1919 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



263 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



=3 Established by Samuel Wagner in 1861 G= 



The oldest Bee Journal in the English language. Consolidated with The 

 National Bee Journal in 1874. 



Published monthly at Hamilton, Illinois. 



Entered as second-class matter at the postoffice at Hamilton, Illinois. 



Subscription Rates— In the United States and THE STAFF 



Mexico, $1 per year; three years, $2.50; five c p D FHitor 



years, $4. Canadian postage 15 cents, and °- r ' " ADANT Editor 



other foreign countries 25 cents extra, per Frank C. Pellett Associate Editor 



year- C. C. Miller Questions Department 



All subscriptions are stopped at expiration. Date . 



of expiration is printed on wrapper label. Maurice G Dadant Business Manager 



(Copyright 1919, by C. P. Dadant.) 



THE EDITOR'S VIEWPOINT 



Preparation for Winter 



Hardly seems appropriate to urge 

 now the preparation of colonies for 

 winter. But good, vigorous queens 

 soon will mean a strong lot of bees 

 to start in the winter. 



If there is a honey dearth and bees 

 run short it may be necessary to feed 

 to keep up breeding or even the best 

 queen will fail to fill the hive with 

 plenty of bees for winter. 



Remember that the three requisites 

 for successful wintering are plenty 

 of good stores, a large force of young 

 bees, and sufficient protection. We 

 can give the last one of these later 

 on, but the first two must be in prep- 

 aration before fall comes. 



Now is the Time to Requeen 



It is always time to requeen if 

 queens are available, and if your col- 

 onies are deteriorating on account of 

 lack of new stock. 



But in the spring, when conditions 

 would be most favorable for observ- 

 ing the colonies and finding the 

 worthless or poor queens, it is not al- 

 ways possible to get the queens from 

 the breeders in the South, and 

 the danger of loss in the mails is 

 greater. 



For these reasons probably a large 

 proportion of beekeepers requeen in 

 the summer. It is best, of course, If 

 possible, to keep close tab on your 

 colonies as to honey-gathering quali- 

 ties, disease-resistance, gentleness, 

 etc., and then breed from your best 

 stock by one of the best methods. 



But many otherwise good beekeep- 

 ers keep no accurate tab on individ- 

 ual colonies, and many more do not 

 care to enter upon queen-raising. 

 These may profitably requeen by buy- 

 ing their stock. 



How old should a queen be before 



she ought to be replaced? Usually 

 not over two years old. Most large 

 beekeepers agree that a queen after 

 she has passed her second season of 

 prolific laying is apt to decline, and 

 either the next fall or spring become 

 worthless. Nor can she be judged by 

 the work she is doing now, what she 

 will do in three weeks from now, or 

 two months. 



We would advise, therefore, gen- 

 eral requeening every two years un- 

 less it is desired to keep the best 

 stock for experiment or for breeding 

 purposes, and this is especially true 

 for the beekeeper who does not keep 

 accurate records. 



Queen Breeders Catching Up 



After one of the wettest springs, a 

 condition which is not conducive to 

 best results in getting out capacity 

 orders on time, the queen breeders 

 are at last catching up on orders. 



Many reliable breeders have had to 

 disappoint customers simply because 

 they took orders up to their capacity 

 and found themselves at the last mo- 

 ment unable to fill such in time on 

 account of the weather. 



Watch for Moths in 

 Extracting Combs 



The careful beekeeper will not let 

 the moths infest brood-combs on 

 which the bees have died during the 

 winter. He will either place these in 

 the care of a strong colony, make di- 

 vides into them, or thoroughly fumi- 

 gate to kill the moths. 



He is apt, however, to rely on the 

 cold winter having destroyed all 

 moth in his extracting house and con- 

 sider his supers immune. Usually 

 they are. But we must be prepared 

 for the unusual. 



Our suggestion is that such combs 



as are not used on the hives before 

 midsummer, owing to shortage of 

 crop, be gone over every two weeks 

 to make sure moths have not made 

 their appearance. 



"An ounce of prevention is worth 

 a pound of cure." A little disulphide 

 of carbon on a rag on the top of each 

 tier, carefully covered, is sufficient. 



An Anzac in Hamilton 



A bright young Australian, John H. 

 Rosser, from near Brisbane, passed 

 through Hamilton recently on a visit. 

 He is 26 years old, served in a regi- 

 ment of Australians at Le Cateau, and 

 came to America on his way home. 

 He is an active beekeeper, has been a 

 subscriber of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal for 10 years and concluded to 

 make a tour of the world while away 

 from his native country. He reached 

 Europe through Egypt, the Mediter- 

 ranean and Italy; then, after the 

 armistice, went to England. There he 

 embarked for the United States. In 

 New York he bought a motor cycle 

 and started westward, visiting bee- 

 keepers on the way. He left us June 

 21 for Des Moines. From there he 

 went to Denver, thence to San Fran- 

 cisco, where he expects to sail on 

 August 12 for his home country, after 

 visiting Hawaii. He will reach home 

 just in time for their spring work, 

 which begins in September. That 

 month is to them the same as March 

 is to us, with the only difference that 

 they live in a warm country with but 

 light frosts in the coldest July 

 weather. Being at the antipodes, they 

 have winter while we have summer. 



Honey Prices 



I really believe honey prices for the 

 coming winter are worthy of an 

 editorial. 



Our untiring friend, Dr. Bonney, 

 who still seems to have the eagerness 

 of the cowboy that he used to be, 

 writes us, enclosing printed quota- 

 tions of the Montgomery-Ward Co., 

 at Chicago. These quotations offer 

 honey in 60-pound cans at $16.25 and 

 in gallon cans at $3.70. They also offer 

 maple sugar at 42 cents the single 

 pound. Here is the doctor's letter: 

 My Dear Mr. Dadant : 



I attach clippings from a catalog 

 "of July-August" just at hand from 

 Montgomery, Ward & Co, and the 

 customer pays the tariff. I am now 

 inclined to start prices at 25c a pound 

 locally, and 30c by parcel post. That 

 would mean $3.60 the gallon, cheaper 

 by 10c than the mail order house list, 

 but really less by nearly 3c a pound, 

 with the postage paid. 



Might I suggest that you touch on 

 this editorially, using the slip about 



