876 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



by their brethren in the craft from all over 

 the State. Announcements later. 



jrST IN TIME — THE DEWITTS AGAIN 



Since our special notice that we pub- 

 lished on page 820, Sept. 15, we have heard 

 of quite a number of others who have claims 

 on the Dewitts, which claims will probably 

 never be paid. But, apparently, the De- 

 witts are endeavoring' to get more goods on 

 credit, even at this late date, and we think 

 it is only proper that our readers be cau- 

 tioned again, as the following will show: 



Mr Root: — Your notice in regard to the Dewitts, 

 page 820, Gleanings, Sept. 15, saved me $12.60. They 

 sent me a local check tor that amount, and I had 

 started the goods tor the freight-house when I espied 

 what you had to say; and, fearing trouble, I tele- 

 phoned the freight-house to hold the goods until I 

 heard from the check. I learned to my sorrow that 

 the check went to protest, and I had nearly $2 00 to 

 pay for the .«ame. C. L,. Parker. 



Syiacuse, N. Y., Oct. 7. 



"machine-made queens" by THE PECK. 



We have shown our readers quite a num- 

 ber of finely built cells built off from pre- 

 pared cell cups. Mr. Arthur Stanley, of 

 Dixon, 111., has sent us a photograph of a 

 nice lot built off froin his gun- wads, and 

 which I reproduce on page 883. These gun- 

 wads are slipped into Stanley circular 

 cages made of perforated zinc. (See May 15 

 Gleanings, page 446, for further particu- 

 lars. ) The cages are then kept in the hive 

 until the virgins hatch out, when they are 

 given to nuclei or queenless colonies. 



The art of raising queen-cells by the peck 

 is an easy one; but getting virgins fertilized 

 by the peck is another proposition altogeth- 

 er. Some one asked me a short time ago 

 how much it was worth to get a queen 

 ready for fertilization, and how much to get 

 her fertilized. For even figures we will 

 sajf a laying queen is worth $1.00. 1 should 

 say it was well worth 66-3 cents — yes, and 

 I am not sure but it would be worth 75 

 cents, to get her fertilized. I think I would 

 rather offer virgins at 35 cents than laying 

 queens at Si. 00. Stanley, Swarthmore, 

 Pridgen, and last, but not least, Doolittle, 

 have done much to simplifj' the method of 

 raising queens up to the age of fertilizing. 

 These methods not only cheapen queens, 

 but give us a better grade all through. 



Some have objected, thinking that such 

 methods produce "machine-made queens," 

 and that, therefore, they can not be as good. 

 If the queens are inferior, that inferiority 

 is due to the 7>ian and not to the method. 



" LIGHTNING OPERATORS;" BUCKWHEAT 

 HONKY. 



Some time ago Mr. R. A. Burnett, the 

 commission man of Chicago, in referring to 

 unripe honey having been put on the Chica- 

 go market, spoke somewhat disparagingly 

 of certain buckwheat honey that was put up 

 by so-called "lightning" operators, say- 

 ing of New York that it was unripe, and 

 unfit to put on the market. This reference 

 caught the eye of Mr. W. L. Coggshall, in 

 whose apiaries the word " lightning opera- 



tor " or operators originated. One might 

 possibly suppose that the Coggshall honey 

 was referred to; but, as Mr. Coggshall said, 

 he had not sent any honey to Mr. Burnett 

 for a good many years, and that what he 

 did send at the time was pronounced first 

 quality. Since this disclaimer, the term 

 " ligfhtning operator" might narrow down 

 to Mr. Harry Howe, who was the chief of 

 the lightning operators, at least he feels 

 that his friends might so construe it. 



Mr. Howe, who is managing 500 colonies 

 for the Root Co., in Cuba, writes that he did 

 send some honey to Mr. Burnett in 1896, but 

 there was only 3580 lbs. of it, all of which 

 was extracted from sealed combs; and that 

 Mr. Burnett, in acknowledging the receipt 

 of it. called it good honey, and said that 

 the same arrived in good condition. 



THE DUAL PLAN OF INTRODUCING VIRGINS; 

 WHO FIRST DISCOVERED IT? 



After I wrote up this method for Glean- 

 ings, and A. I. R. had read the whole plan, 

 he came to me and said, " Why, I had that 

 very plan once, and I wrote it up in the 

 journal at the time." 



"Well," said I, "suppose you find it." 



He immediately began fumbling over some 

 thirty volumes of Gleanings. Talk about 

 a needle in a haystack! Well, he did not 

 find the needle. But he insisted that he 

 had that "very idea," but that it did not 

 prove to be a success with him. The other 

 dajs as I was looking over our ABC book 

 I raxi across a paragraph which he wrote 

 in 1877, which I suppose I have read scores 

 of times during my various revisions, but 

 had forgotten it. Under the heading of 

 "Queens," after speaking of the fact that 

 the young virgin never takes a rest during 

 the first week of her life, but is constantly 

 on the move, he says: 



This is one reason why I am averse to caging young 

 queens, in order that we may allow several to hatch 

 in the same hive. It seems to be natural for them to 

 run about, and I believe it is necessarj' for their well- 

 being. Several years ago I thought" I had made a 

 brilliant discovery when I succeeded in hatching all 

 the queen-cells in the hive, under cups made of wire 

 cloth. The first hatched was allowed to run until she 

 became fertile, and began laying; she was then re- 

 moved and the next released, and so on. I think I 

 succeeded in getting four laying q^ueens from the 

 single lot of cell=, all in the one hive, but the bees 

 made such desperate efforts to get the obnoxious 

 cages out of the way. and the inmates of the cages 

 to get out, that I gave up the plan, after seeing several 

 fine queens die of nothing else, so far as I could see, 

 than confinement. 



Yesterday I read this to A. I. R. ; and as 

 I concluded he said, " There, I told \^ou 

 so." 



" But," I said, laughingly, "you did not 

 know a good thing when j'ou had it. You 

 concluded that the bees were making des- 

 perate efforts to get the 'obnoxious cages' 

 out of the way. While I will admit they 

 are foreign to their hive architecture, ex- 

 perience in late j'ears, and during this 

 past summer in our bee-yard, has shown 

 that bees endure what they can not help, 

 and that the young virgins are fertilized 

 and laying in approximately four or five 

 days as against eight or ten the old way." 



