248 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



April 18, 1901. 



merely, but operative in the strictest sense of the term ; 

 and that the only queens elig-ible for consideration at this 

 stage of this regularly organized meeting of Canadian and 

 American bee-keepers, are the queens of our colonies, and 

 mothers of our most wonderful pets — the honey-bees. 



The practical man, contemplating- the advisability of 

 entering upon any line of work or business, carefully stud- 

 ies the situation from every point of view, and, when fully 

 convinced of its desirability as a lucrative venture, com- 

 plies most assiduously with all the conditions necessary to 

 the complete success of the undertaking. 



That all business men are not thus thoro in calculation 

 and execution, goes without saying, and it is also perhaps 

 safe to infer that bee-keepers as a class are not without 

 their failings as well. 



But every bee-keeper knows, or thinks he knows, all 

 about queens, and yet it would seem as if some— perhaps 

 too many — bee-keepers are satisfied by merely knowing 

 that a queen is in the hive, without any consideration as to 

 her qualifications or ability for the duty which she is to 

 perform. 



The splendid hives and comb foundations of the day 

 are certainly a boon which every true bee-keeper appreci- 

 ates, but the great center on which success most largely 

 depends—that •' center " at which no " master" bee-keeper 

 can err— is in securing "the good queen " for every colony. 



What do I mean by " the good queen ?" By the use of 

 the term " good queen " I mean the queen that will do the 

 largest amount of work in a given time. 



The late L,orenzo Lorain Langstroth, who has been 

 justly styled the Father of American Apiculture, describes 

 a good queen in that marvelous work of his on " The 

 Honey-Bee," as one that will lay 3,500 eggs per day for sev- 

 eral weeks in succession during'the breeding season. 



What bee-keeper of any considerable experience has 

 not had occasion to note the difference between good, 

 medium, and poor queens ? The colony with but a handful 

 of bees, so to speak, gaining so rapidly in numerical 

 strength as in some cases to exceed the more populous col- 

 ony in the next hive in the actual amount of surplus honey 

 stored? Thus demonstrating that the good queen was iii 

 the colony which had wintered poorly, whereas the well- 

 favored colony had only a medium or poor queen. 



Dzierzon, the great German bee-keeper and scientist, 

 says, " Queens differ much as to the degree of their fer- 

 tility." 



Mr. Langstroth notes an observation made while trans- 

 ferring bees, by counting the eggs dropt on a black cloth in 

 40 minutes by the queens of four different colonies. The 

 first queen dropt but one egg, the second, 12 , the third, 

 18, and the fourth 20 eggs, in the stated time. This obser- 

 . vation was made in the middle of April, and on July ISth 

 the colony of the first queen was very poor, the second was 

 of average strength, and both the others were very strong. 

 Now let us apply the result of this observation to prac- 

 tice and see how it would figure out : 



Take, for instance, an apiary of 100 colonies, the aver- 

 age annual yield of which is, say, 80 pounds of extracted 

 honey per colony. Let us suppose that 25 of the 100 colo- 

 nies are poor, 50 average, and 25 strong, and then try to 

 solve the problem as to how the average yield of 80 pounds 

 per colony is obtained. The poor colonies will gather 

 about half as much surplus honey as the 50 of average 

 strength, or say 40 pounds each ; then in order to get the 

 average of 80 pounds per colony for the whole apiary the 25 

 strong colonies must gather 120 pounds of surplus' honey 

 each. Now, if in accordance with the observation and 

 deduction of Mr. Langstroth, as already noted, the differ- 

 ence between the poor, average, and strong colonies, is 

 attributable solely to the difference of queens, then we are 

 forced to admit that the mere act of tolerating the 25 poor 

 queens has incurred an expense of 1,000 pounds of honey 

 when compared with the average colonies, and 3,000 pounds 

 when compared with the strong colonies, either of the 

 items being sufficient to pay for all the good queens 

 required, and have a considerable bilance to the good. 

 You may change the figures as you desire and the result 

 will always show that the ;>(7or queens are heavy debtors, 

 with no prospect of paying, and should under no circum- 

 stances be tolerated. 



Keep the best, and only the best— the very best are the 

 cheapest in the end — and an economy that prohibits the 

 employing of the best queens is certainly a false economy. 



The owners of Ayrshire, Jersey, Holstein or other 

 stock, do not stop at merely knowing that their animals 

 are thorobred. Their ambition is that each individual 

 member of their herds shall be the very best of its kind ; 



and should not bee-keepers study their own interests by 

 copying the example of the stockmen in this regard ? Yes, 

 by all means. 



One point more in this connection, and one which 

 many bee-keepers scattered over the Province will do well 

 to study and ponder carefully, and that is, the fact that the 

 stockmen find that it pays to be a member of the Provin- 

 cial Association, which is studying and advancing their 

 interests. 



Bee-keepers in the remote parts of the Province, into 

 whose hands the (iovernment Report may fall, will please 

 make a note of this, and remember at the same time that 

 the Ontario Bee-Keepers' Association is studying to 

 advance your interests, and, like the stockmen, you will 

 study you own interests by communicating with the secre- 

 tary, Mr. Wm. Couse, of Streetsville, and secure member- 

 ship in the Association which is trying to do you good. 



In conclusion, I would say to those who have come 

 expecting to hear a flowery dissertation on scientific queen- 

 rearing ; and to those who may have wisht that their favor- 

 ite kind or race of queens would get an advance in the 

 address — if such has been )'Our anticipation, I can only ten- 

 der you my sympathy in your disappointment. I said at 

 the outset that we had met for practical purposes, and I 

 have endeavored to give you a plain, practical talk on the 

 topic assigned to me, and I hope my address and the dis- 

 cussion which will follow may prove a practical benefit, 

 not only to those gathered in convention here, but to many 

 of our fellows v?ho are not privileged to be with us. 



Ontario, Canada. 



^..JiCJ&L^.^:t>^:l.^il.^it,^.^.;it>^:LJ:t.^.Jit.^:CJ!LJtC^!L^F 



^ The Home Circle. 



y^ 



Conducted bij Prof. fl. J. Cook, Clareiiiont, Calif. 



SICKNESS IN THE HOME. 



Our readers will wonder why the break in "The Home 

 Circle." The causo is not far to seek. One of the links in 

 our home circle snapt for the time, and the writer was the 

 link. Strange what a difference it makes in the home when 

 Sickness lays her heavy hand upon one of its members. My 

 stomach, which has always been my weak member, became 

 for an entire week the warring member. It struck — not for 

 higher wages, but for less work. At least, that's what the 

 doctor says. He says it's a warning. I repeat the thought 

 above — how shaded the home seems when Disease forces her 

 unwelcome presence into it. The well ones try to look cheery 

 as the best medicine for the sick one, but it is such a perfunc- 

 tory cheerfulness that even the dulled vision of the sick one 

 sees that it has not in it the genuine quality. From every 

 point of view, every home circle should mal<e it- its chief 

 study to keep this unsavory presence — sickness — from its 

 midst. I am sure if "The Home Circle" to-day is made a 

 little somber by hints and suggestions regarding health and 

 nursing, I will be more than pardoned.^ 



There is no doubt that we are all agreed as to the import- 

 ance of every member of "The Home Circle" worliing with 

 both sleeves rolled to the elbow to court the best health and 

 vigor. How to keep well, and be at our best physically, is a 

 most important question. Our nation and people are making 

 gigantic strides in a business way. Our commercial abtivities 

 have taken a stupendous leap, and we are rapidly distancing 

 all the other great nations of the world. Britain is alarmed, 

 and even phlegmatic Germany is aroused at the threatening 

 peril. Is there not reason when our balance of trade last 

 year exceeded Germany's entire export trade? This is all 

 very cheering. But all this implies nerve excitement, and if 

 this is to keep on, as it surely is, it behooves every one of us 

 to study how we may keep our health away to the top, that 

 our balance in vigor and strength may even exceed our bal- 

 ance in trade. 



HINTS ON KEEPING WELL. 



I wish, now, to give some hints in regard to keeping well, 

 which I am sure may well be observed by us all. 



In the first place, We should remember thi; motto of the 

 successful business man — "Outgo must always be less than 

 income." We may well remember Macawber's words to David 

 Copperfield ; "Annual income, 20 pounds; annual expendi- 

 ture, nineteen-six ; result, happiness. Annual income, 20 



