120 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURISAL. 



Feb. 19, 1903. 



about the size and shape of your grey and black timber 

 squirrels. They destroy tons of growing- grain and other 

 stuff. A 20,000-acre ranch paid a man 25 cents per acre for 

 destroying them with poisoned wheat. 



A man came for me to take some bees out of his house. 

 My son did the work, and I superintended. They were in a 

 cavity under an upper veranda about 8 feet long and 4 feet 

 wide. They had first built at one side of a division-board 

 placed there as a brace. They had been in there four or 

 five years. They extended their combs back, and finally 

 ■ built on the other side of this board. We took out about 

 100 pounds of good honey— 60 pounds of good, white orange 

 blossom honey gathered last spring. Every cell was built 

 worker size. Here had evidently been one of those large 

 queens and large colonies, but for some unaccountable rea- 

 son the bees had dwindled to but few in numbers, and no 

 queen or brood of any description. You can readily see 

 that Mr. Alley had nothing to do with rearing those queens, 

 neither had Gallup anything to do with his ignorant and 

 bungling introducing. " How did it happen ?" Read care- 

 fully Mr. W. J. Stahmann's article on page 776(1902). He 

 says : " In several generations the egg-laying capacity of 

 queens can be increased, and, on the other hand, if kept in 

 small hives the tendency is to degenerate and lessen the 

 capacity of a prolific strain of queens." Positive fact. 

 That article hits the nail right on the head. 



Now, Mr. Alley says he always selects his best cells 

 and very best queens to send to his customers. Now, my 

 friends, if you will use extra-large and prolific queens, and 

 extra-large and strong colonies, as I have described, every 

 cell built at swarming-time, every queen hatched out will 

 be first-class, long-lived, etc. There need be no selection 

 as there is in cells and queens reared in small nuclei. If 

 you wish to deteriorate your stock of bees to the lowest 

 possible degree, rear your queens in the above manner for 

 a series of years. On the other hand, if you wish to rear 

 them up to the highest possible standard of perfection as 

 to prolificness, longevity, etc., use extra-large hives and 

 colonies. In that manner, and in no other way that I know 

 of, can we improve our stock. As Mr. Stahmann says, we 

 can make a wonderful improvement in a series of years. 

 There is no mistake in the fact, for it is a fact, and a posi- 

 tive fact. 



This theory will apply to the improvement of stock, 

 vegetables, trees, etc. Who would think of making the 

 improvement that has been made in stock by the deteriorat- 

 ing plan that Mr. Alley recommends — insufficient nourish- 

 ment, warmth, and all the necessary requirements for 

 success ? 



Here is an illustration in the vegetable kingdom : On 

 the next block to me two ladies each set out a banana plant 

 last spring. The one spaded up the ground for quite a dis- 

 tance, spaded in a liberal supply of well-rotted manure, has 

 stirred the ground repeatedly, and given a good supply of 

 water. The other plant was set in a small hole, the ground 

 all around the plant hard and dry ; it has been watered only 

 occasionally. The first-named plant is in an extraordi- 

 narily flourishing condition, while the last-named is only 

 about one- fourth as large. I measured one leaf on the large 

 plant Dec. 1, and it measured 8 feet long and S feet 7 inches 

 broad in the middle. Now, which plant think you will give 

 the largest cluster of fruit when it comes to bearing ? 



Let us contrast the extra-large hives, large queens 

 long-lived, and long-lived workers, with the small 8-frame 

 hives, small queens short-lived, and short-lived workers, 

 and see how we come out. For queens and workers reared 

 on the nucleus plan are short lived when compared with those 

 of the first-named class. The extra-large colonies are 

 always in a condition to take advantage of a honey-yield 

 whether late or early, unless the apiarist has deprived them 

 of all their stores at a season when he ought not. 



Our orange-blossom yield comes very early here. See 

 the case of the large colony gathering 60 pounds of orange- 

 blossom honey mentioned above. You see they were in a 

 state of Nature— neither Gallup nor Alley had ever tinkered 

 with them. 



Now, we will take the small hive with the nucleus- 

 reared queen. Karly in the spring the colony is weak in 

 numbers because they are so short-lived. The first move 

 they have to make is to rear brood to replenish their num- 

 bers, and by the time their numbers are built up the season 

 is passed and nothing stored, and if there is another yield 

 the bees are in a starving condition and must be fed. Now, 

 I hold that a large natural colony is self-sustaining at all 

 times, even in our dryest seasons. For I never have seen 

 the season that there was not a short flow from some source, 

 and your large colony with long-lived bees is in a condition 



to fill up in a very few days. I never could see the propriety 

 of having an extra-large number of colonies on hand, if 

 one-half or more were productive. Why not reduce the 

 number and have all productive, and produce more honej' ? 

 If all can not be brought (approximately) up to the standard 

 of perfection, please give the reason. 



Orange Co., Calif. 



I Our Bee-KeeDin§ Sisters l 



Conducted bu EMMfl M. WILSON, Marengo, 111. 



That Much-Talked-of Hat-Pin. 



In regard to that oft-referred-to hat-pin, it was only a 

 plain, black-headed hat-pin. Nothing unusual about it 

 that I know of. I am going to try a white-headed one next 

 summer, to see if it afi'ects the bees the same way. 



Mr. Whitney, if your locks were only long enough to do 

 up on top of your head, you would find a deal of comfort in 

 that same hat-pin, aside from giving the bees something to 

 play with. 



Cotton-Waste foF Smoker-Fuel. 



We have used cotton-waste for smoker-fuel a good deal 

 — such as has been used for journal-packing on car-wheels. 

 It is easily lighted and burns well ; it also lasts well. I 

 never liked to handle the stufl^ very well, and it has a very 

 disagreeable, oily odor. When smoking bees out of sections 

 we were afraid to use it, for fear it would spoil the flavor of 

 our nice, white sections of honey, but at other times it is 

 excellent. It is, however, not always easily obtained. 



Dead Bees on the Cellar-Floor. 



Are you keeping the dead bees swept up in your cellar? 

 Better do it. It will help to keep things sweet and clean. 



We would not like a lot of dead people lying around on 

 the floors of our homes. I don't believe the bees do, either. 

 How promptly everything objectionable is carried out of 

 their hives when they are out-of-doors, able to fly, and do 

 their own house-cleaning. 



If it happens to be anything too big for them to get out. 

 they will cover it over with propolis. They keep everything 

 dainty and sweet about their premises. Too bad to make 

 them suff'er bad odors when they can't help themselves. 



Another thing to be taken into consideration is the 

 health of the people living over the cellar. To live over a 

 cellar with foul odors is not the healthiest thing in the 

 world ; and our own health ought to be reason enough for 

 keeping it clean, even if we cared nothing for our bees. 



Cleaning- Out Unfinished Sections and Frames. 



I agree with Mr. Bevins in his plan of cleaning out un- 

 finished sections. That is the way I have done for two 

 years, only on a smaller scale. The only difference is, I 

 have not used the burlap over them, which is a good plan 

 where there are a good many, but as I did not have so many 

 I would not have thought of doing so. I put in the supers 

 four or six of the section-holders, and then set the super on 

 the hive, then uncapped where the honey was, and set six 

 or more about on the holders, then put on the cover, and the 

 bees did nice work for me. I did not put them close to- 

 gether so they could get at them all over. I would take 

 them out when clean and put in more, so they have done 

 good work for two years. In that way, as Mr. Bevins says, 

 the colonies that need it get it, and no chance for robbing, 

 •as the other bees do not know it is there. 



I told in a previous article of uniting my bees and put- 

 ting the frames that had honey in on top of the ones I 

 united. I got them all cleaned out as nicely as the sections, 

 and some of the frames I gave to others that might need 

 more. So I have a nice lot ready for use when the time 

 comes to need them. 



I write this for the sisters who, like myself, are doing 



