 season my large colonies all swarmed, some 8 to 10 days 

 earlier than those in standard hive.», because they had 

 superseded and reared new queens to suit the capacity of 

 the hive. Those swarms were so large when they came out 

 that it took three standard hives, one on the other, to con- 

 tain them. The queens all lived 3 or 4 years, and one lived 

 5 years, whereas many queens reared on the small nucleus 

 plan die of old age the first season, and all are worthless 

 the second season. Bees hived in cracker-boxes, nail-kegs 

 and small boxes for a series of seasons soon get so they 

 rear queens to suit the size or capacity of the hive or box. 



No%v allow me to tell how to rear long-lived queens and 

 bees. My 14-year-old son takes quite an interest in bees, 

 and he has made two 9-frame Langstroth hives all under 

 the same roof, side by side, so that all can be turned into 

 one hive. Now when all are full, and if the two queens do 

 not fill to suit with brood, we will fill with hatching brood 

 from other hives, so as to have an immense quantity of 

 nursing bees, and bees of all ages. Now in a hive of that 

 capacity, and filled in that manner, we expect to rear long- 

 lived queens and long-lived workers, and we shall not be 

 disappointed. I know positively, by actual experience, that 

 the lifetime of the bees from queens reared under the 

 best possible conditions is fully three times as long as those 

 reared under the opposite extreme. 



Now, Mr. Riker, let us shake, as you and I are both on 

 the same side of the fence. San Diego Co., Calif. 



