American Hee Journal 



has any use for second or after-swarms, 

 my advice to all is (and has been ever 

 since comb foundation came into use) : 

 Use only starters in the frames when 

 hiving swarms, or else fill all frames 

 with foundation, or give all frames 

 filled with comb. And after years of 

 practice along this line, I still believe 

 this to be good advice. Frames filled 

 with foundation, mixed with those con- 

 taining comb, do much better than 

 frames having only starters when used 

 with combs; but even this is objec- 

 tionable on account of the bees length- 

 ening the cells on the combs given, 

 while they are working the foundation, 

 so that the combs along the top-bars 

 of the frames will be very thick when 

 completed, while those with founda- 

 tion are correspondingly thin. 

 Borodino, N. Y. 



Local Shipments of Comb Honey 



Read at the Colorado Bcc-Kccpcrs' Ctv/vention 

 BY FRANK RAUCHFUSS. 



Owing to an almost entire honey 

 crop failure in Northern Colorado dur- 

 ing the season of 1910, local shipments 

 of comb honey from other sections of 

 the State became necessary. Some of 

 these shipments were made by express, 

 but most of them by freight, as our ex- 

 perience in former years with express 

 companies has been that it is simply a 

 matter of paying higher charges for a 

 poor service. 



Having received many local ship- 

 ments during the past fall, ranging in 

 lots of 12 cases to several hundred 

 cases, and in distance of shipment 

 from 75 to 450 miles, we have had 

 plenty of opportunity to experiment as 

 to what is needed to make the shipping 

 of small lots of comb honey during 

 cool or cold weather a success, and 

 will herewith give some of our obser- 

 vations : 



While warm weather prevailed ship- 

 ments came through in fairly good con- 

 dition. 



When cold nights came on, no ship- 

 ment arrived in good condition when 

 cases were shipped singly (glass always 

 protected by thin boards), whether 

 packed in single or double tier cases. 



Honey in double-tier cases came 

 through with much less breakage than 

 that in single-tier cases. 



Honey produced without bottom 

 starters in the sections broke down 

 more than with the bottom starters. 



Single-tier cases and also double-tier 

 cases crated togetherwith lath (4 cases 

 in a crate) came through in very bad 

 condition ; however, in explanation it 

 may be stated that these came the long- 

 est distance, and were transferred twice 

 in transit, and the damage most likely 

 was done in the transferring by tumb- 

 ling the crates around, as they have no 

 projecting handles. 



Single-tier cases with the new and 

 much-praised sliding covers have 

 proven a dismal failure, as the cases 

 had to be tied with string in transit to 

 keep them from falling apart. 



Large printed cards with lengthy in- 

 structions to freight handlers proved 

 of little or no value; evidently they 

 were too long to be read. 



The only lots that came through dur- 

 ing cold weather zvilhout damage were 



those that were shipped in 8-case car- 

 riers, with straw or hay beneath the 

 cases, and projecting handles at the 

 ends of the crate. While these handles 

 are of little value to carry the crates, 

 they seem to prevent the placing of the 

 crates on end in the cars, and prevent 

 their being tumbled about. 



As the damage in these local honey 

 shipments not packed in carriers has 

 been so frequent that we have come to 

 the conclusion to notify our members 

 that after this we shall not receive any 

 local shipments of comb honey unless 

 packed in carriers. Another advantage 

 of the carriers is that the cases are 

 protected, and arrive in clean condi- 

 tion. 



The pr^ent rulings of the Western 

 Classification do not make any distinc- 

 tion between comb honey shipped in 

 single cases, glass protected, and comb 

 honey shipped in 8-case carriers, which 

 is manifestly a hardship to the pro- 

 ducers, and the reason why the use of 

 these carriers for shipments is not 

 more general. I am, therefore, trying 

 to enlist the support of large jobbers 

 and shippers of comb honey within the 

 territory of the Western Classification, 

 to urge the Western Classification 

 Committee to rule that comb honey. in 

 carriers with straw or hay beneath the 

 cases shall go as second-class freight, 

 for the reason that it will take less time 

 to handle them, and the danger of dam- 

 age is reduced to a minimum, thereby 

 saving the railroads many damage 

 claims. I hope that this move will find 

 the support of this Association at its 

 present session. 



Denver, Colo. 



Improved Bees and Properly- 

 Bred Queens 



BY HARRY LATHROP. 



Much has been written of late about 

 the larg« increase in honey-production 

 that could be secured through improved 

 races of bees and properly-bred queens. 

 Bee-keepers have been advised to breed 

 from those colonies that produced the 

 exceptional crops. In the March Bee- 

 Keepers' Review, Editor Hutchinson 

 gives a reprint of Gravenhorst's article 

 on honey-storing capabilities. Graven- 

 horst says this in one place : 



"By repeated examination and observa- 

 tion I have learned that there exists a cer- 

 tain condition under which a colony will 

 gather the most honey, whether it be strong 

 or weak. If this condition has not yet been 

 reached, or if it has been passed, the stor- 

 ing of surplus will be neglected, or at least 

 carried on only moderately." 



Now, how about breeding from the 

 colony that stores the most honey? 

 The one that stores the most, accord- 

 ing to Gravenhorst, will be the one 

 that hits the opening of the honey-flow 

 in just the right condition. Every ob- 

 serving bee-keeper will believe that 

 Gravenhorst is about right, but the col- 

 ony that happens to be in just the right 

 condition may be of one particular 

 strain or another, just as it happens. 

 One year it may be a certain queen, 

 and the next another. I have often 

 had the bumper crop from some col- 

 ony from which I did not wish to 

 breed on account of something objec- 

 tionable in the temper of the bees. Of 



course, I believe in trying to improve 

 our stock, but I do not believe there is 

 so much in superior strains as some 

 would have us believe. I could never 

 prove it in actual practice. Regardless 

 of superior breeding, if you wish to 

 get big results from a single colony, 

 try this plan : 



Buy a box-hive colony from some 

 farmer who never saw a queen. Get 

 one of those big, tall ones that went 

 into winter with a strong force of bees 

 and .50 or more pounds of honey. They 

 will have fixed their brood-nest just to 

 suit themselves. It will be warm inside, 

 with plenty of stores right over and 

 around the cluster. They will not feel 

 the cold of winter even if wintered 

 out-of-doors. Take this old box-hive 

 colony home, and in the spring pry off 

 the top and give them an upper story 

 of nice worker-comb. When the queen 

 has gone up, and these combs are 

 partly filled with brood, take it on a 

 day when the queen is upstairs, just 

 about the time when the honey-flow is 

 opening. Set the upper part off, re- 

 move the box-hive to one side, and 

 place the regular hive-body that has the 

 queen, on the stand. Give them sur- 

 plus room and work the old box in 

 such a way as to feed the hatching bees 

 into the working colony. You can 

 take it away after some days and give 

 them a young queen, if you wish, or 

 break it up entirely. 



Of course, this plan can be used with 

 any kind of hive — I just mentioned the 

 box-hive because they have a way of 

 wintering a strong force and of throw- 

 ing off an enormous swarm about the 

 right time for the honey crop ; unless 

 handled as indicated above. 



One man proposes to go to great ex- 

 pense in order to provide his whole 

 apiary with queens bred after the most 

 approved fashion. I believe the result 

 would be disappointing. Suppose he 

 should have a couple of poor seasons 

 following his accomplishment of re- 

 queening his apiary with the very best 

 stock that human effort could secure. 

 He would get no returns on his invest- 

 ment, and at the end of that time his 

 stock would show up no better, prob- 

 ably, than any ordinary, well-conducted 

 apiary. 



When shall we know the truth about 

 these things ? and when shall theories 

 become demonstrated facts .•' Many 

 theories would be accepted as facts to- 

 day if it were not for other facts that 

 do not harmonize, forcing us at least 

 to take middle ground in many in- 

 stances. 



Bridgeport, Wis. 



No. 2.— Construction of the 

 Cell on Comb Foundation 



BY FOLOPPE FRERES. 



The natural comb, in its entirety, is 

 built by the bee by means of successive 

 additions of wax, and if we except a 

 few attachment cells, dug out of the 

 first rudimentary deposit, the modus 

 operandi of the worker will consist in 

 placing and uniting the materials in 

 regular order. 



The cell, in these conditions, is there- 

 fore built in full from pieces, and the 

 work accomplished by the insect may 



