"novice's" gleanings in bee culture. 



87 



no Extractor at command. If extra emp- 

 ty combs can he had, exchange all but 

 the brood combs and then teed ; if it can 

 be so managed that the bees use their 

 natural stores during mild weather they 

 may do very well. 



And in conclusion we will add, that to 

 succeed you must feed earl}'. 



Our best results have been from those 

 colonies fed up in September; Oct. if the 

 weather is warm may answer, but colo- 

 nies fed even in the fore part of Nov. 

 have almost invariably been unhealthy. 

 \\ r cak colonies most especially are slow 

 in sealiug their stores, and these should 

 be fed first, but a better way is to have 

 no weak ones, for by exchanging brood 

 we may equalize them to a great extent. 

 We have of late had success in removing 

 a comb of brood, bees and all, and in no 

 case has there been quarreling. (Be sure 

 you dont get the queen too, for that 

 would assuredly be a loss.) 



♦ » » 



IMPROVEMENTS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1VI R - EDIT0R; — In y° ur article on 



»k«"kj the rearing of queens, in the August 

 number of "Gleanings, ' you give verj r 

 good directions for the improvement of 

 bees by selection. But allow me to tell 

 you that you consider the question only 

 on one side. For it is not all to have 

 prolific breeders, you should have also 

 good sires. In this question, drones are 

 as important as queens. If we allow 

 nature to have her way, as to the produc- 

 tion of drones for the fertilization of our 

 queens, we will run the risk of losing as 

 much on one side as we gain on the other. 

 Indeed, if we let chance have a hand in 

 the matter, we will be apt to raise drones, 

 from the least prolific, as from the best. 

 Besides, if we wish to produce pure Ital- 

 ians, we cannot do so unless we control 

 the production of drones, for if there are 

 any hybrids or blacks in the neighborhood 

 they will be sure to raise a quantity of 

 drones. 



To prevent this, let us rempve all drone 

 comb (as far as possible) from every hive 

 in the spring, replacing it with worker 

 comb. Then let us choose the best or 

 some of the best stocks and introduce 

 one or two drone combs in the middle 

 of the brood, early in the season, say in 

 April. These stocks will furnish drones 

 for our queens all the season. In July, 

 when the bees begin to kill their drones, 

 we should remove these combs containing 

 drone brood and introduce them into 

 some queenless stocks, kept queenless for 

 that purpose. Care should be taken that 

 the drone-breeding queens be not of the 

 suiic family, or at least not too closely 

 connected, with the queen-breeding queens, 

 in order to prevent in and in breeding. 



This removal of drone comb in the 

 spring, which seems at first very tedious 

 and long, is easily performed, with a little 



patience. It can also be attended to with 

 advantage when extracting honey. 



A few more remarks and 1 am done 

 We never kill the queens of the hives in 

 which we want to introduce queen cells 

 until the tenth day in the morning. We 

 introduce the queen cells in the after- 

 noon ; this leaves the hive but a short 

 time without a queen. A beginner, how 

 ever, had perhaps better remove the 

 queen a little earlier. 



I also find fault with your way of mak- 

 ing a queenless stock, by putting a leal 

 partly under the cover. By that way, if 

 you have a large number of hives, you 

 don't know the date of the insertion of 

 the queen cell and may have to inspect 

 the hive several times without result. On 

 the other hand, if a young queen gets 

 lost, you are not aware of it in time, as 

 you do not know when she should be lay- 

 ing, unless you can remember the date. 

 For this purpose and for all other mat- 

 ters pertaining to the apiary we use black- 

 boards on every hive. They are made of 

 ! inch boards, ?> by 5 inches ; on one side 

 they are painted with ^ateH/ liquid slate, 

 to be had in any of your large Eastern 

 cities. The other side is painted white, 

 with the number of the hive on one cor- 

 ner. These boards are fastened behind 

 the hive by a small tin holder. When the 

 hive is queenless we write the particulars 

 and date on the board and turn the black 

 side out. When the queen lays we mark 

 the date of her beginning to lay and the 

 year in which she was born, and turn the 

 white side out. We thus know the age of 

 every queen, her pedigree and in fact all 

 the particulars about the hive, by referr- 

 ing to the black board. In summer we 

 also keep a large slate on which we write 

 all the work to be done in the apiary, in- 

 troduction of queen cells, inspection of 

 young queens, i-emoval of hybrids or un- 

 proUfic queens, &c, &c. When Mrs. 

 Tupper visited our apiary, some two 

 years ago, she was struck with the ease 

 and facility afforded by these black-boards 

 and adopted them immediately. Since 

 you seem to make it a business of furnish- 

 ing cheap apiarian supplies, could you 

 not manufacture these boards, with tin 

 holders for the benefit of your readers ? 



But I notice that my "few remarks'' are 

 degenerating into a long article, I will 

 therefore close by declaring myself one 

 of your admiring friends, 



C. P. Dadamt, Hamilton, III. 



August 7, 1873. 



Many thanks, friend Dadant. We saw 

 the advantage of rearing choice drones, 

 also, but feared to confuse some of our 

 friends by giving too man}' directions at 

 once, and we still insist that if all queens 

 reared are from choice or pure mothers. 

 we shall in time have far better stock 

 than at present. Natural queens or 

 queens from natural swarming are al- 

 ways hap hazard stock, and should not be 

 tolerated by any one having the least de- 

 sire to receive the benefits of the Italian 



