October, igio. 



American Hee Journal 



frames and trickled merrily down to 

 the tank. The frequent stimulus to the 

 bees, and the ever-ready combs caused 

 an immediate break in my records. 

 The daily run jumped from 35 pounds 

 per colony to 53, a most interesting re- 

 versal of the figures. 



Do not for a moment think that I 

 failed to recognize that this nectar was 

 insufficiently cured. After the ma- 

 chinery was in good working order my 

 only work all summer was the running 

 of my automatic honey-curer, and my 

 automatic 5-gallon can-filler. My work 

 consisted in driving the loads of honey 

 to the depot and making out shipping 

 receipts, not to mention a little other 

 clerical work. 



I hesitate to make public these shaky 

 results, for I fear that so many friends 

 of the American Bee Journal will im- 

 mediately start similar apiarian plants 

 and cause a glut in the honey market. 

 Since I have succeeded in getting this 

 machinery to run without a hitch, I 

 find that I can produce honey at 3 

 mills per pound, and it is on the 

 strength of this fact alone that I ven- 

 ture to publish this story of my aston- 

 ishing success. 



There is still one problem which I 

 am unable to fathom. If shaking brings 

 such incredible results, why shouldn't 

 the shaking palsy which afflicts bees 

 also prove beneficial ? I am planning, 

 another season, to experiment along 

 this line, and trust, through the dis- 

 covery of the proper serum, to get 

 something with which we can inocu- 

 late our queens, and thereby bring 

 about a perfectly natural shake. 



Ananiasville, New England. 



Making Progress in Bee-culture 



Read before the Conneetieut Bee- h'ee /'ers' 

 Assoeiatiort 



BY ARTHUR C. MILLER. 



The successful progress with bees 

 has been largely a matter of manage- 

 ment or manipulation. The oldest rec- 

 ords indicate a large dependence on sun- 

 dry operations. All manners and sorts 

 of hives and appliances, designed to fa- 

 cilitate different manipulations, have 

 been offered, urged and forgotten, only 

 to be followed by more. With the ad- 

 vent of the bees from Italy about i860, 

 attention was called to the fact that bees 

 varied in temperament and abilities, but 

 beyond the continued importation of 

 queens from Italy, and later the intro- 

 duction of other races, very little has 

 been done in the way of developing the 

 bee. Here and there some bee-keeper 

 has made some cross-mating, or select- 

 ed for color, and now and then some 

 more progressive or inquisitive man has 

 made long-continued effort to breed 

 an improved strain. But scarcely with- 

 out exception all have leaned heavily on 

 pet theories of manipulation to secure 

 results in honey. 



As illustrative, consider the frequent 

 enlarging and contracting of entrances, 

 transposing brood, stimulative feeding, 

 etc., for getting colonies ready for the 

 harvest. And then there are the sundry 

 expedients for persuading the bees to en- 

 ter the supers, to keep them at work and 

 prevent them from swarming. 



All this is but the following in the 



footsteps of the ancient bee-keepers, due 

 largely to man's natural tendencies, 

 much to the exploitation of devices and 

 implements by the supply manufacturers, 

 and perhaps quite as much to the sup- 

 posed difficulty of breeding bees up to 

 any high standard. 



Occasionally some one has urged the 

 keeping of more bees, and doing less 

 fussing with them, and such advice is 

 good, but it does not go far enough. 



Perhaps I can best show you how to 

 lessen manipulation, increase your crops, 

 make certain the business, and put your- 

 selves in the line of progress by relat- 

 ing a few of the habits of the bees, the 

 factors governing their well-being, and 

 relate to you some of the results of my 

 efforts to produce a "thoroughbred" bee. 



Like all the rest of animal life the bee 

 seeks physical comfort. Food, warmth, 

 dryness, are the essentials of its well-be- 

 ing. In the search for its food the sense 

 of smell plays the chief part, and in very 

 much of its activity the bee "follows its 

 nose." In any shelter which will protect 

 them from moisture, the bees, with suf- 

 ficient food, will keep themselves warm. 

 Warmth is the second great essential in 

 its life, but, as you will later see, man's 

 efforts to help the bee to keep warm 

 often do more harm than good. To keep 

 dry, the bee endeavors to cement up 

 every crack and crevice. It is to keep 

 in the heat, that the bee uses the prop- 

 olis. 



When brood-rearing is progressing 

 rapidly the bees spread over all the 

 comb-surface they can cover and still 

 keep comfortable. It is not intelligence, 

 but warmth, which governs. But when 

 brood-rearing is small, and outside tem- 

 perature low, the bees cluster closely and 

 keep warm. But note, the air around the 

 rhit;tor i^ nrnrtinllv not affected by the 

 temperature of the bees. Bear that fact 

 in mind when you pack your bees in a 

 thick-walled, chaff-packed hive. Your 

 bees would be better off in winter, 

 wrapped in a sheet of waterproof paper. 



In the winter the thick walls keep them 

 cold, not warm ; and often prevent the 

 escape of moisture, particularly with a 

 small entrance. In the spring and fall, 

 and in cool summer nights, common in 

 some places, the thick hives are a help. 

 but simpler and cheaper devices answer 

 as well, or better. 



To keep dry, the bee at all times wants 

 plenty of air. In the winter, help it by 

 giving all the entrance possible. I 

 would rather have no floor on my hives 

 than to have the entrances reduced to 

 two inches by one-half inch, as is a com- 

 mon practice. In the winter the bee is 

 dependent upon the sun and natural air 

 inovements for keeping dry, but in the 

 warmer seasons it controls the air-cur- 

 rents to such an extent of giving "more 

 than enough" in winter and summer, but 

 in spring and fall reducing it to "not 

 enough." The reasons for a reduction 

 at such times are that, in the spring, 

 a relatively small force of bees is trying 

 to care for a large surface of brood, and 

 incidentally much heat is escaping from 

 them. In the fall, decreasing force is 

 trying to keep warm, and ripen and seal 

 its stores, which are much spread out, 

 hence heat escapes. 



In the height of the harvest a large 



force is generating much heat, is throw- 

 ing off much moisture, and must have a 

 large opening for ventilation, therefore, 

 the wide open entrance, say 18 inches by 

 one inch. 



But properly to conduct their work, 

 bees must be kept warm, and as the 

 night advances they lessen or stop their 

 fanning. If the temperature of the air 

 drops they gather more and more com- 

 pactly, finally, perhaps, leaving the su- 

 pers and clustering closely on the brood. 

 If you understand the law of wax-pro- 

 duction, you will see the loss. Protec- 

 tion then by means of a double wall or 

 wrapping pays. 



It is not generally known that bees 

 sleep, perhaps not just in the sense that 

 we do, but still it is a condition of abso- 

 lute stillness. Individually bees may be 

 found sleeping at almost any time, but 

 the whole colony goes to sleep about 

 midnight, and sleeps till about 3 a.m. 

 This is in June. Let them sleep in the 

 supers. It will pay. 



With a proper condition of bees of a 

 suitable strain, the only thing which can 

 be called "manipulation" in the forego- 

 ing is control of the entrance done with 

 a plain stick of wood, used once in the 

 fall. 



I have cut the manipulation to a min- 

 imum, but I have based it on a proper 

 hive and on "proper condition of bees." 

 I know that you have been soundly in- 

 structed in hives by your able president, 

 Mr. Latham, so I will at once take up 

 the subject of the bees. 



The great consideration is to have all 

 colonies uniform at all times; but how 

 many men reach such ideal conditions? 

 They can be reached, and easily, too. 

 The chief essentials are to have all col- 

 onies with queens of the same age and 

 same breeding. The first half is easy; 

 the second is not, unless you will train 

 yourselves to study the bee so carefully 

 that you can tell beyond a reasonable 

 doubt just how your queens have mated. 

 Now, I do not mean, to see if the work- 

 ers have three bands, but that all queens 

 are mated to drones of one particular 

 queen. That is possible and not very dif- 

 ficult if you care to apply yourself. It 

 means that you must learn to see many 

 things besides stripes. You must recog- 

 nize color tints, hair color and density, 

 shape, extent of excitability, reaction to 

 smoke, etc. I have in mind three strains 

 of Italians, two of them the result of 

 careful selection extending over many 

 years, the other of but three years stand- 

 ing. The first two are of the dark type, 

 and the last of the golden. No matter 

 how they mate up, it is always possible 

 to determine the cross. The golden al- 

 ways gives a color to the underside of 

 the abdomens : one of the darks has a 

 pUB 'adBtjs JBjnDUJnd habit of action, to- 

 gether with a superabundance of white 

 hair, which are always stamped plainly 

 on its progeny; and the other dark has 

 a pink tint which seems indelible. 



But you need not go so far. though 

 that will pay, and the thorough-breeder 

 must do that, and more. Select as a 

 queen-mother one whose w'orkers pos- 

 sess the traits you want, and use her as 

 long as she lives. Take the one of her 

 queen daughters which produces the 

 largest and mo«t uniformily marked 



