THE MMERICJCN BEE JOURNSI,. 



209 



the 10-fraiiie Langstroth hive, and 

 have used nothing else for 25 years. 



We are now having plenty of rain, 

 and Alsike and sweet clover look well. 

 This part of the country has jjlentj- of 

 linden, and almost all kinds of honey- 

 plants that grow in tlic Northern 

 States. I liandlod bees for more than 

 20 years with nothing to guide me ex- 

 cept Langstrotli on "The Hive and 

 Honc}--Bee." Tlie last few years I 

 have been reading new works on bees, 

 with improved methods, and I find that 

 I was just 20 years behind the times. 

 I commenced handling bees when all 

 that was necessary was to know how 

 to make a box, and get bees in ; then 

 in the fall, to know how to build a sul- 

 phur pit, and put them on — that was 

 all it required to bean expert bee-man. 

 I now read the Amekican Bee Jour- 

 nal, wliicli comes to me every Thurs- 

 da}-, nice and clean, and I hail it as a 

 great treasure. I could not get along 

 without it ; it is the first paper that I 

 open, and the first that I read. May 

 it live many }'ears to continue its mis- 

 sion of usefulness. 



Newport, Iowa, April 19, 1889. 



BUSINESS BEES. 



Breeding Bees for tlic Honey. 

 Gathering Quality. 



Written Sor Uie American Bee Journal 



BY FRANK COVERDALE. 



Should we breed for quality in bees, 

 as well as in other farm stock ? I cer- 

 tainly must favor this, for two reasons, 

 viz : First, because it is very reason- 

 iible ; and second, because I know 

 from personal experience in mj' own 

 apiary, that through years of careful 

 selection, from the most prolific and 

 best honey-gatherers, I have reared a 

 strain of bees much superior to what 

 they would have been if allowed to in- 

 crease at will. 



Upon meeting a bee-keeper some 

 time ago (who keeps, on an average, 

 100 colonies), and asking if he would 

 have to feed anj- of his colonies for 

 winter, he said : " Those that will not 

 have enough honey to carry them 

 through the winter, are not worth 

 feeding ; and I do not care whether I 

 save tliem or not, for they are of no 

 use to gather honey." I call this a 

 very expensive method of weeding out 

 the bad quality. I am inclined to 

 think that a great part of our bee-keep- 

 ers are rearing bees for beauty, and 

 not giving enough attention to the 

 honey-gathering quality and prolific- 

 ness, which should go hand in hand. 



I would not be understood as being 

 one who would discourage the breed- 

 ing of the beautiful bee, with the three 



distinct yellow bands ; for from these 

 I believe that an excellent strain can 

 be bred. When visiting a beginner in 

 bee-keeping, he will show his golden 

 Italians, saying perhaps nothing about 

 their lioney-gatlioring quality ; and he 

 may continue breeding for the most 

 beautiful, regardless of anything else, 

 and thus be in the future a loser of 

 dollars and cents. If we have the con- 

 trol of the drones, it is as easy to rear 

 bees to produce much honej-, as to 

 rear covvs to give much milk. Just so 

 it is with disposition, whether in bees, 

 cattle, horses, or whatever it may be ; 

 if it is possible to breed cattle for beef 

 and milk ; and horses for disposition, 

 is it not just as much possible to breed 

 bees for disposition and honey-gather- 

 ing quality ? I most assuredly answer, 

 jes ! Then if this be true, thousands 

 of pounds of honey or nectar are 

 wasted, because of so great a neglect. 



Upon the foregoing p6ints of excel- 

 lence hang all the dollars and cents 

 for the honey-producer. The idea that 

 we must have our liees tempered like 

 hornets, in order to have good honey 

 gatherers, is really preposterous ! 



Welton, Iowa. 



COIVVEIWTION DIRECTORY. 



1889. Time and Place of Meetinn. 



May 15.— York and Cumberland, at Waterboro. Me. 



C. W. Custenow, Sec, 'Waterborii, Me. 



May 21.— Northern Illinois, at Pecatonica. 111. 



D. A. Fuller, Sec, Cherry Valley. Ills. 



Dec. 4, 6.— International, at Brantford. Ont.. Canada. 

 K. F. Holtermann, Sec, Brantford, Ont. 



^F' In order to have this table complete, Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetlnRs.— Ed. 



Expeeting a Oood Season. — 



Joseph E. Shaver, Friedens, Va., on 

 April 25, 1889, writes : 



The past winter has been a mild one, 

 and bees have come through the win- 

 ter in fine condition. The weather is 

 very fine now ; tlie peach, cherry and 

 apple trees are in full bloom, and bees 

 are gathering honej- rapidly. One of 

 my neighbor's had a nice swarm day 

 before yesterday. Bee-keepers are ex- 

 pecting a good honey season this year, 

 and they are rapiilly discarding the 

 box-.system of bee-keeping, and adopt- 

 ing the modern system of apiculture. 

 To all such, we wish hearty success ; to 

 wish success at this day, to the box- 

 hive sjstem, would be to wish success 

 against hope ; for I do not think that 

 there is much hope for tlieir success. 



M'ell Salisllcd with llie Bees. 



John Haskins, Empire Prairie, Mo., on 

 April 20, 1889, writes : 



Bees have wintered finely, and most 

 of them have an abundance of sealed 

 honey. ^My bees in 1888 averaged 

 about . 117. 00 per colony, si)ring count, 

 from heart's-ease, as the white clover 

 only yielded about honey enough for 

 brood-rearing. I have lost no colonies 

 the past winter.and gave tliem scarcely 

 any protection. I had 7 colonies last 

 spring, and now I have 30. I had lots 

 of empty combs last year, and they 

 were a great help to my bees. I am 

 well satisfied. Peach, ])lum, cherry 

 and apple trees are in full bloom. I 

 have kept bees for many years, and I 

 find there is lots for me to learn yet. 

 The Amekican Bee Journal is a great 

 help to me. 



Bees Wintered Safely.— T. Gar- 

 ion Fisher, Topton, Pa., on April 25, 



1889, saj-s : 



I like the American Bee Journal 

 better every week — in fact I cannot 

 see how I could get along without it. 

 I safely wintered 11 colonies of bees 

 on the summer stands. Nearlj^ every 

 colony has 5 frames of capped brood 

 to-dav. 



Successful Cellar. Wintering. — 



Rev. L. Lobeck, Knittel, Iowa, on April 

 18, 1889, says : 



My 11 colonies of bees wintered in 

 the cellar under the house, and did too 

 well, as every colon}' is boiling over 

 with bees. There was no ventilation 

 in the cellar, but it is tiled, and of 

 course that gives a sub-earth ventila- 

 tion. I never lost a colony in the 

 cellar. 



Ants in the Apiary, etc. — Ira N. 



Lyman, St. Peter, Nebr., on April 22, 



1889, writes : 



In the Bee Journal recently, I no- 

 ticed an item in regard to ants troub- 

 ling the apiary a great deal. One sure 

 remedy is to jilace the hives on a bench 

 with short legs, put those legs in fruit- 

 cans or dishes, and keep them half full 

 of water, or more ; and as the ants are 

 not good swimmers, the}- never trouble 

 the bees. A long bench can be made, 

 and several hives put on it. The hives 

 could be close together, by facing every 

 other hive the opposite way. My father 

 used to do tliat way nearly fifty years 

 ao-o, in the woods where ants were 

 bad. My bees are working splendidly. 

 I hope that we will have a good sea- 

 .son for bees. They are working on 

 willows and bo.x-elders, and will soon 



