672 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



amalgamated or not, it would be well to carry 

 out the idea. We need the power of nurnhers 

 as a moral backing, and this, it seems to me, 

 would insure the very thing we most need. 



THE AMERICAN IJEE .JOURNAL. 



I HAVE sometimes wished that Bro. York 

 were not so good a friend of mine. Why? I 

 have often read with interest the good things 

 in his paper, and have felt like commenting on 

 what he and his correspondents have said; but 

 somehow I have felt that, if I did make such 

 comments, a few (the anti-admiration-society 

 fellows) would say I was doing it to pat " Bro. 

 George" on the back. But really I do not know 

 that this is any good reason why I should keep 

 back any thing that I wish to say, if it is de- 

 serving. 



Well, it seems to me the "Old Reliable" 

 grows better and better as it grows older; and 

 in its 35th year, and in its latest number, we find 

 more good solid matter in it— practical, helpful 

 matter— than at any time in its previous histo- 

 ry; and in saying this I do not wish to dispar- 

 age its past. The articles are well selected, 

 sifted, pruned, and paragraphed. The Ques- 

 tion and Answer departments, by Dr. Miller 

 and others, are good. All through I think I 

 can see the evidence of hard, painstaking edito- 

 rial management. 



I shall not attempt to make any sort of review 

 of this or any previous issue; but you know that 

 I said there were several queen-breeders who 

 would or were about to give up the breeding of 

 five-banded queens. Among others that I have 

 mentioned, here is what one of them has to say 

 on page .536, regarding the behavior of some of 

 the cream of the goldens. I give it right here 

 because it seems to be quite in line with what 

 others as well as myself have said of these bees 

 in general of late: 



ANOTHER HARD RUB FOR THE FIVE-BANDEKS. 



I obtained my first five-banded bees from L. L. 

 Hearn, but in a very short time I learned that G. M. 

 Doolittle had given Mr. Hearn his start in these 

 bees. Mr. Hearn's bees proved to be unprofitable, 

 and so the next queens were obtained from the 

 author of "Scientific Queen-rearing." The first 

 queen I obtained, Mr. Doolittle had named " Dan- 

 dy," for which I paid $6.00. I introduced lier to 

 hatching brood, as the weather was warm, and 

 every thinjf seemed favorable for a • colony of 

 " goldens," as I added a few more frames of hatch- 

 ing brood; but what was my surprise in a couple 

 of weeks to find this fancy queen failing. I then 

 put her into a nucleus and kept her colony weak 

 until autumn. Early in October I put her nucleus 

 into a chafC hive, and gave her plenty of good combs 

 with nice sealed honey, and brood hatching, from a 

 good hearty colony; and, as I knew the bees would 

 not expect much from their queen during the 

 winter, I left them severely alone until early in the 

 spring. 



On opening the hive I found a young queen and 

 " Dandy " still at large in the hive. I lifted out a 

 comb with " Dandy " and adhering bees, making a 



weak nucleus. In tliree weeks " Dandy " had dis- 

 appeared and three queen-cells were started. These 

 were given to iii strong colony, madequeenless, to 

 feed and complete the cells. Mr. Doolittle sent an- 

 other to replace her. That was very kind in him ; but 

 the second one never filled more than three or four 

 Langstroth frames with brood ; and from this queen, 

 and tlie three reared from " Dandy," I reared 29 

 queens, nearly all of which I sold for $2.00 for 

 choice, and $3.00 for the selected or very best. 

 Some of these queens were sent to Canada, and 

 some to Pennsylvania, some south and west. Some 

 of the old readers will remember that I sent the 

 samples of bees to Thomas G. Newman, then the 

 editor of the American Bcc Janrna]. The bees 

 sent showed the sixth yellow segment. Of course, 

 these were picked bees. So far as I can know, and 

 have knowledge, not one of these reared fancj' 

 queens produced bees that were hardy enough to 

 come through the winter without adding black 

 stock. 



My next breeder was a very yellow one from J. D. 

 Givens, of Texas. This queen kept two or three 

 combs fairly stocked with brood and eggs for about 

 three months, and then was superseded by the bees. 

 I keep bees partly for pleasure and study, and took 

 a fancy to the yellow color; but now I am about 

 dead to the " goldens " though it was a hard death to 

 die. 



Last autumn I ordered one more of these queens 

 from Mr. Wood, of Massachusetts, and one from the 

 famous breeder of these bees in Maryland. I gave 

 each plenty of combs with late-hatching bees from 

 hardy blacks. These were packed in a long chaff 

 box containing 11 colonies. One of these colonies 

 died early in the winter. The other was about 

 fizzled when I unpacked tliem in the spring. The 

 queen was yet alive, and a few black bees, but not a 

 single yellow bee lived through the winter. 



But the greatest fault I find with them Is the un- 

 prolificness of the queens. I never had a colony of 

 them to get populous enough to get the swarmlng- 

 fever. When these queens mate with hybrid 

 drones, they are some better; but, all in all, the 

 "goldens " ought soon to be a thing of the past, un- 

 less they can be improved. W. P. Faylor. 



TAKING MORE THAN ONE BEE -JOURNAL. 



In our last issue I made such extended com- 

 ments on the Bee ■'keepers'' Review that I was 

 really afraid the other journals would think I 

 could see no merit elsewhere. How often have 

 I felt that, instead of making extracts and com- 

 ments, I should like to publish over again whole 

 articles of the other bee-papers! But that is 

 impossible; but it is possible, with a great ma- 

 jority of our readers, probably, to make a selec- 

 tion of at least three, and buy them at club 

 rates. But, you say, money is scarce. When it 

 has often happened that a single item in any 

 one of the papers has. saved the reader dollars, 

 can you, dear reader, aft'ord not to take them? 

 Bee-journal editors can scarcely be called ri- 

 vals. With hardly an exception they " bee " 

 brethren. 



OUR BASSWOOD-YARD, ETC. 



Owing to ill health and lack of strength to 

 take my usual wheeling-tours this summer, I 

 have been unable to give the out-yard in our 



