1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1445 



brooding, the brood-chamber arranged so the 

 beea can get to the honey, and a good young 

 queen, they will winter outside in better con- 

 dition than in the cellar. I put one-inch 

 blocks between the brood- chamber of one 

 colony and the bottom-board, so the wind 

 went between the bottom and frames, and 

 the hive is full of bees to-day. I let them 

 have 19 lbs. of honey, as nearly as I could 

 weigh it. Understand, I had an extra case 

 to the bottom of the hive, and four thick- 

 nesses of carpet and one of burlap, and had 

 one frame on one side of the hive with car- 

 pet instead of honey or comb. The fra,me 

 of carpet collects the dampness. I wintered 

 these on 7 brood- frames of honey and dry 

 comb, 16 inches from ground. 



You may think this is a queer way, but it 

 works well. Another thing, I give all of 

 them a large entrance in winter, just so mice 

 can not get through. I have four colonies 

 up from the ground 25 to 28 ft., and they 

 have the same entrance they had all summer, 

 and larger colonies can not be found to-day 

 in an eight-frame hive and no outside case 

 on them. 



Noi-th Tonawanda, N. Y. 



BEE-TREE HUNTING. 



Is it Necessary to Cut the Trees? a Reply 

 to John R. Lockard. 



BY RALPH F. FISHER. 



Friend Lockard, p. 322, March 1, made un- 

 favorable mention of the sulphur (necessari- 

 ly used in my practice of extracting bees and 

 honey from trees, etc.), as being in every 

 way primitive, and that conscience should 

 prevent any further destruction by its fumes. 



Now, I use sulphur because it is wise to do 

 so in following my instructions, p. 998. A 

 fully developed Italian queen is introduced 

 into a one-frame nucleus; and as I wish the 

 results to be all that is desired it would be 

 downright foolishness to allow the queen in- 

 side the tree one slim chance of meeting her 

 rival outside. 



Here 1 will say the queen inside the tree is 

 not likely to come out at any time, as she 

 generally clusters with the last bees of the 

 colony, and gradually starves to death. 

 However, if the hole or entrance in said tree 

 is next the starving queen and brood, and 

 the cluster already trapped outside has gone 

 to work in the furnished hive, it is very prob- 

 able the fanning bees before the hive entrance 

 and next to the Porter escape will entice the 

 queen inside to join those outside. This may 

 happen; and as a meeting with the Italian 

 queen is to be avoided, sulphur is used to 

 prevent this very thing; but if no distinction 

 is to be made between the two queens, sul- 

 phur can be dispensed with. As she will 

 not come out in any case so long as there is 

 hatching brood present, the tree may be left 

 fully two weeks after attaching the escape. 



It is not necessary to wait five or six weeks, 

 as mentioned in my previous article, because 



the brood will be hatched into young bees in 

 ten to fifteen days; but as I have always had 

 the time I was never in a hurry. 



Friend Lockard considers his experiences 

 rather successful with a fair profit, yet the 

 method I use will give him twice the honey 

 and three times the bees, with one-tenth the 

 trouble in like circumstances. 



Great Meadows, N. J. 



[Mr. Fisher is the man who showed how 

 to get bees out of a house or bee- tree with- 

 out cutting the tree. We can scarcely see 

 how there could be any thing about the 

 method that would indicate cruelty to an- 

 imals.— Ed.] 



DOES IT PAY TO RAISE QUEENS TO 

 SELL ? 



BY N. E. CLEAVER. 



Yes, it pays if you are willing to accept the 

 pleasure of an occupation as the pay for 

 your labor in it. It reminds one of the 

 prayer that is often heard in the churches, 

 that the Lord will give the faithful pastor 

 many souls for his hire. But it takes money 

 to live on. And if the queen business is to 

 be considered from the standpoint of dollars 

 and cents, then I think I can prove conclu- 

 sively that it does not pay. I have kept ac- 

 curate accounts. I have advertised by "key 

 advertising," and so know absolutely what 

 results have come from certain investments. 

 My advertisement in one paper has brought 

 me far better results than any other, and so 

 I will consider only the results from that 

 source. My equipment was ample — one api- 

 ary of golden Italian bees containing about 

 seventy colonies, with an expert queen- breed- 

 er in charge; one apiary of Banat bees con- 

 taining 36 colonies; 5 imported breeding- 

 queens, and myself in charge of rearing the 

 queens. I have tilled all retail orders re- 

 ceived except five; they contained the direc- 

 tions " please send by return mail." They 

 came at a time when I was behind with the 

 orders, and so the money was returned to 

 the senders. I filled several large wholesale 

 orders for golden Italian queens at exactly 

 what I paid my man for rearing the queens, 

 so the qviestion of profit or loss will not take 

 such orders into consideration. I also leave 

 out of the account the cost of rearing the 

 golden Italian queens which were sent out 

 at retail, by taking that cost from the total 

 received; and I have left, as the result for the 

 season of 1V*07, for Banat and golden Italian 

 queens, sold at retail through my advertise- 

 ment in that one paper, $146. I spent half a 

 day each week answering letters, mailing 

 queens, grafting cells, etc. ; during the queen 

 season I answered 241 letters. My expenses 

 for advertising were $88.68; $9.00 for postage 

 on letters and queens; $4.00 for cages; $31.00 

 for imported breeding-queens. About two- 

 thirds of this latter item, I think, should 

 properly be credited to the present account, 

 making a total expense for the season of 



