484 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



Aug. 3 1899. 



Answers. — 1. As it is stated that " Iowa " intends to 

 take the bees which he is to use in forming- his nuclei " from 

 the colonies with laying queens, shaking the bees from the 

 combs and giving them directly to said nuclei," I would re- 

 ply that undersuch conditions a// the bees there were in any 

 one colony from which they were taken would nof be suffi- 

 cient to form a decent nucleus. If an}' one has not tried 

 this way of working, it appears very nicely in print, but let 

 it once be tried and it will never appear nice after that, for 

 bees so shaken are the most persistent things in trying to 

 get back to " mamma " of anything I ever had to deal with. 



The proposition does not even hint at any precautions 

 being taken to keep those bees in the hive with the comb of 

 brood and honey, and unless such precautions arf taken, 

 there will not remain bees enough in that hive to make a 

 decent nucleus 24 hours later, no matter if two bushels are 

 put in by the plan proposed, for what cannot get back home 

 again will run out of the hive and scatter over the ground, 

 thru the grass and anywhere but staj- with those two combs 

 in that hive. I know what I am talking about, for I have 

 tried it many times, even putting them in just at dark, onh- 

 to find them scattered all over everything surrounding the 

 hive early the next morning, with scarcely a bee inside on 

 the brood and honej'. 



These being the true facts in the case, the one word 

 " No " very fully answers questions 2, 3, 4 and 5. 



Now I want Dr. Miller to turn to his open letter to me 

 and read the last half of paragraph four over again, then 

 tell us where he got any such an idea from my article on 

 pages 370 and 371, that " Iowa " would "lose a queen by the 

 operation." Did not I distinctl}' state on page 371, that 

 after the hive having cast a swarm was .set on the stand 

 previously occupied by the nucleus that the queen was to be 

 let out of the cage, and " allowed to run in her old home "? 

 And did I not make it equally plain that the queen reared 

 in the nucleus was to be shaken with the bees out in front 

 of her hive so that the queen, the bees from the nucleus, 

 and the swarm, might run into the hive together so that no 

 quarreling would result? Don't throw "hypercritical" 

 back at me Doctor, for if you will take pains to read out, 

 what there is in tliat plan as I gave it there, j'ou will find 

 one of the great and grand principles which can often be 

 used in practical bee-keeping. It is not always easy to 

 make a swari/i take another queen besides the one which 

 issues with them, for a swarm having its queen taken from 

 them and a new one supplied before it gets fully settled in 

 its new hive or home, is nearly as persistent in leaving the 

 new hive and going back home as are the bees used to form 

 a nucleus by the way " Iowa " proposed to do it, except the 

 few which are engaged in hugging and persecuting the new 

 queen. 



Then I want to say a word or two regarding the first 

 paragraph in your open letter. You say : 



'^ I trust I shall always have the errace to receive kindly any criticism 

 made upon any writing- of mine, so long- as the criticism is g-iven in a 

 spirit of kindness." 



You and I profess to belong to the Master, and does not 

 the Master enjoin on his followers that they have grace 

 given them from on high to receive kindly any criticism, or 

 anything else, no matter whether given in the spirit of 

 kindness or not, that they may be true representatives of 

 the meek and lowly Jesus, thus honoring our Father whicli 

 is in Heaven ? And if this is enjoined upon us, shall you 

 and I be disobedient children because some one criticises us 

 in unkindness ? 



Then I wish to saj' a word or two regarding the ques- 

 tions I askt you on page 306. You evidently seemed to think 

 that I askt them in .a captious way, taking the last two sen- 

 tences in your reply as evidences, together with the little 

 thrust you give the editor in the first sentence. It would 

 seem that you should have known me long enough to know 

 that I do nothing in a captious way, nor to be hypercritical. 

 Perhaps you were a little soured over your controversy with 

 R. L. Taylor, and so are excusable. 



What I was after in those questions was to draw you 

 out on some of the fine or nice points with which a queen- 

 breeder has to contend. Those buying queens are not so 

 content with "generalities" as you are. Doctor, and because 

 only generalities are generally given when giving a descrip- 

 tion of pure [?] Italians, golden Italians, albinos, etc., 

 queen-breeders are often denounced as " frauds, cheats, 

 dead-beats," and everything but honest. To keep my skirts 

 clear of such accusations I keep standing in my circular all 

 the time these words : " I do not claim all the purity of 

 stock that some do, nor lay so much stress on golden 

 bands," and in this way I escape being told that I have 

 misrepresented in the queens I send out. And those ques- 



tions were put to you in the hope that you -would so specify 

 in your answers that some of the pressure of "breeding to 

 a feather " would be taken off queen-breeders who do not 

 keep what I do standing in their circulars. 



Of course, I could have told you what I -was after, but 

 that would have detracted from your answers, as the read- 

 ers would have considered that )'ou were doing something 

 to bolster up tlie queen-breeders in not sending out queens 

 giving bees markt as they were led to think bees should be 

 markt by what the}' generally read. Were you a queen- 

 breeder, }'ou would realize something of the pressure 

 brought to bear on such breeders by those who are hard to 

 satisfy. Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



[The condenst answers which Dr. Miller sent with the 

 questions formulated for Mr. Doolittle, are as follows : — 

 Editor.] 



DR. miller's ANS-tt'ERS TO THE QUESTIONS. 



1. A quart of bees might do to start the nucleus. 



2. Not so well as a quart, but if the comb is well filled 

 with sealed brood nearly mature, the nucleus might hold 

 its own. 



3. Very likely ; but I wouldn't give much for such 

 queens. 



4. No, it wouldn't be a nucleus that would satisfy me. 



5. Not very, if they were troublesome. 



C. C. Miller. 



Preparing' Extracted Honey for the Market. 



{lii'iul l»J Fri'it Bfuw/i at the California Bct-Kirper.^' Cimreniiait . hi'hl in 

 Hanfurd.) 



WE will assume that the bees are gathering honey very 

 fast, as this is the time in which the work is slighted 

 if ail)', as at such times the honey is often extracted 

 before it is ripe ; and that being the case, the hone}' coming 

 in fast is not allowed to ripen, and when it is put on the 

 market it is not of a good, heavy body, and the flavor is 

 also not the best. 



Extracting. — The honey should be at least three- 

 quarters sealed, to insure a good state of ripeness, and even 

 then it should not go into the cans without first going thru 

 the tank. 



With the honey thus sealed, we will proceed to the api- 

 ary, as there is where the preparation for good, marketable 

 honey will begin. We will have a box with a tin bottom, 

 to put the combs in when the}' are taken from the hive, the 

 tin bottom will prevent there being any drip, which is a 

 waste, that gathers dirt, and will keep your extracting- 

 room in a muss ; the appearance will not be tidy, and there 

 is more liable to accumulate filth in the packing- of the 

 honey for the market. 



After the honey is thus in the house, and is uncapt and 

 extracted by the extractor, it should be run thru a separator. 

 Allow the honey to run thru the tank, or into a tank. And 

 right here I wish to say that you cannot prepare honey 

 properly without a tank. 



Good, Ripe Honey. — And further. I wish to say that I 

 hope that the honey-producers of this association will profit 

 by the lesson taught us by the fruit-packers of this com- 

 munity — tliat it is important tp commence right, so there 

 will be no complaint with the honey, as there was with the 

 fruit that has g-one into the Eastern market (and by way of 

 digression let me say, there %vas some very poorly prepared 

 honey that the association placed upon the market last sea- 

 son). Some was very thin, some was very dirty, and was 

 not in a merchantable condition when received by me, and 

 when told to the parties thus offering it, I was met with the 

 answer that if I did not want it there were others in town 

 that would be glad to take it. Such honey, in order to 

 make it marketable, had to be dumpt into a tank and 

 allowed to settle before it was fit to sell at all. 



So you will .see the necessity of each one that packs 

 honey to have a tank, as poor stuff should not be allowed 

 to compete with good, clean honey. Furthermore, we 

 should have pride enough to want to place only that g-rade 

 of goods on the market that we know to be absolutely clean, 

 such as would be inviting to a lover of sweets. 



Honey-Tanks. — The best style of a tank, to my notion, 

 is one that is not too deep. The one th j.-*- I use is 6 feet long 

 by 3 feet wide, and a depth of 30 inches. It will hold about 

 40 hundredweight, and is not very hard to get the honey 

 into, as it is shallow, and another advantage is that it has 

 a good evaporating surface. 



