NOVEMBKR, 1922 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



725 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



I refer to the matter of requeening, in which 

 all cells are cut out but one, this cell being 

 left to make a young queen for the colony. 

 I congratulate him on his uniform success; 

 but 1 frankly confess that, when I cut out 

 cells trying to leave but one, sometimes I 

 miss some crooked little apology for a cell, 

 tucked away under a bottom-bar or other 

 place where it has no right to be — and need- 

 less to say what happens then. When I get 

 some of our helpers to do this work, they 

 generally miss more cells than I do, and that 

 is worse than ever, so far as final results 

 are concerned. Another serious objection to 

 treating full colonies like that in the honey 

 flow is the fact that Avith us too high a per- 

 centage of the queens are lost in the mat- 

 ing flights; and strong colonies, left queen- 

 less so long at that time of the year, are 

 a bad proposition to deal with. 



[As we understand it, Mr. Pettit does 

 not leave one queen-cell to requeen the col- 

 ony; but he destroys all queen-cells nine or 

 ten days after taking away the old queen, to 

 prevent swarming, and then introduces a 

 voung laving queen. (See Gleanings, June, 

 1922, page 390, and June, 1921, page 341.) 

 By doing this the colony is without a lay- 

 ing queen only while they are building 

 queen-cells. Mr. Pettit does not claim uni- 

 form success with this plan; for he says 

 on page 390, June, 1922 issue, "Sometimes 

 irc fail, but the plan, if properly carried out, 

 never does."- — Editor.] 



I wish we had some handy, dependable 

 plan for requeening colonies in a wholesale 

 way, minus the objections that all plans I 

 have heard off to date are afflicted with. 

 Until I hear of this perfect plan we shall, I 

 fear, follow the old way of requeening all 

 colonies that have poor queens as fast as 

 we find them and can give attention to 

 them, and putting up with a loss each spring 

 from failing queens. This loss is alto- 

 gether too high some years to suit me; but, 

 in the absence of knowing some better way, 

 I shall continue charging this item up to 

 "profit and loss." 



Honey is still moving slowly and at vari- 

 ous prices. In our own locality I have actu- 

 ally noted a difference of four cents a 

 pound at retail, in distances not exceeding 

 five miles between beekeepers. This is not 

 as it should be; but, under existing circum- 

 stances, the matter is a diflicult question to 

 deal with. Fruit is still abundant and I 

 feel that, after the glut of fruit is past, 

 honey sales will be much improved. We do 

 little retailing and have refused to sell small 

 quantities at the same price as we made in 

 carlots. While I feel that some have sold 

 altogether too low, yet we must not forget 

 that all farm produce has shared in the 

 general drop in prices. After all is said 

 and done, agriculture in its various phases is 



still the basic industry, and, when general 

 lines of farm produce are low, that affects 

 the buying power of all classes, and naturally 

 honey is affected in common with other lines. 

 But if prices should go lower than they are 

 now, "overhead," whatever that means, 

 m.ust be reduced if we are to produce at a 

 profit. J. L. Byer. 



Markham, Ontario. 



In New York. ^* '^^^ -^^"^ been cus- 

 tomary for many bee- 

 keepers in this state to place their bees in 

 the cellar at too late a date. The good de- 

 rived from a very late cleansing flight does 

 not offset the loss, in energy and in stores 

 due to too long exposure. Temperature rec- 

 ords since 1906 indicate the date for a last 

 cleansing flight varies according to the lo- 

 cation; Northern Plateau, November 2; At- 

 lantic Coast, November 17; other sections 

 are in between these two dates. 



When, through telegraphic reports to this 

 office, temperature records indicate that 

 bees have enjoyed a cleansing flight, and 

 when weather forecasts indicate unfavor- 

 able weather following, we shall wire the 

 association secretaries that the time is right 

 to put bees in the cellar. The secretaries in 

 turn will notify key men in the various sec- 

 tions of their territory, who will forward 

 word to the individual beekeepers. In this 

 way we hope to conserve the strength of 

 more colonies in New York. 



Two of the strongest associations in the 

 Empire State are the Western New York 

 Honey Producers' Association and the East- 

 ern New York Beekeepers' Co-operative As- 

 sociation, Inc. From recent correspondence 

 with officers in these associations I learn 

 that the greatest problem in these impor- 

 tant beekeeping sections of New York is 

 marketing. The particular phase of the 

 problem in which the beekeepers are most 

 concerned is one that does not lend itself 

 readily to solution, and that is the matter 

 of price-cutting. 



When markets are glutted with any prod- 

 uct and one needs cash immediately he may 

 be forced to cut his price to move his crop. 

 The season of berries and other summer 

 fruits is over, and honey is moving agree- 

 ably fast. The demand at grocers and road- 

 side markets has picked up, and buyers are 

 active. The tariff on foreign honeys will 

 soon make itself felt. Indications at pres- 

 ent point to a clean market by the next 

 honey season, and yet we have here and 

 there a beekeeper who confounds the public 

 by his seeming ability to undersell his fellow 

 beekeepers. More of him later. 



Ithaca, N. Y. E. B. Willson. 



