386 



sections of honey are nndoubtedly included 

 under this net-weight and volume law. 

 When a shipping-case of sections is sold the 

 net weight of the sections of honey in the 

 crate should show. When the sections are 

 sold individually by carton, a close approx- 

 imate weight of the section must show. In 

 the proviso, paragraph 3 as quoted above, 

 " reasonable variations " are permitted ; but 

 care must be exercised not to take too wide 

 a " variation " or there will be trouble. We 

 are allowed a variation, as we understand it, 

 of one ounce on the weight of a section — ■ 

 that is to say, there must not be more than 

 one ounce below the marked weight, al- 

 though it may be any thing above. In pack- 

 ing our carton honey it is our practice to 

 run from one to two ounces above, as honey 

 that has been stored in a dry room for two 

 or three months at a temperature of 70 or 

 80 degrees to prevent gi'anulation will lose 

 slightly in weight. Another thing, it is well 

 to understand that there are State laws as 

 well as the national. Some of the former, 

 with reference to net weight, have been in 

 effect for some time back; and if one does 

 not know where his honey is to go he should 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



be on the safe side, and that means, do not 

 depend too much on the national law that 

 allows of a "reasonable variation" in the 

 weight of an individual section. 



Our correspondent is mistaken in think- 

 ing that the 4^ x 4^/4 section has the ad- 

 vantage over the 4x5 because it weighs 

 more. If the law provided that all sections 

 should weigh a pound, then the 4^/4 would 

 have a slight advantage; but a statement in 

 ounces of the weight complies equally with 

 the law the same as when the net weight is 

 stated in pounds or fractions thereof. 



It will be apparent that all packages 

 containing foods must be marked with their 

 net weight within 18 months after March 

 3, 1913, which will be Sept. 3, 1914 ; but the 

 wise producer or packer of food stuffs 

 should begin (if he has not already done 

 so months ago) marking his packages ahead 

 of that time; and practically all of the 

 packers in the country began marking their 

 goods immediately after March 3, 1913. 

 The purpose of the law was to give the 

 sellers an opportunity to clean up and 

 dispose of all unmarked goods before the 

 law went into effect. — Ed.] 



WHEN IS THE BEST TIME TO MEQUEEN? 



BY F. GREINER 



The above topic has been discussed a 

 great many times in conventions and in the 

 press; but the case has not yet been settled 

 to the entire satisfaction of all. It seems to 

 me that the question is not so much whcrt 

 we shall requeen as it is, when can we rear 

 the best queens? Nature has selected the 

 early summer, when the trees are blooming, 

 and flows are yielding pollen and honey 

 profusely, and has practiced the rearing of 

 queens at this time for untold centuries. 

 Could nature have made a mistake? I doubt 

 it. The first symptom of a colony's brood- 

 iness is the rearing of drones, and this ante- 

 dates the rearing of queens by several weeks 

 at the least. We can hardly hope, therefore, 

 to bring a colony into a condition, a frame 

 of mind, by a few feeds to do its best at 

 queen-rearing. The slow and long-contin- 

 ued spring honey-flow and pollen yield can 

 not be equaled by artificial feeding. Most 

 noted authorities of Switzerland and Ger- 

 many are of this opinion, and advise rear- 

 ing queens during the time when bees usu- 

 ally swarm. It may be more cheaply done 

 at the close of the season, and some of our 

 American beekeepers have practiced it more 



or less extensively at such a season without 

 apparent detrimental result to the vitality 

 and utility of the stock of bees. We must 

 not forget, however, that our bees are thor- 

 oughbred by many thousands of years' 

 breeding by nature's methods ; and the mis- 

 takes that we may make are not at once 

 noticeable. It is with the bee as it is with 

 man — his nature is strong enough to endure 

 all sorts of mistakes and abuses. If it were 

 not so, the human race would have long 

 since died out ; and the bee would have 

 degenerated under the often irrational treat- 

 ment. Fortunate for us that the honey-bee 

 is constituted as it is ! Undoubtedly we have 

 blundered along many a time, and we are 

 still continuing. We are transferring lar- 

 vae. We think it is all right. We are de- 

 priving a colony of all its brood in order 

 that the bees may more lavishly feed the 

 royal larvae. We try to have young queens 

 mated from baby nuclei, and we do other 

 things out of the regular order of things. 

 Is tliere any evidence that we are rearing 

 better queens than formerly? any evidence 

 that the race has degenerated? What do we 

 know about it? 



