'774 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



I notice that Mr. Jones, et ah, at the 

 Kational Convention, stated that they 

 could produce from two to five times 

 as much extracted as of comb lioney, 

 and also that they could make $5 on 

 extracted to $1.00 on comb honey. 



Now, while I do not wish to contra- 

 dict these statements, it seems to me 

 that it should not be so. Taking tlie 

 reports of the National and the North- 

 western Conventions, together or sep- 

 arately, they do not show it ; yet they 

 ought to be considered a fair average. 

 It does not seem reasonable to me and 

 I will try to give some of my reasons 

 for thinking differently. The profits 

 are what we are after. 



Take, for illustration, the report of 

 Messrs. Oatman & Son, who obtained 

 26,000 lbs. of honey in the comb from 

 229 colonies, with ai^ increase of about 

 50 per cent. I understand that they 

 disposed of their entire crop at Dun- 

 dee, for 20 cents per lb., net. No doubt 

 it was a fine lot of honey, but even es- 

 timating it at Dr. Miller's tigures, 

 (page 706,) 16 cents net (which I think 

 IS cutting too much for expense, as 

 will be seen further on), it is double 

 the price that can be obtained for ex- 

 tracted in the bestshape, and a slower 

 sale. If we look at the market reports 

 • from week to week, we shall see the 

 same thing. 



Regarding the cost of production, I 

 think it will be admitted by all that 

 there is less work in obtaining comb 

 honey than in getting extracted, with 

 the difference in favor of the comb. 

 The main part of tlie work for comb 

 honey can be done in the winter and 

 spring, while, with extracted honey, 

 the work must be done in the heat of 

 summer, when we are the busiest. 



Now, let us see what the comb honey 

 costsV Nothing but your labor I You 

 sell the honey in sections for enough 

 to pay for the sections themselves, the 

 foundation, boxing, glassing, etc., etc. 

 If you do not believe it weigh 1,000 

 sections and figure it up. With ex- 

 tracted honey vou have to buy bar- 

 rels, and then sell the honey, less the 

 package, at half the price of comb 

 honey. 



I stated that the reports of the two 

 conventions showed poorly for ex- 

 tracted honey. It will be seen, by re- 

 ferring to Dr. Miller's table, page 706, 

 that the eight persons referred to as 

 having such big results, the majority 

 of tliem ran for comb honey. 



We know that the field bees do not 

 build the comb. If the colony is 

 strong in young liees when your honey 

 flow begins, I think there need be no 

 fear that the foundation will get drawn 

 out as fast as it will be needed, and by 

 giving them plenty of sections, can we 

 not obtain just as many pounds of 

 comb as extracted honey V Of course, 

 if we have only a small number of col- 

 onies and had built up a home trade, 

 using tin pails and jelly cups, we could 

 dispose of it to advantage, but I did 

 not refer to that ; I had reference to 

 the wholesale trade only. Comb honey 

 will sell itself, while we have to force 

 the extracted. Tlierefore, I fail to see 

 how we can make it pay like comb 

 honey. 



Cannot we get at the facts V We 

 ought to know ; a farmer ought to 



know what an acre produces, and what 

 it has cost to produce it ; just as much 

 as a manufacturer knows what a cer- 

 tain pieceof goods or machinery costs. 



We ought to know what it costs to 

 produce a queen; what it costs to 

 produce a colony of bees ; how much 

 honey it takes ; how much it costs to 

 keep a colony through the season, and 

 how much it costs to produce a pound 

 of comb or extracted honey. I, for 

 one, am anxious to know, and how 

 much more (if any) of extracted honey 

 can be produced under the same cir- 

 cumstances than of honey in the 

 comb. 



Chicago, 111., Nov. 17, 1882. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



How I Introduce (Jiioeiis. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Having been requested to describe 

 my method of introducing queens, in 

 the American Bee Journal, I will 

 now try to do so. The reason why 

 so many fail in introducing queens, is, 

 in my opinion, because they are not 

 careful enough in noting the behavior 

 of the bees toward the queen given 

 tliem. It only one or two bees are 

 hostile toward a queen, I have found 

 that the same are capable of turning 

 the whole colony against her. If be- 

 ginners were to fully learn that, so 

 long as a single bee appeared hostile 

 toward a queen, she should be kept 

 caged, we should hear less of the loss 

 of queens in introducing. 



My method of introducing any queen 

 I consider valuable, is this : I first 

 make a cage from wire cloth, contain- 

 ing 14 to 16 meshes to the inch, by 

 cutting a piece 4x6 inches square. I 

 now cut from each corner a piece ^oi 

 an inch square, when the sides and 

 ends are bent at right angles, so as to 

 form a box, as it were, without a bot- 

 tom, 2%x4l4 inches square. Now take 

 out the cross wires one-half the way 

 down the sides and ends you have 

 bent up, and you have the cage so that 

 you can press it to the combs % of an 

 inch wherever you choose. 



In order to get the new queen intro- 

 duced with the least trouble, I prefer 

 not to remove the queen I wish to su- 

 persede, till lam ready to put the new 

 one in her place. To be sure that the 

 new queen cannot get away from me 

 I take her to the house, open the cage 

 she came in before a window and clip 

 her wings, after which she is put into 

 a round wire-cloth cage (the same as 

 was formerly used in introducing), 

 when we are ready to look for the 

 queen to be superseded. To best find 

 her, I commence to take frames out 

 at the side of the hive, looking the first 

 two over hastily, and putting them in 

 an empty hive. As I take out the 

 third, I look down the side of the 

 fourth frame, as it hangs in the hive, 

 for, if the queen should be on the side 

 of that comb,she will start to go around 

 to the opposite side of the frame as 

 soon as the light strikes her, in which 

 undertaking she is readily seen. If 

 she is not there, I look on the side ot 

 the third frame opposite me, holding 

 it so that the vision strikes it oblique- 



ly, as a queen is more readily seen by 

 lookiijg at her side than on "her back. 

 I keep on taking out frames until she 

 is found, and rarely fail in finding one 

 on trying the first "time. If I do not 

 succeed, I commence to place them 

 back, looking at them in the same way, 

 as I take them from the empty hive. 

 The knowledge that a queen will 

 always run from the side of the frame 

 exposed to the light, upon opening a 

 hive, saves much looking for the queen 

 on the side of the frame next the 

 operator. 



Having found the queen, I look the 

 combs over till I find one from which 

 the young bees are hatching quite 

 plentifully, and having some honey in 

 it also. From this comb I shake all 

 the bees, and then let the queen crawl 

 from the round cage upon the comb. 

 When she gets where I can place the 

 cage over her, so as to enclose some 

 honey and hatching brood within it, I 

 do so, and press the points into the 

 comb as far as unraveled, when the 

 frame is put in the hive, leaving space 

 enough between the frames, so that 

 the bees can get around and over the 

 cage. 



In 24 hours I go and look at the cage. 

 If the bees are thickly clustered over 

 the cage, biting the wire cloth and 

 showing signs of anger, I put it back 

 and wait 24 hours more. So I keep on 

 until not a single bee shows signs of 

 trying to get into the cage to sting the 

 queen; but all are spread evenly, 

 standing on the cage as they do on the 

 combs. When such is the case I care- 

 fully lift thecagefrom over the queen, 

 letting her and the young bees, which 

 have been hatched during her confine- 

 ment, go where they please, keeping 

 watch all the while to see that the bees 

 treat her kindly. If they do, I put the 

 comb in the hive ; if not, she is caged 

 again. In from one-half to one hour 

 after liberating, I go and look at the 

 queen again, and it she is now treated 

 as their old queen was before removal, 

 I shut the hive considering her safely 

 introduced. 



Right here I wish to say that I often 

 release a queen in 12 hours and find 

 that she is all right, and I rarely have 

 to wait, about letting her out, more 

 than 24 hours. Still, in extreme cases, 

 I have been obliged to keep them 

 caged nearly 10 days. Donotbeafrajd 

 of the queen dying in the cage, for if 

 placed over honey, as I have spoken 

 of, she will live a month. The only 

 trouble when left so long, is, that the 

 bees may gnaw the comb away so as 

 to get under the cage. If liable to do 

 this, I shake all the bees off and move 

 the cage to a different place. 



On page 437 of the present volume 

 of the American Bee Journal, Mr. 

 G. W. Demaree says, '• The queen will 

 generally begin to lay in one or two 

 days after she is accepted by the bees ; 

 and after she begins to lay, she is as 

 safe as if she had been reared in the 

 hive." This can be laid down as a 

 rule, and I will say that one-half of 

 the queens introduced by me by the 

 above method are fed by the bees out- 

 side of the cage, and acknowledged as 

 mistress by those hatching within the 

 cage; hence eggs are laid in the cells 

 from which the young bees have 



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