American Hee Journal 



mind a single exception to the rule that 

 American bee-keepers believe the two 

 diseases are no/ the same disease in 

 two different stages. If Mr. Abram 

 knows of such an exception will he 

 kindly produce it ? 



Workers Reared iu Droue-Comb 



In a foot-note in the British Bee 

 Journal, the editor says: 



Our own experience with aueens confined 

 on drone-comb has been that they can lay 

 eggs which produce workers. We recollect 

 seeing a colony having only drone-comb at 

 Dr. Bianchetti's apiary in Ornavasso. In 

 this case, when the swarm was first placed 

 on the combs, the queen was for some time 

 reluctant to lay. but at last gave in to the in- 

 evitable, and when we inspected the hive 

 she was laying eggs which produced only 

 workers, and there were no drones present. 



It may be interesting to inquire as 

 to that reluctance of the queen to lay. 

 We miy suppose that she did not want 

 to lay drone-eggs, and it is probably 

 the case that she was unable to lay 

 worker-eggs in unmodified drone-cells. 

 So she had to wait until the workers 

 had time to modify the cells by con- 

 tracting the mouth of the cells with 

 additional wax. There have been a 

 goi^d many reports of worker-eggs 

 being laid in drone-cells, but probably 

 no case has yet been found in which 

 the bees have not first narrowed the 

 mouths of the cells. 



Fouuclatiou a Time-Savei' and 

 M'ork-Saver 



A common argument in favor of 

 using full sheets of foundation is that 

 it saves the time of the bees, but not so 

 much is said of the saving of work. D. 

 M. Macdonald says in the British Bee 

 Journal : 



"Not only is it a time-saver, but it is also 

 a work-saver. Work ages bees more than 

 the few weeks they may live during the 

 active season. Thus we save the valuable 

 lives of our bees at a season when it is of 

 the utmost importance that our colonies 

 should be at their strongest. If a few thou- 

 sand bees are busy toilsomely evolving wax 

 from the garnered sweets, constructing with 

 that hard-won solid the delicate and dainty 

 fabric of the hexagonal cells, to the number 

 it may be of 50.000. it stands to reason that 

 just so many thousands short go out forag- 

 ing to the fields which are then white as to 

 harvest. Liberate these thousands by the 

 shorter process produced by a free use of 

 foundation, and you save a vast amount of 

 labor on the part of your toiling thousands, 

 eager to profit by each shining hour ' 



Differeut Kaces of Bee.s 



Gleanings gives the experience of 

 their Mr. Jas. W. Bain with several 

 different races of bees, which experi- 

 ence he had before going to Medina. 



Contrary to the opinion of many, he 

 values Carniolans highly. They pro- 

 tect their hives as well as Italians, cap 

 their honey snowy white, and although 

 greatly given to swarming when kept 

 in small hives, they can be kept within 

 bounds in large hives. Carniolan 

 queens are more difficult to find than 

 Italians. 



Banats have many of the good quali- 

 ties of the Carniolans. but resemble 

 blacks more closely than do the Car- 

 niolans, making it difficult to keep them 

 separate from the blacks. 



Mr. Bain agrees with the general 

 verdict as to the viciousness of Cyprian 

 bees. 



Golden Italians are, as a rule, more 

 irritable than the leather-colored, but 

 they cap their honey whiter. 



After reading so much about the 

 marvelous gentleness of Caucasians, 

 one reads with no small surprise the 

 following : 



Mr. Bain finds hardly one redeeming fea- 

 ture among the Caucasians, although they 

 do cap honey white. In spite of the claims 

 made as to the gentleness of these bees, they 

 are nervous in their actions, and a good 

 many of the colonies of this race are very 

 difficult to handle on account of their ten- 

 dency to sting on the slightest provocation. 

 These bees are excessive propolizers. and 

 no better honey-gatherers than the average 

 Italians. One point that we do not remem- 

 ber having seen mentioned is this; It is 

 much more difficult to introduce a new 

 queen to a colony of Caucasians than to 

 Italians, for instance. They will start cells 

 in spite of all that can be done, and about 

 the only way is to remove all brood or else 

 wait until the brood is so far along that cell- 

 starting is out of the question. 



The widely diverging views as to 

 different races of bees may no doubt 

 be largely accounted for by the fact 

 that there may be quite a wide differ- 

 ence between individual colonies of 

 the same race. 



The Rewards ol' Bee-Kee ping- 

 In a previous number I challenged 

 the statement that for the amount in- 

 vested bee-keeping gave greater re- 

 turns than any other business, leaving 

 it for another time to tell why I would 

 still be a bee-keeper. 



If money were the only thing to work 

 for, I certainly would not choose bee- 

 keeping. But there are other rewards 

 besides money, and outside the Chris- 

 tian ministry I know of no calling that 

 has greater rewards than bee-keeping, 

 for one who has the proper taste for it. 

 That matter of taste for one's busi- 

 ness is a pretty big factor in the prob- 

 lem, and I'm taking that into account 

 in all I say. If any one has no taste 

 for bee-keeping, then the reasons I 

 give for preferring it to any other secu- 

 lar pursuit will not all appeal to hitn. 



I think I will do well to quote here 

 a word from the Canadian Bee Journal. 

 W. W., in a biographical sketch of Mr. 

 J. L. Byer, says : 



"None of us regard bee-keeping as a 

 means of getting rich quickly. The real 

 bee-keeper— the genuine article — is an opti- 

 mist and likewise a philosopher. The chief 

 consideration with him is not how much 

 money there is in bee-keeping, but how 



much real happiness can be extracted from 

 his profession." 



And from this point of view he thinks 

 Mr. Byer is a rich man. 



A sick man is in poor condition to 

 extract happiness out of anything, and 

 a man in perfect health is a good ex- 

 tractor of happiness almost anywhere. 

 One strong point in favor of bee-keep- 

 ing is that it is a healthy business. The 

 bee-keeper is much of the time out in 

 God's free air and sunshine, with the 

 right kind of exercise to make his food 

 taste good and digest readily. 



Many a prosperous business man will 

 tell you he is eagerly looking forward 

 to the time when he can retire from 

 business and enjoy life. Your true bee- 

 keeper has no such feeling. He doesn't 

 need to make his pile before he begins 

 to enjoy life. He is enjoying life every 

 day as he goes along. 



The bee-keeper's life never becomes 

 monotonous. There are always new 

 things to try; always new problems to 

 solve. 



Bee-keeping is conducive to long 

 life. I could probably have made more 

 money in another line of business, but 

 I would be dead now, and what's 

 money to a dead man ? Not only does 

 bee-keeping lengthen a man's life, but 

 it lengthens the span of his efficiency. 

 In many lines of business a man is laid 

 on the shelf when he reaches the age 

 of 60 ; in some lines sooner. Age is 

 not so much of a handicap in bee-keep- 

 ing. The largest crop of honey I ever 

 harvested was when I was 77 years old. 

 In a good many lines, when a man no 

 longer can work at full pressure, he 

 must give up the business entirely. It's 

 full work or nothing. If a bee-keeper 

 at 6() can not keep as many bees as he 

 could at 40, he can keep a less number, 

 and a still less number at 70. 



In not many lines of business does a 

 man have the chance to be at home 

 with his family so much as the bee- 

 keeper. Perhaps that counts with me 

 more than it otherwise would, because 

 for a time I made my living as a travel- 

 ing man. It could hardly be called 

 living. 



With the chance to get more happi- 

 ness out of each day so long as my 

 days last, and with the chance to have 

 them last longer than in any other 

 business, why shouldn't I be a bee- 

 keeper ? C. C. M. 



Miscellaneous #) News Items 



Our Front-Page Pictures The 8 



different views on our front-page this 

 month are described as follows: 



Nos. 1, 2, 5 and 6 Apiary Views of John 



H. Bamberger 



These views show my way of arranging 

 colonies in summer and protecting them in 

 winter, which has been satisfactory, as I 

 have had no winter losses the past 2 winters. 

 So far this winter I have no cause for com- 

 plaint, as on Monday, Jan. 21. all but 3 out of 

 32 colonies were making good use of the 

 beautiful day by taking a cleansing flight, 

 carrying out dead bees, and causing my wife 

 to sputter on account of their spotting her 

 wash. The hives are spaced about 3 inches 



apart when packed for winter, leaving 8 

 inches on each end. 



The sheds (No. i) are portable, using hooks 

 to fasten the parts to one another. They are 

 40 inches wide, 12 feet long, and 3 feet high 

 in the front, and 2 feet high in the rear. They 

 rest on pieces of 2x4 to keep the ends off of 

 the ground. The packing used is planer 

 shavings, and while it takes longer to pack 

 and unpack them than it takes to carry them 

 into the cellar and out again, the work is not 

 as arduous, and it gives the pleasure of see- 

 ing the bees enjoying themselves when the 

 weather permits, as it did Jan. 23, 



The winter scene (No. 6) was taken Jan. 15. 

 loio. the camera 12 feet above the ground, 

 and about 16 feet from the nearest shed, 

 which gives a fair idea as to the depth of the 

 snow last winter. 



