July 15 1911 



441 



You may demur at this procedure, saying the 

 queen will not enter the lower chamber: but, as 

 Dr. Miller says, they will "in this locality;" and 

 here is where we are doing business. Dr. Miller 

 also advises putting on supers on the appearance 

 of the first white-clover bloom, which corresponds 

 with the date given, as we have had white clover 

 for a couple of weeks. A queen iril/ go below if she 

 has no room above, and will enter a shallow-frame 

 chamber even quicker than one of Lang.stroth- 

 frame size, 754 inches deep, for instance, or swarm. 



But the beauty of this manner of manipulating 

 for comb or extracted honey is in the after-work- 

 ines of the colony. Along about or between July 

 15 and August In. when the honey-!low is getting 

 scarce, if we wish to increase we divide the two-sto- 

 ry hive, putting a virgin (or otherwise) queen in 

 one part: put on supers, and get the full flow of 

 goldenrod, etc., separate from the clovers, which 

 keep us going, usually, till about Xov. lo — a long 

 season, from March 1 to Xov. 15. 



Reed"s Spring, Mo., April 27. X. T. Green. 



Hemet Valley Bee-keepers' Association, California. 



On May 27 the bee-keepers of this valley formed an 

 association to be known as the Hemet Valley Bee- 

 keepers' Association, and nearly all the bee-men in 

 this end of the county have joined or signified their 

 intention of so doing. The officers elected for the 

 first year were as follows: C. .1. Davidson. President: 

 "W. S. Rather, Secretary: W. B. Tripp, Treasurer. 

 There were also elected five directors as follows: .1. 

 A. St. John, W. H. Densmore, \Y. B. Tripp, C. J. Da- 

 vidson, and Charles Sims. Rather Brothers, of He- 

 met, were chosen as business agents. 



This is regarded as a wise step by the bee-keepers, 

 for the reason that for years they have acted indi- 

 vidually in the sale of their honey, generally selling 

 to the first buyer who came along and told them of 

 the immense crops that were being made from 

 Maine to Texas, and how cheap the article would 

 be next week as soon as the real conditions became 

 known, etc. 



Realizing the importance of organization to get 

 the best results from their labor, and also realizing 

 the fact that the raising of bees and the making of 

 honey and beeswax in this section of the country is 

 growing each year, and would in the near future, if 

 It does not already, cut some figure in the price of 

 honey in California, they have decided to pool their 

 interests, accumulate their outimt in one place, and 

 advertise to the world the fact that we raise the 

 best and purest honey to be fovmd in our country, 

 and endeavor to create a market for it, especially 

 in the East. 



The business managers are making every effort 

 to reach the responsible buyers, and have already 

 received an offer of 7 cents per lb. for the entire sea- 

 son's output. 



Last year all of our honey was sold at o% cents. 

 Our neighbors in the Imperial Valley got 6 cents for 

 their inferior quality. They were organized, but 

 we were not. 



The conditions in our section are about as fol- 

 lows: The bees, as a general thing, came through 

 the winter in good condition, there being but ver.v 

 little mortality, the bee-men as a rule having left 

 them plenty of food to carry them through. The 

 season has been somewhat backward on accovmt of 

 the cold weather: but the late rains were very ad- 

 vantageous, and brought out and kept the flowers 

 in fine bloom: and the reports are that the bees are 

 now working over time and making honey very 

 fast. Should these favorable conditions last, the 

 output will be somewhat larger than last year, and 

 the honey will be of a superior quality, there being 

 a larger quantity of white than we had last season. 



Hemet. Cal.. June 26. W. S. Rathek. 



Carrying Queens to Outyards. 



I have outyards of black bees that I wish to re- 

 queen after the basswood flow. Queen-cells taken 

 to these yards, as described in Doolittle's " A Year's 

 Work in an Out-apiary," by placing the cells in a 

 box filled with cotton, and carried next to one's 

 person to guard against chilling the cells, would be 

 a convenient way, but in this case it would result 

 only in hybrid bees: therefore I wish to mate my 

 queens at home and then introduce them at the 

 outyards. 



What I wish to know is. could I transport the 

 queens, without worker bees with them, to the out- 

 yards by putting them Into Miller introducing- 

 cages, prepai'ed with candy and cardboard in the 



usual way, and be all ready for introducing when I 

 reach my destination? It would be about ten hours 

 from the time the first queen was caged until she 

 could be introduced. To catch a number of work- 

 ers, to attend each queen, and release them again 

 at the outyards, would consume much time. 



If this is practicable, at what temperature would 

 you transport the queens? The desired tempera- 

 ture could be maintained by having the cages in a 

 large box provided with ventilation and a ther- 

 mometer, and a hot soapstone in another compart- 

 ment. 



Janesville, Minn., May 29. K. L. Hoffmann. 



[Under the conditions named, it would be more 

 practical for you to have all your queens mated in 

 your home yard, where you have Italian stock and 

 Italian drones. You can then put your laying 

 queens inside the Miller cages without any attend- 

 ants, providing they did not have to stay in the 

 cage longer than ten hours. The candy should be 

 .soft rather than hard: for without any attendants 

 the queen might not be able to draw her suste- 

 nance from the harder candy. While the queens 

 are thus confined they had better be kept in a tem- 

 perature of approximately 98° Fahr., although they 

 could exist in a temperature of about that of an or- 

 dinary living-room. But in arranging for the tem- 

 perature up to about 98°, be careful not to get it too 

 high, as this would do much more damage than a 

 lower temperature. In going to the outyards we 

 would recommend putting the cage in a little box, 

 and the box under the vest if the weather outside is 

 at all cool or cold. In ordinary hot summer weath- 

 er the queens could be put in an ordinary box, and 

 we would not in such a case advise the use of a hot 

 brick. The trouble with any artificial heat is that 

 one is liable to overdo it. The ordinary animal 

 heat of the human body would be just about right. 

 The objection to such heat is that it imparts an 

 odor to the queens, and sometimes this odor might 

 make the queen not as readily accepted by the 

 bees.— Ed.] 



Will Bees Fly 2)4 Miles to Buckwheat? 



I live in a low round valley about five miles in 

 diameter. Xow, this is a good localit.v for bees dur- 

 ing fruit and clover bloom, but there is scarcely 

 any buckwheat i-aised here in the valley: but about 

 2J^ miles away on the hills there are extensive 

 crops of it raised. Would it do to move my bees to 

 the hills just before buckwheat bloom? or would 

 the loss of liees be too great to pay me? 



Rohrsburg, Pa., June 12. J. A. Patterson. 



[If the buckwheat is raised 2H miles away from 

 your bees, there is some question whether they 

 would fly that far to get the nectar from it. A good 

 deal will depend on the lay of the land between 

 your bees and where the buckwheat is located. If 

 you had buckwheat, say within half a mile, and an- 

 other field a mile away in the direction where that 

 other field 254 miles away is located, the probabili- 

 ties are that your bees would find that most dis- 

 tant field. To make sure, you had better move 

 your bees where the buckwheat is. See " Moving 

 Bees," in our A B C and X Y Z of Bee Culture. 



The i[uestion of migratory bee-keeping — that is, 

 moving to different sources of honey — is getting to 

 be a rather complicated one, and a good many feel 

 that the operation costs more than it Is worth. — 

 Ed.] 



Busy Bee. 



Busy bee, busy bee, come and sing awhile to me 

 While the winds are crooning in the apple-tree: 

 Where the dandelion down in the grass 

 Tempts you oft to visit him as on your way you pass. 

 Sing it soft and sing it low. 

 Soft as the winds that come and go. 

 Telling of unselfishness, how to lessen wrong 

 By a life of usefulness— be that e'er your song. 

 Busy bee, busy bee, happy, glad, and gay. 

 Please tell us all the secret of your happy life to-day. 

 Busy bee, busy bee, come and sing your song to me 

 While the winds are crooning in the apple-tree: 

 Out and o'er the meadows, sparkling with the dew 

 In the early morning— that's the place for you. 

 Busy in the noontide, when the sun is bright. 

 Still I hear you singing, working with your might: 

 And In the eventide I still can hear your hum — 

 Laden down with nectar, back I see you come. 

 Busy bee, busy bee, happ.v, glad, and gay, 

 I thank you for the lesson you have taught me 

 here to-day. J. W. Gitchel. 



