1911 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



111 



Thus it is the lime-water and not the slak- 

 ed lime that absorbs carbonic acid. 



I can not see how slaking lime in a cellar 

 would dry the air unless the cellar were air- 

 tight. For the purpose of keeping articles 

 free from moisture in closed vessels, calcium 

 chloride (CaCl) is generally used, as it has 

 a powerful affinity for water. 



NON-SWARMING BEES NOT WANTED. 



I am very much interested in the articles 

 on non-swarming races of bees. While in- 

 terested I am not at all in sympathy with 

 the idea, and think it is time wasted. I be- 

 lieve that, if a non-swarming bee (by that 

 I mean one with no inclination to swarm) 

 were produced, such a bee would be useless 

 as a honey-gatherer. I believe the God- 

 given instincts of swarming and storing 

 honey are inseparably connected; and if one 

 is broken up, the other will be destroyed. 



I do believe with all my heart that we 

 should make every effort to prevent swarm- 

 ing. The old English definition of "pre- 

 vent" just expresses my idea — that is, we 

 should anticipate swarming. If by shaken 

 swarming or other methods we can make 

 the bees believe they have swarmed, and 

 thus satisfy their instinct, then we are as- 

 sured of a big yield. 



Wilmington, N. C. 



[As Mr. Huggins is superintendent of a 

 chemical works we are sure that he knows 

 whereof he speaks, and we are glad to stand 

 corrected. — Ed.] 



PRICES OF HONEY IN TEXAS. 



Louis Scholl's Figures Correct; Bulk Comb Hon- 

 ey Becoming More Popular. 



BY M. B. PBUITT. 



I beg to differ with Mr. Sueltenfuss in a 

 gentle sort of way anent the "real price of 

 bulk comb honey in Southwest Texas," as 

 stated on page 680, Nov. 1, 1910. Mr. Scholl 

 was correct as to the prices he stated on page 

 580, Sept. 15. We averaged 10 cts. for our 

 bulk comb honey, and 8 for extracted; and 

 most of the time we did better than that. 

 We sold our white catclaw bulk comb hon- 

 ey at 15 cts., and the extracted from the 

 same source at 12. Then as the honey be- 

 came darker we dropped to 12 cts. for the 

 former, and to 10 for the latter. Perhaps 

 Mr. Sueltenfuss' honey was not as good as 

 ours, or his market in San Antonio not as 

 "gay." Something is radically the matter 

 down there, surely. 



Last season's crop of honey was. short, 

 very short, on account of the long drouth, 

 and the demand was and is far over and be- 

 yond the supply. Not many bee-keepers, 

 in this part of Texas, any way, will have 

 much "extracted honey on hand " to keep 

 until cool weather. 



The season of 1909, when the honey crop 

 was better than last year, we Texans had 

 all our honey sold by Nov- 1, and, if J mis- 



take not, we also had the crop of 1908 sold 

 by Nov. 1 of that year; and the 1908 crop 

 was a bounteous one. Then we averaged 

 10 cts. for the bulk comb and 9 for the ex- 

 tracted. The point is this: If the crop is 

 bounteous, one can not obtain a high price; 

 but if there is a shortage, high prices are ob- 

 tainable as a consequence. 



Mr. Sueltenfuss remarks that the market 

 for extracted honey is dull. Yes, and it will 

 probably remain so — that's just one more 

 proof that bulk comb honey is rapidly com- 

 ing into its own — it is becoming more and 

 more the standard style in demand. 



Eola, Tex. 



BEES TRANSFERRING LARVAE, 



An Apparently Clear Case in a New Zealand Api- 

 ary. 



BY H. BARTDETT-MILIiER. 



It seems pretty well proven that bees will 

 remove and even steal eggs upon occasion; 

 and, although I have not noticed any refer- 

 ence lo their transferring larvae, yet I have 

 had two unmistakable instancesof their hav- 

 ing done so in my own experience. During 

 September, 1909, I tried raising queens very 

 early in the season, in the Swarthmore 

 swarm-boxes. I used combs of honey and 

 pollen, making absolutely sure that they 

 were destitute of eggs. The third comb, for 

 the water, had not been inside of a hive for 

 over six months. When I transferred larvae 

 to the cell-cups all were rejected. I supposed 

 the bees were sulking; but the next day, 

 when another transferring was similarly 

 treated, I returned the bees in the evening 

 to their hive, and then found three cells 

 started about the center of the comb that 

 contained the water — that is, the one which 

 had not been in a hive for six months. 

 There were no empty cells in either of the 

 other combs except at the corners. There 

 can be no possibility of mistake in this case, 

 for, even allowing that there might have 

 been larvae in the honey and pollen combs, 

 it remains true, nevertheless, that the bees 

 removed such larvae to cells on this comb 

 that had been out of use for six months. 



The second case occurred during the same 

 month, 1910, and the combs used for honey 

 and pollen were old ones, saved from the 

 previous autumn crop, that were sealed over 

 solid, the empty comb used for water, in 

 this second case, having been out of use all 

 the winter before. The swarm-box was one 

 of my own manufacture, and was of the 

 conventional pattern, except that the wire 

 cloth on the bottom covered a space of only 

 8 inches by the width of the box, the rest of 

 the material being wood. I had fed this 

 colony regularly for two weeks previous, 

 and when grafting I put larvae in only 11 

 out of 32 cell- cups. To my disappointment, 

 not one was accepted, although the cover 

 of the box had warm woolen cloths piled on 

 it, about 6 inches deep, and tied around the 



