126 



C^LEANlNGS IN BEE CULTURE 



SIFXINGS 



J. E. Ceane, Middlebury, Vt. 



That article on European foul brood, 

 page 897, Dec. 15, is worth the careful study 

 of every one who has not had experience 

 with that disease. 



* * * 



On page 854, Dec. 1, the editor shows the 

 place where the first Langstroth hive was 

 set up, and the vinegar business built up 

 by W. W. Gary & Son. Mr. Nichols, who 

 runs the queen and bee-supply business of 

 the company, recently called here, and he 

 told me that the firm had the past season 

 ground and made into cider some 73,000 

 bushels of apples. 



« * * 



That picture of Mrs. Melntyre and fam- 

 ily, p. 893, Dec. 15, is well worth a year's 

 subscrijjtion to Gleanings. If the truth were 

 known I believe we should find many who 

 have been able to secure an education with 

 bees Avho otherwise might have been unable 

 to do so. I know one man, now jd resident 

 of a college, who found the bees of great 

 assistance along this line. A crop of honey 

 is good, but the crop that Mrs. Melntyre 



shows is better. 



* * * 



Here is a nut for beekeepers to crack. If 

 sweet clover is to be introduced as a farm 

 crop, who can better do it than the beekeep- 

 ing farmers? If these farmers who keep 

 bees can show their neighbors that it pays 

 to raise sweet clover as a farm crop it may 

 soon come into general cultivation. But if 

 beekeepers who may get a crop of forage or 

 seed and a crop of honey from it are un- 

 willing to cultivate it, I fear it will be a long 

 time before beekeepers can persuade the 

 farmers who do not keep bees to try it. 



* * * 



Good words and true are those of Dr. 

 Miller and Mr. Holtermann, page 811, Nov. 

 15, on truthfulness in advertising and other- 

 wise. There is another side to this subject. 

 The use of superlatives for almost every 

 thing one is talking about leaves no words 

 to use when that which demands such adjec- 

 tives comes to pass. When a person de- 

 scribes every little ache and ail as something 

 dreadful, terrible, awful, he has no words to 

 express that which is worse. Nothing in 

 language is more beautiful than the simple, 

 exact truth. If we add to our imperfect 

 knowledge of facts our inability to express 

 accurately in woi'ds what we conceive to be 

 the truth, a disposition to magnify or min- 

 ify or distort the facts, who shall know the 

 truth? 



REQUEENING WITHOUT DEQUEENING. 



The article on this subject by Arthur C. 

 Miller, page 850, Dec. 1, is one of more than 

 usual importance. Most queens will live one 

 year, others for two years, and others even 

 longer, and do well at egg-laying; but often 

 in tlie spring or early suimner we find more 

 or less queens beginning to fail, so that we 

 sliould like to replace them with young 

 queens of the present season. If we can 

 remove the old queen, and, by the smoke- 

 method, replace her at once with a young 

 queen brought from the South, there is little 

 loss but the work of looking up the old 

 queen and the cost of the new one. But 

 if we can introduce a virgin safely while 

 the old one is still in the hive laying even 

 moderately, much will be gained, as eggs 

 and brood in May or early June are of more 

 value than at any other season. 



There are several things to be gained. A 

 young laying queen in a colony will, as a 

 rule, increase the vigor of the bees so they 

 will both breed faster and gather honey 

 more rapidly, when it comes. I have often 

 found such colonies among my best for sur • 

 plus. Such colonies, if left to supersede 

 their own queens, become often so reduced 

 in bees that their surplus is likely to be 

 much below the average. Again, such colo- 

 nies are much less likely to swarm than 

 those having old queens. Many colonies 

 swarm simply as a result of the supersedure 

 of old queens. 



It is not a difficult matter to rear a few 

 queen-cells quite early to near maturity, and 

 then introduce them in a cell-cage into colo- 

 nies where a young queen is needed. But 

 will they supersede the old queen? I sub- 

 mitted this question to some of the most 

 intelligent beekeepers in Connecticut some 

 three yeai-s ago at the Charter Oak Fair at 

 Plartford, and it seemed to be their opinion 

 that a virgin hatched in a colony would not 

 be likely to be killed when first hatched; 

 and later, if she came across the old queen, 

 and thej' were to test strength to see which 

 would survive, the young queen would be 

 more than a match for the old one. I have 

 been absent from home so much of the time 

 during the three seasons I have had but 

 little opportunity to test the matter. I hope 

 others may do so and report. It seems to me 

 there are large possibilities along this line. 



Mr. Merwin, page 851, discusses the same 

 subject, or one closely allied to it — the su- 

 persedure of old queens. Here is a problem 

 well worth the attention of any experiment 

 stations that can give it time. 



