41st YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL,, SEPTEMBER 19, 1901, 



No, 38, 



^ Editorial. ^ I 



•^-■^-sfr^K 



Discoui-ageiiients anil Knt'ourajje- 

 iiients in Queen-Rearing. — Nevei- be- 

 fore wfts so iiiueli said and tboujrlit as now 

 about improvement o( stock, and as a eonse- 

 iiuenie about (|ueeu-rearing'. In probably the 

 jjreat majority of cases little or iiothinfj is 

 done to rontrol in any way the actions ot the 

 bees in the rearing: of queens, be^'ond the 

 occasional introduction of a queen from else- 

 where, with the hope of improvement. 



Even those who are wiilinf!: to do all in 

 their power to make improvement are handi- 

 capped as ill no other line of breeding, b}' the 

 lack of control of the sire in mating. The 

 man who attempts to breed a good horse or 

 cow can do just as much toward controlling 

 the sire as the dam. while the bee-keeper may 

 take all the pains possible to select the dam 

 and then have her meet a mate of the poorest 

 sort from some colony two miles away. To 

 lie sure, he may succeed to a degree by hav- 

 ing his young queens tly out to mate at a 

 lime of day when drones in general are not 

 Hying, or he may go to the expense of having 

 a Davitte cage, but even then the control is 

 only partial, for instead ot a single drone 

 being selected, a hundred or more will be on 

 the scene ot action. 



But with all the discouragements there is 

 much to encourage, and a man with the 

 smallest allowance of ability and experience 

 may do something, if not to improve his 

 stock, at least to keep it from becoming worse. 

 For, left entirely to itself, the greatest 

 amount of increase coming from colonies 

 most given to swarming and least given to 

 storing, the chances are more in favor of 

 deterioration than improvement. By pur- 

 chasing a single queen of Italian blood, the 

 owner of black bees may, inside of two 

 months, have all his workers clianged at least 

 to half-bloods. No such rapid change can be 

 made in any other kind of stock, so, in spite 

 of discouragements, in this one respect the 

 bee-keeper has the advantage over tjreeders of 

 other stock. 



While the discouraging fact is emphasized 

 constantly that inferior drones within two 

 miles or more may make trouble, the con- 

 verse of this should not be forgotten. For if 

 the inferior drones of a neighbor lower one's 

 chances for improvement, it is also true that 

 one's own superior drones will steadily be 

 raising the grade ot the neighbor's bees, so 

 that as the years go by the damage from out- 

 side drones will be less and less. 



Even it no attention be given to the drones, 

 it can not be denied that a queen of superior 

 stock mating with an interior drone will give 

 better results than would be attained if queen 

 anil drone were both of inferior stock. 



Locality or Kind of Bees? — Those 

 who write for beginners in bee-culture need 

 not expect that their writings will be scanned 

 only by those without experience. Witness 

 some ot the following questions : 



Some of the teachings of J. D. Gehring. 

 when considered in the light ot my own ex- 

 perience, are somewhat puzzling. An in- 

 stance occurs on page 550. The first item 

 given in the line of winter preparation is to 

 look in the hives about the middle of October 

 to ascertain the tact that the colony has a 

 queen. Ra]) sharply a tew times on the out- 

 side ot the hive, wait live minutes for the bees 

 to fill them.selves, then take off cover, give a 

 little smoke, and then proceed with the 

 search tor the queen. Now in my experience 

 I should expect a rather long search after 

 treating the bees iu that way. In the first 

 place, about the first thing I should do after 

 rapping sharply a few times on the outside ot 

 the hive would be to take to my heels if I 

 didn't want a lot of cross bees about my ears. 

 Perhaps, however, Mr. Gehring smokes before 

 he runs. He doesn't say. In any case, if I 

 should rap on the hive enough to make the 

 bees fill themselves, and then should give a 

 little smoke, my bees would be ready to run 

 like a flock of sheep, making the chance for 

 finding a queen very poor. Now I want to 

 ask. Is there a difference in bees that makes 

 .Mr. Gehring's bees hold still when mine would 

 be sure to run '. 



Also, what is the object of finding the 

 ([ueen, seeing that it makes no difference in 

 the treatment i for he doesn't say a word 

 about doing anything different with a colony 

 if the i|ueen should not be found. 



Oi.dEasteunek. 



There is a good deal ot difference in bees 

 in their deportment under the satne kind of 

 treatment. An amount ot smoke or jarring 

 that would have very little effect upon some 

 bees would make others run so that the task 

 of finding a queen would be difficult, if not 

 impossible. The object ot ascertaining the 

 presence ot a (|ueen is no doubt so that a 

 i|ueen may be furnished where needed, or the 

 (lueenless colony united with another. It is 

 doubtful, however, that the practice of bee- 

 keepers in general would agree with that of 

 Mr. Gehring. When looking tor a queen it is 

 of first importance that the bees should be 

 smoked or disturbed in any way as little as 

 possible. Once the bees get to running it is 

 better to give up the search till another time. 

 A single puff at the entrance, before opening 

 the hive, and a very little smoke over the 

 tops ot the frames after the cover is removed, 

 will be suflicient to keep the bees from flying 

 out at the operator, and that is all that is 

 required. Indecii. with some bees no smoke 



at all is necessary, and all jarring ot the hive 

 should be carefully avoided. 



I'robably few bee-keepers make a practice 

 of looking through the hives tor queens in 

 the fall. If there is young brood in the hive 

 the presence of the <nieen is known without 

 seeing her. H no brood is jiresent, which is 

 likely to be the case, the queen will be small 

 and very hard to find. Not finding her is by 

 no means positive proof that there is no 

 (iueen: so if no queen is found, and another 

 queen is given, there is a fair chance that a 

 queen is thereby wasted. On the whole, it is 

 not likely that many would consider it advi>- 

 able to make the search. 



Getting Bees Off the Combs is rated 

 by Editor Hutchinson as the most disagree- 

 able jiart ot producing extracted honey. He 

 gives the practice ot Mr. Miller, a Canadian, 

 as follows : 



Give the bees a good smoking, which drives 

 down most of them, then get the super down 

 near the entrance, when the rest of the bees 

 will leave the super for the hive. When rob- 

 bers are troublesome, use the escape. Mr. 

 Hutchinson says he uses the same plan in 

 removing surplus comb honey. 



Dr. C. C. Miller uses somewhat the same 

 plan. He writes: 



" When a su))er ot sections is to be removed 

 from the hive, the plan ot procedure depends 

 upon whether robbers trouble 'or not. During 

 the height of the season, and until the flow 

 wanes, there is usually no trouble from rob- 

 bers, and a super of sections may often be 

 left exjiosed for an hour or more without any 

 danger. Still, there is always a possible dan- 

 ger, and a close watch ninst be kept. After 

 removing the cover I blow smoke lively 

 upon, or rather down into, all parts of the 

 super, taking halt a minute or more, the time 

 depending somewhat ujion the amount of 

 smoke the smoker is yielding at the lime, and 

 to an extent upon the bees themselves. When 

 there has been anything like a stampede foi- 

 the lower story, so that all the joungest bees 

 have gone down, there is noje'fcd to smoke 

 longer, and there is some danger of affecting 

 the flavor of the honey by too much smoke. 

 Then the super is taken off, and after the 

 cover is replatred the super is set endwise 

 upon it, well toward the trout, with one edge 

 ot the super iirojecting over a little. After a 

 time the liccs will start a line of march from 

 this projecting part down to the entrance of 

 the hive, and not many bees will be left. It 

 is possilile that there would be an advantage 

 in setting the super close down against thi> 

 entrance, but when it is on the top of the 

 hive it is easy to keep watch of it from any 

 part of the apiary, so as to see the first 

 attempt at robbing, whereas a land-otlice 

 business might be going on unseen if a super 

 stood on the ground. 



"After the liees are mostly out of the 

 supers, they are stacked up in a iiile until the 

 pile contains jierhaps ten supers, a robber- 

 cloth escaiie being used to cover the pile from 

 the time it is started. This escape is simply 

 « robber-cloth h.ivlng in its center a very 



