1348 



GLEANINGS IN BEP: CULTURE. 



Oct. 1 



of it. Some of my 1904 queens did excellent 

 work, and you couldn't tell from their ap- 

 pearance whether they were one year old or 

 three. If I had allowed the bees to supersede 

 them, don't you believe it would have been 

 favoring longevity in their successors? As 

 Mr. Beuhne, an Australian bee-keeper, says, 

 " We can't have short-lived queens and long- 

 lived workers." [While some more than 

 three-year-old queens are better than some 

 yearlings, is it not true that the average of 

 those more than two years old should be re- 

 placed by younger queens? It is a well-rec- 

 ognized "fact in the poultry business that it 

 does not pay to keep a hen after the first year. 

 She does her best work in egg-laying the first 

 season. The same holds true to a certain ex- 

 tent with queens. While admitting this, we 

 can not deny that some three-year-old queens 

 are worth keeping for honey alone, another 

 year. Conversely, it is true that many three- 

 months-old queens ought to have their heads 

 pinched. The fact is, the practical producer 

 must use judgment in applying the rule of 

 replacing his queens every two years. — Ed.] 



Those two queens in the same hive- in 

 the out-apiary. One was a 1904 queen with 

 all wings clipped; the other a 1905 queen 

 with wings clipped on one side. August 19 

 they were put into a hive in the same cage, 

 with a splint in the candy. Aug. 24 the 1905 

 queen was out, laying; the 1904 queen still in 

 cage. Let 1904 out on comb. Aug. 27, saw 

 1904, but could not find 1905, nor could I 

 find 1905 at any time since. Now, was that 

 not strange that the younger queen should 

 be rejected, especially after being first ac- 

 cepted? [This seems to support the old rule 

 that, of two normal queens in one colony, 

 one will be missing in a short time — not be- 

 cause the bees put one out of business, but 

 because there was a duel between the two 

 queens, and one was killed. Perhaps the 

 1904 was the more vigorous, and hence the 

 victor.— Ed.] 



So far I had experimented with old queens 

 — thought I'd try young ones. I put in the 

 same cage two that had been laying two or 

 three days. Pretty soon they showed fight, 

 and I separated them. It might have been 

 different if each had been in a separate cage. 

 [We are getting a little light. Perhaps old 

 queens won't fight when young ones will. 

 We should like to hear from others on this 

 point. —Ed.] 



Prof. Cook, I don't see but you and I are 

 pretty nearly agreed on hive-entrances and 

 openings for ventilation. You believe in an 

 upper opening for ventilation sometimes, p. 

 1076, and I believe the same, only to a great- 

 er degree. You speak on that page as if I 

 advocated making two regular entrances to 

 be used by the bees. Look again at Straws, 

 p. 755, and you will see that in some way 

 you have misread. I there oljjected to your 

 saying, when speaking of ventilation, p. 312, 

 "It is, without doubt, best to have only the 

 one opening to the hive." But I don't have 

 two entrances. Almost never do the bees 

 use an entrance any other than the regular 



entrance; and my bees don't glue shut the 

 ventilating openings. In 1000 cases I never 

 knew one so closed unless too narrow for a 

 bee to pass, and a bee will always glue a 

 crack it can't get through. Even if they al- 

 ways tried to glue up the openings, I would 

 not consider that conclusive against such 

 openings. Closing them helps toward swarm- 

 ing. The bees favor swarming. I don't. 



I wonder if you wouldn't like better the 

 plan of sliding the upper story backward to 

 make an opening instead of your plan of 

 raising the upper story, which, by increasing 

 space, favors burr-comlDS. 



Something out of whack about quotations 

 in " Honey Markets. " A difference of 6 or 8 

 cents a pound between places so near togeth- 

 er, and a higher quotation in Frisco than 

 New York don't look right. Fact is, the dic- 

 tum of those men who make quotations has 

 almost every thing to do with settling the 

 price, and those 16-cent men are not doing 

 the square thing by us producers. With the 

 advance in prices in general, and a shortage 

 in the supply, any thing like 16 cents for 

 comb honey is out of all reason. Talk about 

 honey being a luxury, and any thing more 

 than 16 cents being prohibitive! The fact is, 

 honey is an economical article of food, and 

 with our pure-food laws there's no reason 

 why it may not take its proper place as a 

 staple article — at 25 cents much cheaper than 

 butter, even if you call it a luxury. Years 

 ago 25 or 30 cents was not a prohibitive price, 

 and it wouldn't be now. Luxuries are cut 

 out when pinching hard times come, but 

 times are not pinching. Never, perhaps, was 

 there a time when people in general were 

 more able to indulge in luxuries than now— 

 never more willing, and they're willing to 

 pay the price. The whole thing is, that a 

 few men set the pace and we producers stand 

 it. Gentlemen who do the quoting, please 

 give us a square deal. [That's right, doctor. 

 These men mean to give us a square deal; 

 but they do not appreciate the fact that the 

 crop is very short; that fruit is scarce; that 

 adulterated honey can not pull down the 

 price of good honey as formerly. There 

 has been a marked advance in all food prod- 

 ucts except honey. While it has advanced 

 in some markets to a fair price it has made 

 only a slight gain in others. This is not as it 

 should be. — Ed.] 



Mr. Geo. W. Bercaw, formerly of Ohio, 

 but now a resident of California, paid The 

 A. I. Root Co.'s factory and Gleanings of- 

 fice a friendly visit in the early part of Sep- 

 tember. Mr. Bercaw is the proprietor of the 

 Aliso apiaries at El Toro, Cal., and reports 

 the honey crop on the coast as somewhat 

 short, but that in other respects conditions 

 wex'e good on the Pacific Slope. Now that 

 prices are higher, the western bee-keepers, 

 when they do get a good crop, will make a 

 small fortune, and they ought to after wait- 

 ing so long. 



