February, 1916. 



American ^ee Journal 



cramped positions on the sides of the 

 comb and when the bees have built 

 them under distress conditions without 

 having had time to prepare for queen- 

 rearing by manufacturing abundant 

 supplies of royal jelly. The cells raised 

 as we describe them above are always 

 straight and will always fit into the 

 nursery cages and introducing cells. 

 By our method we rear as many queens 

 as are necessary for an entire apiary, 

 at one time and in one colony, which 

 save an incalculable amount of time 

 and labor when requeening. 



As in all queen-rearing operations it 

 is necessary that there be a constant 

 flow of nectar supplied to the bees 

 during the period of incubation, and if 

 weather conditions are such that there 

 is no nectar coming in and the bees 

 cannot fly, it is well to practice con- 

 stant stimulative feeding during the 

 time the cells are in the Rearing colony. 



Seguin, Tex. 



[Mr. Brenner's method is a duplica- 

 tion, with additional and useful im- 

 provements, of the method used by 

 Oscar Dines, described in the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal for Tune, 1912, by Mr. 

 F. Greiner. The horizontal comb 

 method was original, as we believe, 

 with Mr. H. L. Case, of New York 

 State. 



Our correspondent will permit us to 

 offer a short criticism of his able arti- 

 cle. It is regarding his belief that "the 

 first cells that are reared by the bees 

 in the case of a queenless colony should 

 be destroyed and only those permitted 

 to emerge which were built over eggs 

 that had not yet hatched at the time 

 the bees found themselves queenless". 

 This is on the assumption that the so- 

 called "royal jelly "is entirely different 

 from the jelly fed to the worker-bee 

 larvje at any stage of their life. The 

 observations of scientists overthrow 

 this view. There is little if any doubt 

 that the richest larval food is supplied 

 to all larvse during the first three days 

 of their existence, it being changed to 

 a coarser food in the case of drone and 

 worker after that period while the rich 

 food, under the name of royal jelly, is 

 continued to the queen-'larvae to the 

 end of their larval period. Were it 

 otherwise, the tendency of bees to rear 

 queens from larva; two or three days 

 old would have a nefarious influence 

 on the entire race. Our own experi- 

 ence in queen-rearing has always 

 proven favorable to the first hatched 

 queens. — Editor.] 



proportion to the number engaged in 

 the business are more fully represented 

 as drivers of autos than are the bee- 

 keepers. As I pause in my writing for 

 an instant, I can call to mind about 20 

 Ontario beekeepers who own machines, 

 and no doubt there are at least as 

 many more unknown to me. It can 

 hardly be said that beekeepers arj a 

 more prosperous bunch of fellows than 

 their neighbors engaged in other call- 

 ings, so there must be other reasons. 

 One of these is that their calling re- 

 quires much travel, especially if they 

 have outyards, and there are very few 

 who depend upon bees for a living but 

 what have outapiaries. 



The question of expense of buying, 

 and more particularly of up-keep of the 

 machines, looms large before the pros- 

 pective buyer, and those of us who are 

 running machines are often asked, 

 " Does it pay to own an auto for apiary 

 work ?" I want to say, in the words of 

 our esteemed friend Dr. Miller, "I 

 don't know," and yet after all it may be 

 of interest for me to give a few figures 

 as to what it has cost us to run a ma- 

 chine for the last three years. Please 

 bear in mind that I consider the ques- 

 tion from other angles than simply the 

 dollar and cent view. 



Although we run a car, we also keep 

 ahorse; that complicates the problem 

 a bit. We live in the country,and dur- 

 ing the winter months we would be 

 shut in too much if we did not have a 

 horse. Fortunately, during the three 

 years that we have had a car, a neigh- 

 bor has been keeping our horse in a 

 way that costs us very little. He has no 

 driving horse himself, and as we use a 

 horse but little in the summer season, 

 he feeds it and in return has the pref- 

 erence for driving during the time that 

 there is no snow on the ground. Dur- 

 ing winter the farm horses are idle 

 and then we have the preference if we 

 need the horse. The plan works well, 

 but I am aware that a combination 

 affectingtwo people's interests so favor- 

 ably cannot often be expected. 



In the season of 1913 we bought a 

 Studebaker car — a five passenger 25 H. 

 P. model. This car was run until Sep- 



tember of the present year, and then, 

 having a chance for a deal, it was 

 traded for a 7passenger 1916 model of 

 the same make. The old car was turned 

 in at two-thirds of its original value, 

 and it is on that basis that I figure the 

 cost of the trnnsaction. Repairs were 

 very light. After hearing what some 

 have to put up with, I feel like saying 

 nothing about this item at all. On the 

 basis of my deal, depreciation cost me 

 about $130 a year. As the last season 

 was an average one, I will give figures 

 for that year alone as to oil, gasoline 

 and tire costs. During the season we 

 have run just about 5000 miles — ran the 

 car for the last time this season on 

 Christmas night — snow fell the next 

 day. I have averaged nearly 20 miles 

 to the gallon, imperial measure of 

 course, which is about one-fifth larger 

 capacity than the United States meas- 

 ure, which we call " wine measure." 



That figures 250 gallons of gasoline 

 at an average price of about 18 cents — 

 it is much higher now. I used about 15 

 gallons of Cylinder oil at 70 cents a 

 gallon. My tire bill was light, as in the 

 5000 miles I had only two punctures 

 and one blow out; $40 would cover 

 this item nicely. Will place repair bill 

 at $10, which will cover all items in 

 that line. Recapitulating we have for 

 the year with 5000 miles running : De- 

 preciation, $130; gasoline, $45; oil, 

 $10..50; repairs, $10; tire bill, $40 ; mak- 

 ing a total of $235.50. I have not men- 

 tioned the matter of lighting, which 

 must be put down to about $4.00 for 

 two tanks of "Presto-lite." My tire 

 estimate may be a bit low, as we never 

 know how long old tires will last, so 

 to be on the safe side we will raise the 

 bill to $2.50. The new car is electrically 

 lighted and started so these figures 

 may be too low for next year's expen- 

 ses, but there is no use borrowing 

 trouble. 



For 5000 miles running, then the cost 

 figures out 5 cents a mile. But I made 

 a splendid deal in getting rid of the 

 used car at the price obtained for it — 

 it was in good shape and hardly 

 scratched, but old cars are hard to sell 

 at a fair figure. But the important 



Automobiles for Beekeepers 



BY J. L. BYER. 



AUTOMOBILES have come to stay. 

 That is the almost universal ver- 

 dict even on the part of many who 

 have no love (so they say) for the gas 

 \vag0n5. Possibly no body of men in 



EXTRACTING DAY AT THE MONASTERY APIARY OF FR.'\NCISCAN FATHERS 



OLDENBURG. IND. 



