1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



429 



vfa.y that the fing-er will be on top and the 

 thumb beneath, see Fig. 3. If you grab 

 her by the waist j'ou need not be afraid of 

 hurting her, for this portion of her anatomy 

 will stand considerable pressure without 

 injury. With the right hand take a pair 

 of scissors and clip one wing at about the 

 point shown in the illustration, Fig. 3; but 

 do not clip /w//! wings as there shown. In 

 putting the queen back on the comb, be 

 very careful not to let her drop. Let her 

 down gently on the comb, or raise the fore 

 linger and let her crawl from the thumb on 

 to the comb. 



I have seen some veterans who preferred 

 to grab hold of the queen as shown in Fig. 

 2. She is first picked up as shown in 1, 

 then she is caught by the legs as shown in 

 2. While a veteran can hold a queen in 

 this way, the average beginner would be 

 liable to squeeze too 

 hard and pull her legs 

 of!'; then if you grab 

 one leg only, the queen 

 will revolve round and 

 round till she twists it 

 off, and in all proba- 

 bility take wing. The 

 plan shown in 1 and 3 

 is the safer to emploj^ 



There will be times 

 when one does not have 

 hand}' a pair of scis- 

 sors. Very well, he is 

 to pick the queen up as 

 shown in 1; then hold 

 her with the left hand 

 as illustrated in 3. Now 

 with the knife in the 

 right hand, place one 

 of the queen's wings 

 on the corner of a hive- 



body or hive-cover in such a way that the 

 knife-blade will cut through into the wood, 

 severing the wing. I do not know but I 

 would about as soon have a common knife 

 if it is sharp as scissors. 



afford to take a bee-paper; or if he does he 

 can not take time to study the markets and 

 keep abreast with the times. His 20,000 or 

 30,000 lbs. of honey, sold at two or three 

 cents less than the general market, will be 

 quite sure to depress it to the selling price 

 of this particular lot of honey. 



/x 



PRICE OF HONEY TOO LOW. 



It is a well-known fact that, during the 

 last few j'ears, the prices of labor, of manu- 

 factured articles, and of the general food- 

 stuffs, have advanced materially. Honey 

 has advanced, but not in proportion. If 

 this is true, the bee-keeper of to-day must 

 work on a smaller margin than he did a 

 few years ago, when prices on his product 

 were actually lower than now. 



The A. I. Root Co. would gladly pay a 

 higher price for honey; but we would not 

 dare to offer more than the general market 

 will allow, because we can not afford to 

 pay 25 per cent more than our competitors 

 would pay for the same grade of honey. 

 The trouble is with the producer, after all. 

 So long as there are producers willing to 

 sell at any old price, just so long bee-keep- 

 ers will work against each other. The read- 

 ers of bee-journals would be willing to co- 

 operate. But here is a producer who can't 



If we can get bee-keepers organized in 

 the several States and in different locali- 

 ties, as they are in Colorado, New York, 

 California, and in several isolated dis- 

 tricts, we may be able to get control of the 

 bulk of the honeJ^ When the cheap lots are 

 all disposed of, then there might be a 

 chance to advance. 



I am well aware that the task seems al- 

 most hopeless; but if we give it up as a bad 

 job we shall never accomplish any thing. 



A KINK WORTH KNOWING ; COGGSHALL ON 

 ENTRANCE-CLOSING TO SAVE THE BROOD. 



On the 2d of May, Mr. W. L. Coggshall, 

 of Groton, N. Y., wrote that it had been 

 very cold in his locality; that ice at that 

 time was IV inches thick; bees weak, and 

 but little brood. He had been driving 30 

 miles from 7 a. m. to 7 p. m., closing the en- 

 trances of the hives. He carried along a 



