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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Nov. IS lyoo 



number of combs in their colonies to so small a number that 

 all combs are protected or covered during the colder part of 

 the year. This being the case, we tind the conditions of 

 our colonies on the summer stands at times like this : 



" Bees clustered near one side of the hive and occupy- 

 ing about five spaces. 



'■ Stragglers— anywhere from 25 to 100 bees— left in 

 spaces not occupied, and dead. 



" Later on these dead bees become moldy ; also the 

 comb near and around them." This happens even in colo- 

 nies of average strength ; and the more moisture there is in 

 the hive the worse for the combs and bees. Sometimes 

 parts of the combs become so badly affected as to make 

 them worthless. 



The best remedy would be, to reduce the combs of all 

 colonies to that number which they are able to cover dur- 

 ing cold winter weather. But to do this involves a great 

 deal of labor — an article which we all wish to economize in 

 as much as possible. Many, therefore, choose the shorter 

 cut, and give upward ventilation thru chaff packing on top, 

 which is a reasonabl)- safe preventive measure against 

 mold. 



Some of the best bee-keepers in Germany provide their 

 bees during the winter with a bottle of water. Several dif- 

 ferent patterns of water-bottles are advertised in the Ger- 

 man bee-papers, which are said to work well. I, myself, 

 am down on this bottle business in general. I like to see 

 my town a "dry" town, and I want to keep my bees 

 as " dry " as possible. It is true bees consume some water 

 when rearing brood, and it may be beneficial to give them 

 water inside of the hive during April and May ; at other 

 times I can see no need of it whatever. I have thought 

 a number of times before that I would experiment along 

 this line, but when I saw my well-protected colonies doing 

 well, without the bottle, I let well enough alone. 



Speaking about well-protected colonies, I want to say 

 that for outdoor wintering packing is very, very necessary 

 to insure good results in this part of the country. The win- 

 ter-cases offered at the present day, and used without pack- 

 ing, I regard as a very poor excuse. I want three inches of 

 packing all around, and a little more on top. It has also 

 been ray experience that the best results in wintering are 

 obtained with a hive made of very thin stuff, and of the 

 most porous %vood . this in reference to the inner walls of 

 said hive. Our regular single-walled hives, made of 's-inch 

 lumber, are not as well adapted for packing as such made 

 of '+-inch lumber. Basswood lumber for the inner walls 

 has answered the purpose the best for me. 



As to the best winter food for bees— well, in practice it 

 is not quite possible to regulate the quality of it. Not until 

 this can be easily accomplisht may we expect perfect and 

 uniform results. Generally we are even unable to ascer- 

 tain whether the food is of a healthy character or not. We 

 can tell honey-dew from buckwheat and other honeys, and 

 we might remove the former, but we can not foretell with 

 any degree of certainty whether the basswood or buckwheat 

 honey of this year will be as safe as that of last year, etc.; 

 and so we are at sea. Extracting all stores and feeding 

 syrup instead would be all right, of course, but such a 

 course is entirely out of the question with large apiaries. 



It is therefore my opinion that wintering, on this ac- 

 count, will continue to be a sort of lottery business for some 

 time to come. I would, and should, sav. however, that 

 poor winter stores are rather the exception than the rule, 

 and the chances in allowing the gathered stores to remain 

 in the hives do not involve very much risk. 



Ontario Co., N. Y. 



A Criticism of Queen-Breeders and Queen-Rearing. 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



MR. EDITOR :— I have received a letter that was sent 

 as a private letter: but as matters of general interest 

 are involved, the writer will perhaps raise no objec- 

 tions to its being answered in this public manner. The 

 letter is as follows : 



Dr. C. C. Miller, 



Dear Sir : — I have reared three daughters from the first 

 queen sent. They are all partakers of her nature— lay two 

 or more eggs in a cell — and very poor layers, but an im- 

 provement on their mother in some respects, tho none of 

 them are fit for any use. I reared them to demonstrate the 

 transmitting potency of the stock. If she could transmit 

 good qualities like she does bad ones, it would be desirable, 

 but you know that the laws of transmission are such that 



the good must be very strong and well-fixt if it can lead. 

 The other queen will have to do better another year if she 

 will do to keep : she is not yet as good as the one I killed to 

 make room for her. 



I am afraid you queen-breeders have made a very bad 

 mistake in adopting this untested queen-rearing process. 

 About as %vell go to raising babies with a manikin I Some 

 years ago the Jersey cattle-breeders raised a boom on stock, 

 and bred and sold everything that would register, and have 

 filled the country with a worthless stock. Not one cow in 

 ten is fit to keep for milk, and the nine are not worth much 

 for anything the farmer wants. The queen-breeder is fol- 

 lowing the same trend — anything that will lay is whirled 

 thru the mail, and if she doesn't turn out right the receiver 

 is to blame ! Never the breeder I Yet, I am pleased to note 

 that a few breeders guarantee satisfaction, and are willing 

 to bear their share of responsibility in the matter. But 1 

 am sorry to know that many to whom we look — not only for 

 instruction in apiculture, but in morals as well — are will- 

 ing to allow themselves to get so far behind those who do 

 not set themselves as moral guides. Every bee-keeper 

 should give his influence for improving the general stock 

 of bees. I don't think that any one who sends out queens 

 without a guarantee to suit is doing much to improve the 

 general stock, or cares to. 



I don't say that she should be purely mated, but that 

 she should be a well-formed queen, and a good layer. Most 

 bee-keepers would prefer a good hybrid to a poor Italian. 

 Any one who will study thoroly the laws of nature — phys- 

 iology, biology, etc. — will readily come to the conclusion 

 that many more poor queens than good ones are produced 

 by the queen-stick-cell-ro3'al-jell-egg-in-a-quill process that 

 has been so largely adopted. 



Now, Doctor, don't think that I mean you more than 

 others ; but you must allow me kindly to say that I am 

 somewhat surprised to find that, instead of crying out 

 against it, you are probably following it. But I believe 

 you are too level-headed and pure-hearted a man to allow 

 infatuation to prevent you from properly considering the 

 matter in due time. Good men will not allow their good to 

 be evil spoken of, an3' more than their charity to think evil. 

 Truly yours, P. M. Corya, M. D. 



Jefferson Co., Ind., Oct. 18. 



Within the last two or three years I have done some 

 battling for natural processes in queen-rearing, and have 

 been assailed with some warmth for holding that when a 

 queen is removed from a colony the bees will not be in such 

 haste to rear a successor that they will select a larva too old 

 for a good queen. I believe that in such case, the farmer 

 who knows nothing about scientific queen-rearing, if he 

 leaves the bees entirely to t»hemselves, will have as good a 

 queen as if he had used the latest kinks of the scientific 

 breeder. But if he goes to cutting out all the cells and 

 rearing queens from them, he will be far outstript by the 

 scientific breeder. 



Now, however, it seems I must take up the cudgel for 

 the scientific breeder. Please do not understand that I am 

 classing myself as a scientific queen-breeder. I am a practi- 

 cal honey-producer, and during the past summer have sent 

 out a number of queens such as I would rear for myself. I 

 tried to have it distinctly understood that not all of these 

 would prove upon trial to be satisfactory; not all queens 

 can be expected to turn out equally good ; and there is the 

 additional chance that a queen may not do well after hav- 

 ing been thru the mail. My correspondent receiving a 

 queen that is not satisfactory, assumes that the manner of 

 rearing is at fault, calling it in one place the " queenstick- 

 cell-royal-jell-egg-in-a-quill process." He says, " I am 

 afraid you queen-breeders have made a very bad mistake in 

 adopting this untested queen-rearing process." The as- 

 sumption that the process is an "untested " one is hardly 

 warranted. Doolittle's book on queen-rearing appeared in 

 1889, and a method that has been before the public for 11 

 years — a method by which thousands upon thousands of 

 good queens have been reared — can hardly be termed an 

 " untested queen-rearing process." 



" Any one who will study thoroly the laws of nature, 

 etc., will readily come to the conclusion that many more 

 poor than good queens are produced " by the method men- 

 tioned. He might reach such a conclusion, but it would be 

 a wrong conclusion, for the facts are against him. I have 

 tried the plans offered by such men as Doolittle, Alley, 

 Pridgen, etc., and I have found good queens the rule, with 

 poor ones the exception. Hundreds of others can no doubt 

 testify to the same thing. 



The statement that one who sends out queens without 



