AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



577 



to Italianize, it is far preferable to buy 

 them. A breeder has all Italian bees, 

 and there is ranch less risk to run of 

 queens not mating with pure drones 

 than where the major part of the bees 

 in the apiary are black. Where a per- 

 son has leisure, and is fond of experi- 

 menting, it is a pleasure to rear one's 

 own, by purchasing an Italian colony 

 containing a tested or imported queen, 

 or get a queen only, if a whole colony 

 cannot be readily obtained. Queens are 

 now sent by the mails to all parts of our 

 country and to foreign lands. 



In an apiary of any size, there may 

 always be found some colonies far ahead 

 of the others in the production of honey 

 and in numbers. These are the ones to 

 choose, from which to rear queens and 

 drones. I rear a few queens every sea- 

 son, in this way : 



I observe which are the best colonies, 

 and if there is a dearth of honey, follow- 

 ing fruit-bloom, I feed them so that they 

 will continue rearing brood. If I did 

 not, they might destroy their drones. 

 By feeding these favorites, they swarm 

 early, and during favorable seasons, 

 build many large, well-developed queen- 

 cells, and I preserve as many of them as 

 I can. 



About the time of the emerging of the 

 young queens from their cells I divide 

 the old colony, in this way forming 

 nuclei.- I put a frame of honey into a 

 hive, and by its side one containing a 

 ripe queen-cell and covered with bees 

 taken from the hive which had swarmed. 

 If a comb of sealed brood is removed 

 from a colony containing a queen, the 

 larger proportion of the bees will return 

 to the queen ; but if a comb with a 

 queen-cell upon it, is taken from a 

 queenless colony, many of the bees will 

 remain with the queen-cell, and she may 

 come out in a short time. In rearing 

 queens, I prefer the hives in use in the 

 apiary to small ones. I put the combs 

 of the nuclei in the center of the hive, 

 with a division-board each side. This 

 reduces the size of the hive to a small 

 one, and I can enlarge it at will by re- 

 moving the division-boards. 



When the queen and brood are all out 

 of a comb, I brush the bees from it, and 

 exchange it for one containing sealed 

 brood. In this way, the nuclei will have 

 plenty of bees to nourish and cover the 

 brood when the young queen is laying. 

 By this feeding after fruit-bloom, if 

 there is a dearth of honey, the good 

 drones will be preserved to fertilize the 

 young queens, and those left unfed will 

 be destroyed. — Orange Judd Farmer. 



Peoria, Ills. 



CloseJ or Open Eni-Bars— f Mcli ? 



DR. G. L. TINKER. 



I suppose if this question was put in 

 other words so as to read, "Are the 

 standing closed-end Quinby brood- 

 frames preferable to the Langstroth 

 hanging ones ? the general verdict 

 would be that the latter are preferable. 

 Yet there is undoubtedly a growing sen- 

 timent against loose hanging-frames. 

 But that it will ultimately lead to the 

 adoption of a closed-end brood-frame, I 

 do not think. 



Although many excellent bee-keepers 

 now use them, and would have no other, 

 still my faith is stronger to-day than 

 ever, that some form of the Langstroth 

 hanging-frame will ever be the most 

 popular, and will serve to perpetuate 

 the memory of the man who has done 

 more towards the advancement of api- 

 culture than any other that ever lived ; 

 who lifted our pursuit from an unprofit- 

 able and unsatisfactory investment in 

 straw skeps and box-hives, to a pursuit 

 at once profitable, respectable, and 

 highly fascinating to a large class of our 

 people. 



That this revival of apiculture from 

 the state of obscurity into which it had 

 fallen, was due to the Langstroth inven- 

 tion, there is not one to-day who doubts. 

 That it still has merits over every other 

 invention of a bee -hive, both ancient 

 and modern, it seems to me is so far 

 proved by the history of apiculture in 

 the last 40 years, that the question is 

 hardly worth discussing ; and that these 

 merits lie chiefly in the superiority of 

 the hanging-frame is equally apparent. 



So it would appear that after the gen- 

 eral approval of the bee-keepers of the 

 civilized world for 40 years, we may 

 well conclude that the principles of the 

 Langstroth hive will survive and be- 

 come the dominant ones in the popular 

 hives of the future. 



The present tendency against loose 

 hanging-frames is not necessarily a ten- 

 dency to the use of a closed-end brood- 

 frame, but rather to some practical 

 method of spacing and fixing the hang- 

 ing-frame. This we have had for some 

 years in the Hofifman-Langstroth frame, 

 which of late has undergone a further 

 improvement by the Root establishment 

 at Medina, so that as now constructed, 

 it is without objection, and fulfils every 

 function claimed for the closed-end 

 frames, and yet is about as readily mov- 

 able as the old style of the Langstroth 

 I frame. 



