264 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



July 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



=a Established by Samuel Wagner In 1861 C= 



The oldest Bee Journal in the English language. 

 Published Monthly at Hamilton, Illinois. 



Entered as second-class matter at the Postofiice at Hamilton, Illinois. 



Subscription Rates — In the United States and 

 Mexico, $1.50 per year; five years, $(3. 

 Canadian postage 15 cents, and other foreign 

 countries 25 cents extra, per year. 



All subscriptions are stopped at expiration. Date 

 of expiration is i>rinted on wrapper label. 



THE STAFF 



C. P. Dadant Editor 



Frank C. Pellett Associate Editor 



Maurice G. Dadant Business Manager 



(Copyright 1921 by C. P. Dadant.) 



THE EDITORS' VIEWPOINTS 



Belgium Appreciates 



As an evidence that the Belgian 

 Government appreciates the modest 

 efforts made by our beekeepers to 

 help the French and Belgian suffering 

 beekeepers, our editor was awarded 

 the "Order of the Crown of Belgium" 

 by King Albert. While thankful for 

 this honor, he realizes the fact that 

 this recompense was earned by the 

 concerted action of the numerous sub- 

 scribers who sent their share of the 

 Good Samaritan fund since October 

 1919. Each of you, friends, is there- 

 fore entitled to a share of the credit. 



Good Samaritan Fund 



Statement April, 1921 $17.00 



E. M. Cole, Audubon, Iowa .. 1.00 



Total of last subscription $18. uO 



This last amount was foi-warded, 

 as before, one-third to Belgium, two- 

 thirds to France, on May 5. The 

 amounts were 74 francs to Belgium 

 and 149 francs to France, the re- 

 mittance having been purch.,3ed be- 

 fore the rise in value of the francs. 

 In a few months we will be able to 

 give a statement from the committee 

 in charge. The totals sent by us 

 were all published in the American 

 Bee Journal from time to time. 



Too Much Pollen 



The May number of the Swiss 

 "Bulletin de la Societe Romande" 

 contains an article by Jules Comtat, 

 complaining of too much pollen in 

 the hives in the spring, some colonies 

 filling two and three combs, especially 

 if empty combs are given them to in- 

 crease the breeding space. We have 

 often seen too much pollen in queen- 

 less colonies, but never in queenright 

 colonies when they are breeding 

 heavily. This must be a question of 

 locality. 



His remedy is to place the combs of 

 pollen in a tub of water, held down 

 with a weight, for two days, then 

 wash the pollen out with a spray 

 pump and put the combs in the air 

 to dry. 



Unfair Discrimination 



In the May number of the Western 

 Honeybee, F. W. Redfield calls atten- 

 tion to the fact that market quota- 

 tions do not deal fairly with honey of 

 similar quality from different sec- 



tions. He mentions especially the 

 white alfalfa honey of the Rocky 

 Mountain region, which is light in 

 color and of good quality, but which 

 is quoted at prices similar to Hawai- 

 ian and Imperial Valley honey of in- 

 ferior quality. 



There is no apparent reason why 

 such a difference in price should pre- 

 vail as market quotations indicate. 

 Southern beekeepers make similar 

 complaint, stating that their white 

 honey, which is equal in quality 

 to the best, is quoted on a basis little 

 if any above the dark and poor qual- 

 ity produced in the same region. 



We suggest that right here is an 

 opportunity for the National Honey 

 Producers 'League to render a real 

 service to beekeepers living in regions 

 where discrimination is the rule. 



Drone-Laying Queens 



Huber ascertained that the queens 

 who become ,di'one-layers, whether su- 

 perannuated, or rendered drone- pro- 

 ducing through retarded impregna- 

 tion, never take offense at the build- 

 ing of queen-cells. He tells, in his 

 Twelfth Letter, of experiments made 

 upon such queens, and also upon 

 queens which have been deprived of 

 one or both of their antennae. The 

 removal of one antenna, from either 

 queen or worker, has no ill influence 

 upon them; but if they are deprived 

 of both, they become absolutely 

 worthless and incapable of doing any- 

 thing. Probably no observer has 

 made as many experiments upon this 

 subject as Huber did. 



It is a strange fact that a drone- 

 laying queen will pay less attention 

 to queen-cells or young queens than 

 even a virgin, for the first thing that 

 a virgin queen does, when she 

 emerges from her cell, is to seek 

 other queens, whether in the royal 

 cells or at liberty, and try to kill 

 them. 



The fact that a colony will rear a 

 queen, when the old mother is still 

 alive in the hive, and that the young 

 queen will become fertile and will 

 lay eggs, sometimes for several 

 months, while the old queen is still 

 present, indicates that a fertile queen 

 pays, also, little, if any attention to 

 a superannuated queen. But how do 

 they know whether their rival is or 

 is not a drone-layer? 



Imports and Exports of Honey 



It is not a bad plan to see ourselves 

 once in a while from the viewpoint of 

 others. It is also desii'able that we 

 should understand that others are 

 suffering from the very troubles 

 which we notice in our own selves. 

 Lack of union, lack of understanding, 

 and especially international ill will, 

 are causes of depression in prices. 

 The following report, abridged from 

 an Italian statement, shows us for the 

 first time a fair statement concerning 

 United States honey. When it comes 

 to commerce, each country seems to 

 consider all other countries as ene- 

 mies 



An Italian Statement Concerning 

 Honey Imports and Exports 



The market of honey, which ought 

 to be regulated in a modern way by 

 the Bee Associations, is constantly in 

 the position of an interrogation point, 

 the avidity of the producers and the 

 want of precise information are the 

 causes of the prevention of the regu- 

 larity of the market. 



The statistics of the Ministry of Fi- 

 nances illustrates the movements of 

 Italian exports and imports of honey 

 in the nine years from 1911 to 1920. 

 Imports Exports 

 1911— Quintals -__ 1037 2825 



1912— Quintals __- 1152 2090 



1913 — Quintals __. 2120 3070 



1914— Quintals ___ 743 2868 



1915 — Quintals ._- 228 6944 



1916— Quintals .-_ 741 325 



1917 — Quintals .-.11822 17 



1918— Quintals ._. 12877 49 



1919— Quintals ._- 1284 19 



It will be noticed that, while the av- 

 erage of importation of honey annu- 

 ally, previous to the war, was about 

 1,000 quintals, during the years 1917- 

 18 it was about 12,000 quintals. 



We have now returned to the an- 

 nual average of importation of 1,200 

 quintals. But it is to be noted that, 

 while before the war Germany was 

 the principal country which supplied 

 us, now the first place is held by 

 North America, especially by the 

 United States, where beekeeping has 

 taken great development. Neither is 

 it correct to say that that country 

 produces only inferior grades of 

 honey; it also produces table honey of 

 the very best quality, for direct home 

 consumption. 



The Little Bees 



This is not beekeeping, but it is 

 entitled to a place, gratis, almost any- 

 where : 



Les Petites Abeilles (The little 

 bees), under the patronage of Prin- 

 cess Marie-Jose, of Belgium, an- 

 nounces that, in a few days, they will 

 inaugurate their Sanatorium for 

 rachitic children of 16 months to 6 

 years, at their country seat of La 

 Chise a Pietrebais, Brabant, Belgium, 

 and they hope that notice will be 

 taken of this by charitable people who 

 will take to heart the co-operation for 

 the cure of rachitic childhood. Gifts 

 of any kind will be welcome, at the 

 Sanatorium Des Petites Abeilles, at 

 the above address. 



