THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



155 



thai is putliiiy it a little too strong. Let 

 us say that she costs even as much as 50 

 worker bees, that is a mere trifle; certain- 

 ly not more than five cents. When a man 

 goes into the bu.siness of cjueen rearing, 

 and must take special pains to get cells 

 out of season, and in large numbers, spend 

 liis time in introducing the queens when 

 they hatch, go to the expense of a lot of 

 luicleus hives, buy cages, pay advertising 

 bills, postage, etc., then he must have 

 more than five cents for a (jueen; but the 

 regular honey producer, one who lets the 

 bees rear their own cjueens when they 

 need them, pays practically nothing for 

 his (|ueens; and, as I have already ex- 

 plained, he can have a plenty of them if 

 he manages right. 



Sa far as the work of the nurse-bee is 

 concerned, I am at a loss to see how a 

 nurse-bee feed any more lirvie in a large 

 than in a small colony. 



With I5ro. Root's line of reasoning I 

 can see only one point he makes, and that 

 is that a large colony can keep up the an- 

 imal heat more economically; but, as the 

 honey harvests come at a time when the 

 heat often drives the bees from their hives, 

 it strikes me that this is an argument on 

 the other side of the (jutstion. 



I am willing to admit that thisecoromy 

 of heat might be an advantage in the 

 early spring, l)utif the combs of our eight- 

 frame hive are more completely filled 

 with brood at the stason when it is most 

 ])rofitable that they be so filled, than is 

 the case if we use a larger hive, where is 

 the advantage ? 



I Ijelieve no experiments have been 

 made to determine whether, other things 

 being equal, a large colony will store 

 more honey, proportionally, than will a 

 small one, but it is my belief that it does 

 not. I doubt if there is an experienced 

 (lueeii breeder wh<j has not 1)een aston- 

 ished at the wonderful amounts of honey 

 stored by nuclei. Mr. J. h'.. Crane called 

 attention to this fact, not many months 

 ago, in the Review. I do not favor ab- 

 normally strong colonies; my preference 

 being those of moderate or medium 



strength. It does sometimes .seem to me 

 that the bees are in one another's way in 

 a colony of abnonnal strength. There is 

 room for only about so many bees to en- 

 gage in comb-building, and the conditions 

 might be such ( mind, I say )iiighf ) that 

 more honey could be gathered than the 

 comb builders could make room for. Of 

 course, empty combs would remedy this 

 condition, and I am using this hypothe- 

 sis simply as an illustration. 



We ought to have some experiments 

 something like this: When two swarms 

 unite in the air, hive one-third of the bees 

 in one hive and two-thirds in another 

 hive, giving both a queen. Someof these 

 swarms should be hived on combs, some 

 on foundation and some on starters, and 

 results carefully noted. 



Honey Quotations. 



The following rules for gr;uliiig houey were 

 adop'fd by tlie North Aiiu-ricaii Bee Keepers' 

 Association, at its Washiniiton meeting, and, bo 

 far as possi hie, quotations are made according 

 to these rules. 



F.-VNOY.— \11 sections to 1>(> well filled; ccmil s 

 traight, of even thickness, and linidy attached 

 to all four sides; both wood and conibunsoiled 

 by travel-stain, or otherwise; all the colls sealed 

 except the row of cells next the wood. 



No. 1.— .\11 sections well filled, but combs un- 

 even or crooked, detached, at the btjtt(jm, or 

 with but few cells unsealed; both wood and 

 comb unsoiled by travel stain or otherwise. 



In addition to this the honey is to be classified 

 according to color, using the terms white, amber 

 and dark. That is, there will be " fancy white," 

 No. 1,. dark," etc. 



KANSAvS CITY.— We quote as follows : Fancy 

 white, 14; No. i white, 13: fancy amber, i2'4; No. 

 I amber, 12; fancy dark, 11; No. i dark, 10; white 

 extracted 6',; amber, 6; dark, .s'/i; beeswax, 22. 

 C. C. CI^KMON.S CO., 



Mar. 17. 423 Walnut .St., Kansas City, Mo. 



CI.,1%VKI..\NI>, O.— White honey is in goodde 

 mand, and the supply very light. Dark grades' 

 are moving slowly. We quote as follows: Fancy 

 white, 13 to 14; No. 1. white, 12 to 13; fancy amber, 

 10 to ii;'No. I. amber, 9 to 10; fancy dark, 7 to 8; 

 White, e.xtracted, 7 to 7'/2 



A. B. WII.I.IAM.S & CO. 



Mar. 25. 80 ifc 82 Broadway, Cleveland, oliio. 



BUFFAI<0, N. Y. — .So far as we have noticed 

 there is no strictly fancy i-lb. comb honey in our 

 market. It would bring about 12 cents. Other 

 grades range from m to '1 cents and re<|uire more 

 or less pushing. No extracted here to speak of. 

 Fancy beeswax wanted at 2S to 30 cents. 

 B.\T TKKSON & CO. 

 Mar. 17. 167 & 169 Scott St., Buffalo, N. Y. 



