ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS ASSOCIATION 



/J 



successful in honey-production, are to- 

 tally unfit for queen-breeding. 



Many persons,- successful as honey- 

 producers, and also familiar with the 

 conditions generally with the interior of 

 the hives at all times, become enthused 

 at seeing the multitude of young queens 

 hatching about the swarming period, 

 and conceive the idea that if they could 

 only get all these young queens mated, 

 and sell them at a dollar each, (by ad- 

 vertising a little), they would see the 

 dollars roll in, while the bees were wait- 

 ing for a crop of honey! 



There is only one reason why a per- 

 son should embark in the queen-busi- 

 ness in a commercial way, and that is 

 environment, coupled with a natural 

 love for the business. 



By environment, we mean where a 

 person is so situated that he can not 

 secure a marketable product of honey 

 from his locality, or where the flow of 

 nectar is slow and of long duration, so 

 that the bees use the greater portion 

 of the season in swarming, or as was 

 the case with myself in a former local- 

 ity where at times the honey was so 

 bitter that it was impossible to dispose 

 of it on any market. 



Where the above conditions exist we 

 can readily see where the queen-breeder 

 might do well, while the honey-producer 

 might have a pronounced failure. 



On the other hand, any locality that 

 has short, heavy flows, one or more 

 during the season, and between these 

 flows comparative idleness of the bees, 

 these conditions would be much better 

 for the honey-producer rather than the 

 commercial queen-breeder. 



The best possible condition, therefore, 

 for the queen-breeder is one long-con- 

 tinued, slow flow of nectar throughout 

 the entire season. 



In my first years of producing honey, 

 for the market, away back in the '8o's, 

 I lived in a locality that sometimes 

 yielded bitter honey; this flow of bitter 

 honey would usually come late ni the 

 season, after the white honey crop had 

 been gathered. Some seasons, however, 

 the late summer rains would bring the 

 flow earlier, and the bees would store it 

 right along with the white honey. This 

 would spoil all for market. I remem- 

 ber one winter, when my honey-house 

 floor gave way because of the weight 

 of bitter honey stored for use in mak- 

 ing increase the following season, be- 

 fore the busy season had arrived, I had 



figured out that if this bitter honey 

 was to continue to be a product of my 

 apiary, I would better establish some 

 better form of disposing of it than sim- 

 ply making increase of bees by the use 

 of this honey. So before spring I had 

 already determined that it would be 

 better to turn the product of the apiary 

 to first-class Italian queens rather than 

 bitter honey. 



Since changing locality, moving 700 

 miles further south, conditions and 



W. 11. Laws. 



honey-flow have wonderfully changed, 

 and possibly had I not been in the busi- 

 ness I would not be now known as a 

 commercial queen-breeder. 



My present locality, white almost an 

 ideal one for the rearing of early 

 queens, is also one that is ideal for an 

 early white honey crop, providing 

 weather conditions are favorable, which, 

 unfortunateh", have been against us for 

 the past two seasons. 



Then there are other features of the 

 business that are to be taken into con- 

 sideration — the ability of the breeder to 

 rear good queens, and have them to 

 ship promptly at all times, in and out of 

 season, his aptness and fitness to make 

 and hold a market, by prompt and 



