4 
GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 
JAN. 
WHAT IS A HIVE OF BEES WORTH) 
NOVICE why cannot wc sell bees 
AViL.too ? We have been selling Hives, 
Frames, Queens, and in fact almost everything 
pertaining to Bee Culture except Bees. Now 
we certainly have no objection to selling a 
whole hive, bees and all, if they are willing to 
pay what they are worth to us. Now what is 
a fair colony of Bees worth ? That is, how 
much shall I charge a friend of mine for one?" 
“Truly, the point you mention needs con- 
sideration. If our bees are valuable to us 
they would probably be so to others, and to 
those who prefer buying a colony all in work- 
ing order rather than to undertake the task 
of transferring, Italianizing, etc., it certainly 
is no more than proper that we should have 
some kind of a regular valuation for them ; 
but our queens — we dare not warrant them 
pure, how about that ?” 
“Oh, wc can make our estimate with ‘dollar 
queens’ and then if the one under consideration 
should have proved herself extra we can add a 
proper amount for desirable qualities ; Messrs. 
Shaw & Son offer tested Queens for $2,50. and 
should one have proved herself extra prolific 
besides, estimate her at from $3 to $5,00. as the 
case may be.” 
“Very well, then we have only to decide how 
much a colony’s bees, combs, and contents of 
the combs are worth, and add them to the 
value of Hive (one story) Quilt and Queen, 
and — here, give us a pencil, 
List three items, from our price list are 
worth $2.25 
Ten frames of comb, metal corners and 
fair average of worker comb, each 
75c 7.50 
Four quarts of Bees worth per quart 1.00.. .4.00 
Pollen and brood etc. contained in comb 
say 2.25 
Total $10.00 
Should tile queen prove equal to the task of 
rearing three banded workers ‘every time,’ call 
it about $18.00 and If extra prolific $20.00 per- 
haps. If in addition to all of these the hive 
should contain suffleeut bees to occupy an up- 
per story at a season when these bees would 
be available for honey gathering or Queen rear- 
ing perhaps $25.00 would not be an extrava- 
gant price, in our own locality.” 
“There, Mr Novice you have gone and con- 
sidered the “bright side” of the subject only, 
but ’tis for all the world just like you. 
If a “quart” of Italians are worth a dollar, 
how much are hybrids and even black bees 
worth ? and then suppose the queen does not 
rear three banded workers but only two, one or 
possibly bees without “ary” stripe, what is she 
worth ? and supposing that combs should be 
black, and crooked, and nearly all drone, or 
or not built half way down; or supposing our 
colony had neither honey or pollen, and that 
there wasn’t even one quart of bees, how much 
would a swarm be worth then ? Be frank now 
for even in our Apiary wc occasionally have 
Hives having some, if not all of these faults.” 
“Well, well, give us a little time and a better 
pencil and we’ll take all the ‘dark shades’ into 
consideration too, let us see, to go back to 
$16.00 and take the 'down grade,’ we shall 
have to fix a value on dollar Queens that turn 
out hybrids, and as we have repeatedly pinch- 
ed the heads off some fine ones, we will value 
them at only 25c. and as to black queens, well 
really, we never heard of selling them at all, 
until Mrs. Cotton's circular quoted them at five 
dollars each, but as we promised not to ‘com- 
ment’ we will only say that we could only con- 
sider a black queen tolerable until we could 
replace her with an Italian. Hybrids we will 
rate at 75c. per quart, and blacks at 50c., drone 
combs ( as good for extractor) at 50c., and we 
really can’t rate old dark colored combs any 
less if you women do persist in thinking new 
white ones most valuable ; if the frames are 
only partly filled, we’ll say 25c. each, and now 
(where’s that pencil again,) wc have value of a 
poor swarm of bees thus : 
Hive and Quilt $1.25 
Black Queen 00 
Ten frames of comb partly filled at 25c. . . . 2.50 
Half a ‘quart’ black bees at 50c 25 
Contents of comb 00 
$4.00 
There, how will that do?” 
“But Mr N. we don’t often have such a colo- 
ny (all bad) in a simplicity hive, it would more 
likely be found in a box hive, or what is it they 
call ’em at the south ?” 
“Gum ?” 
“Yes ‘Gum.’ Ilad’nt you better subtract$1.85 
from the four dollars for hive quilt and frames, 
and call a — the ” 
“Gum ? ’Tis really too bad that your educa- 
tion has been neglected so much that you have 
never seen one. We should not value them 
any higher than common Queens, but Mrs 
Lizzie Cot .” 
“But you are not to mention her any more, 
you know.” 
“Well our colony of Bees we mean, and at 
two dollars and fifteen cents we really think you 
cannot accuse us of not having considered the 
value of poor stocks as well as good.” 
“But do you really mean Mr N. to value the 
combs of such a colony at $1.90 and the Bees 
and Queen at only 25c.V” 
"We do; for a very small colony of Black 
Bees even in the hands of an expert would be 
very uncertain property ;but empty comb can be 
kept any length of time and we fear has never 
been properly valued. As ’tis a tedious job to 
fasten pieces of comb into frames we shall if 
possible endeavor to have all comb made in 
such frames as wc prefer in the first place, and 
if not filled out they are always ready for the 
bees to take it up right where their predecessor 
left off.” 
Before closing it may be as well to consider 
that many large sales of Italian Bee^ have been 
made at figures considerably less than the es- 
timate, for instance, Adam Grim sold 11. Wil- 
kin, we think something like 50 colonics of 
choice Italians in good movable comb hives for 
$11.00 each, in the spring of 1872. Transport- 
ation from Wisconsin to Ohio cost a little more 
than $1.00 each only. As the above was given 
from memory it may not be exact, but we think 
is not far out of the way. 
Bees like other stock or merchandise, should 
be sold at lower rates in large qns'ifities, per- 
haps it would be fair to estimate^ that Bee- 
