JULY 15, 1914 



551 



E. France, of Wisconsin, who nuule a very 

 pleasing address. Mr. Holniberg, the Stale 

 Inspector of Minnesota, was also present 

 and followed Mr. Prance with a short talk. 

 Brood diseases was the principal topic dis- 

 cussed, as foul brood is seriously threaten- 

 ing the beemen of eastern Iowa at present. 

 However, in the discussions that followed 

 many subjects of interest were touched up- 

 on; and, taken all together, the meeting was 



very pleasant indeed. It was decided to hold 

 a similar meeting in May next year, and to 

 invite the beekeepers of Iowa, Minnesota, 

 Wisconsin, and Illinois. 



The photo of the gathering here presented 

 was taken by Mr. John G. Wagner, a bee- 

 keeper of Elkader, Iowa, who is also a 

 photographer. 



Atlantic, Iowa. 



A YEAR'S EXPERIENCE WITH BRANDED QUEENS 



BY H. BARTLETT MILLER 



Referring to the editorial, page 203, of 

 the April 1st issue for last year, comment- 

 ing on my article in the same issue on 

 branding cjueens, I wish to contest some of 

 the statements made. As to " ordinary me- 

 dium-strength colonies" of the various races, 

 we down in this nethermost land of earth 

 have such a lovely and ecjuable climate that 

 our job is to keeiJ the colonies down to a 

 reasonable store-consuming strength during 

 the oft' .season. English apiarists, one and 

 all, tell me that our winter strength is near- 

 ly if not cjuite equal to the harvest strength 

 in England, and I sujDpose that comparison 

 would apply to most of the northern States, 

 leaving out the experts whose fame is proof 

 of their ability to keep their colonies strong 

 beyond the normal. It is quite the common 

 thing in this Waikato district for the colo- 

 nies to have on July 4 (which is 14 days 

 prior to our mid-winter, brood in from five 

 to seven frames, while this brood-rearing 

 fairly started for the season in July is to 

 provide gatherers for a flow that seldom or 

 never comes until November 15, and some- 

 times does not arrive until well on in Jan- 

 uary. Now imagine the strength these 

 colonies, if well cared for (as the commer- 

 cial beekeeper is forced to care for them), 

 reach by the time one goes through tlie 

 spring examination, say late in September. 

 Sure I can open a hive without rousing the 

 whole neighborhood with the roar; but think 

 of 8 to 11 frames of brood at the spring 

 examination with " nothing doing " in the 

 fields (unless willow is in bloom, which is 

 only for about ten days), and those queens 

 to be found so as to relieve pressure of 

 work when dividing or cell-destruction ar- 

 rives in October! What is true here is true, 

 I take it, of most of the southern States. 

 As the North judges them, medium colonies 

 are only weaklings in the South, or else I 

 have been misreading all my bee-journals, 

 and 1 take them all. for these seven years 

 past. 



Then, again, when a swarm issues with a 

 superseding virgin, as sometimes they do, 

 even with such extra-clever persons as your 

 humble scribe, it is almost a moral certainty 

 that I shall find the dead queen by the 

 brand, somewhere in front of the hive, and 

 discover what hive they come from without 

 tearing down heavy half-filled supers on 

 other hives. Without the brand I might 

 never catch sight of her. Several times has 

 the branding saved my pulling apart piles 

 of supers to stop the almost inevitable after- 

 swarming. 



Then as to the time and skill it takes to do 

 the branding. It is not the branding, it is 

 the catching of the " varmint," that uses up 

 the time; but the satisfaction of knowing 

 that, except during supersedure, they are 

 not likely to decamp with a swarm without 

 your finding them before the last trial, is so 

 great a relief that I clip all mine for that 

 sole purpose, while the branding is advis- 

 able if only to be further relieved by the 

 thought that she is there when I want her. 

 Mark you, I want her at every spring over- 

 haul, and sometimes during the honey sea- 

 son. It depends on whether I divide or not, 

 or supersede her or not ; and, indeed, a lot 

 of other knots that the branding completely 

 untangles. Now, however, can you look me 

 in the face and say, " It is about an even 

 stand oft", with the advantage in favor of no 

 branding"? because the time consumed in 

 branding and finding the queen would equal 

 the time consumed in finding the queen 

 without the brand. Just find her. That is 

 what the books, one and all, advise; but the 

 books forget to add, " Find her every time 

 you want her." 



Then the last cruel aspersion, that the 

 color might wear off a good layer! Why, 

 the very fact that it does not do so nearly 

 gave me a fit. One queen, branded on both 

 antenna3, was still alive in October, and do- 

 ing as well as any in the apiary, although 

 marked as so branded over 9 months before. 



