THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



121 



ey producer in ten can find sale for 

 his surplus bees at a price that will 

 cover the cost of hives, foundation and 

 winter stores; and as long as this 

 state of things exists, some reliable 

 method to control increase will be a 

 desideratum. 



After trying many experiments, I 

 believe the cheapest and most effec- 

 tive way of preventing after-swarms, 

 is to pinch the cells which cause the 

 swarming, immediately after the 

 swarm issues, and turn loose among 

 the bees a virgin queen from 1 to 4 

 days old. This plan is not "new." 

 It is only the application of a little 

 sound philosophy. Bees never start 

 queen-cells in the presence of a virgin 

 queen over one day old, if they have 

 accepted her. It is this starting of 

 cells that does all the mischief. 



To prevent swarming altogether, my 

 new system of dividing the colony in 

 two divisions, employing the queen- 

 less division to produce the surplus 

 honey, and the parent division to pro- 

 duce the working force, re-uniting 

 them as soon as the swarming season 

 is mainly past, will answer the pur- 

 pose to perfection. But more time is 

 needed to ascertain if the plan is al- 

 together practicable. 



Christiansburg, 5 Ky. 



For llie American Bee Joumai. 



Floating Apiaries of the Future. 



U. E. DODGE. 



Bee-keeping is fast becoming an im- 

 portant industry in the United States 

 and Canada, and the oportnnities for 

 honey production and the employment 

 of idle hands are almost unlimited. 

 When we look over the history of bee- 

 keeping for the last quarter of a cen- 

 tury and note the growth, prosperity 

 and improvement of this science, may 

 Sve not with some degree of reason 

 speculate upon its future develop- 

 ments? and whilst the busy workers 

 are snugly housed in their winter 

 quarters beneath our comfortable 

 apartments, and old Boreas blows his 

 icy breath around every corner with- 

 out, may we not day-di-eam upon the 

 further advancement of this industry V 



Although my bee-keeping scheme 

 may be like •' the hibernation theory "' 

 and the wintering problem, " without 

 form and void," and darkness dwells 

 upon my beclouded brain, yet thoughts 

 occasionally flit through my mind 

 with visions of the not-far-distant 

 future. As I sit musing, the posibili- 

 ties of bee-culture are constantly pass- 

 ing before me, and as the panorama 

 passes I see the mighty Mississippi 

 whose source penetrates the frigid 

 regions of the North and whose mouth 

 pours her floods into the tropical seas 

 of the South ; whose tributaries reach 

 out and drain a large portion of a con- 

 tinent ; and upon whose borders are 

 an endless varietj; of soil and chang- 

 ing climate, skirting lofty mountains, 

 rich and fertile plains, and extended 

 alluvial bottoms, producing an un- 

 bounded variety of honey-producing 

 flowers at almost all seasons of the 

 year upon some portion of its borders. 

 As I look with delight upon this pic- 



ture, I see steamers of peculiar pat- 

 tern floating upon her silvery bosom, 

 laden with thousands and tens of 

 thousands of busy workers whose in- 

 stinct teaches tliem to sip the luscious 

 nectar wherever honey-producing 

 flowers abound, whether upon tlie 

 Infly mountain side or deep alluvial 

 valley ; and I see lu-ight, intelligent 

 young men as their keepers, whose 

 life-work is the pursuit of apiculture 

 in this novel and peculiar manner. 



This may be the outgrowth of an 

 enthusiastic brain, but is it not sus- 

 ceptible of practical test V Let us for 

 a moment scan the picture in all its 

 bearings ; let us see whether we have 

 any just grounds for such a grand 

 bee-keeping enterprise ! Are there 

 not flowers upon every hillside, plain 

 and valley, bordering upon this great 

 net-work of streams V Are there not 

 a great variety of climates upon its 

 borders, susceptible of being reached 

 by steam navigation V Are there not 

 thousands of sheltered nooks all along 

 those great channels of commerce, 

 where the apiarist may land his indus- 

 trious freight and move his floating; 

 home to secure the secretions of 

 myriads of honey-producing flowers ? 

 Are there not hundreds of locations 

 in the " Sunny South," where the 

 wintering problem dwindles almost 

 into insigniflcance, that may be 

 reached by these floating apiaries ? If 

 so, wherein is the difficulty ? All that 

 is required is mechanical skill to con- 

 struct a steamer peculiarly adapted to 

 tlie purpose, that will carry as many 

 colonies as the proprietor wishes to 

 handle, with one, two, or more helpers, 

 with capacity enough for a dwelling, 

 work-shop, etc., with facilities for 

 rapid and easy loading and unloading 

 hives, storage, etc. 



Thus equipped, in the fall, let the 

 apiarist put the bees on board, get up 

 steam and steer for Southern climes, 

 until a favored locality is reached— 

 say in Louisiana, Mississippi or Texas, 

 bordering upon the Mississippi or its 

 tributaries. Here let him remain un- 

 til the season of flowers in the spring, 

 landing his bees whilst remaining in 

 this location or until the early honey- 

 flow of the locality is nearly past, 

 then put his bees on board, get up 

 steam and steer for more Xorthern 

 climes and secure another honey-flow, 

 and so on, until the Northern limit is 

 reached, thereby securing an unlimited 

 number of honey-flows during the 

 season, with facilities for comb-honey 

 and extracting on board, securing the 

 honey from each flow- in good market- 

 able shape, returning again in the fall 

 to his old or some other good winter- 

 ing ground, to again construct bives, 

 fixtures, etc., tor another season's 

 campaign. 



With the power he has at hand, at 

 all times, in a propelling engine, and 

 repeating the work as the seasons roll 

 round, for a lifetime, it makes but lit- 

 tle difference where he may be, if his 

 bees ' have an abundance of honey- 

 producing flowers. His boat is his 

 home, workshop, honey-house and 

 vehicle for marketing his honey ; in 

 fact he is frequently in the market as 

 he migrates, or passes the great cities 

 situated upon the banks of these great 



water-courses. He soon becomes 

 known as a honey-producer, and sales 

 of honey are made in advance of 

 arrival in the great marts of trade. 



But I am building this castle too 

 high, and this article is too long. 

 Some vigorous, healthy and practical 

 young man may start an enterprise of 

 this character and push it to its utmost 

 capacity. I will predict (although I 

 may not live to see it realized,) that a 

 quarter of a century hence will find 

 hundreds of apiaries floating upon 

 our Western rivers, from the far 

 North to their extreme regions in the 

 " Sunny South." 



Fredonia, ? N. Y. 



[This scheme is neither new nor 

 practical. Floating apiaries have for 

 centuries been employed in Egypt, 

 Germany, etc. Some ten years ago 

 Mr. Perrine practiced the scheme on 

 the Mississippi, on a large scale, but 

 after making large investments in 

 steam-barges, hives, bees, etc., he 

 made an utter failure of it, and lost 

 some $12,000 in the venture. The 

 chief barrier being immense loss of 

 bees from continual disturbance, 

 change of location, high winds, inter- 

 vening bluffs and consequent hiding 

 of the barge, close proximity of hives 

 on the boat, etc. No one should think 

 of trying such a scheme unless he has 

 $20,000 to throw away— and still have 

 enough left for the needs of his 

 family.— Ed.] 



Read at the MichiKan Convention. 



The Merits of the Carniolan Bees. 



A. .T. KING. 



Next to Apis dorsata, less is known 

 of the Carniolan race of bees, practi- 

 cally, by American apiarists, than 

 that of any other which has been sup- 

 posed to possess merit above our com- 

 mon black and brown bees. Most of 

 us have .seen specimens of different 

 importations, besides some bred in 

 this country, but we believe the time 

 to speak with positiveness regarding 

 the various essentials which go to 

 make up the character of the " com- 

 ing bee " and to ascribe the majority 

 of such essentials to any one particu- 

 lar race, has not yet arrived. 



The early impressions, still fresh in 

 the minds of American apiarists, re- 

 garding the supposed merits of the 

 Cyprian race have not been justified 

 after thorough trial by persons com- 

 petent to judge of their merits. The 

 Syrians and Holy Land bees, although 

 superior in a marked degree to the 

 Cyprians, do not yet bear off the palm 

 when compared with our better known 

 and ever-to-be-praised Italians; and 

 the impression seems to be growing 

 among our best informed bee-keepers, 

 that a cross between the Syrians and 

 Italians— breeding the queens of the 

 former to the drones of the latter 

 variety — produces a strain of bees 

 combining in one a greater number of 



