82 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Feb. 8, 1900. 



special central building:, and it should be at least 30x40 feet. 

 For an extensive business a two-story building could be 

 used to advantage, but instead of putting- the two stories 

 above ground it is better to put only one above and one be- 

 low, or, in other words, make it a two-story building with 

 one story a basement. 



As there will be quite an amount of honey stored in it 

 during a good portion of the year, also many valuable ap- 

 pliances, it is well to make this building of concrete, and 

 fire-proof. Wooden buildings are liable to burn, and when 

 a season's labor goes up in a blaze, the owner is excusable 

 for laboring under great depression of mind. Even when 

 building and contents are insured, there is more or less loss, 

 and the trouble of replacing building and tools. 



A nice basement in our Northern climate makes an ex- 

 cellent place in which to store extracted honey, and in which 

 to winter the bees; when it is made especially for the pur- 

 pose,better success attends the wintering than can be attain- 

 ed in the ordinary house-cellar. In constructing a basement 

 under a honey-house, or even under a barn or any out-build- 

 ing on the farm, a location should be selected where the ex- 

 posed side shall face the sun ; facing east or west will do, 

 but facing south is better, but never under any circum- 

 stances face the basement to the north. Sunshine revives, 

 but if the sunshine cannot enter, the basement is always 

 damp and chilly, and subject to mildew. 



A good way to construct a basement for the wintering 

 of bees is to have plenty of windows in the exposed side, 

 and ante-room. The windows should have closed shutters, 

 then the ante-room can be darkened at will, or opened and 

 warmed by the sun's rays. The inner room should be ven- 

 tilated from the ante-roora. In such a house honey must be 

 heated, wax melted, and perhaps comb foundation made. A 

 chimney should have its foundation in the ante-room, and a 

 range or stove conveniently located. The chimney is not 

 only a smoke conductor, but a ventilator for the basement. 



Of course, our building will have a sort of a second 

 story above ground in the attic. This should be easily ac- 

 cessible, for the attic is a great place for the odds and ends, 

 and discarded utensils. 



Whatever material is used in the construction of the 

 house it should be made fire-proof, rat and mouse proof, as 

 the latter vermin sometimes make sad havoc with empty 

 combs and fixtures. 



A room in this house should be set apart for storing 

 comb honey and empty brood-combs, and in which they can 

 be fumigated. Sulphur is the old stand-by, but lately bi- 

 sulphide of carbon has been recommended. This cheap 

 material sprinkled in a room will not only keep out the 

 moth-miller, but also the ant, and the latter is not an un- 

 raixt blessing in some portions of the country. 



When the apiary is workt for extracted honey, of course 

 the extractor will be in the upper portion, and the tank or 

 receptacle in the basement. And whatever style of build- 

 ing is used for extracting, there should be a drop of a few 

 feet from the extractor to enable the honey to be drawn off 

 with little labor in lifting. • 



At the out-apiaries the Grimes family have small por- 

 table buildings. An out-apiary is not considered perma- 

 nent, and if the prospect for a honey crop is better in the 

 early portion of the season in one location, and better later 

 in another, it is better to have the out-apiary almost on 

 wheels. A honey-house to be portable should be constructed 

 in panels, and bolted together. When so constructed a few 

 moments time with a wrench allows the owner to pack it 

 upon a wagon. It is well to make such a house of planed 

 boards and neatly paint it; but this of course depends upon 

 the taste of the owner. Some bee-keepers can get along 

 with any sort of a rude thing, while others will insist upon 

 having a fancy structure. 



If made of rough boards and not battened, a very good 

 way to make it bee-tight, cheaply and quickly, is to line it 

 up with cheese-cloth or gunny-sacking. 



Any house that is built for bee-purposes should be pro- 

 vided with plenty of windows covered with wire screens, 

 and fitted with "the Porter house, bee-escapes. While we 

 like plenty of ventilation for comfort during the heated 

 term in the apiaries of the Grimes family, we prefer to have 

 no windows near the doors, or doors with screens. A screen 

 door is necessarily opened many times during a daj', and it 

 attracts hundreds of bees, and they are ready to skip in as 

 soon as the door is opened. We, therefore, dispense with 

 screens upon that side of our buildings. 



The Premiums offered on page V9 are well worth work- 

 ing for. Look at them. 



Rearing Improved Races of Bees, or Italianizing. 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



MR. DADANT:— I" Langstrotli Revised, when speakinj; of the rear- 

 ing of improved races of bees, you advise placinfj, in the spring, 

 two combs of drone-brood in the center of one of the best colonies 

 of such race as you wish to breed, for the purpose of securlng- 

 droues from that colony, while another colony or more, also of superior 

 quality, will be selected for rearing^ queens. In another place you speak 

 of more or less drone-comb beiufir (fenerally distributed thru all the- 

 hives. Will not this drone-comb defeat the end in view, which is to rear 

 the drones exclusively from the best colonies? 



Also would it not be rij^ht to manufacture drone foundation in order 

 to be able to supply such foundation for the purpose above named ? 



When, in your opinion, is the best time to rear queens for improving 

 the stock of bees in a small apiary ? 



Answer. — In natural conditions bees will build in their 

 hives probably from one-fifth to one-tenth of drone-comb. 

 To establish a rule on a matter of this kind would be simply 

 to open the way for discussion in which there would prob- 

 ably be no result, as it is very certain that many circum- 

 stances have itifluence over the actions of the bees in comb- 

 building. One thing, however, is positive ; it is best to rear ' 

 the greater quantity of drones from the colonies which are 

 most desirable for increase. It is also best, as far as prac- 

 ticable, to rear the drones and the queens with which they 

 are to mate from different colonies. It seems that Nature 

 has taken pains to attend to this matter since she has pro- 

 vided that the espousals be not celebrated in the hive, but 

 in the open air, on the wing, in full flight. 



We know also — but perhaps this is not sufficiently im- 

 prest upon the minds of many beginners — that drones in an 

 apiary are an expensive luxury ; that when they exist in 

 large numbers they may consume the greater portion of the 

 surplus of the colony ; and that man acts wisely in prevent- 

 'ing their being produced in such great numbers that when 

 a number of colonies are congregated within a radius of 

 two or three miles, the drones of one or two hives, if numer- 

 ous in those hives, will very probably be sufficient to cover 

 the space traveled by the young queens, so the latter may 

 not fail to meet one of them in their wedding-flight. 



If we place drone-combs in the center of one or two of 

 our most populous colonies, we will be mtich more likely to 

 have early drones, and numerous drones, from such colonies 

 than from any others. On the other hand, if we take pains 

 to remove the drone-comb as far as practicable from all 

 the other colonies, and replace it with worker-combs in full 

 combs or in patches, as the case may be, we will still more 

 increase our chances of producing good males. It is, how- 

 ever, a fact that work as we may there will be hundreds of 

 drones hatcht in colonies where a superficial examination 

 would have failed to reveal any perceptible quantity of 

 drone-comb. It is only when the cells are full of brood — 

 sealed brood — that the projecting cappings of the drone- 

 brood show themselves with great display. At such times 

 a very good way to dispose of them is to shave their heads 

 off with an uncapping-knife. The exchange of drone-comb 

 for worker-comb, however, should be done before the breed- 

 ing-season has fairly begun. Two drones cost about as 

 much to rear as three workers, and you can rear a very nice 

 little swarm of worker-bees in the same space in which you 

 would have reared a host of idlers. 



If the thing is done properly, the drone-comb removed 

 from hives whose reproduction is undesirable will be use- 

 ful in the hives from which breeding is desired, and if the 

 apiary is large only a very small portion of this drone-comb 

 will be used. It is therefore entirely useless to think of 

 producing foundation for this purpose ; and this fact has 

 been so well recognized by bee-keepers that not one out of 

 five hundred ever asks for drone foundation. 



The patching of frames out of which pieces of drone- 

 comb have been cut is also easier with worker-comb than 

 with foundation, and for such a purpose it is always well to 

 save the combs of colonies that have died during the win- 

 ter, or surplus combs from colonies that are too weak to 

 cover all their combs in early spring. Such combs may be 

 later on supplied with foundation or strips for guides and 

 given to new swarms. 



There is no doubt that even if we remove the drone- 

 comb from our undesirable colonies there will still be a 

 number of drones reared that are undesirable ; but this 

 should not deter us from pushing' our work in the right 

 direction. If a farmer should not cultivate a field at all 

 after putting in his crop under the plea that some weeds 

 would grow anyhow, and that he might as well let all grow 

 that want to, he would surely be following a very poor 

 policy. 



If we de not try to prevent the undesirable drones, or 

 to rear desirable ones, on the plea that there will always be 



