352 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



disposition of our product, and consider that, 

 if we once get it off of our hands, we have 

 no further interest in it. In other lines of 

 business, and especially in those that supply 

 the higher classes of food products, the most 

 successful are those who pay the most mi- 

 nute attention to the wants and the conven- 

 ience of the consumer, and then set thena- 

 selves to supply exactly what will suit him 

 best. I listened the other day to a talk by 

 a man who has made a success of potato- 

 growing on a large scale. He has a con- 

 tract, at highly profitable prices, to supply 

 all the potatoes used by one of the larg- 

 est systems of railway dining-cars in the 

 United States. He secured this because he 

 had the business acumen to grade his pota- 

 toes carefully with regard to quality, size, 

 and smoothness, and then show them that 

 they would not only add to the attractive- 

 ness of their service, but actually save mon- 

 ey by paying him the higher prices he asked 

 for his product. Now, if this can be done 

 with an article so commonly used and pro- 

 duced as potatoes, why are not the underly- 

 ing principles still more important in the 

 case of an article like honey, that is not a 

 staple, but a luxury that most people feel 

 they can do perfectly well without? 



HOW EARLY DOES BROOD-REARING BEGIN? 



This is a question that has been somewhat 

 discussed of late. Heretofore I should have 

 been compelled to confess that I did not 

 know, as I never believed in handling bees 

 very early in the spring. It chances, how- 

 ever, that I know something of how early 

 they began this year. I had some bees at 

 an out- apiary that were rather light, and 

 concluded to bring them home so that I could 

 look after them better. On opening them 

 Feb. 3, several days later, I found brood in 

 them. Thinking it might be that the dis- 

 turbance of moving had caused this, I look- 

 ed into some that had not been disturbed 

 and were in a normal condition. Most of 

 them, though not all, had begun brood-rear- 

 ing, and good colonies had a patch of brood 

 about the size of my hand. The weather 

 had been warm and pleasant for some time 

 — bright sunlight every day for nearly two 

 weeks. The question is, have they begun 

 too soon? We are liable to have cold weath- 

 er in the latter part of February, or even in 

 March, which may result in chilled brood 

 and " spring dwindling. " 



We regret to learn of the death of James 

 F. Wood, of North Dana, Mass. He died 

 at his residence on Feb. 15, of heart trouble, 

 at the age of 44 years. Mr. Wood was a 

 well known bee- keeper and queen- breeder, 

 having worked in the apiary of W W. Gary, 

 of Colrain, Mass., for several years when 

 a young man, and, understood the handling 

 of bees, also the breeding and shipping of 

 queens. At Mr. Gary's suggestion he was 

 employed at the Massachusetts State Ag- 

 ricultural Gollege at Amherst, Mass., as 

 instructor in apiculture, for some years. 



with 



malittlt 



WORKING AN OUT-APIARY. 



"Good morning. Is this Mr. Doolittle? 

 Oh! perhaps I mistake; for I am told that 

 both Doolittle and his partner, Mr. Glark, 

 are fat men. ' ' 



" No mistake, then. But you don't ex- 

 pect that all fat men bear the name of 

 either Doolittle or Glark, do you? Mr. — 

 what's the name?" 



"My name is -Lesser, from Syracuse, N. 

 Y." 



"Oh, yes! Happy to meet you, Mr, Les- 

 ser. By the looks, I judge that Lesser 

 means lesser than Glark or Doolittle — that 

 is, not so fat. ' ' 



' ' Well, it has been some time since I look- 

 ed in the glass; but I judge that Doolittle, 

 if that is whom I am now looking at, has 

 more avoirdupois than Lesser." 



"Yes, this is Doolittle. Now, joking 

 aside, what can I do for you, Mr. Lesser? " 



" I want to know something about work- 

 ing an out- apiary, as I expect to do some- 

 thing along that line next summer. Do you 

 still practice putting brood over a swarm, as 

 you wrote about a year or so ago? " 



' ' I presume you refer to what I wrote, 

 which was published in the February 1st is- 

 sue of Gleanings for 1904." 



' ' I guess so. That was where you told 

 about putting brood from colonies made to 

 swarm, by shaking the bees from their 

 combs over colonies which had not swarmed, 

 was it not?" 



' ' Yes. Golonies that were about to swarm 

 were shaken from their combs of brood into 

 hives containing combs on the old stand, 

 having sections over them, and the beeless 

 brood was then placed over another colony 

 that was not quite so far advanced, a queen- 

 excluder being placed between the two hives 

 so as to confine the queen to her own combs 

 of brood." 



"And this prevented the swarming of 

 both color ies?" 



"No; only of the shaken colony." 



" What about the other? " 



"The brood given it, together with its 

 own brood, made it very strong in a week 

 or ten days, so that it would swarm soon 

 after, did I not look after it; so in a week 

 or two those two hives of brood had the 

 bees all shaken off from the combs into a 

 hive prepared with combs and sections, as 

 was the first. ' ' 



' ' Oh, yes ! I remember now. What a col- 

 ony that last shaken swarm must have 

 been!" 



"Yes; such colonies are very strong in 

 bees; and if this swarming, by the shaking 



