674 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15. 



was never as big as my fist, it swarmed very 

 frtquenlly (of course always returning), some- 

 times several times in a day. 



Foul brood Inspector N. E France says 

 in a circular giving treatment for pickled 

 brood, " Never make your bees use old black 

 combs." Can it be possible that is meant 

 literally ? I have always supposed that for 

 healthy bees old black combs were the best. 

 [Inspector France may be right ; but if so, it 

 would be the part of wisdom for bee-keepers 

 all over the country generally to discard a 

 half or two-thirds of their combs. This would 

 mean a very expensive change, and would 

 cost the bee-keepers several million dollars if 

 all should make it ; but old combs have been 

 used years before, and are used now, contin- 

 uously, and yet no pickled brood is found, I 

 was going to say, in ninety-nine out of one 

 hundred localities. — Ed.] 



H. L. Jones clips queens before selling 

 (641). Wouldn't customers object to that 

 who want the queen to fly with the natural 

 swarm? And wouldn't a customer who prac- 

 ticed natural swarming (if that expression 

 may be used), and who didn't know of the 

 clipping, get into trouble with such a queen ? 

 His plan of cutting one larger wing a little 

 makes it difficult to notice that she has been 

 clipped, he says, but that's just the trouble. 

 That sort of clipping has fooled me more than 

 once into thinking the queen was not clipped 

 at all. So I want both wings on one side 

 clipped, and pretty short at that. [From a 

 queen-breeder's standpoint 1 should prefer to 

 clip a la Jones ; but from a producer's stand- 

 point I should prefer to clip both wings. — Ed.] 



That idea of having cards printed in colors 

 to show the different shades of honey is well 

 worth considering. Try the Prang Co. [If I 

 can find time I will try to develop this idea ; 

 and yet I have less confidence in it than when 

 I first suggested it in this department. Why ? 

 Because I have since been looking at a lot of 

 samples of honey ; and for the life of me I do 

 not see how any ink-maker could produce 

 shades of opaque color that would at all re- 

 semble shades of transparency color ; or, to 

 put it another way, a liquid or substance 

 through which one can see has a different 

 shade from one of exactly the same color 

 through which one can not see. For example, 

 ink in a bottle produces a different effect on 

 the eye than ink when spread on a paper. 

 The shorthand notes from which this is copied 

 are being taken in a bright-red ink ; but as I 

 look at the bottle from which the ink is taken 

 (holding it up to the light), it appears to be 

 much lighter in color, giving the effect of a 

 very light wine tint. — Ed.] 



A hybrid queen will not do for a breeder, 

 because she is not of fixed type. A first cross 

 will show workers that in looks are pure black, 

 and others that are pure Italian. Yet the 

 majority of hybrids, where Italians have been 

 kept for years, are more nearly uniform in 

 character. While pure Italians may be the 

 best in the world, a persistent breeding from 



the best hybrids would in most apiaries result 

 in great improvement, and just possibly a 

 hybrid strain might be established better than 

 pure Italians. At any rate, the man who 

 breeds from his best hybrid queen will do bet- 

 ter than to breed promiscuously from all his 

 hybrids. [Very possibly you are right, and I 

 hope, therefore, you will proceed to develop 

 the possibilities of that one queen whose bees 

 are producing so much more honey than the 

 rest in the yard. I would call them the Miller 

 strain of hybrids. Say, now ; if we can get 

 up a rivalry between the queen-breeders of the 

 country, so that they will strive for business 

 instead of color, we shall have something that 

 will put dollars into the pockets of bee-keep- 

 ers. — Ed. 



That editorial, " Honey not Advancing, 

 and Why," p. 652, puts the responsibility just 

 about where it belongs : " Commission houses 

 and honey-buyers, many of them, are offering 

 little if any better prices than ruled in 1897." 

 But you're hardly right in saying, " One, two, 

 or three houses can't advance unless all do." 

 Your first statement contradicts that, when 

 you say, " many of them." The fact is that 

 one, two, or more have advanced. Each mar- 

 ket has always stood more or less indepen- 

 dently, and any one can advance its own 

 quotations. Brethren of the commission and 

 buying business, some of you ate doing us 

 and yourselves a decided wrong in publishing 

 the figures you do. A card handed me since 

 I began this Straw is from M. H. Mendleson, 

 and says: "White honey at a premium here 

 this season. Prices nearly double those of 

 1897." [On reconsidering, and after hearing 

 the discussion of this same question at the 

 Philadelphia convention, I shall have to ac- 

 knowledge that you are right. If two or 

 three of the best houses advance, and espe- 

 cially if these same houses can get a corner 

 on the market, prices are bound to go up. It 

 is an interesting fact that two or three of the 

 large concerns are now trying to obtain all the 

 honey there is to be had, because it is a scarce 

 article ; and it is another interesting fact that 

 there are carloads of honey that are held back 

 awaiting better prices. Mr. York, for in- 

 stance, editor of the American Bee Journal, 

 says he knows of five carloads of fine honey 

 that are awaiting an advance. If some of 

 these large honey-buyers who see this will 

 write to Mr. York, perhaps they can obtain 

 these five carloads providing they are willing 

 to make a big enough price. Since attending 

 the Philadelphia convention I am satisfied 

 that the markets must make a sharp advance 

 before very much honey will be seen on the 

 market. — Ed.] 



A. T. S., Iowa. — After the first swarm is 

 cast, the parent colony is liable to send out a 

 second, third, and possibly a fourth swarm, 

 each one smaller than the one preceding ; and 

 these several swarms may follow each other on 

 subsequent days, or there may be an interval 

 of two or three days or a week between the 

 swarms. 



