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94 



SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



and a large number of two -frame nu- 

 clei mating colonies, with an expert 

 queen breeder in charge; and one api- 

 ary of Banat bees containing thirty- 

 six colonies, five imported . breeding 

 queens and myself in charge of rear- 

 ing queens. I have filled all retail or- 

 ders received except five; they con- 

 tained the directions "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 whole- 

 sale orders for Golden Italian queens 

 at exacty what I paid my man for 

 rearing the queens, so the question of 

 profit or loss will not take such or- 

 ders into consideration. I also leave 

 out of account the cost of rearing the 

 Golden Italian queens which were sent 

 out at retail by taking the cost from 

 the total received. And I have left as 

 a result of the season of 1907 for 

 Banat and Golden Italian queens sold 

 through the advertisement referred to 

 $146. I spent one-half day each week 

 answering letters, mailing queens, 

 grafting cells, etc., during the queen 

 season. I answered 241 letters. My 

 expenses were $36.68 for advertising; 

 $9 for postage on letters and queens; 

 $4 for cages; $31 for imported breed- 

 ing queens. About two-thirds of this 

 latter item, I think, should properly 

 be credited to this year's account, 

 leavink the queens' values stand not 

 as breeding queens but as heads of 

 colonies for another season. Making 

 a total expense for the season of $72. 

 And leaving as pay for the season's 

 work and investment about $74. And 

 now you will say, "Why, it did pay, 

 after all. It paid 100 per cent." But 

 wait a little. I have used eighteen 

 Banat colonies and worked about six 

 full days. On the other eighteen 

 Banat colonies I have put about a 

 day's work altogether, and have taken 

 off $90 worth of honey. I have divid- 

 ed these eighteen colonies, making 

 eighteen new colonies, which are 

 worth in the market at least $5 each 

 for bees alone. If they were Italian 

 bees they would be w^orth $2 each 

 without the hive, making $36; The 

 average bee-keeper has Italian bees, 

 and so we will count the profit from 

 that standpoint. Ninety dollars for 

 honey and $36 for increase make $126 

 profit from eighteen colonies by work- 

 ing them for honey. If I had not been 

 in the queen business, and had worked 

 the whole Banat yard for honey, I 



would have saved five days' work and 

 earned $52 more. And I ask again, 

 does it pay to raise queens at present 

 prices? And the answer is very dis- 

 tinctly uttered when I say "It does 

 not pay in dollars and cents." 



And before I close let me set forth 

 the claim that queens are worth very 

 much more than the present prevail- 

 ing prices. At present it is cheaper to 

 buy queens in the spring than to win- 

 ter colonies, in Pennsylvania. Take 

 as an experiment, ten colonies in the 

 fall averaging thirty pounds of honey 

 each. That honey will sell in any 

 store at 10c a pound as chunk honey 

 in the very poorest season; this year 

 it sells readily at 15 cents. 



Give the bees from nine colonies to 

 some queen breeder, he will be very 

 grateful for them, and sell the 270 

 pounds of honey for $27. Next May 

 when your one colony is very strong, 

 nine pure bred Italian queens for 

 $6.75, and give them to the new colo- 

 nies. And when the August honey 

 flow comes on you will have ten col- 

 onies that will gather you more honey 

 than all you could have wintered over 

 out of the ten, together with the 

 swarms that they might have thrown 

 out; and in addition to that you will 

 have made $20.25 by buying your 

 queens in the spring instead of trying 

 to winter your colonies. Of course, I 

 would not make my increase in just 

 that way, but it serves for the illus- 

 tration, and proves that queens are 

 worth very much more than the pres- 

 ent prevailing prices. One hundred 

 colonies treated in the same way 

 would increase a man's profits $202.50 

 a year. Where the main honey flow 

 is earlier in the season, so large an 

 increase in colonies could not be 

 made. 



The President called upon Mr. Sat- 

 terthwait. Assistant State Zoologist of 

 Pennsylvania, to read his paper on 

 "Insect Enemies of the Honey Bees." 



Mr. Satterthwait: Mr. President: 

 Having been honored with a place on 

 the program at this, the annual ses- 

 sion of your noble association — the 

 admiration of Europe, — I have chosen 

 to speak of the enemies of the honey- 

 bee. If by outlining to you the life- 

 histories of these species as far as I 

 have been able to find recorded, I shall 

 draw from you some original observa- 

 tions on the less known species or ad- 

 ditional controlling methods for any 

 of them I shall feel well repaid. 



