164 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. I. 



more satisfactory. The question of the hour 

 is, " Shall bee-keepers bend every energy to the 

 production of honey so clieaply that glucose 

 mixers can't undersell us (glucose is now worth 

 less than 2 cts. pel- lb. in car lots), or shall we 

 devote a portion of th<se (Miei'gies to securing 

 such a law, and to seeing that it is enforced 

 when secured? livRON Wai,kek. 



Chicago, Jan. 25. 



[See editorial elsewhei'e.l 



ftUEEN RESTRICTION. 



THE KXrE>.SE OF SOME UP" THE NEW DEVIf E- 

 BOtTNTIKS. 



I have noticed for a while back a book adver- 

 tised in Gi.EANiXGs that tells all about '• Queen 

 Restriction." I sent for it. and have given it a 

 pretty thorough examination. The gi'eat ques- 

 tion of the honey problem of the day is."how to 

 produce more honey at less cost." The idea is 

 advanced by quite a number of prominent apia- 

 rists, that this end can lie attained by either 

 restricting or altogether i<'moving the queen, 

 thereby preventing swarming. I remember 

 reading an article in the Rcj'/cir of June. 1891, 

 from Mr. Aikin. of Colorado, who, while living 

 in Iowa. I think, practiced the removal of 

 queens at the beginning of the honey season, 

 and allowing the colonies to I'ear another queen, 

 by which method claiming to increase his hon- 

 ey product very largely, and also preventing 

 swarms. For increase he gave the best old 

 queens a frame or two of brood and allowed 

 them to build up. 



Now. this is an intf'resting question, not only 

 to myself but to many of th(> bee-keepers of this 

 county, and, I think, to the fraternity every- 

 where. P^or this reason I wish to discuss the 

 claims advanced for queen lestriction, and will 

 leave the queen-removal plan to be discussed 

 by Ml'. Aikin and others who have tested it. 



In the pamphlet before me on this subject, 

 the author claims for his restrictor (which con- 

 tines by queen-excluding zinc the queen to one 

 or more frames. He seems to think four frames 

 about the right number), that, by its use, he 

 can get a much larger yield with much less 

 labor than by the plan of removal. He com- 

 ments to a considerabhi extent upon the back- 

 breaking process of removing (jueens and cut- 

 ting out queen-cells. We are all well aware of 

 this fact, and I have never found any more dis- 

 agreeable job, during the hot days of June, 

 than that very thing. Hut the average bee- 

 man expects work, and lots of it, so we must 

 offset the work by the cost of the restrictor. 

 For a four-frame restrictor the price is (59 cents 

 each, or ^(J.TO for 10. It stiikes me that, in a 

 large apiary, that would be quite expensive. 



Now. on the other side, take the labor on ten 

 hives. By my plan ojf j'emoving (|ueens I want 

 only ten minutes to each colony, and fifteen 

 minutes for cutting out cells. Of this plan I 

 juay wiite further before the honey season. 

 However, we will allow thirty minutes, so as to 

 give plenty of time for each operation. That 

 gives one hour for each colony, to I'emove 

 queens and cut out cells. At $2.(X) per day the 

 cost foi' the ten hives is just •■?2.()0 for ten houi's' 

 work. I>ut I claim that the young (jueens rais- 

 ed by this method would be enough b(!tter to 

 nu)re than compensate for the day's work. Am 

 I not right? 



I do not desin^ to disparage the (pieen-restrict- 

 or. I nn^ si7n|)l\' counting the cost, and that 

 must l)e done, in order to solve the problem. 



I may also slate, in behalf of this method, 

 tluu the author advises wide frames and sec- 



tions in the lower story in connection with the 

 restrictor. I have never tried getting honey 

 fiom the lower story, but we have lots of men 

 who have tried it. Let them tell us something 

 about it. I hope this will provoke a general 

 discussion all along the line upon this qu(>stion, 

 as I am sui'e that it is an important one. and I 

 for one want to weigh the evidence before the 

 season opens. After woi king-time conies we 

 can operate on a more matured basis. 



AITOMATIC SWARM-HIVERS. 



In these we have another " restrictoi;"' and 

 while they may eventually be perfected so as to 

 fill the bill, which does not seem to be the case 

 yet. still the question of cost must be consider- 

 ed. In the most of these devices it is necessary 

 to provide an extra hive, whether it will be 

 utilized or not. which of itself is quite an ex- 

 pense, and. to my mind, an unnecessary one; 

 for if we are to produce the most honey at least 

 cost we must avoid swarming except for desira- 

 ble increase. The device itself, also, is too 

 much expense to be used in an extensive apiary 

 when there is so mttch uncertainty as to 

 whether many swarms will issue or not: there- 

 fore, in summing up I must incline to the belief 

 that dequeening has the floor. 



BOUNTY. 



And now. as if there were not enough trouble- 

 some things to perplex the bee-keeper, up pops 

 an entirely new idea. I want to say that I am 

 opposed to bounties. If the government had 

 given sugar industries and capitalists a bonus 

 and a stipulated sum for the first 10(),(XX) lbs. 

 pi-oduced, and then stopped at that, and at the 

 same time limited the time to five years or less, 

 then the matter would have been disposed of in 

 a comparatively short time, and prices would 

 have become settled, and experimenters and in- 

 vestors would liave been aiuply remiuierated for 

 advancing the industries of the company. Hut 

 as it is. the thing may go on indefinitely, and 

 finally become a bone of contention between 

 the political parties, and then — God have mercy 

 on usi Another thing about "boosting" up 

 any particular business or pursuit, is, that it is 

 apt to cause prejudice in the minds of consum- 

 ers and therel)y defeat the object aimed at. 

 Bee-keepers generally depend upon a local mar- 

 ket, which renders them a mark of displeasure 

 on the part of those not benefited, which would 

 not be so much shared by their more distant 

 colleagues, the sugar-producers. We as honey- 

 pi'oducers would better bend our energies to 

 have the sugai' bounty ari'anged as mentioned 

 than to try to otf'set it by anothei' bounty on 

 honey. S. A. Dyke. 



Pomeroy, O.. Feb. 8. 



[It seems to us that our coirespoudent has 

 been too liberal with his time in hunting up 

 queens. We have on several occasions in 

 about two years, opened up. found the queen, 

 and done such other work as clipping wings 

 and tearing down queen-cells, at the rate of 

 about forty hives in two houi'S. Some of these 

 colonies were two-story. We did not examine 

 all the brood surface, but went thi'ough the 

 hive pretty thoroughly— a thing we like to do 

 once or twice; during the season. This would 

 allow only thre(Mninutes i)er hive; and yet we 

 do not tiiink we particularly hurried to get 

 through the work. But. as we have before ex- 

 plained, we can, a good share of the time, diag- 

 nose the colony with little or no frame manipu- 

 lation. 



We rather hesitate to speak about the cost of 

 queen-restrictors. t)ecause it might appear that 

 we were interested in pushing the sale of our 

 own articles; and we will only add that the ob- 

 ject of queen restriction, advocated by C. W. 



