November, 1913. 



383 



American T^ee Journal 



of thousands of opportunities to ob- 

 serve should at least have met with one 

 case ? Yet I never yet saw mention of 

 such a case, and I've read the bee jour- 

 nals quite a while. 



But you insist, "tell me why those 

 drones go out with the cluster if only 

 the old mated queen leads the colony." 

 Honest Injun, I don't know. I don't 

 know why there are so many superflu- 

 ous roosters in a flock of poultry left 

 to itself, nor why as many bulls as 

 cows are born. It may be that the 

 drones, like a flock of sheep, follow 

 the leaders of the swarm. Just go for 

 fashion's sake. If you press too hard 

 for a rational answer as to why the 

 drones in a prime swarm, I may ven- 

 ture this : It is a common thing for 

 bees to supersede their queen in the 

 fall or soon after swarming. I have 

 found queen-cells that seemed to have 

 been started about the first of the 

 brood started by the swarm. Drones 

 are needed for these young supersedure 

 queens. What would be the chance if 

 no drones came from the old colony ? 

 If drones were started at the same time 

 as the queens, in the swarm, they would 

 not emerge until nine days after the 

 queens; too late to be of service. We 

 know that no drone comb is built by a 

 swarm for a number of days, making 

 it still more imperative that drones 

 shall come from the old hive to meet 

 the prospective young queen. 



At any rate, it's easier to believe that 

 drones accompany the swarm for the 

 sake of meeting future virgins that are 

 well known to exist than to believe 

 they go for the sake of meeting virgins 

 that no one has ever yet seen in a 

 prime swarm. 



Marengo, 111. 



Beekeepers I Have Known— 

 F. W. Hall 



BY FR.\NK C. I'ELLETT. 



WITH a $5000 honey crop, a 

 magnificent home, a capable 

 wife, and three unusually at- 

 tractive daughters, it would 

 seem that a beekeeper would 

 be about the most to be envied of men. 

 There are bee-keepers; and those who 

 keep bees. F. C. Hall, of Colo, Iowa, 

 keeps bees, and then again the bees 

 keep him; for Hall is one of the few 

 enthusiastic scientific bee men who 

 burn their bridges behind them, and 

 stake everything on making a winning 

 with their chosen specialty. Most of 

 us make lots of noise about the beau- 

 ties of beekeeping, and the pleasures 

 and profits to be derived in honey pro- 

 duction, while at the same time we stay 

 close to shore and keep our barks 

 securely anchored to some other stay. 

 When we have a good year we brag 

 about our production per colony, and 

 when we have a poor season we live by 

 means of the prop, whatever that may 

 be. Few of us, however, enjoy as large 

 incomes, on the average, or live as well 

 as the really successful specialist. 



Mk. Hall Going Over His Home Yard With the State Inspector. 



There are a number of beekeepers 

 here in Iowa who are doing very well, 

 and whose incomes are equal to those 

 of the most favored regions of Califor- 

 nia or other widely heralded beekeep- 

 ers' paradise. Hall ranks near the 

 head of the list, and is one of about a 

 half dozen men who are the largest 

 producers, considering the number of 

 bees kept in Iowa. 



In the first place, as a matter of 

 course. Hall has a splendid locality, 

 but so have a hundred others. The 

 real difference, after all, is in the man 

 and his practical methods. At the bee- 

 keepers' convention last winter he read 

 a paper which he had carefully pre- 

 pared. The paper soon got in his way 

 and he laid it down and just told us 

 about it, and beekeepers are talking yet 

 about some of the things he proposed. 

 Some of the beekeepers seem to be of 

 the opinion that it just would not work 

 to kill off the queens and requeen at 

 the beginning of the honey flow, but it 

 works for Hall all right, and he gets 

 the most honey and the least swarms 

 per colony of any man I know. 



Last year the honey crop was very 

 short over much of Iowa, and many 

 beekeepers had to feed for winter 

 stores. Mr. Hall had 2-5,000 pounds of 

 honey from something like 300 colo- 

 nies. We all thought that was a big 

 showing, and wondered whether he 

 could do it again. This season is a 

 bumper one over much of the State, 

 and to show us the possibilities of a 

 good year, he has proceeded to roll up 

 a crop which is estimated to be about 

 25 tons of extracted honey. As he has 

 a mail-order market for much of his 

 honey at 10 cents per pound, it will be 

 seen that the $5000 honey crop is not 

 so much of a dream. Then there is no 

 dream about his fine home. The house 

 is large, roomy, and contains about 

 every luxury that modern ingenuity 

 can devise. 



Mr. Hall keeps bees in 6 yards of 

 from 60 to 80 colonies in each, and 

 apparently this number is about the 



limit of profitable production, for there 

 is another apiary of similar size within 

 a short distance of the home yard, with 

 the result that the production here 

 falls much below that of the others. At 

 each yard he has a honey house, where 

 he extracts the honey on the ground, 

 and a cellar where he winters the bees, 

 thus eliminating the element of hauling, 

 to a large extent. 



If you want to know about his meth- 

 ods, hitch up and drive over to the next 

 convention and get it straight and first 

 hand. Mr. Hall is not inclined to be a 

 " wind jammer," but when he does talk 

 he has something to say. Yes, do come 

 over and attend the meeting. We have 

 great times when the Iowa bee men 

 get together. 



Atlantic, Iowa. 



Comb Honey— Sections Well 

 Filled 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



THERE seems to be an idea in the 

 minds of some beekeepers that 

 the most desirable and most 

 marketable sections of honey 

 are those which are filled the 

 fullest, such as have the cells next to 

 Mie wood filled with honey not only all 

 around, but capped over so there are 

 no places where the cappings do not 

 lap on the wood, thus making the 

 wood part as solidly full of honey as is 

 a can or pail when filled with extracted 

 honey. Such a section is called by 

 these people " gilt edged " or " fancy." 

 There is no question but that such 

 "crammed sections," completed in the 

 heighth of a heavy honey flow are at- 

 tractive to the eye, but is that all there 

 is of the matter ? 



The ultimate and logical conclusion 

 rests with the consumer. The wood of 

 the section is not the thing which is 

 brought to the table to be admired and 

 eaten. Basswood lumber is not eaten 

 by the lady of the house or her guests 



30 MILLION ^ 

 SECTIONS o 



100000 

 HIVES 



IS 



THE ANNUAL OUTPUT OF 

 THE LEWIS FACTORY 



Send for Annual Catnlog which ivill tell 

 you who is your nearest Distributer. 

 G. B. Lewis Company, ^Vatertown, Wis. I 



