1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



701 



Bureau of Animal Industry. Through this bu- 

 reau they have investigated the diseases of 

 animals, their cause and prevention. This has 

 employed some of the best talent in our land. 

 It has cost very large sums of money, and has 

 accomplished much good. The investigation 

 into the cause and prevention of "'Texas Fever,'' 

 alone, has been worth to the country many 

 times the cost of the whole investigation. 



This bureau has giv(Hi the country a large 

 and well -written book on the horse and his 

 diseases; on cattle and their diseases, and a 

 special report of the sheep industry of the 

 United States, of an even thousand pages: also 

 a book on the animal parasites of sheep. No 

 more valuable books than these can be in the 

 hands of those interested in these several 

 branches of animal industry. But so far the 

 general government has done nothing for the 

 bee-keepers. There are in the United Slates 

 about 4.5 million sheep. These have received 

 attention from the govi^rnment in proportion to 

 their importance as an industry. 



There are no reliable data by which we can 

 determine the number of colonies of bees in the 

 United States. There can be no doubt, how- 

 ever, that there is from one-third to one-half as 

 many colonies of bees as there are number of 

 sheep; and a colony of bees will average as 

 much income as a sheep; therefore the bee- 

 industry in the United States should have one- 

 third as much attention from the government 

 as the sheep-industry. Should it receive one- 

 third the amount of aid that has been given to 

 the sheep-raisers, and the money be judiciously 

 used, it would solve many problems that are 

 now mysteries. It costs the bee-keepers of 

 America thousands of dollars each year trying 

 hives, fixtures, and experiments, which they 

 abandon as useless long before they are worn 

 out. 



How much money have the bee-keepers of 

 America paid for Simplicity hives? How many 

 of them are now in satisfactory use? Who can 

 tell the thousands of dollars sealed covers have 

 cost the American apiarist? What has been 

 the cost to the country of swarm-catchers, self- 

 hivers, and non-swarming attachments, and 

 other similar devices? and how many of them 

 till the bill? 



While all these things are a step upward, and 

 in this respect are to be encouraged, yet they 

 should be tested more thoroughly before Lhey 

 are given to the people in such a wholesale 

 manner. To test such things we need an ex- 

 periment station, with an appropriation of 

 llS.OOO per year, the same as is now given by 

 the government to the several wState experiment 

 stations. This would suffice to have one gen- 

 eral station, and have parties in several parts 

 of the country to try experiments in their parts. 

 If such work were properly conducted it would 

 be very valuable. Besides investigating things 

 of a practical nature, such a station could in- 

 vestigate things of a scientific nature on which 

 apiarists are not now agreed. 



We should like to know how many pounds of 

 honey an iivcrace colony consumes during a 

 year. How many pounds of honey does it take 

 to make a pound of beeswax? Do bees ever re- 

 move eggs from one cell to another to raise 

 queens? Do worker bcu's. in order to become 

 "laying workers." mai-e with drones? Will 

 the drones from laying workers fertilize queens? 

 Will the drones from unmated queens fertilize 

 (lueens? Would a strain of bees inbred, be- 

 yond the range of any other bees, degenerate? 

 Besides these we want to know how much 

 foundation it pays to use, both in brood-cham- 

 ber and in sections; just how much more ex- 

 tracted than comb honey (if any) bees will 

 make. In fact, the things we do know are very 



few; and the things we do not know are in- 

 numerable. 



Some may say, " Why, I have conducted 

 some of the experiments mentioned, and have 

 settled them beyond a doubt." Friend, you are 

 too fast; you hn,ve gone off at "half-cock." 

 The number of experiments thoroughly dem- 

 onstrated is very small. When a man makes a 

 discovery, or thinks he does, the first thing he 

 does is to write to his favorite bee-journal, an- 

 nouncing his discovery (?) in the most glowing 

 terms, calling upon the whole world to "see 

 our light;" when the fact is, in nine cases out 

 of ten, there is no light. It's peculiar how each 

 leader in apiculture makes all his efforts tend 

 to demonstrate some pet idea. If he believes a 

 certain kind of hive is the best, all his efforts 

 and experiments tend to show that it is. If a 

 certain strain of bees meets his fancy, all his 

 experiments seem to confirm his belief: but 

 such seems to be the tendency of life. If a 

 government station were established, much of 

 its efSciency would depend upon the apiarist in 

 charge. If he were a man of hobbies, its use- 

 fulness would be limited; if open to conviction 

 much good would result. We are fortunate in 

 having in America just the man to conduct 

 such a station— one in whom we all have im- 

 plicit confidence — a man with but one hobby; 

 that is, he believes the pure Carniolan bee is as 

 good a race as can be found; and although I 

 breed and advocate another race, I do not know 

 but he is correct. I refer to Mr. Frank Benton, 

 of Washington, D. C, one whom I believe we 

 should all be pleased to see placed at the head 

 of an experiment station, if such a thing were 

 to be established by our government. 



Atlantic, Iowa. Aug. 28. W. C. Fraziek. 



GIVING QUEENS TO COLONIES IMMEDIATELY 

 AFTER SWARMING. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE STATES HIS OB.JECTIONS. 



I am asked to give an article in Gleanings 

 on the plan of giving each colony a laying 

 queen immediately after swarming, as is recom- 

 mended by some, and also telling whether I 

 consider the plan a good one or not. As I do 

 not consider the plan a good one, I will try to 

 give my reasons for so thinking. 



For years we have been told that no colony 

 should go without a laying queen for a single 

 day, if it were possible to give it one; and plans 

 for introducing queens which required that the 

 hive should be queenless a week or so previous 

 have been severely criticised. We have also been 

 told that the bee-keeper who wishes to secure 

 the best results from his bees should havfc a 

 laying queen ready to give to each colony as 

 soon as it swarms, as the time lost to the old 

 colony in rearing a queen is equivalent to a 

 swarm of bees. Being eager to know for my- 

 self all of the plans which would give the best 

 results, I liave experimented largely along these 

 lines; and the truth of the statement, that the 

 time lost to the bees in rearing a queen in natu- 

 ral swarming is equivalent to a swarm of bees, 

 is the first n^ason that the plan has not been a 

 success with me. If it were bees that I were 

 after, the case would be different. With us the 

 white clovf'r yields only enough to keep the 

 bees breeding nicely, and prepares them so that 

 they swarm mainly from June '.'Oth to .luly 1st. 

 Our honey-harvest is principally from bass- 

 wood, which blooms from July .^th to IGth. 

 Now, all who are familiar with natural swarm- 

 ing know that the bees are comparatively few 

 in spring, and increase by the rapidly increas- 

 ing brood produced by the queen, which in due 

 time hatch into bees, until a swarm is the re- 



