May, 1916. 



153 



American ^ea Jfournal j ^^j^ 



)>^:<rn,^f» 



been paid for from the proceeds of the 

 apiary as an example of what can be 

 cxpcctfd from honey production. Mr 

 Baxter's largest lioiiey crop was in 

 1882 wlicn ho took twelve thousand 

 pounds of honey from forty-one col- 

 onies spring count. Tliis was when 

 he had only a few bees and before he 

 came to regard the business seriously. 

 Prom that day to this he has been an 

 enthusiastic beekeeper and although 

 such unusual crops come only at rare 

 intervals the memory of such a one is 

 sufficient to lend encouragement dur- 

 ing several years of failure. It is 

 needless to state that this crop was not 

 included in figuring the average re- 

 turn for the three years above quoted. 



Mr Baxter began life without assis- 

 ■ tance and has accumulated his modest 

 fortune entirely by his own efforts. 

 When asked whether a young man 

 without capital could hope to succeed 

 under present conditions he did not 

 hesitate to say that, if he would mas- 

 ter the business and stick to the bees 

 through thick and thin, he could with- 

 in a few years make himself indepen- 

 dent by growing fruit and producing 

 honey for market. 



There are numerous examples oi 

 young men who have started with a 

 few colonies under difficulties and 

 while attending to other work have 

 gradually increased the number until 

 they were prepared to cut loose and 

 depend entirely upon the bees. While 

 the man who has sufficient capital to 

 carry him over a season of failure 

 will "usually find it more profitable to 

 to depend entirely upon honey pro- 

 duction and extend his business to 

 the point where it will justify his en- 

 tire attention, the man with limited 

 resources will usually find it better 

 to combine beekeeping with some 

 other line for a time until he is more 

 secure in case misfortune in the form 

 of an epidemic of disease, poor sea- 

 sons or other calamity should over- 

 take him. 



THE HOUSE THE BEES BUILT 



Value of Young Queens 



BY N. E. FRANCE. 

 J?eciti at the Wisconsiti State Meeting in loi f . 



WISCONSIN has over 10,000 bee- 

 keepers according to the United 

 States census, and a large portion 

 of those have rural delivery, are away 

 from the busy city, enjoy fresh air, and 

 best of home grown food; fresh eggs, 

 butter and honey. They know the 

 value of the best breeding in farm ani- 

 mals, also the care of same. Suppose I 

 should advise them to sell that high 

 priced sire at the head of the profitable 

 dairy and use instead a cheap scrub 

 sire whose breeding for generations 



THE BEES ARE WINTERED IN DOUBLE-WALLED HIVES 



was its own relation. They would at 

 once consider me a fit subject for the 

 asylum. 



Again suppose I go into an orchard 

 and find quite an apiary, and inquire as 

 to what strain of bees it has. Too 

 often I find hives of several kinds, 

 some painted, others not, but all show 

 neglect, and the hive entrances show a 

 lot of small, almost black, bees likely 

 badly diseased. 



Who is to blame ? Nature has done 

 all possible to avoid inbreeding of bees, 

 as the queen mates on the wing away 

 from home, but if the entire apiary is 

 inbred stock, what is the result ? I 

 know bee owners who have boasted to 

 me of never having purchased any 

 queens. I don't believe in it. I need 

 not tell you what I find in such api- 

 aries. Last season not an average 

 honey crop was harvested, and many 

 times in the latter part of the summer 

 and fall I found small swarms not good 

 enough to winter where the owner had 

 no knowledge of the age of his queen. 



Old queens, or those over a year old, 

 will not fill the hives with bees in the 

 spring or summer, and certainly will 

 not have many young bees for winter. 

 I consider young queens very impor- 

 tant. 



When I was wintering 600 colonies 

 on summer stands, I seldom had much 

 loss if I had young queens with abun- 

 dance of good honey and colonies in 

 well protected hives. Again young 

 queens are much less liable to swarm, 

 will have hives full of workers when 

 the honey season comes, and head the 

 profitable colonies. 



It is not necessary to buy many 

 queens eveiyyear, as enough from one 

 good queen can be reared to requeen 

 an entire apiary. European foulbrood 

 is much worse in these weak inbred 

 apiaries, so that I now consider this 

 disease a real blessing in disguise. It 

 means, where found, the owner will 

 take much better care of his bees, in- 

 troduce better blood, and give the bees 

 the needed care. 



