GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



producers. Where there are but a few per- 

 sons engaged in any one line of business, as 

 the handling of honey, it is easy for them to 

 control the price of honey to a considerable 

 extent. There is usually a way out of diffi- 

 culties, and I think we shall find one for this 

 if we look carefully. 



Honey is fast becoming a staple; and whole- 

 sale as well as retail grocers must have it if 

 they carry a complete line of groceries. The 

 number of wholesale merchants is very large 

 as compared with those who make a special- 

 ty of honey. With a little assistance from 

 the producer they would quite as soon buy 

 of him as the honey-merchant, and will, on 

 the whole, give better prices than the com- 

 mission men. 



Another way is the generous advertising of 

 what you have to sell in any or all of our 

 bet- journals. Let me illustrate. 



Suppose I wished to buy 10,000 pounds of 

 clover honey. Mr. B., living in Western 

 New York, has just this amount, and he tells 

 me so in a little advertisement costing him, 

 perhaps, a dollar. How much better for him 

 and myself for me to buy of him direct than 

 for him to ship to New York and pay the 

 freight, cartage, insurance, commission, etc., 

 and then, perhaps, get no more, or but a 

 tritie more, than I would pay him, and have 

 it shipped direct to me! Thus with the in- 

 creasing number of purchases the chance of 

 getting all our produce is worth is very sen- 

 sibly increased. 



SUPERSEDURE QUEENS. 



"I should like to have a little talk with 

 you, Mr. Doolittle, about queens which are 

 about to be superseded a little time before 

 the honey hai'vest. This past spring I found 

 that some of my older queens had hard work 

 to keep up the strength of the colony. A 

 part of these colonies Would build supersed- 

 ure queen-cells, and, although not very full 

 of bees, several of them would swarm on these 

 cells unless prevented." 



"About what time in the spring did this 

 happen, Mr. Sweet?" 



"A large part of these colonies mothered 

 by these queens would endeavor to supersede 

 in May or June, and, although not by any 

 means as strong in bfees as those mothered 

 by younger queens, quite a lot would swarm 

 on these cells." 



"What course did you pursue with these 

 colonies?" 



"I had started in to control swarming. 

 Every queen that seemed able to do reason- 

 able service till the flow should come was re- 



tained, and the cells cut out. To do this I 

 handled over the brood-combs of the entire 

 apiary (for I could not tell just which ones 

 would try to supersede their queens), once 

 in ten days to two weeks." 



" What has been the result?" 



"So far the colonies with these aged queens 

 do not seem to be doing nearly as well as 

 the others." 



"Why did you not take the old quetn 

 away and let a yomng queen take her place?" 



"Because I did not consider it better to 

 requeen in that way. It was a hard time to 

 rear queens, and to have these colonies rear 

 young queens would get no more brood for 

 the flow than to keep just the old queens a 

 while longer." 



"And so you kept cutting out these cells?" 



"Yes. By frequent overhauling of the 

 brood-nests, and cutting out the cells, I was 

 able to keep down this supersedure swarm- 

 ing." 



"The same making you lots of work with 

 the prospect of poorer returns in the end?" 



"Yes." 



"Say, Bro. Sweet, did you mean to give 

 yourself away on this superseding business?" 



"No." 



"Well, if you did not you have done it all 

 the same." 



"How do you make that out?" 



"You go on and tell me how the bees 

 reared queen-cells to supersede those old 

 queens, and how they swarmed with those 

 cells, or the queens which emerged from 

 them, and then tell me that you kept all of 

 these old queens possible, because it was a 

 hard time to rear queens. Didn't you do 

 this?" 



"I guess I shall have to admit that I did." 



"Then you told me that, to have these col- 

 onies rear young queens, would get no more 

 brood for the flow than to keep just the old 

 queen a while longer. Is that right?" 



"I guess it is." 



" So you just worked and worked to keep 

 down supersedure swarming?" 



"That is right. I see you intend to give 

 me a pounding so I might just as well own 

 right up." 



"Thank you. Now let me say that the 

 queens which would have emerged from those 

 supersedure cells would have been as good 

 as any queens you ever had." 



"But there was little or no honey coming 

 in when these cells were being built and the 

 larva3 fed." 



" I do not care for that. ' ' 



"I know. But don't the bee-papers and 

 books tell us that good queens can be reared 

 only when there is plenty of honey and pol- 

 len coming in from the fields?" 



"Yes; but that is when man is forcing the 

 bees to rear queens. When the bees do this 

 of their own accord, when their old mother 

 is present right in the brood-nest with them, 

 rest assured that they make no mistake. I 

 guess I can prove this to you." 



" I hope you can; for if this is so, I will be 

 on the lookout for such cells in the future." 



"In cutting or pulling these supersedure 



