128 



GLEANINGS IN EEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1 



by thorough, judicious breeding. To this 

 special care and attention in producing this 

 strain of bees, along with careful manage- 

 ment, I attribute our success in getting 

 large yields of surplus honey. 



You all know that, a few years ago. The 

 A. L Root Co. told us that they had found 

 in one of their apiaries a queen whose bees 

 gathered far more honey than any other 

 colony, and that they saw such a decided 

 difference in favor of this queen and her 

 bees that they valued her at $200 for breed- 

 ing purposes. Now, as I was fortunate 

 enough to get 100 granddaughters of this 

 $200 queen from L. H. Robey, and have had 

 those 100 queens in our apiary for the last 

 three seasons, I am sure I know something 

 of their real value. First, we have had 

 very few natural swarms from those queens 

 —I don't think over 20 from the 100 colo- 

 nies during the three summers; and when 

 extracting we have always had very heavy 

 combs from those bees, usually of nice light 

 honey, even when our buckwheat was in 

 full bloom. I am sure, therefore, that the 

 blood we now have in our apiary, from that 

 $200 red-clover queen, has given us several 

 tons of additional surplus honey. I have 

 also had some fine honey-gathering strains 

 from other parties. 



I wish now to speak of some queens I 

 bought 16 years ago. I got twelve $1.00 

 queens from one of the principal queen- 

 breeders at that time, which I introduced 

 into good colonies about June 1. Although 

 it was a good season I not only got no sur- 

 plus from any of them, but had to give five 

 of the twelve hives some heavy combs of 

 honey from other colonies in order to carry 

 them through the following winter. Twice 

 since then 1 have bought Italian queens that 

 were but very little better. Now, suppose 

 our apiary had been stocked with such 

 queens as those last spring. If so, instead 

 of our having over 35 tons of honey for sale 

 this fall, we should have had to buy several 

 tons of sugar for feed. 



How natural it would have been, if we 

 had those miserable bees, to lay all the 

 blame on the poor season or on the poor lo- 

 cation; or, if some one had brought a few 

 colonies of bees within five or six miles of 

 the apiary, how some would have growled 

 about the infringement on their territory, 

 and the overstocked locality ! Yes, my 

 friends, too many of you have allowed your 

 bees to degenerate into a miserable lot of 

 hybrid mongrels that are not worth the 

 room they occupy in the bee-yard. 



Young Italian queens reared from the 

 very best honey-gathering strains are now 

 so cheap that 1 am very sure none of you 

 can afford to take your chances on going 

 through another season with poor stock. I 

 will admit it takes some money and some 

 work to requeen an apiary; but if rightly 

 done it will pay you well, even the first 

 summer. Then see what a fine yard you 

 will have afterward. 



In answering some of those other ques- 

 tions I will say, first, the season is of more 



importance than any other one thing; then 

 the strain of bees; the management; and, 

 after these, the location and some other 

 less important matters. 



My friends, there is no luck and chance in 

 bee-keeping. If your bees don't give you 

 any surplus, pry into every thing connected 

 with them until you know the reason why. 

 I can not understand how some men can be 

 so indifferent to the most vital parts of 

 their business. 



Above all things, don't be discourag'ed 

 when the losses come, as come they will; 

 let them find you more determined than 

 ever to push on until success and all its 

 pleasures crown your years of labor. 



Delanson, N. Y. 



[That Root queen which we valued at 

 died some two years ago. We have none of 

 her daughters that are her equal, although 

 some are very good. We would give $500 if 

 we could put her back in the apiary when 

 she was six months old— yes, we would make 

 it $1000. We have many other testimonials 

 showing the intrinsic merit of this stock. 

 When we claimed this queen was something 

 remarkable, many of our friends did not 

 believe it. Some of them even scored us for 

 putting the price of $200 on her. Others 

 said that no queen could be worth $200. 



I want to say in this connection that one 

 reason why this $200 queen was so valuable 

 was because her own bees as well as the 

 bees of her daughters showed long tongues. 

 But length of tongue was not the only valu- 

 able quality possessed by her stock, as many 

 hundreds who tested it can certify. 



Now, lest this may sound like an adver- 

 tisement I would say that the old queen is 

 dead, and none of her daughters show up as 

 well. It is doubtful whether we could fur- 

 nish stock as good as that sent to Mr. Alex- 

 ander. The particular point I wish to bring 

 out is this: That a few queens are extraor- 

 dinary, and it pays to use for honey- produc- 

 tion only the very best. Nearly every bee- 

 keeper has some one queen that is clear 

 ahead of all the rest. Breed from her ex- 

 clusively. —Ed.] 



THE UTAH HONEY AND WAX EXHIBIT 



In the Agricultural Building at the St. Louis 

 Fair. 



BY L. D. STILSON. 



The Utah exhibit of honey and beeswax 

 at the World's Fair was very unique in de- 

 sign, and it certainly was an artist who 

 could put up such a one. The central figure 

 of wax represented the Goddess of Liberty 

 sitting on her throne, a bee-hive. At her 

 feet lay the implements of agriculture— the 

 hoe, rake, scythe, pick, shovel, all made of 

 beeswax. Over her shoulders was thrown 

 the American flag, while behind was a ton 

 or so of the finest alfalfa honey, extracted. 

 This exhibit was in charge of Miss Hender- 

 shot, a former Nebraska girl, who could tell 

 you more about the resources of Utah than 



