(Be«®e®e®®®®®®®««®««®®®®®e«®®®®®®®®®®®®®®e®e«e®( 



Entered at the PoBt-Offlce at Chicago as Second-Class Mail-Matter. 

 PublisUed Weekly a.t |il.OO a Year by Oeorge W. York <& Co., 3:t4 l>earborn i>it. 



QBORaB W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ELL, JUNE 2, 1904. 



Vol, XLIV— No, 22, 





Editorial Comments 





General Advertising of Honey. 



Oq page 339 something was said about the desirability of some 

 general advertising of honey by the National Association. Written 

 probably about the same time, appears in the Bee-Keepers' Review an 

 editorial on the same subject. Editor Hutchinson thinlcs it would be 

 a good thing to do a lot of judicious advertising in the magazines, and 

 says : 



" It seems to me that there is no way in which the National could 

 spend a few hundred dollars with more benefit to its members than in 

 doing some advertising in a way that will help its members to sell 

 their honey at good prices." 



Help Medium Rather than Weakest Colonies. 



When a colony has four or five frames of brood well filled, it is in 

 condition for rapid development, while a colony with only two or three 

 frames partly filled will remain at a stand-still till hot weather comes. 

 The beginner may think that his first care should be to help the weak- 

 est. Not so; let the little ones wait; a frame of hatching brood may 

 be given to a colony with three frames well filled with brood, and it 

 will not be long till that colony will be able to help others ; whereas 

 the same brood given to one of the weakest colonies would still leave 

 that weakling a long time in becoming strong enough to help others. 



In general, draw from colonies having five or more Langstroth 

 frames of brood, leaving them with four, distributing this brood 

 among the strongest colonies that have less than foar frames of 

 brood. When there are no longer any stronger ones to help, it will be 

 time enough to help the very weakest. 



How Many Sections to Prepare for Next Crop. 



The belief seems to be on the increase that it is wise to have ready 

 before the beginning of the harvest a sufficient number of supers 

 ready to put on the hives bo that there shall be no danger of being 

 caught lacking when the flow is on. But the inexperienced ber- 

 keeper is at a loss to know how many supers of sections that really 

 means. It is better to be on the safe side, having too many rather 

 than too few. Indeed, it is impossible to be on the safe side unless 

 one provides most years more than enough. Fortunately, those left 

 over from one year will be all right to use another year. But now for 

 a definite answer to the question, " How many supers of sections shall 

 I have ready?" 



If you have been in the business a number of years, prepare us 

 many supers of sections as will be necessary if t*e harvest is as gi>'"l 

 as the best year you ever had, and then one extra super for each oni- 

 ony besides. (Experience will teach you that you will always have 

 some sections unoccupied at the close of the season, unless you com 

 bine extracted with comt)-honey production.) 



But you say, " 1 haven't been in the business a number of years ' 

 Sure enough. Well, then, find out the biggest yield any one else h - 

 had in your vicinity, and work on that basis. If you can not hu 



the experience of any one else as a basis, you might count on about 

 100 sections for each colony as your biggest prospect. In that case, if 

 you have 24 sections in a super, you would need 4 supers per colony 

 for the crop, with one super for the remaining empty sections ; in 

 other words, you would have .5 supers ready for each colony. 



If you are fortunate enough to have a year in which you will run 

 short after providing 5 supers per colony, then make preparations ac- 

 cordingly in succeeding years. 



Trying Spring for Bees and Bee-Keepers. 



A number of cold days that puts some of the weakling colonies 

 out of the race; then a day or more of summer that makes the bee- 

 keeper congratulate himself that all trouble is past, only to be followed 

 by another cold spell. But the Fourth of July is ahead, and warm 

 weather can't keep off always. 



Asbestos Lining for Hives. 



In the British Bee Journal favorable mention is made of asbestos 

 cloth or paper to be used as a lining for hives, with a view to heat it 

 red hot for the sake of disinfecting it in foul-brood cases. In this 

 country there seems to be a growing belief thai foul-broody hives may 

 be used without disinfecting. Certainly it can do no harm to disin- 

 fect. 



Light vs. Dark Honey in England. 



At a conversazione of the British Bee-Keepers' Association, Col. 

 Walker said he was " in full accord with Mr. Cowan, Mr. Carr, and 

 most other experienced judges when they said that light honey had 

 the most delicate flavor. There would always be some who liked a 

 strong flavor, such as was found in darker honeys; but whatever 

 might be said, the light-colored honey always 'came out on the top,' 

 and exhibitors must reconcile themselves to facts." 



Italian Bees vs. Blacks. 



In this country Italians and their crosses are almost universally 

 preferred to blacks. In Europe and in England there are many who 

 prefer the blacks. In a late number of the British Bee Journal, how- 

 ever, Mr. Sladen says : 



In my own apiary (a very exposed one) the crossed bees have 

 proved superior to blacks in many ways. They have dwindled less in 

 the spring, shown better honey-gathering results, and, tested in a 

 badly-diseased apiary in Ireland, they were found to be better able to 

 resist foul brood. In many apiaries iu America Italians only are kept 

 and bred, and they are preferred to the crossed bees. 



Can the Swarming Trait Be Bred Out? 



It has been held by some thatcenturies would be required to make 

 any appreciable difference in the tendency to swarming, while others 

 hold a more optimistic view. F. W. L. Sladen says in the British 

 Bee Journal : 



" By breeding queens from colonies that do not swarm we may 

 reduce the swarming tendency. In the writer's experience, Italian 

 queens that have been bred for many generations in this way show 

 marlted disinclination to swarm compared with ordinary blaek bees." 



The fact that such important resu't.s have been obtained in cattle- 

 breeding, for instance, in a very few years, makes one hopeful as to 



