(jLEANINGtS IN BEE U L T U R fe 



January, 1922 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



late and gives the different ways of lique- 

 fying it without spoiling the flavor. Many 

 people think that granulated honey is 

 spoiled for use and do not know what to do 

 with it. It is well to advise them with each 

 container how to care for honey. One of 

 these labels is placed on the reverse side of 

 each pail. 



Where do I find my customers? Well, I 

 have some old-timers that have purchased 

 honey from me for over 25 years. Then I 

 write to the publisher of a newspaper in 

 some small or moderate-sized city and pro- 

 pose that I send him a ten-pound pail of 

 honey and take it out in advertising. Near- 

 ly all editors will accept this offer, and 

 when they get the honey they are so well 

 pleased with it that they will give me a 

 pretty liberal amount of space. One in par- 

 ticular in our state capital usually runs a 

 two-column ad of about three-inch space and 

 carries it for three or four issues. I think 

 he has got to where he expects his ten-pound 

 pail of honey each autumn, and the results 

 are very satisfactory to me. 



The clerks in the postoffice and also some 

 of the state officials got a taste of my honey, 

 and they seem to pass the good word along. 

 In some way a merchant found that my 

 honey was having quite a run there and I 

 have received liberal orders from him in five 

 and six case lots of the five-pound lots. 



I send out my circulars to parties that I 

 know, and also have a list from the post- 

 master in St. Louis, giving the names and 

 addresses of parties that purchase direct 

 from the producer by parcel post. One cus- 

 tomer that is well pleased will, as a rule, get 

 one or two more. 



Advertising in the daily or Sunday papers 

 of the large cities I have not found satis- 

 factory. The small amount of space they 

 allow for a considerable sum makes adver- 

 tising with them too expensive. 



Sometimes when my crop is larger than 

 usual I sell some of it to a manufacturer of 

 high-grade candies in St. Louis, and usually 

 get about one-third more than it Would 

 bring if shipped to a commission firm. 



I make it a rule to sell only first-class 

 honey to my retail customers. If I have an 

 otf-grade honey, such as honeydew, I sell it 

 :it an otT gi.-idci j)ric<' to sonic manufacturer oi 

 a commission house. 8. R. Miller. 



Rhineland, Mo. 



=iO^Op: 



FIVE QUEENS IN A HIVE 



How They Were Induced to Live Peacefully To- 

 gether in the Same Brood Chamber 



I was surprised at such an old practical 

 beekeeper as A. C. Miller (page 566, Glean- 

 ings) departing so far from nature in his 



wintering experiment. But as he asks some 

 quite difficult questions as to his queens, I 

 will relate an experiment of my own, prac- 

 ticed in the year 1906. At about that time 

 Gleanings was publishing a series of arti- 

 cles as to E. W. Alexander's management of 

 bees. Among them were mentioned the ben- 

 efits of dual queens and methods of intro- 

 ducing. I failed in practically introducing 

 laying qiieens dually in a swarm by follow- 

 ing Mr. Alexander's directions. I took six 

 virgin queens and placed them in a full- 

 sized colony isolated some distance from 

 the yard, and after first preparing the colony 

 to receive tliem I clipped the stings off the 

 queens and liberated them in the swarm. The 

 result was a great disturbance in the hive 

 as shown by the demonstrations at the en- 

 trance. After a couple of days I made an 

 examination and found all of the queens' 

 wings cut off close to the thorax. _^ I killed 

 them and placed six more in the colony after 

 clipi)ing the stings and the horny part of one 

 mandible. 



Five out of the six were mated and laid 

 regularly; but instead of expanding their 

 brood-nest they all laid in the regular-sized 

 brood-nest, and the cells had five eggs in 

 them, which were gradually removed by the 

 bees until only one was left. Sometimes, 

 however, there were two or three left until 

 they hatched into larval form. 



When the flow of honey stops it is bee 

 nature to practice strict economy in prepar- 

 ing for winter, as witness the killing of 

 drones in the fall, and this is just what hap- 

 pened to my extra queens. The bees killed 

 all but one, and therefore I think it will be 

 a difficult job for Mr. Miller to winter over 

 dual queens. H. S. Philbrook. 



Newbury Park, California. 



CAGED QUEENS LOSE FERTILITY 



After Eighteen Days in Mailing Cages Two 

 Queens Become Drone-Layers 



In treating two advanced cases of Euro- 

 pean fonl brood in July 1 kept the queens in 

 mailing cages for 18 days. They were Ital 

 ians of fine strain, reared this season and 

 very prolific. But upon releasing them they 

 were drone-layers — one entirely so — the 

 other laying about three-fourths drone eggs. 

 I held them some time to see if they would 

 become normal, but there was no improve- 

 ment. They were as beautiful and active as 

 before being caged and seemed about as pro- 

 lific, but they laid abnormally to a consid- 

 erable extent, there being in many cells two, 

 three and four eggs, and some of them were 

 deposited on the side walls. This was not 

 duo to lack of strength of colonv. Had I 



