12 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Jan. 1. 



average, any more brood in the ten-frame 

 Langstroth hives at the out -apiary than I do in 

 my nine-frame Gallup hives here at home. 

 To be sure, I often have brood in the whole 

 ten frames, but not more than enough to fill 

 from six to seven full, while the nine Gallup 

 frames are full clear out to ihe corners, as 

 Ernest says the Holy Land and Cyprian 

 queens will do. Now if, when working for 

 omb honey, I get to the amount of only $% 

 Langstroth frames of brood out of 10 frames, 

 or 9 Gallup where I use 12, 18, 24, or 32 in a 

 hive, will Dr. Miller say that 9 Gallup frames 

 or G^ L. frames will not entertain any queen 

 to her fullest capacity in this locality ? And 

 allow me to say, in a very friendly way, that I 

 am inclined to think that what is applicable to 

 my locality will come very nearly the truth in 

 other localities, if others will work along the 

 same lines Doolittle does, and experiment, 

 and note things as carefully. 



DOOUTTXE ANSWERS THE EDITOR. 



And now I come to another Straw (p. 8<0) 

 where the editor wishes me to explain. And 

 that "twinkle"' in Dr. Miller's "eye" caused 

 him to wish the explanation. It's not very 

 often that the doctor gets in two " twinkles " 

 at Doolittle in one batch of Straws, as he has 

 this time. The editor points me to his answer 

 to "Straw regarding Dadant's statement to 

 the effect that queens will lose time in hunt- 

 ing for empty cells" where she has just room 

 enough for her needs, but for the life of me I 

 can not tell whether he agrees with Dadaut or 

 not. As Dadant uses only large hives, I doubt 

 whether, from practical experience, he is capa- 

 ble of telling just how much a queen hunts 

 about for room, unless he has seen her doing 

 so, because his large hives allow the bees to 

 crowd the queen with honey ( when working 

 for section honey) by their starting storing in 

 the combs below instead of entering the sec- 

 tions promptly with the beginning of the sea- 

 son, as they should do. It the queen does so 

 hunt I have never been able to detect her so 

 doing ; for where frames are filled solid with 

 brood the young bees emerge "solid," and so 

 she keeps on following the brood as it emerges, 

 in regular order. But if I read the editor 

 aright he wants to know if queens reared by 

 the plan given in "Scientific Oueen-rearing" 

 do not need more room for egg-laying than 

 those formerly reared by old plans. In an- 

 swer to this I will say that, as the older read- 

 ers of our bee-literature will remember, up to 

 the eighties, and for years, I used only six and 

 seven Gallup frames to the hive, and a num- 

 ber of articles can be found in the American 

 Bee fournal headed "Those Six-frame Hives," 

 in which I showed how I succeeded in produc- 

 ing tons upon tons of comb honey by the use 

 of from six to seven frames for brood. And 

 even to-day, where I find a queen that does 

 not fully occupy more than six Gallup frames 

 at the beginning of the honey harvest, that 

 colony has the other three combs taken away 

 from it, as years of experience has taught me 

 that a lot of empty comb in the brood-nest, at 

 the beginning of the honey harvest, is the 

 greatest drawback toward a successful result 

 in comb honey of any thing I have to contend 



with. But I am prepared to say that the num- 

 ber of colonies shut on six and seven brood- 

 combs at fie beginning of the honey harvest 

 is not nearly so great as it was before I prac- 

 ticed the plan of rearing queens as given in 

 " Scientific Oueen-rearing." 

 Borodino, N. Y. 



[While Doolittle does not say so in so many 

 words (owing, no doubt, to his modesty) I 

 infer that quens reared by his method require 

 larger brooding-space than queens reared by 

 the old ways — at all events, that has been our 

 experience. A honey flow, feeding, or large 

 cells, seem to be important requisites. — 

 Ed.] 



SECRET OF SELLING HONEY. 



A Good Article, and as Cheap as Sugar. 



BY S. F. TREGO. 



Would it not pay a great many bee-keepers, 

 who are properly situated, to aim to produce 

 more honey, and sell it cheap enough so that 

 their neighbors can afford to eat it every day? 

 I know that 10 cts. per pound for comb honey 

 is very cheap from the bee-keeper's point of 

 view; and, in fact, I would not care to produce 

 it for less; but put yourself in the place of the 

 ordinarv workingman and you will think it is, 

 to say the least, high enough. I know that 

 not a tenth of my neighbors have honey once 

 a week, and yet they all use sugar every day. 

 „How do I propose to get them to use more 

 honey and less sugar ? Simply by producing 

 a good article of extracted honey, well ripen- 

 ed, and selling it at a price that will compete 

 with sugar. That is the conclusion I have 

 arrived at. I got a crop of something over 350 

 pounds of nice heartsease honey from my 6 

 colonies (spring count), and have been selling 

 it at 15 lbs. for $1 00 (granulated sugar is 16 

 lbs. for $1.00). I was out half a day and sold 

 9G lbs., and since then I have made no effort 

 whatever to sell. It just sells itself. Nearly 

 every time I go to town some one will ask, 

 " Have you any honev left? " 



"Yes " 

 ' I want a dollar's worth." 



One day I was in Cable, and sold $3.00 

 worth without trying, and last night I went 

 over to a neighbor's and he gave me an order 

 for a like amount — one for himself and two 

 for another man. This leaves only 15 lbs. to 

 sell yet, so the fun is about over for this year. 



When that goes it will be 300 lbs. sold for 

 $20.00, which, is pretty good for 6 colonies, 

 when we consider that the clover was a total 

 failure and that they were increased to 17 

 colonies. 



This honey-flow was a surprise to us, as 

 many colonies had but five combs when it 

 began ; but bv the time it was over, all were 

 full. 



We have great hopes for next year. I am 

 putting up a honey-house 10 x 12, two stories 

 high, that will be a great help in handling the 

 crop at the least expense. It is situated at the 

 lower side of the apiary, and an inclined plane 



