1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



617 



than usual interest to beekeepers in the vi- 

 cinity of those big smelting-works. 



It is, no doubt, true that there are other 

 bee-keepers not involved in this particular 

 trouble, but v^ho have likewise been suffer- 

 ing a like damage. Whether this will act as 

 a precedent to other cases remains to be 

 seen. 



We do not know what the status is for 

 these other parties, but we should be glad to 

 place befoi'e our readers any news bearing 

 on the subject. 



After a long and severe struggle of two years, we 

 have finally been successful in securing a settlement 

 by arbitration with the smelters in the Salt Lake 

 Valley. Prior to the advent of the smelters, the Salt 

 Lake Valley was the banner bee and honey county 

 of the State. Ten years ago there were over ten 

 thousand colonies of bees in the county. To-day I be- 

 lieve there are not ten colonies left. At tirst, when 

 the bees began to die off, the bee-keepers, not being 

 cognizant of the source of their trouble, bought more 

 bees, but these died off faster than the tirst ones. 

 Many of our bee-keepers, having made a success of 

 the business, and depending upon it for a livelihood, 

 did not like to give it up until absolutely forced to. 

 The writer has lost, all told, over one thousand colo- 

 nies; and while we have suffered enormous losses, we 

 decided it was a source of wisdom lo compromise with 

 the smelter people for the s>um of $15,000 from each of 

 the four smelter companies. Of course, this does not 

 begin to compensate us for our losses: but we started 

 in for a friendly settlement by arbitration, rather 

 than to go into the courts. We think this settlement 

 is better than it would have been to go into the court 

 and secure a judgment, as that is a very poor thing to 

 live on; but the little ready cash that we have receivi d 

 has helped many of our bee-keepers materially, and 

 we realize too that there are two sides to every ques- 

 tion. 



In the beginning the smelters were welcomed to the 

 valley, and no one anticipated any trouble from their 

 operation. When we take into consideration the un- 

 foreseen complication of this long-drawn-out question 

 our bee-keepers are very well satisfied with the final 

 settlement reached. 



I am especially grateful for the many words of ap- 

 preciation received by the bee-keepers for the work I 

 have done in conducting this matter. There have 

 been volumes of documents pass between myself and 

 the smelters in our persistent effort to bring the mat- 

 ter to a successful issue. The smelter people were 

 always courteous and patient; aod, while it was a long 

 and tedious affair, it was most pleasant throughout 



With the smelters already located in Salt Lake 

 Valley, we have had experience which ought to have 

 giveii a lesson so far as the location of smelters is 

 concerned. However, there was actually buili in 1906, 

 near the agricultural centers of Weber and Box Elder 

 Counties, another smelter. A protest was sent by the 

 bee-keepers to the company before the smelter was 

 built, and now we feel that, if the bees are destroyed 

 by fumes, a condition mo?.t likely to obtain, the bee- 

 keepers of those sections will claim full damage for 

 their losses. The smelters that are to be built in the 

 future should be made in those sections where they 

 will not do damage to the agricultural industry. 



A PLURALITY OF QCEKNS IN A HIVK WITHOUT 

 PERFORATED ZINC OR OTHER DIVISION. 



Our readers will remember the article by 

 Mr. E. W. Alexander on the possibility of 

 having a plurality of queens in one brood- 

 nest without using perforated zinc or division- 

 boards, as given on page 473 for April 1. 

 Mr. E. E. Pressler, of Williamsport, Pa., a 

 bee-keeper of considerable note in his State, 

 has for some time been working on the same 

 lines. The writer has been crying to get him 

 to put a few of his ideas in typewriter, and 

 send them on to us for publication, but noth- 

 ing has come to hand till now. 



When the article by Mr. Alexander ap- 

 peared, it so stirred up our friend that he 



could no longer'keep his light under a bushel, 

 as will be shown by the communication 

 sent. As the matter is something of more 

 than ordinary interest, we are pleased to 

 place it before our readers right here in th*e 

 editorial columns. 



I consider Mr. Alexander one of the ablest contrib- 

 utors to Gleanings, and wish we had more such 

 writers. Many bee-keepers may not consider his 

 practices and doctrines altogether orthodox; but for 

 myself I wish we had more bee-keepers of this class, 

 who are willing to blaze the way to what I consider 

 modern apiculture. 



Thus far I have persistently refused to have any 

 thing published over my signature; but the last article 

 of Mr. Alexander's has so stirred me up that I can 

 not refrain from emphasizing the importance of hav- 

 ing two or more layiug queens in one colony to build 

 up strong colonies preparatory to the expected honey- 

 flow. After having tried all the so-called systems of 

 queen rearing and mating. I have found them all lack- 

 ing some essential point for my practical use. In ex- 

 perimenting along the lines of queen-mating in full 

 colonies (which I do altogether now) by placing 

 division-boards made of queen-excluding zinc, some 

 solid boards, and queen-excluders made for the pur- 

 pose between the brood-chamber and the surplus de- 

 partment, and being rushed wiih work one day, failing 

 to replace these division-boards, etc., after examin- 

 ing a colony, I found on returning, six days later, that 

 four virgin queens, which were placed therein for 

 mating purposes, wert- all mated and laying, with the 

 excluders and division-boards standing on the outside 

 rear of the hive. I had used these division-boards 

 and excluders with from four to ten queens in a hive, 

 and many times after the virgins were mated— prob- 

 ably not had ready sale— I kept the queens laying in 

 their several compartments for some time; and the 

 bees going through the excluders above, intermingling 

 with all the <iueens in the hive and filling a second 

 story in afewdays. made me " sit up and take notice." 



Judiiingtrom the article by Mr. Alexander he has 

 gone up the lane of progress, grazing between the 

 second wires of a barbed-wire fence, tasting a little of 

 the golden sweet in the promised land, and no doubt 

 has been scratched by the barbs on the wire fence on 

 many occasions; but, like myself, nothing like ad- 

 versity is known to him when experimenting along 

 modern scientific lines. I am satisfied there will be 

 many the coming season who will attempt this method 

 and make a failure of it, and say it is not Littledoo-oxy 

 or Lermiloxy. simply because of the prejudice for the 

 teachings of the past. 



Were it not for the editorials in Gleanings, and 

 footnotes expounding and upholding Mr. Alexander 

 the past year, the majority of his writings would 

 hardly have been accepted; but with this footnote 

 explanation by the editor, he has become authority 

 and a shining light for our industry, for which I am 

 thankful. 



Some time last summer a certain doctor from a 

 Western State discovered two laying queens in one 

 hive— mother and daughter. He wrote and had an 

 article in one of the bee papers about it, saying that 

 he was now an old man and had never before seen 

 any thing like it— facetiously wondering at the same 

 time if any one else had ever witnessed such a thing. 

 He seemed to go into ecstasy over this " new discov- 

 ery." This did not move me one bit, because I had 

 just 73 laying queens in ten thirteen-frame hives at 

 that very moment no mothers and daughters either. 



On several i ccasions anoth^ r bee-keeper who carries 

 his name by the same handle (I suppose to suggest 

 authority) wanted to know how a queen-breeder knew 

 which queen product d the best strain of bees for 

 honey-gathering, when of necessity all his colonies 

 were devoted to "modern queen-rearing." This 

 prompted me to say on the floor of a convention that 

 I could mate all my queens in full colonies, and in- 

 stead of diminishing or having no surplus crop of 

 honey, I could at least double my crop. So could 

 every queen-breeder if he would burn up his baby- 

 nuclei mating-bo\es, then thoroughly l«-arn the habits 

 of the bee. and start modern queen-reai-ina, which is as 

 old as time itself. What are those queens worth that 

 are reared and mated by the baby system ? They are 

 small, puny, sickly-looking specimens of the real 

 thing— I mean 7.t per cent of them, and that percentage 

 should have their heads pinched off. 



On next page J. A. Green writes on the 

 same subject. 



