312 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 14, 1903. 



"Scientific Oueen-Rearing-." I have written what I have 

 in favor of the book, because I fully believe that the bee- 

 keeper who follows its teaching- will be benefited thereby, 

 in that he or she will be enabled to rear queens superior to 

 those reared in any other way. Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



[We mail " Scientific Queen-Rearing " for iJl.OO, bound 

 in cloth, or 60- cents in leatherette binding. The cloth- 

 bound book we club with the American Bee Journal one 

 year— both for $1.60 ; or the leatherette-bound book and Bee 

 Journal one year— both for $1.40.] 



Putting Unfinished Section on the Hives. 



BY AKTHUR C. MILLER. 



RECENTLY, Miss Emma Wilson entered a protest 

 against the use of sections containing combs in which 

 honey of the previous season had been allowed to gran- 

 ulate. In the Journal for April 23, Mr. Doolittle combats 

 the idea that the use of such sections is in any way harmful. 

 When the doctors disagree the patient suffers. In this case 

 I think the secret of the trouble has been missed by both. 



It is, I believe, the usual practice to give such sections 

 to the bees, in the supers, when the latter are put on for the 

 surplus. It is Mr. D's practice to have them cleaned out in 

 the spring at considerable pains and cost. Ordinarily the 

 sections reach the bees when they are ready to add honey to 

 that already in the combs, and of course such mixed 

 honey is bound to granulate early. Sometimes, when the 

 old honey has slightly soured, the whole of the new honey 

 in that section is turned enough to spoil it. Also some of 

 the neighboring sections are sometimes affected by the 

 transfer to them of the acid honey, such transfer being 

 more likely when the flow is intermittent on account of 

 storms, cold, etc. Few bee-keepers realize how much bees 

 move honey about in the hive. Mr. F. B. Simpson first 

 called my attention to this, and it is a most valuable discov- 

 ery — I mean the extent of the practice. 



When honey is coming in with a rush such transferring 

 is lessened, but if it is coming in fast enough to have any 

 put into the sections, the bees vrill not remove and clean out 

 the old even though they may move some of it about. 



The foregoing, I think, will explain the why of the de- 

 scribed combs causing trouble. Mr. Doolittle has his combs 

 cleaned out thoroughly in the spring, others have it done in 

 the fall. The results are the same. 



Each bee-keeper must decide for himself, or herself, 

 whether he or she will use the wholesale fall way, or the retail 

 spring way; but either way, don't give the sections with 

 the honey in them. Have them dry. 



Providence Co., R. I. 



The Value of Breeding or Other Stock. 



BY H. L. JEFFREY'. 



I HAVE read and reread the article by Henry Alley, on 

 page 24, headed, " Can Good Queens be Reared by a Cup- 

 ful of Bees ? " There are two or three points in that ar- 

 ticle that interest me very much, and they are always left 

 as they seem to be by Mr. Alley, without any backing up 

 by facts or by comparison with the raw material proof 

 from pure and unadulterated laws of Nature. The first one 

 is the answers in Crude Nature to the heading question. 

 That one I will pass now, and take up the point where he 

 says, "How this statement will make Editor Hill of the 

 American Bee-Keeper jump." There are thousands of peo- 

 ple that not only jump, but they actually curse everything 

 and everybody, whoever it may be, that places more than 

 the butchers' price on anything, and the only reason for 

 such discarding deduction of the valuation of perpetuating 

 power always comes from the one idea of being cursed 

 with the inability to produce superiority in anything. And 

 the most galling thing to that class is, that in spite of their 

 attempt to obliterate such superiorities, that very uncon- 

 trollable "Old Dame Nature," so tantalizingly just keeps 

 poking one of her peculiar freaks just up into their sight, 

 and just so far out of their reach that all they can do is to 

 shake their fist and screech, " I wish the Devil had you ! " 

 But they forget to pay for a through ticket to his majesty, 

 so it cannot be used. 



But breeding-stock has a compounded compounding 

 valuation. I will tell you why. A dairy-man I have known 



for 40 years, has, within the past 30 years or less, actually 

 increased the butter quality of his own cows more than 

 double what it was years ago. About 30 years ago he no- 

 ticed that the offspring from a certain cow, and the blood of 

 a certain bull, always gave evidence of superior quality, 

 and, very quietly, and unobserved, he went to work to in- 

 tensify that power in the reproductive force and line. Close 

 inbreeding was resorted to, to a considerable extent, and 

 once that ball of inparting force became starting on its way, 

 and its volocity increased its own force, that dairy more 

 than doubled its butter yield from the same number of cows, 

 and therefore decreased the actual cost of production, which 

 in the actual sense not only gave double the profit, but was 

 4 to 1. Doubling the yield per cow, actually reduced the ex- 

 pense more than one-half; double the yield, made one less 

 cow to keep for the same result. One less cow to keep for 

 the same results made room to keep one more cow to pro- 

 duce double the result, which is actually twice 2 are 4, or an 

 actual '4 profit against even cost and income ; besides that, 

 his intensifying the reproductive powers gave alike percent- 

 age value to all his neighbors that raised calves from their 

 cows by his bull ; and in dollars and cents added to the 

 value of that man's breeding bull in ratio that his offspring 

 became numerous. 



This is not a fanciful sketch, but a solid, hard-pan, 

 solid-rock, and past approvable fact, and one of those laws 

 of the Old Dame, that cannot be drowned out of sight. 



But some will say, " A breeding bull and a queen are 

 not a particle alike." Well, just keep thinking so, and say- 

 ing so, but suppose they both could speak and say, " You 

 lie." Eh ? They act it out ; actions speak louder than 

 words, or my eyes are without sight. But it is just the same 

 with bees, only a less time required to produce the same 

 results. 



Only 12 years ago I saw 150 colonies of bees containing 

 the daughters of one queen that produced more than double 

 the quantity of honey that was produced by 200 colonies 

 containing the haphazard, come-as-you-please queens. 

 There was the close selection for quality followed up for 

 seven generations to produce the superior qualities. The 

 ISO queens were all reared in one season, the same persons 

 owing the 200 other colonies owned the ISO queens, and their 

 mother was worth just as much more than any other com- 

 mon queen as her progeny produced more pounds of honey 

 than the common stock. Furthermore, if from that queen 

 10,000 queens had been reared, and each of their colonies 

 produced only $1.00 more in honey than the common, aver- 

 age queen, that identical queen is actually worth the small 

 sum of $10,000 to the bee-keepers at large; and then select- 

 ing from her daughters a very few breeders of like produc- 

 tive powers, that $10,000 is again compounded. And deny 

 it if you can ; but remember that " Whosoever speaketh the 

 same, speaketh a lie, and the truth is not in him." Figures 

 prove 1 from 2 but one remains ; Nature proves 1 from 2, 

 and 3 remain ; or 8 from 2, and you have 10. 



Litchfield Co., Conn. 



\ Our Bee-Keeping Sisters \ 



Conducted bu EMMft M. WILSON, Marengo, III. 



Mr. Doolittle and the Sisters. 



The kind words from Mr. Doolittle about the " 

 Department" are thoroughly appreciated. Many 

 for the same. 



Unfinished Sections Used as Baits. 



Sisters 

 thanks 



Mr. Doolittle asks the question, " Why would Miss Wil- 

 son consider bait-sections spoiled because honey had candied 

 in them ?" 



I consider them spoiled because it is difficult, if not im- 

 possible, to get the granules entirely cleaned out, and be- 

 cause such granules present act as a center to start further 

 granulation. 



Mr. Doolittle asks : "Can't the bees clean sections or 

 the cells of the honey-comb as clean in the spring as in the 

 fall ?" 



Probably they can, if the honey is in the same condi- 



