752 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1 



as freely as if the cells were left on the 

 comb, and the disadvantage that, if a hole 

 is in the cell, the bees will tear it down; 

 whereas in the Pridg-en the whole side of a 

 cell may be cut away and the queen still 

 hatch out. The queens worry somewhat 

 trying- to get out through the perforations 

 of the Stanley, and sometimes one g^ets 

 through; but you can take a queen, cart- 

 ridge and all, wherever you like, and can 

 get her only by letting her out of her com- 

 partment in the Pridgen. [Your experi- 

 ence is quite in line with ours. — Ed.] 



"The scarcity of lumber for making 

 sections may force bee-keepers into chunk 

 honey more and more as time goes on," p. 

 721. Chunk honey may be all the go yet, 

 for any thing I know; but the scarcity of 

 lumber will be a very small factor in the 

 case. If we can't have one-piece sections 

 we can have four-piece made out of a dozen 

 kinds of wood; and if all the basswood 

 were swept out of the universe it wouldn't 

 make section honey cost the producer half a 

 cent a pound more, now would it? And do 

 you think a rise of half a cent a pound 

 would drive section honey out? Tut, tut! 

 [No, a rise of half a cent a pound only 

 would not drive section honey out of the 

 market; but a big advance in the price of 

 sections, and the enormous labor of han- 

 dling four-piece as compared with the one- 

 piece might make some bee-keepers become 

 so disgusted and discouraged as to cause 

 them to say they would either give up comb 

 honey or turn their attention to the produc- 

 tion of extracted and chunk honey, where 

 there was less bother. The question of 

 price is not all there is to consider in the 

 matter. It is somewhat a question of con- 

 venience. — Ed.] 



" Why do you not tell honey-producers 

 to set an honest price on their honey, and 

 then stick to that price? We have found 

 that it is as easy to get 75 cents per gallon 

 as it was to get 60 cents. " Ah I but there's 

 a limit to that thing, mj* good friend; and 

 if each one were allowed to decide for him- 

 self an honest price, and then hold on to 

 that price, I'm afraid in too many cases he 

 would hold hone}' as well as price. You 

 say, " If The A. I. Root Co. would put up 

 the price, others would have to follow." 

 The members of the Root companj' are old 

 enough to answer for themselves; but I 

 think they try to put the price as high as 

 the traffic will bear. I'm hoping a little 

 that something like what you are aiming at 

 will be accomplished when all bee-keepers 

 fall into line and become members of the 

 National Association. I wish they would 

 hustle in a little faster. Twelve hundred 

 is something to be thankful for, but there 

 ought to be twelve thousand. [It is folly to 

 talk about advancing the price of any arti- 

 cle or commodity unless there is some sort 

 of CO operation on the part of all those who 

 have the commodity for sale. In a year 

 when there is plenty of honey, when there 

 are any number of offerings, the buj-er al- 



most hesitates to make any price until he 

 knows to where the market will actually 

 level up. But there is one thing that care- 

 less buyers may do; and that is, offer their 

 honey needlessly low% thus in a season of 

 scarcity depressing the whole market down 

 to the lower level. Such buyers, if it could 

 be done, should be made to pay well for 

 their honey the next time.— Ed.] 



Referring to the matter of queens being 

 stung in a ball, Mr. Editor, you don't find 

 any place where I placed any limiting 

 clause. Please turn to page 276. " I don't 

 know, but I think a queen is never stung 

 in the ball, and I much doubt the physical 

 possibility of such a thing. . . Weren't 

 the cases in which you saw the queen stung 

 those in which you poked or smoked the 

 bees away from the queen enough so that 

 one of them could sting her? Left entirelj^ 

 to themselves, do you believe the bees could 

 sting a balled queen if they would? Do 

 you believe they would if they could? " etc. 

 You see we are pretty nearly together, only 

 I think it possible that bees left to them- 

 selves would merely hug a queen, even if 

 they could sting her. In a nutshell, I don't 

 believe a queen in a ball, undisturbed by 

 the bee-keeper, is ever stung. There is 

 still left, however, the bare possibility that 

 I don't know as much about it as I might. 

 [I give it up; but I am of the same opinion 

 still, that the bees will sting a queen in the 

 ball, when the apiarist is not interfering, 

 if they can. But when their heads are all 

 turned one way, and they are seeking to 

 ball her, or, rather, to get to her, it is al- 

 most an impossibility, but not quite, to get 

 at the queen stern first. — Ed.] 





A writer in Schweiz. Bienenzeiiung gi\e& 

 an interesting account of a queen and her 

 daughter laying eggs side by side in per- 

 fect harmony for one whole year. 

 \i/ 



A reader in Hinckley, Minn., wishes to 

 know how the words apiary and apiarist 

 are pronounced. The a^ s are long as in ail; 

 the i is short as in tin, as is the y. This 

 applies to both words. We shall be glad to 

 make a specialty of answering such ques- 

 tions in this department. 



A French paper has the following piece 

 of pleasantry in favor of adulterated honej': 

 Several women of Baden-Baden were 

 brought before a justice, charged with hav- 

 ing sold adulterated honej'. Among the 

 bu^-ers subpoenaed as witnesses was the 



