GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



The new 

 feeding, 

 cdor ; at 

 that she 

 put out 

 hands so 

 hive tliat 

 queen is 



queen, being hungry, goes right to 

 and at once acquires the colony 

 least, the bees do not seem to know 

 is a stranger, because the hive is 

 of normal, and they have their 

 full in drying themselves and the 

 , by the time that is done, the new 

 ettled down. Even when first 



introduced the bees show no inclination to 

 ball her, and the queen is thinking more 

 about getting something to eat than she is 

 of running or squealing, so the bees are 

 more inclined to accept her. 



Give this method a trial, and you will 

 have no more use for the smoke method. 



Tacoma, Wash. 



SOME DIFFERENCES IN LOCALITIES 



BY GEORGE W. LOUDER 



1 noticed what George M. Huntingdon 

 says. p. 215, March 15, also Dr. Miller's 

 answer, p. 244, April 1, which does not 

 answer. The winter of 1903 I was with one 

 of the Somerford boys in Cuba. Down 

 there the weather is cool at night (was cool 

 part of the time in daytime too — weather 

 reports said coolest for 25 years), and flow 

 comparatively light eaily. Under these con- 

 ditions we had to extract for the brood- 

 chambers of all colonies, super or no super, 

 or the colonies would have been down to a 

 handful of bees by the time the flow got 

 heavy. In many colonies there would be 

 brood in two or three combs in the center of 

 the brood-nest, and then only a circle five to 

 six inches across in each comb. The rest 

 were jammed full of honey with comb-honey 

 supers or extracted-honey supers on, it 

 made no difference. The last part of the 

 season we did little or no extracting from 

 the brood-nests. As the weather became 

 more settled and the flow stronger, and 

 brood-nests more expanded, the bees showed 

 less inclination to exclude brood with honey. 



I have kept bees in two locations in south- 

 eastern Pennsylvania, and am satisfied that 

 the let-alone plan (except in cases of lack 

 of stores) is best there. 



In your reply to Mr. Huntingdon you 

 speak apologetically of the use of the word 

 " locality." You need offer no apologies for 

 the word. Location makes all the difference 

 in management. I see Dr. Miller, p. 311, 

 April 15, says the floAv began June 6, and 

 closed about Sept. 20. His surplus is, if I 

 understand rightly, from white clover. In 

 the two locations I had in Pennsylvania, 

 covering about ten years, the clover flow 

 lasted from June 1 generally up to July 4, 

 sometimes until the 15th. We used to say, 

 " When the farmers cut their hay the honey- 

 flow is over." 



In Chester Co. we had sufficient nectar 

 from sumac to enable the bees to flnish 

 ])artly filled sections if looked over in time. 

 In Montgomery Co. there was no sumac 

 near me, but sweet r-lover enous'h for the 



same purpose. Some years, with a little 

 flow from Spanish needle, there is enough 

 to keep brood-rearing up, and get some 

 baits drawn in supers, but seldom any sur- 

 plus. Both places gave sufficient fall flow 

 from asters, etc., to fill up the hives in good 

 sliape for winter. Last summer, while on 

 a visit up there, tlie bees were storing in 

 August — a very unusual thing. Here in 

 South Delaware we have a fiow generally in 

 August and September, and usually some 

 surplus is gathered. These few facts will be 

 enough to let the word " locality " out. 



THE INCOME OF A BEEKEEPER. 



Mr. A. C. Miller says a man able to 

 manage a commercial yard and market the 

 product sliould be able to earn at least $5.00 

 per daj' in any one of several different lines. 



All of us will agTee that the beekeeping 

 fraternity are, taken as a whole, as wide- 

 aw^ake and up to date as any branch of rural 

 workers; but I am here to tell you that the 

 .fo.OO-per-day men in their ranks, if the 

 capital invested in the bee outfit were sud- 

 dently to be lost, and they were forced into 

 other work aside from bees, are not so very 

 numerous. Mr. Miller does not say in what 

 line they could capture that $5.00; and for 

 my part I don't know. I know there are 

 some old timers who run large numbers of 

 colonies and sell the output at some price 

 wlio cannot write a correctly spelled or 

 grammatically correct letter. Of course, some 

 are good salesmen naturally, but without 

 training save for the little honey-selling a 

 few weeks in the fall, and there are sales- 

 men in many lines Avho do not get $30 per 

 week. 



Frank Somerford made from $12o to $200 

 ]5er month in the detective business in Cuba 

 before he had bees enough to keep him busy. 

 He was an unusually bright, Avell-informed, 

 well-educated young man, holding at that 

 time a first-grade teacher's certificate in 

 Texas, and having had experience as a bank 

 clerk. He was also familiar with Spanish. 

 I have met a good many beekeepers, and 



