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Xlie Evil Eftects of Uooming:.— 



Mr. Alexander Black, of Sonya, Ont., wrote 

 as follows on Jan. 3, 1889 : 



I send you an Item clipped from the Farm 

 (ind Fireside of Toronto, entitled " Do Bees 

 Pay ?" and I would like to know wliat you 

 think of such a report. I consider such an 

 increase and yield of honey utterly impos- 

 sible, and 1 also think that such reports are 

 not calculated to do bee-keepers any good, 

 and may do others much harm, as it will 

 make a great many rush into bee-keeping 

 who know nothing about the business, and 

 make a total failure in it. 



Just think of a man making over $130 

 from every colony he has in the spring, why 

 should not everybody go into the business ? 



I am in the business, and have studied It 

 for years, and believe that my bees have 

 done as well as the most bees did last sea- 

 son ; they increased from 7 colonies in the 

 spring to 17 in the tall, and 1 got 150 pounds 

 of honey. Of course the increase cost me 

 lots of honey ; but it was bees 1 worked for, 

 and my 17 colonies were put into the cellar 

 in lirst-class condition, and are wintering 

 well without any signs of disease so far. 



I am looking forward to better success 

 next season. We have a tine, mild winter ; 

 have had no really cold weather yet. 1 am 

 pleased with the Bee JouKNALevery week. 

 Long may it flourish. 



The item enclosed by Mr. Alexander 

 Black reads as follows : 



Do Bees Pay ?— The following communi- 

 cation from Byron Hams, of Worcester, JIo., 

 will be of interest as showing a bee-keep- 

 er's actual expense account and proHts : 



1 commenced the season of 1888 with 3 

 colonies of Italian bees, using Langstroth 

 liives with movable frames. The bees had 

 plenty of honey to stimulate active increase. 

 Plenty of honey came in all through the 

 season for fast breeding, and for building 

 up strong colonies, ready for the grand flow 

 of honey which commenced with Aug. 15, 

 and practically closed Oct. 1. With tlie use 

 of 200 empty combs, 1 increased my 3 colo- 

 nies to 37. I worked 1 colony for queen- 

 rearing, 3 colonies for comb honey, and 31 

 colones for extracted honey. 1 sold 3 colo- 

 nies. The results were : 



2,400 lbs. extracted honey at 10c. .$310.00 



100 lbs. comb honey at 15c 15.00 



Two colonies sold 5.00 



25 colonies left, worth 1.50.00 



Total t-ilO.OO 



Deduct 3 colonies on hand to be- 

 gin with, worth $18.00 



21 hives at 81.50 31.50 



Total expense » 49.00 



Net profit S360.50 



It is a very fabulous report, to say the 

 lea.st, not only viewed from the standpoint 

 of increase, but also of sale. The 2 colonies 

 sold brought only $2.50 each, only one dollar 

 more than the cost of the hives, but the 35 

 colonies left are valued at double that price. 

 Extracted honey, at wholesale, bringing 10 

 cents per pound by the barrel, is not to be 

 despised ! 



Mr. liams was taking the Bee Journal 

 some three years ago, but as he is owing for 

 over a year's subscription, he will be well 

 able to pay it now from his bonanza bees. 



Queens and Swarms.— Mr. Albert 

 Vought, Illawara, La., on Jan. 36, writes : 



I feel fully repaid for this year's subscrip- 

 tion, by Dr. Tinker's article on page 35. I 

 had about decided to manage my bees some- 

 thing after that style, and at the same time 

 accomplish mj? transferring, but I would 

 ask Dr. Tinker, what becomes of the young 

 queens? or does the old one always leave 

 the hive before the young one hatches ? Of 

 course, in my case, where increase is 

 wanted, it is all right. I understand how to 

 manage them before they hatch. 



The answer by Dr. G. L. Tinker, of New 

 Philadelphia, 0., is as follows : 



When a colony of bees casts a swarm, and 

 is managed as advised, it is not usual for the 

 young queens to appear before the eighth 

 clay after, and second swarms cannot occur. 

 Upon removing the brood and shaking off 

 the bees, it will be seen if any of the queen- 

 cells are sealed over, when we shall know 

 that if it is placed over a wood-zinc honey- 

 board in the super of another colony, the 

 cells will hatch about the eighth day after. 



If now the apiarist is not on hand to at- 

 tend to the cells, the first queen to hatch 

 will destroy the remaining cells very soon. 

 From this time on until she is ready to mate, 

 or about 4 or 5 days thereafter, she will be 

 found nearly all the time on the honey- 

 board, trying to get below. Upon raising 

 the super, she will be seen at once, and un- 

 disturbed by the light, her efforts to get 

 through the zinc are unabated. Hence, she 

 may be readily removed, or the honev-board 

 may be turned over and the young queen 

 be allowed to kill the old one, which, so far 

 in every case with me, she is certain to do. 

 But if the young queen be left in the super 

 until after the eleventh day, or until she is 

 ready to mate, the bees will, for some cause, 

 ball and kill her, and that is the end of all 

 queens hatched in supers left to themselves 

 above a wood zinc honey-board, except as 

 stated in next to the last paragraph at the 

 foot of the third column, on page 2fi. 



It is therefore for the apiarist to determine 

 what shall become of the young queens. 



Although the young queens will destroy 

 the old ones, as a rule, as stated, still I be- 

 lieve that it is better to remove the old one, 

 if it is desired to supersede her, and then let 

 the young queen have full away, as it seems 

 probable that exceptions will be found to 

 this rule, in which the young queen, after 

 destroying the old one. may herself be 

 balled and killed. At all events, contests 

 between queens should be prevented as far 

 as possible. Transferring by the new sys- 

 tem is a decided success, as I transferred a 

 number of colonies in this way last summer. 



W^astefiil Isrnorance.— A corres- 

 pondent in the Orange Judd Farmer of last 

 week thus mentions a case of loss of honey 

 and bees needlessly, through ignorance in 

 the beekeeper of the simple methods of 

 bee-keeping. He says : 



While traveling in central Illinois the past 

 week, I met a beekeeper living in a locality 

 near a stream, and where heart's-ease was 

 abundant in the fall. He told me that bees 

 there never stored any honey except from 

 clover, and that they wintered very badly — 

 frequently the loss was .30 out of .50 colonies. 



I asked him if he ever used an extractor, 

 and he said he did not know what it was. 



I then asked him if he ever gave the queen 

 room to lay after the flow from clover was 

 over. He replied that he never disturbed 

 tliem until cold weather, when he removed 

 the surplus honey. 



Now, this man, by not being posted, was 

 losing lialf or more of his crop, and three- 

 fifths of his bees in winter. He should pro- 

 cure and use an extractor, or take out some 



of the frames of sealed honey, and replace 

 them with empty worker combs after the 

 flow from clover was over, feeding, if nec- 

 essary, so the queen may continue breeding, 

 and giving her more room every few days, 

 to insure that there would be lots of young 

 bees in the hive the latter days of August, 

 when the fields of heart's-ease or black- 

 heart begin to bloom. He would thus secure 

 a crop of fall honey, and lots of strong 

 young bees to go through the winter. 



An Omission.— Mr. R. McKnighf, of 

 Owen Sound, Out., on Feb. 4, 1889, writes 

 as follows : 



In the report of the Ontario Bee-Keepers' 

 Association meeting, as published in the 

 American Bee Journal of the 2nd inst., 

 I notice a sentence in Mr. Pettit's essay 

 which was omitted at the meeting at which 

 it was read, but has since been giveti to the 

 world through the American Bee Jour- 

 nal and the Honey Producer. This " miss- 

 ing link "is a harmless piece of irony. It 

 reads as follows : " Who in the present age 

 is bold enough to assert that Mr. McKniglit 

 is not an original and profound thinker ? 



Mr. McKuight himself disclaims any 

 pretpntions to either originality or pro- 

 tundity, and does not believe that the 

 world credits him witli being either original 

 or profound. Moreover he did not then nor 

 does he now care what Mr. Pettit may say 

 or think of him ; but Mr. McKuight does 

 think it rather strange that Mr. Holtermann 

 should cause to be published what he was 

 evidently ashamed to read before the mem- 

 bers of the association. Mr. Pettit's essay 

 was read from a proof-sheet by Mr. Holter- 

 mann, and it included the sentence quoted 

 above, but the pen was drawn through It, 

 aud it was " skipped " by Mr. Holtermann 

 in the reading. 



I was not a little amused when a gentle- 

 man present passed the proot-sheet over to 

 me, and drew my attention to the erasure ! 

 Wliat 1 complain of, is the want of candor 

 manifested by Mr. Holtermann in his re- 

 ports generally. 1 could give many in- 

 stances of this, but one will suttice : At our 

 annual meeting a year ago, one of the best 

 essays was contributed by Mr. Allen 

 Pringle ; yet this correspondent and editor 

 suppressed it in his report of that meeting 

 as published in the Honey Producer. 

 There must be semething radically wrong 

 in an editor who, because of personal pique, 

 will deprive his readers of valuable infor- 

 mation. 



In the "copy" sent to us for publica- 

 tion, the sentence in Mr. Pettit's essay above 

 referred to was not erased— probably by an 

 oversight. Concerning the omission of Mr. 

 Pringle's essay in the report of the conven- 

 tion of 1388, Mr. Holtermann wrote to us 

 (before we received the above letter) that 

 he was not aware of its absence until a few 

 days ago ; that it was purely an oversight 

 which he much regretted. 



Xlie Ilaneiiis' Cardens of Baby- 

 lon were within the precincts of the palace 

 called "The Admiration of Mankind." 

 They consisted of gardens of trees and 

 flowers on the topmost of a series of arches 

 75 feet high, and built in the form of a 

 square, each side of which measured 400 

 Greek feet. The city of Babylon, with its 

 famous gardens, was razed to its foundation 

 600 B. C. Two thousand five hundred and 

 seventy-nine years later we find the cele- 

 brated gardens of James Vick, in Roches- 

 ter, New York. For description, catalogue 

 of seeds, advice how to obtain tree a copy 

 of Vick's Foral Guide, and also of the 

 famous new rose, called " Vick's Caprice," 

 address, James Vick, Seedsman, Rochester, 

 N. Y. 



