712 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Nov. 6, 1902. 



minutia? of these matters they seem long and tedious, but 

 in actual practice only just a moment suffices to do the 

 whole thing, and the more anyone becomes used to such 

 work the faster it can be accomplished. 



Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



Disposing of the Honey Crop Advantageously 



7tV</(/ at {he SlluDietiuta Bee-Kee)M')'s^ Cou/'e/tfimt, 

 BV MR. SHEPHERD. 



'TTOW to dispose of the honey crop to the best advantage?" 

 I~l is the question asked by the enterprising bee-keeper. 

 Some say through the commission man, because they 

 do not want to be bothered by selling in small quantities — 

 they want their money all in a lump. Others peddle honey be- 

 cause they can realize a larger price. I prefer to work on 

 that line, for I want that larger price, and by so doing I 

 help keep a little off the city market, and sweeten up my 

 neighbors. 



I work on the exchange order or plan. I place in my 

 local paper an " ad," something like this : 



" Wanted — To exchange extracted honey for oats, corn, 

 potatoes, eggs, or silver dimes." 



When I commence peddling, I notice that a good many 

 would not buy if they had to pay money, but if I would 

 trade, " Why, yes, I will take some." By so doing I found a 

 market for honey that would otherwise go to the commis- 

 sion house. 



While living on the farm I would take all the eggs that 

 I could get hold of, in exchange for honey, because I could 

 take them to the store and exchange for something for the 

 family, thereby accommodating my neighbor as well as my- 

 self. 



You should be prepared to give your prospective buj'er 

 a taste of your honey. 



Another way is to bottle it, and put it in the grocery 

 stores. Put in jelly tumblers, or square bottles fill the bill 

 quite well. This point should not be overlooked: Adver- 

 tising your honey by having your name in as large letters 

 as the word honey. Look at the bottled goods in the 

 grocery stores for an example. When you buy butter, you 

 look at the reputation of the maker, somewhat. It is the 

 same in your honey-production. 



Produce " A, No. 1 " honey, so that it will "taste like 

 more." 



The "Missing Link" in Queen-Rearing. 



BY HENRY ALLEY. 



FOR the life of me I cannot reconcile the articles of Dr. 

 Gallup (page 584) and Mr. Doolittle (page 569). Mr. 

 Doolittle gives Dr. Gallup all the credit it is possible to 

 give anyone for teaching him how to rear long-lived 

 queens, and Dr. Gallup upsets the entire thing by telling 

 the readers of the American Bee Journal that Mr. Doolit- 

 tle's queens are worthless ; that is, in the second year. 

 Maybe I did not read those two articles understandingly. I 

 do not agree with Dr. Gallup on this point, that is, if Mr. 

 Doolittle rears queens by the method he says he does. I 

 know his queens must be good, as I have reared for years 

 more or less queens in that way, and they are always good ; 

 but if I remember correctly, Mr. Doolittle has not always 

 reared queens in that way. I would like to ask Mr. Doo- 

 little whether, after he commenced the cell-cup way of start- 

 ing queens, did he recomn^end placing them in the top- 

 story over the brood-nest of a strong colony ? 



As stated in a previous article, three queen-dealers ap- 

 peared to make that discovery at the same time. We all 

 thought that a marvelous thing had been discovered, but 

 with me it proved to be the worst thing that ever happened 

 to me in my queen-rearing experience. I found it the cheap- 

 est way to rear the cheapest queens, many of the cells so 

 built out that they had all the appearances of containing 

 extra-large queens, and would contain a half-grown worker- 

 bee. Why was this so ? Because the cells were built out 

 and larvai nursed by bees having a fertile queen. The lump 

 of jelly was found in nearly all the cells, but, as before 

 stated, the composition of the food was not the kind given 

 to larvae in cases where no queen is present. In fact the 

 bees were not " broody," they saw no need of other queens, 

 and would not " set " on the eggs. 



The first milk a cow gives for nursing its offspring is 



of a different quality from what it is several months later 

 on ; and so it is all through Natures's waj-s. Queens reared 

 in the above way are " forced " queens : but queens reared 

 in the way Mr. Doolittle and Dr. Gallup say they rear them 

 are necessity queens. Quite a difference between the two 

 kinds when they are put into colonies of bees. 



Now, when I reared queens in the year 1860, I thought 

 it was a waste of bees and time to use a full colony forrear- 

 ing queens, and so the nucleus system was used ; and, if 

 practical to rear queens by the nucleus system, I would use 

 it to-day ; and as was the case 40 years ago, I could rear' 

 just as good queens by that system as any one would care 

 to pay for. 



" Necessity is the mother of invention," and as I found 

 that queens could not be reared at a profit by either the 

 nucleus or full-colony plan, as given by Dr. Gallup, I com- 

 menced to experiment, and soon discovered a way that com- 

 bined all the good and essential points of the full-colony 

 system ; in fact, only full colonies were used, and have 

 been used, by me for 38 years for rearing queens. I found 

 that I could rear queens that were first-class in all respects 

 by another plan. Last season I tested something entirely 

 new, and now can rear queens that I think are superior to 

 any reared in previous years ; but the main point in this 

 last plan is economy in bees, and quality of the queens so 

 reared. 



Speaking of the "jelly lump " at the base of the cell as 

 indicating quality of the queen,J[ will say that there are 

 other strong indications of the qUality of the queen in a 

 cell. When opening a hive and finding several queen-cells, 

 just examine them and see if they are heavily waxed and 

 thoroughly corrugated. This is a good indication of a fine 

 queen within. When the young queens cut out of the cells, 

 I notice that the good queens leave a large hole, and usually 

 leave the cap hanging as if by a hinge, a sort of swinging 

 door. I have been deceived many times in supposing a 

 cell contained a queen, when, in fact, the queen had emerged 

 and the cap flew back in place, and no indications that the 

 cap had been removed. When a queen leaves a cell, and 

 the outlet is small and ragged, the queen is worthless. 



I never allow queens to hatch in the hives. I always 

 remove the cells to nursery-cages. I do this to save time 

 and bees. By having queens in cages they can be exam- 

 ined; if there is any defect in them (and there are many 

 queens in a thousand that are defective), they are destroyed. 

 Now, if defective queens are hatched in nuclei, much valu- 

 able time is lost to the queen-dealer, as it would require no 

 more time to get a perfect queen fertilized than it does a 

 worthless queen. 



All queen-dealers have hundreds of testimonials in 

 favor of their queens. Of course they publish them; but 

 when a " kick " comes in we don't tell of that, do we, Mr. 

 Doolittle ? 



I wish to speak of one testimonial that came in this 

 very day. I mention it as Dr. Gallup says " we " can't rear 

 queens that survive the second season. The writer says he 

 " had a queen of me in 1899 ; she is now 3 years old, and 

 seems more prolific, each year. It rained 25 days in June, 

 and July was no better, yet she gave two good colonies and 

 25 pounds of honey, and the parent colony is overflowing 

 with bees." I mailed this letter direct to Dr. Gallup. Now, 

 such letters come in nearly every mail to all who rear 

 queens, yet Dr. Gallup says our queens are worthless ! 



I know it makes no difference who rears queens, nor 

 what method is used in rearing them, there will always be 

 some trouble with queens sent out. I have sent thousands 

 of queens to bee-keepers who write thus : " Send me a 

 queen by return mail. I have a colony all run down that 

 has been queenless 3, 4 or 5 weeks," as the case may be. 

 Now what can a bee-keeper expect to do in that case ? If 

 the colony dies in the winter the queen dealer catches it ; 

 this man tells his neighboring bee-keepers, " Such a deal- 

 er's queens are not worth anything. Put one in a hive last 

 fall and she died in the winter." There is nothing fair 

 about such a deal. 



It is all right to introduce queens in such cases and take 

 the chances of the colony living, but don't hold the queen- 

 dealer responsible for the loss of the colony, if it should die 

 before spring. It is the bee-keeper's fault, and not the 

 queen's. 



Hundreds of bee-keepers who purchase queens destroj' 

 their usefulness when they introduce the queen. A queen 

 slightly stung (and many of the queens are), soon dies. 

 Many of them lay a few eggs and then disappear, or are 

 found dead in front of the hives; sometimes found in the 

 hive and the bees building queen-cells ; then they write the 



