■1861 L 



j^ERICA.^ 



43d YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, JUNE 11, 1903, 



No. 24. 





Editorial Comments 





Text-Books on Bee-Culture are things of exceeding impor- 

 tance. Beginners are sometimes puzzled to know what is meant by a 

 text-boolf. Well, a text-book on bee-culture is simply a book of in- 

 struction, telling something about bees and their habits, and giving 

 advice as to the care of them. The beginner who is trying to keep 

 bees without having a text-book, even if he has only a single colony, 

 is making a great mistake. None of the text-books costs much more 

 than a dollar, and the beginner in ignorance of the principles of bee- 

 keeping may easily make a mistake that will cost him a good deal 

 more than a dollar in a single season. 



It is a serious mistake to think that for a time the beginner will 

 get along all right with a bee-paper, and after he has had more ex- 

 perience it will be time to get a text-book, or, as some call it, a bee- 

 book. A bee-paper comes in to supplement a text-book, not to take 

 the place of it. It you can have only the one, by all means get the 

 text-book, though no one should think of keeping up-to-date wituout 

 a paper also. But the text-book is the thing of first importance, and 

 should be faithfully studied from the first minute you come in posses- 

 sion of a colony of bees, or, still better, before you get any bees at all. 



Second Swarms Should Be Prevented, as a rule. This 

 item is for beginners, and older readers can skip it. If colonies are 

 left to themselves, they will generally send out a second swarm, some- 

 times a third, and even a fifth or sixth, although the latest issues are 

 likely to be very small indeed. The beginner may feel pleased at the 

 thought of so much increase, but sooner or later his greatest desire 

 will be to prevent all swarms after the first, if indeed he does not 

 desire to prevent even the first issue. 



It is not a very difficult thing to prevent after-swarms. When the 

 prime swarm is hived, set it on the stand of the old colony, putting 

 the old colony close beside it. A week later remove the old colony to 

 a new stand. All the field-bees from the old colony when they return 

 from foraging will now go straight to the old stand, joining the 

 swarm. That will greatly weaken the old colony, and at the same 

 time stop the carrying in of all nectar. Being weakened by the loss of 

 bees, and discouraged at the apparent cessation of the harvest, the 

 bees will give up all thought of further swarming, allowing all queens 

 to be destroyed in their cells by the first one that emerges. 



Apple-Blossom Honey.— Fruit-bloom is counted of much im- 

 portance because it comes at a time to aid greatly in building up colo- 

 nies in strength for the coming harvest, but probably few have 

 thought of it as a source of any considerable surplus. G. M. Dqolittle, 

 however, has expressed the opinion that if colonies were strong enough 

 at the time of fruit-bloom, it might be the source of considerable sur- 

 plus. But a yield of 100 pounds a colony would seem surprising. J. 

 A. Crane says in Gleanings in Bee-Culture: 



This county (Wayne) stands fourth in the United States as an 

 apple county, and we can '■ know it last fall " whether the orchards 

 will blossom or not this year: and also that, if the weather is favor- 

 able, and our bees in shape, we shall get honey. 



In 19U1 I extracted from three hives (supers and brood-nest) three 



times in ten days, taking from each, at each extracting, a 12-ciuart 

 bucketful of honey. Ripe? Yes, it weighed 12 pounds and 3 ounces 

 per gallon. It candied solid the next January, and was pure white — 

 nearly 100 pounds per colony. My whole yard averaged over .50 

 pounds per colony. Now, don't think I mean to say that such a crop 

 can be secured enri/ year ; but I h,ive had four yields of apple-blossom 

 honey to three of basswood, so I think it well worth working for, see- 

 ing that you need prepare for it only when the trees are going to 

 blossom full. 



Now about the quality. I retail all, or nearly all, of my honey; 

 and when a customer has once had apple-blossom honey he will 

 always call for it again, although I have several other kinds — rasp- 

 berry, clover, basswood, and generally buckwheat. 



Danger of Easy Increase.— That a colony of bees, or any 

 part of a colony, when left without a queen will proceed at once to 

 rear a queen from a worker-grub — if such a grub be present — makes it 

 seem a very easy matter to increase the number of colonies with great 

 rapidity. Therein lies a danger to beginners — a very great danger. 

 If a beginner has a colony with six, eight, or more frames of brood, he 

 thinks that all he needs to do is to put a frame of brood with adhering 

 bees into each of six, eight, or more hives, and, presto ! there he is, 

 with six, eight, or more colonies. If he acts upon that thought he 

 will be very sure to rue it. Let him study carefully in his text-book 

 some of the principles that should govern in such matters, and then 

 he may act with some intelligence. As a further help, some hints will 

 be given in these columns in the present and subsequent numbers 

 which it will be well for the novice to study carefully. 



To Provide Ventilation When Moving Bees, a common 

 way is to use a screen of wire-cloth covering the entire top, a wire- 

 cloth screen also closing the entrance. Gleanings in Bee-Culture 

 gives the following ingenious way to save trouble and expense: 



Instead of using an ordinary wire-cloth screen, take some pieces 

 of one-piece section, 's-inch thick, and lay one piece at each of the 

 four corners, on top of the hive-body. The cover is now set on top, 

 and, as will be seen, there will be a '..-inch crack on the sides, front, 

 and rear, between the cover and the body, and just narrow enough to 

 exclude bees. The knee is now placed on the cover, when a crate- 

 staple is driven in, spanning the body and cover just opposite or near 

 one of these section-pieces. With wire-cloth nailed over the entrance, 

 and the cover secured ie.-inch above the bive-bodies, we get sufficient 

 ventilation, even on hot days, if the bees are not to be moved more , 

 than about two or three miles. But I would not move during the heat 

 of the day. Let it be in the morning or evening. 



Still easier, and perhaps just as good, is the plan of having a bot- 

 tom-board two inches deep. The wire-cloth at the entrance is then 

 large enough to give sufficient '•entilation without any ventilation at 

 the top. 



Control of Fertilization Xot an Unmixed Good.— In 



our chagrin at the thought of failure to be able to control fertilization, 

 one item may give us a crumb of comfort. It we were able to select 

 the individual drone to meet a certain queen, it would v«i^likely be 

 in most cases at a distinct loss. To a certain extent it is well to have 

 the selection in the hands of the beekeeper. He can suppress the 

 rearing of drones in all but those colonies which have shown them- 

 selves superior. This he should do. although in most cases heavily 

 handicapped by the fact th:it he bus no control of the drones in neigh- 

 boring colonies. 



Having thus made a selection by suppression, is he competent to 

 make the further selection of the individual drone; He can judge 

 only by the looks. Can he tell by looking at two drones which is the 



