T'ME^ MmmmicMM mmm j^Jiummmi^. 



31 



shows how bees are regarded by hor- 

 ticulturists across the Atlantic : " I 

 have about 30 colonies of bees at 

 Beccles. standing at the south end of a 

 long garden containing a large num- 

 ber of fruit trees. At the time the trees 

 were in blossom last spring, east winds 

 prevailed, which prevented the bees 

 flying far. The result was most strik- 

 ing. Those trees (phim, apple and 

 pear) surrounding the hives were 

 heavily laden with fruit, whereas the 

 trees in the other parts of the garden 

 away from the bees, liad but little fruit 

 upon them. In conversation with the 

 owner of the garden last autumn, he 

 remarked, ' I wish there had been 

 bees all over the garden.' " 



Manj' persons claim that it is better 

 to buy honey of the specialists than to 

 produce it. This season in some 

 localities, one bushel of oats would 

 buy one pound of honey. Which can 

 work cheapest, men and horses, or 

 bees ? To produce a bushel of oats, 

 first there must be ground to grow it 

 upon ; then it must be plowed, har- 

 rowed and sowed. When it is grown, 

 cut and threshed, and hauled to mar- 

 ket, it must be sold to get the needful 

 to buy one pound of honey. 



A family is not nearly as sure of get- 

 ting a supply of honey when they 

 depend upon buying it, as they are 

 when bees bring it to them. It is 

 something like this : " An old lady 

 who wanted a feather-bed, proposed 

 to raise geese, and pick their feathers 

 to make her bed. Her husband said, 

 "No ; if you want a feather-bed I can 

 raise the feathers easier for you on my 

 hogs' backs than you can on geese, and 

 I will not have them squawking around, 

 for no one can speak without their 

 setting up their cry." She waited until 

 the day of her death for feathers to 

 to gi-ow on hogs' backs, but her bed 

 never materialized. 



Peoria, Ills. 



BROOD-REARING. 



The Apple-Bloom, Clover, Large 

 Hives, Honey-Dew, elc. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY ALLEN LATHAM. 



I went home to Lancaster, Mass., 

 during our Easter recess, and found 

 my bees in a very backward condition. 

 The cold weatlier of March had pre- 

 vented brood-rearing, and the bees 

 acted as though it was mid-winter. As 

 I am looking for a fine yield of honey 

 from apple-blossoms, I was somewhat 

 disappointed at the outlook. I fed 

 and dosed the bees that week, leaving 

 them on April 8, awakened to the fact 

 that spring was coming. 



Last Saturday — April 19 — I again 

 went home, and I wish that those bee- 

 keepers who have never packed bees 

 on the summer stands, could have been 

 present when I opened the hives. For 

 nearly two weeks we have had plea.s- 

 ant weather, allowing the bees to 

 gather pollen almost every da}-. Most 

 of my colonies are on 6 frames, and 

 every colony on April 19 was spread 

 through the hive as in summer, and in 

 most of the hives there were 5 frames 

 of brood. Some frames were nearly 

 full of brood. 



Apple-trees will not blo.ssom for 

 more than two weeks, and I think that 

 most of my colonies will be in condi- 

 tion to store 20 pounds each. I have 

 no difficulty in selling all my apple- 

 blossom honey at twentj'-five cents a 

 pound. 



Clover is coming on finely. I think 

 that it is the most promising spring for 

 several jeai's. It resembles very much 

 the spring before the best honey sea- 

 son I have known since I kept bees. 



LARGE HIVES — HONEY-DEW. 



Apropos of large and small hives, I 

 ask these questions : Of what use is a 

 large brood-nest after the main honey- 

 yield has opened ? What is the use of 

 a half-bushel of bees when the season 

 is over ? 



Now about honey-dew : Two years 

 ago in July, there fell for several 

 weeks, from a large elm which over- 

 tops our house, a species of hone3--dew, 

 so-called. I suppose that it came from 

 aphides, although I am not sure. At 

 some times it was liquid, and left 

 shinj-, sticky spots where it fell. At 

 other times it came down in the form 

 of minute grains, which were round, 

 white, and somewhat soft. I swept up 

 some of these "grains of manna" 

 from the piazza ; they were of the 

 saccharine nature. The bees did not 

 work on this substance any to speak of. 



Cambridge, Mass., April 21, 1890. 



SPACING COMBS. 



Proper Distance to Space Combs 

 — Cells in Foundation. 



Written Jor the American Bee Journal 

 BY REV. W. P. FAYLOR. 



In this modern age of progress, the 

 art of apiculture, or bee-keeping, like 

 nearly everj'thing else, is attracting 

 the strictest attention. The box-hive 

 will soon be a thing of the past ; the 

 black bee is rapidly giving way to the 

 4 and 5 banded Italian ; bee-papers are 

 becoming quite numerous ; the honey- 

 extractor, the comb foundation ma- 

 chine, and many other late inventions 

 speak for the progress of the day. Two 



things, however, sui'prise me, viz : 

 The tendency of bee-men to .space the 

 combs nearer together than the bees 

 build them naturall}', and the practice 

 of making foundation cells smaller 

 than the bees build them of their own 

 accord. Tliese two points I have been 

 testing pretty thoroughly during the 

 past 5 years. 



I keep l)ut a few colonies of the 

 honey-gatherers, which gives me plenty 

 of time to experiment. For the best 

 results, all things considered, I now 

 space all the combs 1§ inches apart, 

 from center to center. I have proven, 

 time and again, that bees are more 

 liable to swarm where the combs are 

 hung too near each other. When I 

 kept Carniolans I observed that this 

 was even more true of them. Then, 

 if you knock a box-hive to pieces, you 

 will find all the main combs placed 

 not less than li inches apart, and 

 some possibly 2 inches. 



Of course, the matter of brace-combs 

 comes in here. Where the frames are 

 spaced from 1} to If inches, the combs 

 are always more or less braced to each 

 other. I have not found it so by the 

 way I now space combs. I can go to 

 any one of my 10 hives, and find every 

 comb separate and distinct. 



We should bear in mind, too. that 

 wide spacing gives more room for the 

 storing of honey above the brood-nest, 

 which is no mean consideration when 

 we strike the winter problem. The 

 above-named are a few of the many 

 reasons why I space bee-combs It 

 inches from center to center. 



NUMBER OF CELLS TO THE INCH. 



The idea of making 5 worker-cells 

 to the inch of foundation, does not 

 meet m}' observation. It will do pretty 

 well for one or two years, but after a 

 few years' use, the cells become en- 

 tirely too small. Any queen-breeder 

 knows very well that queens reared in 

 little, cramped cells, are not nearly so 

 large and nice as those reared in good, 

 large cells. If the cell has anything 

 to do with the size and utility of the 

 queen, then the same rule must apply 

 to the worker bee. I think that the 

 " five cell" theory is a conclusion of a 

 few months' test to rid the hives of 

 drones, more than anything else. But 

 why should we be afraid of getting a 

 few drones in the hives ? Why treat 

 them as a nuisan-ce ? A colony of bees 

 with plenty of drones, I have good 

 reason to believe will store more sur- 

 plus honey than will a colony without 

 drones. I have had but one year's 

 practical test upon this point, and that 

 has been in favor of the drones. I am 

 about to throw away my old founda- 

 tion machine, and use one that will 

 make -W cells to the inch. 



St. Bernice, Ind. 



