Nov. 1, 1900 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



695 



in the depressions on top of the side-walls of the bee-cellar, 

 and j'et the bees appear to winter perfectly. It is often so 

 damp inside that mold will beg-in to form in different places, 

 and by the time the bees are put out in the spring- some of 

 these patches of mold will be as large as, and stand out like, 

 the crown of a hat ; still the bees have generally wintered 

 well in this cellar, very much better, as a rule, than those 

 left on the summer stands. Inside the hives, the combs, 

 bees, and all, seem to be as dry as when put into the cellar ; 

 but were dampness to collect on the combs and the walls of 

 the hives about the bees, or run down on them, I should 

 have fears of injury. 



As to stores, I believe that sugar syrup does not attract 

 moisture as much as honey, therefore the sugar syrup is the 

 better of the two for wintering bees. Honey seems very 

 susceptible of moisture, in fact, more so than any other 

 liquid with which I am acquainted. 



SQU.4.RB FRAMES — DEPTH OF FRAMES, ETC. 



Question — Would I not better adopt a square frame in 

 keeping bees ? What do you think of the square frame ? I 

 am assured by men of experience that the Langstroth 

 frame is not deep enough for the cold climate of Canada. 



AxswEK. — Replying to this I wish to say that bee-keep- 

 ing does not depend upon the size of the frame used, or 

 upon its form. There are few frames now in use but that a 

 man or woman of energy, and love for bee-keeping, can 

 take and make a success with them. I believe in always 

 having the ht'st appliances as far as may be ; but I wish to 

 put emphasis on the fact that it is the man or woinati who 

 puts the success into the thing, primarily, and the best ap- 

 pliances come in as a secondary matter. 



Altho I have been an advocate of the Gallup or square 

 form of frame all ray life, still, as I have said before in 

 print, if I had 25 colonies on any style of frame now advo- 

 cated by our /i;'ar/;Va/ apiarists, I would not consider it a 

 paying job to transfer them to another style of frame, 

 whether in Canada or York State, provided the hive con- 

 taining these frames would accommodate the style of sur- 

 plus arrangement which it was necessary to use in order to 

 place my honey on the market in the most attractive and 

 marketable shape. No, no 1 it is riot all in the frames or 

 the hives as some assert, but it is in the man or woman with 

 energy, push, and real worth enough to surmount every ob- 

 stacle which stands in the way, and make a success of a 

 thing in spite of a few minor hindrances. 



Look at the great potato-grower and lecturer at farm- 

 ers' institutes, Mr. Terry, of (-)hio. Had he gone on a rich 

 farm instead of a poor one, he probably would have arrived 

 at the same wealth sooner, but his success would not have 

 been greater than now — perhaps not as great — and, in all 

 probability, the world would not have been benefited nearly 

 so much as it has been ; for the overcoming of that obsta- 

 cle, in the shape of a poor farm, gave a certain vim to the 

 success that led him to tell others how it was done, and in 

 this telling has come the greatest light to the world. 



Reader, if you find a difficulty in your way, and succeed 

 ia overcoming that difficulty, don't keep the matter hid, but 

 tell us about it, and thus help the world. Don't be foolish 

 enough to say, " No one will pay me for telling," for that 

 is a selfish spirit, and selfishness never fia.ys\ for in the 

 doing of some kind act, or in trying to lift the burden from 

 some tired shoulder, comes a wealth that money can not buy. 



Now a word about a square frame for the cold climate 

 of Canada. In most of the localities in Canada, where bees 

 are kept, the mercury does not go lower than it does here in 

 Central New York. As the older readers of the American 

 Bee Journal know, I have gone over the ground of a shal- 

 low frame like the Langstroth not being suitable for our 

 cold climate, many times. And I still think there are some 

 few things in favor of the square frame where bees are to 

 be wintered on the summer stands ; yet, as I have said be- 

 fore, if I had 25 colonies on the Langstroth frame I should 

 consider it a losing job to transfer them to a square frame, 

 hoping for better wintering when they were on the latter. 

 Where bees can be wintered in the cellar the Langstroth 

 frame is not required to "take off its cap "or "make a 

 bow " to any of the others, even in cold climates ; and in a 

 climate where bees have a chance of flying every two or 

 three weeks during winter, no one has atay occasion for 

 looking for a better frame. Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



Queen-Rearing is a very interesting part of bee-keeping. 

 Mr. Doolittle's book tells practically all about the subject. 

 See the offer we make on the second page of this number. 



An Interesting Experience YVith Queen-Bees. 



HV J. L. GANDY. 



FOR the last 15 years I have purchast and introduced on 

 an average 60 queens annually, except last season, 

 when I introduced only 20, tho 50 more old queens should 

 have been changed. The press of other business caused 

 me to neglect this important matter, and by the time I got 

 them requeened and built up the. season was so far advanced 

 that I got no surplus from them; while from 50 other colo- 

 nies in the same yard I have five tons of surplus honey. 

 From one colony that I requeened late last fall I secured 502 

 pounds of surplus honey, one-half being comb honey. I 

 paid but 50 cents for the queen of this colony ; I have been 

 offered a fabulous price for her, but she is not for sale. I 

 have purchast quite a number from the same breeder this 

 year, and all seem equally good. The bees from this and 

 several other colonies workt the whole season on red clover 

 and catnip. 



I have found in buying queens that all breeders are 

 honest, as a rule. I have purchast and introduced 75 un- 

 tested queens this season from a dozen different breeders, 

 and all have turned out to be pure Italians, and good lay- 

 ers, but there is no doubt that some breeders have a better 

 strain of bees than others. 



Some think that it injures queens to send them thru the 

 mails. According to my experience such is not the case 

 with young untested queens ; but I believe after a queen 

 has become an establisht layer in a full colony, she is in- 

 jured by being taken away from the colony. I have pur- 

 chast three five-dollar queens at different times, and none 

 of them proved to be more than half as good as untested 

 queens purchast from the same breeders. I once boughta 

 dozen tested queens, leather-colored, six months old, and six 

 of them died during the winter, and the others would have 

 starved if I had not fed them. At another time I bought 

 six tested queens one year old. and all died during the win- 

 ter. I have also had poor luck with untested queens. I 

 once drove to a breeder 15 miles distant to buy queens. He 

 had none fertilized, so I told him I must have one queen 

 anyway, and he sold me an untested one six weeks old from 

 one of his colonies that then had six frames of brood. I 

 introduced her the same day. I kept her for two years, but 

 she never had at any onetime two full frames of brood, and 

 would have starved had I not constantly fed sugar. 



I would suggest to breeders that queens to be sent by 

 mail be reared in small nuclei, so that the laying would be 

 very little ; and never, under any circumstances, to send 

 out'a queen after she has become an establisht layer in a 

 colony. 



I rear my own queens, to a certain extent, and will give 

 my experience in breeding 30 the past season, which is 

 about the same experience as I have each year. Eight of 

 the queens were lost in mating, three had defective wings 

 and had to be killed, two laid drone-eggs, one never 

 laid at all, only six were purely mated, and the balance 

 were very poor'hybrids. One of my reasons for purchasing 

 queens is that I think it just as important to change the 

 strain of bees often, as is done with the breed of hogs and 

 cattle, and unless this is done, and if bees are allowed to in- 

 breed, in a few years they will degenerate and be worthless 

 as honev-gatherers. 



I think, as a rule, queens should be changed at the end 

 of the third season, tho I find some good at four years of 

 age, and others poor when two years old. I once had a 

 queen fairly good until she died in her eighth year. Queens 

 should be changed when they begin to fail, regardless of 

 age. By long and careful observation I have come to the 

 conclusion that under no circumstances should bees be al- 

 lowed to change their old queen. A bee-keeper would bet- 

 ter requeen as I have mentioned, and he will make money 

 in so doing, even if he has to pay S2.00 each for good 

 queens (that is about the average cost of a queen if a bee- 

 keeper breeds her himself). I haven't the least doubt if I 

 had expended $25 for 50 additional queens last fall, I would 

 have had a thousand dollars worth more of honey this sea- 

 son. Richardson Co., Nebr., Oct. 2. 



The Influence of Location in Bee-Keepin§. 



BY ADRIAN GETAZ. 



THREE times since I began keeping bees the discussion 

 of large versus small hives has been commenced in the 

 bee papers, kept up a year or two, and then dropt, only 

 to begin again two or three years later. Each time the 



