1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



623 



we were not so far advanced as now. If you 

 wish to allow natural swarming, and desire 

 only one swarm from each good colony, just 

 wait eight days after the swarm issues about 

 cutting queen-cells, at which time the first 

 young queen will have emerged from her 

 cell, as a rule, in the parent colony, when 

 you will cut or destroy crt/vy queen-cell from 

 the combs and have a sure thing on them, as 

 all after-swarms come from a plurality of 

 queens." 



"How shall I know that a queen has 

 emerged?" 



"By finding one of the cells open at the 

 end, or by hearing the young queen that is 

 at liberty piping, as she generally is doing 

 by the forenoon of the eighth day after the 

 prime swarm issued." 



"I see. But what about the weaker colo- 

 nies which will be about in swarming condi- 

 tion right in the midst of the honey-flow?" 



"These can be kept from swarming by the 

 shook-swarming plan." 



' ' But suppose I do not wish to use that 

 plan." 



"All swarming can be stopped by caging 

 the queens in these colonies five or six days 

 before your expected honey-tiow, and, ten 

 days later, cutting every queen- cell of¥ the 

 combs, when, instead of the solid stopper 

 you have so far had in the cage containing 

 the queen, you are to put one which has a f 

 hole in it, this hole having about one inch of 

 queen-candy in it. It will take the bees about 

 two days to eat this candy out, thereby liber- 

 ating the queen, at which time all desire to 

 swarm will have passed away; and with the 

 liberation of the queen comes a desire for 

 both brood and stores, which will cause a 

 tremendous rush of honey to the sections, if 

 there is any to be had in the fields." 



"Will the bees work always the same with 

 the same environments?" 



"Yes." 



"But this old bee-keeper with whom I was 

 talking told me that bees do not work any 

 two years alike." 



"Undoubtedly he was right in this mat- 

 ter. ' ' 



"Well, how do you reconcile this with 

 your statement that they will always woi"k 

 the same with the same environments?" 



"I have been trying for nearly forty years 

 to find the same cnviro7iincnts carried out a 

 second time, with an entire failure to do so, 

 when we come to all of the mimdice in the 

 matter. I have said hundreds of times that 

 bees act differently in different seasons, for 

 the reason that no two seasons are exactly 

 alike." 



"How is that? 1 had supposed that I had 

 seen several seasons almost identical." 



"Two seasons may be approximately alike, 

 but never exactly alike. 1 used to wish that 

 each season might be like the preceding, then 

 I could secure a crop in just such a way eve- 

 ry time, machinery like; but of late years I 

 have not wished that way." 



"How is that?" 



"Had it been thus, Doolittle's bee fever 

 would have run its course long ago. But as 



it is, each season adds new thoughts, new 

 complications, new zest, new energies, new 

 determinations, etc., till the one great whole 

 gives an indescribable pleasure to bee-keep- 

 ing not found in any in other pursuit. And 

 this pleasure can be grasped only by the one 

 who is not turned aside by trifles. Over the 

 door of apiculture stands written in letters 

 of fire, lazy 'and sJiiftless persons need not 

 (tpjJly; and if they do apply they are always 

 like the seed of the scripture, which was 

 sown in stony places. See Matthew 13 : 5, 6, 

 20, 21." 



"I'll go home and read up the matter. I 

 am afraid you are a little hard on me." 



"I guess you will agree after reading." 



Gleanings from Foreign Fields. 



BY W. K. MORRISON. 



According to a report in the Alsace-Lor- 

 raine Bicnen Zuechter the local bee-keepers' 

 societies in Lorraine have formed a federa- 

 tion for the better protection of their inter- 

 ests. One of the most important duties of 

 the federation is the fixing of the prices at 

 which bee-keepers may sell their honey. It 

 is not generally realized that in Europe the 

 price of honey is fixed by the local bee- 

 keepers' society. Another duty is the popu- 

 larization of honey as an article of food, 

 also the collection of accurate statistics of 

 the honey crop, the formation of a bee-keep- 

 ers' library, and, the improvement of the lo- 

 cal bee flora in various ways. Some socie- 

 ties publish their own bee-paper. The feder- 

 ation of Lorraine will analyze a member's 

 honey for $1.25. The local bee-keepers' so- 

 ciety in Alsace has a library of 900 volumes 

 which are loaned to members. This is the 

 right kind of cooperation, especially that 

 which has to do with fixing prices. 



Mr. Albert Gale, in the Agricultural Oa- 

 zette, of New South Wales, contributes a very 

 interesting article on the bee industry in that 

 state for the past ten years. He states that, 

 in 1807, the number of hives was 41,900, of 

 which 9343 were unproductive. The 32,557 

 productive hives gave 1,378,039 lbs. of honey, 

 with an average of 42.3 per hive. In 1899 

 the number of hives was 51,681, with a yield 

 of honey nearly 3.000,000 lbs. From that 

 time the number of bee-hives in use has de- 

 creased considerably, though the yield has 

 increased by 8 pounds per hive per annum. 

 In 1897 the yield of beeswax was 31,842 lbs., 

 and ten years later the yield was 39,620 — an 

 increase of 7778 lbs. 



He states the average wholesale price of 

 honey in the local market to be 5 cents per 

 lb., while beeswax fluctuates between 24^ and 

 27 cents. 



He gives it as his opinion it will take some 

 time for New South Wales to become a hon- 

 ey country, as the tendency is to cut down 



