THE BEE-KEEPERS' BE VIEW. 



265 



SELECTION OF WOllKEKS IN MAILING yUEENS 

 LONQ DISTANCES. 



Last fall I had some correspondence with 

 Mr. Frank Benton in re^'ard to mailing 

 queens across the ocean, and his instruction 

 in regard to a selection of the accompanying 

 workers wast as follows: "In selecting 

 workers for the journey do not put in more 

 than two or three that have tilled their bodies 

 with honey, but select, for the most part, 

 such as have empty or nearly empty houey- 

 sacs and none, of course, that are too old — 

 only those that are bright and young though 

 preferably such as have ttown. I generally 

 put in two or three that have honey in their 

 sacs (they feed the queen at once), two or 

 three just emerged if such a re present, but 

 old enough to cling well, and the rest such as 

 are five or ten days or two weeks old as it 

 happens." 



NUMBERING HIVES. 



If a man is experinentally inclined, and 

 desires to keep a record of each colony, 

 numbers are a necessity. I admitted that 

 last mouth. Dr. Miller seems to be exactly 

 that kind of a man. lie also has a lady 

 assistant who warmly seconds him in this 

 hobby. Of course, they want to talk about 

 the experiments, and sometimes one picks 

 up the work where the other drops it. For 

 these reasons a record and numbers are 

 necessary. I wish the Dr. would tell us just 

 what benefit is derived from this kind of 

 work. A brother of mine once worked with 

 me several years and we tried just such a 

 scheme only to drop it as of so little benefit 

 as not to be worth its cost. 



Of course, we sometimes had to refer to 

 some particular hive and did it exactly as 

 the Dr. says. It was " Third hive from the 

 outer end of the northeast row, " or some- 

 thing of that Fort. Of course, it soiinds 

 awkward, but the saying of a few words is 

 the easiest thing in the world. 



If simply producing honey for market I 

 see but little more use for numbering the 

 hives than in numbering the trees in a sap 

 bush, the sheep in the pasture, or the trees 

 in an orchard. If I visited an apiary it 

 would be with some definite purpose. If in 

 the early spring to see if any colonies need- 

 ed feeding by taking combs of honey from 

 those having plenty, I should go at the work 

 systematically, and go throught the whole 

 apiary and then go home. Numbers would 

 not help. If to put on supers, I should put 



supers on colonies needing them. Numbers 

 wouldn't help. If I went to take off honoy, 

 numbers wouldn't show me its location. It 

 is the same with all kinds of work — it should 

 be self evident. 



The Dr. wants to know the ages of his 

 queens. I don't care anything about it. I 

 let the bees attend to this matter of super- 

 seding. It may be better to have all young 

 queens, but I believe that the labor and ex- 

 pense of rearing and introducing queens 

 will pretty nearly offset the advantage. 



The Dr. speaks about the handling of 

 frames depending upon something previous 

 that must be remembered. This may be 

 true sometimes, but, with me, it is very 

 seldom. I don't handle frames until I see a 

 necessity for it, and then I handle them 

 right then and there. Sometimes it is 

 necessary to make a hive for future attention, 

 and then I mark it by laying a stone on it, 

 or something of that sort. If necessary I 

 write on the hive with a pencil. All this 

 seems so much more simple, quick and easy, 

 than being eternally burdened with a pencil 

 and a book and the writing down of num- 

 bers and this and that. 



IS APIS DOBSATA WANTED ? 



I don't know whether it is or not, and I 

 don't believe any one else does. It is larger 

 than the bees that are now in this country, 

 but we don't know that this would be an ad- 

 vantage. About the only thing we needed a 

 larger bee for was to woi k on red clover, and 

 now that that is not being raised much more, 

 this point does not count. It is not believed 

 that this big, Indian giant would cross with 

 our ordinary honey bees, and, if it would, 

 the outcome is a problem. It is thought that 

 it might make its home in the tree tops of- 

 the South, building its combs on the 

 branches in the open air, as is its custom in 

 its far away home, and thus furnish honey 

 and wax. It would be in very poor shape 

 and difficult of access, and would take honey 

 from fields that might much better be occu- 

 pied by our domestic bees. Some seem to 

 think that the scheme of importing them at 

 government expense is fostered by Mr. 

 Frank Benton that he may get the job of go- 

 ing after them. Well, perhaps it is. I 

 should not be surprised if this were true, 

 but this ought not to hinder us from looking 

 at the question from a broad standpoint. If 

 we do want Apis Dorsata, I must say I pre- 

 sume there is do better man to go after them 



