BEE KEEPING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 103 



PRICES OF BEES. 



Figured on a basis of $5 a colony, which is an exceedingly low 

 average price, the total sales reported for 1906 would have amounted 

 to $5,135; at $6 per colony they would have amounted to $6,162, 

 which more justly represents transactions. Colonies of bees sell as 

 low as $2, or, if they are in a nail keg or soap box, for $2.50 ; at about 

 $3 if in a regular box hive; and from $4 to $10, according to the race, 

 strength, and season, if in frame hives of standard patterns ; a usual 

 price is $6. The customer sometimes furnishes an empty hive to the 

 bee keeper, in which to hive a swarm. Such swarms bring about $3. 



THE QUEEN TRADE. 



Besides a trade in colonies of bees, there are several persons in- 

 terested in commercial queen rearing. All but three of these, how- 

 ever, do a relatively local business. On account of late and cold 

 springs, Massachusetts is handicapped in producing early queens for 

 market which shall compete with those raised in the South. The 

 prices prevailing throughout the country — 75 cents, $1, and up — are 

 charged for queens produced in Massachusetts. It is difficult to 

 calculate just how many queens are reared for sale, but an estimate 

 of 500 may not be far from correct. 



EITEMIES. 



The only enemy which is formidable in all parts of the State, but 

 which is not detrimental to progressive bee men, is the bee moth, 

 Galleria mellonella L. This insect, however, has been credited by 

 all the early apiarists, Langstroth included, with devastating, crip- 

 pling, and practically annihilating the bee-keeping interests through- 

 out New England. According to Edmund Smithy it first took hold 

 in eastern Massachusetts about 1800. In 1805 it reached Connecticut. 

 Thence it spread westward. Writers — as, for instance, Smith — were 

 formerly inclined to consider the moth as a formidable enemy. Smith 

 says : " For a time, wherever it appeared it nearly destroyed the bees. 

 At first it was more fatal than it has been since." The inroads of the 

 moth led to all sorts of claptrap devices in the form of "patent 

 hives " to protect the bees from the pest. But there is serious doubt, 

 in view of recent discoveries of the relation of moths and bee disease, 

 if this historical disaster was really due to the moth. There is good 

 reason to believe moths were secondary, while disease, not then under- 

 stood, was primary. This matter is more fully discussed in a former 



Smith, Edmund, Chairman. 1864. Bee Culture, Essex. From the report 

 of the Committee on Bread and Honey. Abstract of the returns of the agri- 

 cultural societies of Massachusetts. Bound together with Eleventh Annual 

 Beport of Secretary of Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, pp. 221-229. 



