1900 



GLEANIxNGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



171 



weather was cool, and that they were white; 

 while the second one that was stored in ex- 

 tremely hot dry weather was " greasy; " and 

 although he says there was a fairly good flow 

 from sweet clover it was probably much less 

 than during the cooler weather. 



I can not believe the hot dry weather to be 

 more than the indirect cause by lessening the 

 honey- flow, because I have so many times seen 

 the same result from wet weather. I live 

 within five miles of the foot of the Rocky 

 Mountain range, and our showery season be- 

 gins about the first of July. The forenoon 

 will be warm and bright, and the nectar plen- 

 tiful in the alfalfa bloom; but by one or two 

 o'clock a dashing thunder-shower is in prog- 

 ress, pretty thoroughly washing the nectar 

 from the flowers, and this will recur day after 

 day, sometimes for ten days or two weeks, 

 thus giving the bees but two or three hours per 

 day for honey-gathering, as it takes a goodly 

 share of the interval between showers to re- 

 cover from the washing, and begin to secrete 

 nectar. These conditions prevailed during the 

 last season, and the character of the cappings 

 of the honey told with perfect accuracy where 

 the restricted honey-flow began and where it 

 ended. 



Some four years ago the opposite condition 

 prevailed. After about ten days' fine flow the 

 weather became very hot and dry, and re- 

 mained so for some time. The honey-flow 

 grew less and less, until storing above finally 

 ceased. The result was, a considerable share 

 of my honey was " greasy." 



From these observations I am led to believe 

 that the hot dry weather acts as a cause in the 

 same way that the wet weather does, by re- 

 stricting the amount of honey gathered. 



I thoroughly agree with Mr. Whitney in 

 saying that the honey with the thin cappings 

 is the choicest honey in the hive; and it is so 

 because it is gathered slowly, and is thorough- 

 ly ripened before being capped. 



Fort Collins, Colo., Dec. 22, 



[On my recent trip to Colorado I called at 

 the doctor's office, but he was not in. As my 

 train was to come soon I did not have the op- 

 portunity of seeing him personally ; but well 

 do I remember those towering Rockies that he 

 speaks of on the very border as it seemed to 

 me of the town. 



While the doctor seems to give convincing 

 proof to the effect that the condition of the 

 honey-flow — that is, the weather and the 

 amount of nectar in the fields does have a di- 

 rect influence upon color of the cappings — yet 

 here is something from another Coloradoan, 

 Mrs. Barber, one of the most prominent and 

 successful bee-keepers of the State. Her evi- 

 dence seems to be equally conclusive that the 

 trouble lies largely with the queen. While it 

 is possible that both conditions of weather and 

 the stock ( the queen )may have something to do 

 with greasy cappings, yet it is more than prob- 

 able that either one or the other writer is 

 nearer the truth. 



It is exceedingly important to know the real 

 cause. If the queen is responsible for the 

 discolored honey, then the remedy is easily 



applied. If she is not it is folly to destroy her, 

 and we must be content to take what we can 

 get.— Ed.] 



■ . . .«»»«»« 



QUEEN THE CAUSE OF SOILED SECTIONS. 



Whitest Honey from Golden Italians. 



BY MRS. A. J. BARBER. 



I have just read the article on page 929 

 about greasy looking sections, and their being 

 caused by the peculiarities of the season. 

 Now, I have become quite a crank about 

 queens, and I hold the queen responsible for 

 almost every thing that goes wrong — greasy 

 sections and all. 



For the first few years that I kept bees I no- 

 ticed that sometimes we found the sections 

 nice and white, and sometimes the capping 

 looked greasy. I did not pay much attention 

 to the cause, as there was a good market, and 

 all the honey went at the same price. Five 

 years ago I sent to a queen-breeder in the 

 South for six queens. I got them late in the 

 season, so they cost me only 30 cents each. 

 One was a black, four were leather-colored, 

 and one a yellow. The next season I watched 

 these colonies closely to see whether they were 

 any better than my old stock of leather-colored 

 Italians. I soon noticed that the yellow queen 

 had remarkably white cappings, and that they 

 were smooth. The black queen had white cap- 

 pings, but the bees built little spurs from the 

 face of the honey, and fastened them to the 

 separator, thus spoiling the honey for market. 

 The leather-colored ones were like my old 

 stock — some capped white and some greasy. 

 The yellow queen's cappings were so unusually 

 nice that, as we were beginning to have a de- 

 mand for white fancy honey, I concluded to 

 see if it was only an accident that her 

 honey was nicer than the others'. I raised 14 

 queens that season from her, and found that 

 nearly all of them produced bees that capped 

 the honey as white as paper. 



The next season I requeened nearly all my 

 home apiary. I have taken premiums for fan- 

 cy honey right along, and I believe I owe it to 

 those queens. My experience is that those 

 white cappers produce more honey, too, than 

 the others. I have two colonies that produced 

 six supers each (144 pounds) this season, 

 when some of the others did not store more 

 than one. I have no queens to sell, but I am 

 convinced that that thirty-cent queen has been 

 worth more than a hundred dollars to me. 



I have one of Hutchinson's queens ; and if 

 her stock is any better than my white cappers 

 I shall say she is a "hundred-dollar" queen. 

 I think about nine-tenths of the home-apiary 

 comb honey this year was fancy white, while 

 at the out-apiary, where I have not paid so 

 much attention to the queens, I had nearly 

 half second grade. I am going to requeen 

 from the Hutchinson queen down there, and 

 note the result, and compare notes with the 

 yellows at the home apiary. 



I don't believe we can overestimate the im- 

 portance of the queen. 



Man cos. Col. 



