150 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



when he came out and saw twenty colonies 

 all hanging in one cluster, he came very near 

 fainting ; but he revived the next morning 

 when he saw the bees sailing away over the 

 fields after their loads of honey. 

 ToKNDALE, Tex. Feb. 14, 1892. 



Don't Spread the Brood but Cut Holes in 



the Comb. — Herediacy in Breeding.— 



How to Get the Best ftueen Cells. 



.JNO. ANDREWS.* 



__- I T SEE that now and 



I j 1 then some one 



i I begins to talk about 



'spreading the 



J^lj. 



brood 



in spring 



j ^S^ taanagement. I 



I '~^ used to do it, but 



I in^' , don't now. I often 



i t^Hfe^ I found that I could 



J^^BbBmi % it'i i i '^ aSII ^^^ ^^'^ what the 

 |HH|^HHHlfl| weather to be 



Bn^^W^ ^B^^H^BB and in some colonies 

 I lost bees. Now, I put about two % inch 

 holes through the combs just under the top- 

 bar, and as soon as it will do the bees pass 

 through. As they are near the cluster, the 

 queen will follow, and that will induce more 

 bees to follow, and work begins outside. 

 ( tne who has time, and can watch progress, 

 need have but one or two combs at a time, 

 and the queen will go just as far as the bees 

 will prepare and keep the combs in condition 

 for her. 



My work, years ago, was all done as others 

 did it, but for a few years I have been ex- 



* John Andrews is the eldest of seven sons, 

 and has now passed his 72nd mile stone ; but is 

 yet in active work among the bees to which he 

 has given the most of his time for over twenty- 

 iive years. He was born in Qaeensbury, only a 

 mile from where he now resides. In 1813 he an- 

 ticipated Horace Greeley's advice and took 

 many strolls through the muddy streets of what 

 IS now the big city of Chicago. The next year 

 liis father visited him, and, as his fatlier was 

 getting ready to go back, the temptation to ac- 

 company liim was too great to be resisted The 

 next twenty years of liis life were spent in a cus- 

 tom grist mill, at Patten's Mills. Mr. Andrews 

 was married in 1846 and the companion of Jiis 

 early choice still takes her portion of the 

 cares to be found in life's pathway. Mr. An- 

 drew's first lessons in beekeeping were obtained, 

 from Moses Quinby's old work, although he liad 

 kept bees, as they used to keep them, for some 

 years before, and he can now claim over thirty 

 years of beekeeping ; but Time comes on apace 

 and he can but realize : 



That he has passed these active years, 



And stepping down from day to day, 



At every step the ending nears ; 



And Fate must tell, not far away, 



How soon the call, witli its behest. 



"Take thou thy final gift of rest." 



perimenting somewhat. One thing I have 

 learned is, that I can breed gentle or vicious 

 bees, and all from the same queen. But, 

 you say, how's that ? Well, i am honest in 

 the belief that the food prepared for a queen 

 or bees will partake of the nature of the 

 bees preparing it, and, consequently, my 

 efforts in breeding are not only to breed 

 from such queens as have gentle bees, but to 

 have gentle bees prepare the food for the 

 queen ; and these can be obtained among 

 the most industrious bees. 



This law of herediacy holds good in the 

 swarming tendency as well as in many 

 others. 



( )ne other thing I have found, that I can 

 get more good queen cells from a prolific 

 Carniolan colony than from any other bees 

 I have ever had. On this line I have nearly 

 succeeded in breeding the Carniolans to a 

 non-swarming bee. Four colonies worked 

 on this plan of breeding out the inclination 

 to swarm, gave me, last year, 890 lbs. of 

 section honey, and neither of the four at- 

 tempted to swarm, and any man working on 

 this line can breed out undesirable tenden- 

 cies. 



To get good queen cells I select, if it is 

 possible to do so, a colony that is getting 

 ready to swarm. If there are none in that 

 condition, I feed one until it is in that con- 

 dition. I then take away the queen, and let 

 the colony stand for six or seven days. If 

 honey is not coming in, I feed the colony, so 

 as to get all the chyme prepared that is pos- 

 sible. Then, I prepare eggs according to the 

 Alley plan, and with the point of my knife I 

 roll out all the queen grubs started, letting 

 the queen food remain unbroken, as far as 

 can be done. I then insert my frames with 

 prepared eggs, placing them among the 

 most brood. My frames run crosswise of 

 my hives, and I use two frames in each, 

 having a middle cross-bar in each frame, 

 thus making four courses of cells across the 

 hive. Between the two frames of prepared 

 eggs for queen cells I commonly put the two 

 frames containing the most prepared queen 

 food. Thus, you see, I have all the young 

 and older bees to prepare still more queen 

 food, and what is prepared will be used as 

 fast as needed, and is a clear gain. The 

 bees will keep preparing the food as long as 

 there is a queen cell not finished, and the 

 encouragement that the old bees get from 

 the constant hatching of the young bees will 

 press them to a diligent action. I made 



