THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



319 



alone, as the excitement caused by go- 

 ing through a colon\- at a time like that 

 is more dangerous to successful intro- 

 duction than the cells that may be in the 

 liive. * * * With regard to cutting 

 out queen-cells, no less an authority than 

 Geo. B. Howe had written me previous 

 to my leaving home, saying that when 

 the bees were ready to accept the queen 

 it would be necessary to tear down 

 the cells, and in this case, at least, I 

 found that he was correct. In front of 

 many of the colonies, after six days, I 

 found cappings of queen cells at the en- 

 trance, and curiosity compelled me to 

 look into a lot of these hives, against 

 my better judgment, and in every case, 

 the torn-down cells were in evidence. 

 Fifteen queens were run in the colonies 

 in the evening, after thoroughly smudg- 

 ing with tobacco smoke, and in this case 

 I lost one queen — the first one attended 

 to in the evening. Evidently not enough 

 smoke was used, or else it was too early 

 in the day. It is only fair to say in con- 

 clusion, that since coming home I have 

 tried to introduce 18 queens and have 

 lost two. In this case the cages were of 

 the wide stjde, and were laid on top of 

 the combs. Not a particle of honey 

 coming in may help to explain the loss 

 - — anyway, two queens were killed, ex- 

 plain it as you will. 



"Go to the Bee, Thou Sluggard." 



D. M. MacDonald, in the British Bee 

 Journal, bids us go to the bee for lessons 

 in system. System in the apiary is some- 

 thing there is too little of, and yet some- 

 thing that means dollars and cents to 

 us if adopted. We read in part: 



Go to the ant, thou sluggard, and 

 learn from that tiny insect how to labor. 

 Go to the bee-hive, thou bee-keeper, 

 and learn from the system of labour 

 and government there displayed how 

 thou mayest carry on thy occupation 

 with a minimum waste of time and ex- 

 penditure of tissue. System is the se- 

 cret of success. No bee has to waste 

 time discussing who is to carry out cer- 

 tain operations, or each tiny toiler sees 

 where work is required, and straighta- 

 way goes and does it with all its might. 

 Some would fain try to convince us 

 that the operation of fanning is carried 

 on in a haphazard way, and that there 

 is no regular relieving of the guards or 

 fanners. That is the result of man's 



shortsighted antl unscientific observa- 

 tions. Relief comes, or the fanner, 

 when worn out by its toilsome labors, 

 clears out, but only to be replaced by 

 several successors each eager to step in- 

 to its comrade's place; when the neces- 

 sity arises fanners are always there. In 

 like manner, however long the guards 

 may be on duty, a sufficient number will 

 always be found in position, and in the 

 right position to spy strangers, and evict 

 them if necessary. Nay, if summary ex- 

 ecution is to be meted out to intruders 

 the two, three, or half-a-dozen evicting 

 the would-be intruder have their places 

 at once filled by relief guards. The 

 same principle holds good in all the in- 

 ternal working of the hive. Every op- 

 eration is carried out expeditiously and 

 well. 



System in agricultural operations leads 

 to economy of both time and money. 

 The labor is lightened, more of it is 

 overtaken in a given time, and the neces- 

 sary operations are carried out at the 

 right time — not half-a-day, half-an-hour, 

 or even half-a-minute too late. In bee- 

 keeping this feature cannot be over-esti- 

 mated. Do things, but do them at the 

 right time. Solomon Slow had the 

 knack of doing everything five minutes 

 too late. This in apiculture would mean 

 for most operations that the time had 

 passed for the necessity of carrying out 

 the work. Spending time over the op- 

 eration would bear comparison with the 

 proverbial process of trying to gather 

 up spilt milk. 



Removing Supers and Uniting 

 Colonies. 



Brother Doolittle gives two little 

 kinks in Gleanings in Bee Culture, that 

 are worth noting. The first one is one 

 of those things we have done so long 

 that we supposed everybody knew it, 

 and yet it is probably new to a great 

 many : 



"When removing supers by the cold 

 plan, unless the supers are full or par- 

 tially so of section honey, wait until 

 there is a cool or cold spell, when the 

 mercury sinks nearly to the freezing- 

 point, when the bees will have congre- 

 gated in the brood-chamber. At the end 

 of this cold spell there is generally a 

 morning when there is a frost, when, by 

 rising early, all of the supers may be 

 taken off free from bees, requiring only 



