850 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 15 



By the time you get over the yard taking 

 off finished sections, as likely as not you can 

 go over it again, as the bees ai'e capping 

 fast, being crowded somewhat for i-oom. 

 This taking off and shifting of supers should 

 continue until the flow stops; then in about 

 a week, when the capping stops for want of 

 honey to work with, the escape- boards are 

 put on, and everything removed and sorted. 

 Those that are not sealed this time are un- 

 capped, put into supers, and fed back as I 

 told you above. 



GRADING AND CRATING. 



Our 4X5 plain sections of comb honey are 

 all cased up in the latest 20-8ection no-drip 

 shipping-cases, the wood of the sections be- 

 ing scraped free from propolis and loee-stain. 

 We are very careful in our grading. I tell 

 the boys when commencing this job that, if 

 they tind a section that there is any question 

 about, to put it in the next lower grade; in 

 this way all our grades are just a little bet- 

 ter than the rules call for. At first thought 

 one would think there would be a loss by 

 following this rule; but we make it even by 

 charging a higher price than the ordinary 

 honey sells for. A good article sells better, 

 and gives belter satisfaction, even at a much 

 higher price, than the ordinary at one-third 

 less price. 



Shipping-cases should not be nailed until 

 they are ready to be used, and then only 

 what will be needed to hold the crop, for 

 they soil very easily when exposed to the air 

 and light. 



When the honey is ready to be cased, ten 

 of the shipping-cases may be placed on the 

 scales and weighed. It is not necessary to 

 pdt a single mark on the cases, but one-tenth 

 of the weight of ten may be kept in mind, 

 for this will be near enough to the weight of 

 one for all practical purposes. 



After the case of honey is weighed, the net 

 weight and the grade should be marked on a 

 small piece of card-board; then, should the 

 dealer who buys the honey decide to sell by 

 the case, or if, for any reason, lie did not 

 care to have the weight known, all he has to 

 do is to pull out the one small tack that the 

 card is fastened on with, leaving no sign of 

 a mark on the case to indicate that the case 

 was ever weighed. This is as it should be, 

 for we want to deliver the case to the custom- 

 er just as clean and free from pencil-marks 

 as when it left the factory; and to do this it 

 is also necessary to wrap the cases in good 

 strong manilla paper before putting them in- 

 to the caiTiers. The railroad company nev- 

 er sweeps out a car for honey to be shipped 

 in, and, just as likely as not, the car (or cars 

 if a long shipment) will have been used for 

 coal or lime, or a dozen and one dirty things 

 that we do not want our honey to come in 

 contact with. 



With a good strong carrier, and plenty of 

 straw in the bottom for a cushion, and with 

 the cases wrapped in paper, we usually get 

 our honey to market in about as good shape 

 as when it leaves our hands. 



Remus, Mich. 



THE SELECTION OF A BREEDING 

 QUEEN. 



On AVhat Basis Shall the Choice be Made? 

 the Importance of getting Rid of the 

 Poorest Colonies in a Breeding- 

 Apiary. 



BT C. F. BENDER. 



Mr. Holtermanh's article on page 413 is a 

 very clear statement of what we ought to 

 know about our bees, and don't; but I rath- 

 er doubt such knowledge being of very great 

 use in the practical breeding of bees, even if 

 we possessed it. I should like very much to 

 know which of my queens produce the long- 

 est-lived workers, which bees would tly 

 furthest, live on the smallest rations, resist 

 unfavorable weather the* best, carry the larg- 

 est loads, or make the most trips. But even 

 if I knew all these things I might yet be a 

 little puzzled to know which queen to breed 

 from if I had nothing else to judge by. 



If we turn our attention to practical re- 

 sults, instead of looking for the causes- of 

 those results, the decision is much easier. 

 We want the bees that will store the largest 

 quantity of the most marketable honey, and 

 they must be gentle enough so that we can 

 handle them. Those are the requirements 

 in a nutshell. 



To take a case from my own practice: The 

 season last year was nearly a failure, but I 

 had one colony that produced honey to the 

 value of $11.00, besides their own stoi'es. 

 The next, best gave a net return of $6.00; sev- 

 eral others of $5.00, or nearly that. It would 

 be interesting to know what combination of 

 qualities caused those bees to go so far above 

 the average, but such knowledge would prob- 

 ably make no difference in the selection of a 

 breeding-queen. As it happened, all the best 

 colonies were gentle, and all were pure Ital- 

 ia];is, and so were more likely than hybrids 

 to hold those qualities in the next generation. 

 Other things being equal, of course the colo- 

 ny storing the greatest amount of honey 

 would be chosen. But the best colony pro- 

 duced watery cappings, and so was not suit- 

 able for comb honey. The point I am aim- 

 ing at now is this: That the qualities enu 

 merated by Mr. Holtermann are important 

 only as they affect the honey crop; and of the 

 honey produced we have a I'eady means of 

 judging. 



In regard to controlling the drone parent- 

 age, I think the best we can do is to follow 

 Dr. Miller's plan. If one has moi'e than one 

 apiary, keep all the best colonies at the home 

 yard — that is, those that gave the best rec- 

 ords the previous season. Then do all your 

 queen-reai'ing at the home apiary, and let 

 the drone question take care of itself. Where 

 we have a hundred colonies in one place, the 

 mating with drones from other sources will 

 not exceed tive per cent. If we are to make 

 any improvement in our stock, it is quite as 

 important to weed out the poorest as it is to 

 breed from the best. 



Newman, Ills. 



