310 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



to give this part of his business the close at- 

 tention it requires. 



If he would procure a good breeding-queen 

 and rear all his queens from her, then weed 

 out and destroy all small inferior queens as 

 soon as they hatch, he might have choice 

 queens without much expense except for a 

 part of his time, and a certain per cent of his 

 surplus. There is quite a difference of opin- 

 ion as to the necessary amount of bees it re- 

 quires to rear choice cells and queens. Some 

 claim it can be done with but few bees: oth- 

 ers want strong colonies to produce choice 

 cefls. I know we could never rear queens 

 that would suit us unless we used so many 

 bees in rearing, our cells that it would make 

 a sad inroad on our surplus honey. 



The most common and the worst mistake 

 that can be made in rearing queens is saving 

 the natural cells and virgin queens from col- 

 onies that have cast natural swarms. I have 

 heard this method recommended by men 

 who were considered quite good authority, 

 and it seemed as if I could not keep still 

 and listen to them. We spend valuable 

 time at our conventions in discussing various 

 ways for preventing natural swarming, and 

 we frequently see long articles in our jour- 

 nals from noted writers recommending cer- 

 tain methods to prevent it. Almost daily 

 during the summer season we see bad results 

 in our apiaries from excessive swarming, 

 and then so many will do the very thing of 

 all things that will perpetuate the desire to 

 swarm, by saving cells and virgins from the 

 colonies that are the first to swarm; and in- 

 variably when this objectionable method has 

 been practiced a few years a strain of bees 

 will be developed that is ready to swarm 

 both in season and out of season. Nor is this 

 all; for a great step backward is taken, and 

 the bees from the first will begin to degener- 

 ate, and part of their yellow color will be 

 lost; and the bees themselves being crosser 

 and more irritable, they fail to gather as 

 much surplus, and they become more nerv- 

 ous in winter. In a few years the apiary 

 will have degenerated until it is of but little 

 value. It must then be built up again with 

 good stock. 



In view of these facts do not take such a 

 step backward as will bring only loss, trou- 

 ble, and disappointment. When a colony 

 has many valuable traits, send its queen to 

 your queen-breeder, and write him, describ- 

 ing all those good points, and request him to 

 rear the queens from her unless he may have 

 a still better breeding-queen. In this way 

 the choicest of queens may be reared from 

 the best stock, and improvement can be 

 made along the lines most desired. 



As I look back I find that the seasons when 

 we received our largest surplus have been, 

 without a single exception, the ones follow- 

 ing the year when we I'eared our queens 

 from some special queen whose colony had 

 given us an unusual amount of surplus the 

 previous summer. It requires only four or 

 five years of careful selection to make a great 

 change in bees in their honey-gathering qual- 

 ities, and in their disposition, until they seem 



like a different race of bees. The color is one 

 of the quickest of all points to show improve- 

 ment, and the tendency to swarm can be re- 

 duced to a surprising extent; but special 

 care must be taken to select the best standard. 

 Nor is this all. The drone-mothers must be 

 just as choice as the queen-mothers. You 

 must rear all drones from as choice queens 

 as you rear your queens from. In other 

 words, drones must be developed the same as 

 the queens. This may seem like an unneces- 

 sary amount of trouble; but there is little 

 of value in this world that does not cost labor 

 to acquire. 



There are many bee-keepers who might 

 make great improvements in their bees if 

 they would only start in the right way. They 

 seem to think that, if they buy a breeding- 

 queen once in a year or two, it is about all 

 that is necessary; and if her colony swarms 

 they will try to save some of the queen-cells, 

 and then think they are improving their bees. 

 Such a line of management is no improve- 

 ment; and if that is the best that can be done, 

 then it would be better to buy all the queens 

 from some one who is doing better. The 

 whole subject turns on this point: The best 

 queens, bought or home-reared, are none too 

 good, and the aim should be to make them 

 still better with each succeeding generation. 



Delanson, N. Y. 



[This question of using swarming-cells for 

 the rearing of queens for the production of 

 honey is a very important one. If it is fact, 

 that the practice accentuates the swarming 

 tendency in our bees, we may well stop and 

 ask the question. Does it pay? We should 

 be glad to hear from our subscribers who 

 may have been gathering data on the prop- 

 osition. — Ed ] 



»«»» ■ 



THE SIBBALD WAX-PRESS. 



A Combination of the Hatch and Hershiser 



Principles; a Description and How to 



Operate. 



BY R. F. HOLTERMANN. 



At the annual meeting of the Ontario Bee- 

 keepers' Association in Toronto, and by spe- 

 cial request at the Brant District Bee-keepers' 

 convention, Mr. H. G. Sibbald, Claude, On- 

 tario, gave a description of a wax-press which 

 was considered valuable by those present. 



It would be necessary to go through all the 

 stages of wax-rendering and to recount all 

 the thoughts, time, and material that have 

 been expended upon improving the methods 

 of rendering wax, to parallel in magnitude 

 the enormous amount of wax and the sums 

 of money which have been and are being 

 thrown away in the imperfect rendering of 

 old comb, cappings, and the like. This 

 amount is, perhaps, more than doubled by 

 money which has been worse than thrown 

 away by allowing the wax-moth to destroy 

 comb upon which the bees have perished. 



Let us profit by the past, and at least use 

 some of the most up-to-date methods obtain- 

 able. 



