1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



497 



Somebody asked through the question- 

 box, "Is there danger from in-and-in breed- 

 ing with the bees if the apiarist neglects to 

 get new queens and new blood from some- 

 where else occasionally '!" I took the ground 

 that bees could not well suffer in this way so 

 long as the queens and drones meet in the 

 open air. Others argued to the contrary; 

 and finally somebody called on a bee-keeper 

 present, 1 think it was J. W. Isaman, but I 

 may be mistaken. After some little urging, 

 this man gave his experience. He kept 

 bees for fourteen years without getting any 

 new strain of blood or any queens from any- 

 body. He just kept the same stock right 

 along. As his locality is good he had fair 

 success. But somebody suggested sending 

 to the Root Co. for an Italian queen, and 

 carefully note the yield from her bees com- 

 pared with the others. He finally sent for an 

 untested dollar queen ; and after some trou- 

 ble in introducing because of delay in get- 

 tmg the queen he got her to laying all right. 

 The very first season, this queen gave him 

 300 lbs. of honey, while his general average 

 was but little more than 100. This certainly 

 looked as if it paid to introduce fresh blood 

 from somewhere else. Mr. Isaman was 

 honest enough, however, to admit that he 

 watched that colony, and perhaps gave it 

 more care than any of the others. The 

 above incident rather turned the laugh on 

 me. When I got up I said something as 

 follows : 



' ■ Now, friends, I do not want you to rush 

 to the conclusion that all the queens we sell 

 for a dollar will give results like those just 

 mentioned. I suppose that you are aware 

 that I introduced, years ago, the custom of 

 selling queens for an even dollar, without 

 testing, and without any guarantee. There 

 had been so much disappointment in sending 

 for high-priced queens that I suggested 

 every man should do his own testing. The 

 breeder should breed from the very best 

 strains he can procure, either in Italy or in 

 America. Then he should sell his young 

 queens as soon as they commence to lay, at 

 the uniform price of one dollar, letting the 

 producer do his own testing; and I still be- 

 lieve this is about as good a way as any to 

 get the best strains of bees. Do your own 

 testing and you will have no complaint to 

 make. At first there was a big tirade 

 against cheap queens as there is against 

 cheap stock of any sort; but a few years 

 began to demonstrate that the untested 

 queens were about as good as any. For one 

 thing, if the breeder is an honest man you 

 are sure of getting a young queen; and a 

 young queen is always worth more than an 

 old one, other things being equal. 



It was my privilege to stay over night at 

 the home of Mrs. Morrow, a mile and a half 

 out of the town of Central Lake. Mrs. M. 

 has between fifty and sixty colonies of bees, 

 but as her husband and not one of the fam- 

 ily of children take to bees, she manages 

 them entirely herself. She has secured 

 good crops of honey, and, strange to tell, 

 her honey never candies. It is stored in 



sap-pails with a cloth tied over the top; and 

 on a frosty mornmg you can turn the pail of 

 honey upside down and not spill a drop, it is 

 so thick, and yet it is just as clear as glass. 

 For quality it suited me so well I took a bot- 

 tle of it home to show our Medina folks 

 what good thick honey is like. The only 

 explanation she could give for the fact that 

 her honey does not candy, while the rasp- 

 berry honey of that region is celebrated for 

 candying solid as soon as cold weather comes 

 is that her extracting is all done late in 

 the fall. She just piles the hives up one 

 story on top of another, so as to give the 

 bees room. When extracting time comes, 

 the combs are taken into a warm room, and 

 kept there long enough to get well warmed 

 through. The room is kept at a pretty high 

 temperature where the extracting is done, 

 because the honey is so thick it is a pretty 

 hard matter to throw it out. Of course, 

 there are other bee-keepers, many of them, 

 working on this plan. The honey is better 

 ripened, a good deal, than the average comb 

 honey, especially comb honey that is taken 

 from the hive before it is soiled by the bees 

 tramping over it. And I for one do not 

 want any more comb honey so long as I can 

 get Mrs. Morrow's extracted. I have sub- 

 mitted my sample to a good many people 

 since then, and they pretty much all agree 

 with me. The honey is so thick it is difficult 

 to get it out of the bottle without warming 

 or letting it stand in a warm room. Of 

 course, such thick honey ought to bring 

 more money than the ordinary liquid honey 

 on the market; but I for one would be will- 

 ing to pay for it. Mrs. Morrow has now 

 just about sold out. She has been getting 

 8 cts. per lb. at retail, but I think -it cer- 

 tainly ought to be 10. Honey that is so well 

 ripened that you can turn over a dishful at 

 ordinary temperatures without spilling it 

 ought to bring two or three cents a pound 

 extra. There is, perhaps, a little objection 

 to taking off" the whole crop of the season 

 at once. You will have your raspberry, clo- 

 ver, and perhaps honey from other sources, 

 all run together; that is, it would be rather 

 impracticable to keep it separate. But I 

 should say, let it go all together so we have 

 it thick enough to "cut with a knife," a^ 

 the saying is. Of course, thin honey can be 

 evaporated by artificial means, setting a 

 pan of it in an oven for instance, not letting 

 it get too warm. But I think the bees can 

 do the ripening better and perhaps cheaper 

 than we can. 



GROWING WINTERGREENS AND WINTERGREEN 

 BERRIES. 



The incident mentioned in Our Homes has 

 given me a new hobby. I brought home a 

 lot of those wintergreen berries, and they 

 are already planted in my greenhouse. Some 

 I mashed to get out the seeds, and some I 

 planted whole. I am going to try hard to 

 make them grow; and if there is any bee- 

 keeper in Northern Michigan or anywhere 



