312 



Tmm ffiMERiejsE* bis® jQumvfmi^. 



errors ; as we do not consider ourselves 

 infallible, we are ever open to convic- 

 tion ; but we do not think we are too 

 exacting in asking for honest impar- 

 tiality in the criticisms. 

 Hamilton, Ills. 



[Editorial comments will -be found 

 on page 307. — Ed.] 



DRONES. 



The Importance of Rearing 

 Good Drones, etc. 



Written for the. American Bee Journal 



BY F. F. GRAVES. 



The first honey was brought in to- 

 day. The season is very early, the 

 trees are leaving out, and the red 

 maple is now fairly in bloom, and is 

 secreting a little honey. 



It has been said that the willows 

 produce some honey, but I have never 

 been able to find any in the flower, or 

 see evidence of it in the hive. It af- 

 fords quantities of good pollen, and 

 the bees have brought in so much the 

 past week, that I have been obliged to 

 take out one or two frames from each 

 hive, many being so full that they are 

 unfit for use, and can only be melted 

 up. This has been my experience for 

 the past ten years ; and if artificial 

 pollen is necessary anywhere, it cer- 

 tainly is not in this locality. 



For the past three or four weeks the 

 weather has been very warm — no cold 

 nights, and not a day for a month but 

 what the bees have been out, conse- 

 quently they are Ijreeding very fast, 

 and it is time that we are thinking, or 

 doing, something about the strain of 

 bees that we wish to breed from. We 

 all know that race will tell, and the 

 importation of queens into our apiaries 

 has made a wonderful improvement in 

 the prolificness, storing-qualities and 

 fighting-propensities of our bees ; and 

 those who do not care to purchase 

 queens to supersede old ones, and to 

 introduce into new swarms, should be- 

 gin at once to breed from the best they 

 have, as the male has as much or more 

 to do with the disposition or traits of 

 the progeny as the female. 



We should commence by selecting 

 the most vigorous and desirable young 

 mothers, and from them rear all the 

 drones for the whole apiary. This can 

 be done by giving such an one a full 

 hive of bees. A good and safe way to 

 do this is to give them, from any hive 

 which can spare them, a few frames of 

 hatching brood ; then in the centre of 

 the hive put one or two empty frames, 

 in or near the middle of which are a 

 few cells of drone-comb (anywhere 

 from 100 to 200), and when the cells 



are capped over, the frames should be 

 given to such colonies as j'ou do not 

 wish to rear drones from, and the 

 place in the first hive supplied with 

 similar combs, until every hive has a 

 supply of drones. 



If at any time drone-eggs are found 

 in a hive, it will be safe to take them 

 away and give drone-brood in any 

 stage, from tlie selected queen. To 

 rear drones is a natural propensity, but 

 any colony will be satisfied with its 

 quota, let it come from what source it 

 may. If this is practiced, and every 

 hive examined once in two or three 

 weeks, and the heads shaved ofl:' from 

 all drone-brood not wanted, and the 

 frames having scattered brood taken 

 out and put into a hive, the entrance 

 of which is protected bj' a drone-trap, 

 then they can be disposed of as they 

 come out. In this way we can have 

 l)ure and vigorous males. 



We have not heretofore paid enough 

 attention to the most important part of 

 breeding. Many of our apiarists are 

 also poultry fanciers, who have gained 

 a reputation as successful breeders ; 

 and I think that they all are more par- 

 ticular about the points of the male 

 bird than they are of the mother. Why 

 should we not Ije as particular about 

 the character of the drone, as of the 

 queen ? It is of much greater impor- 

 tance, for the queen is reared under 

 the swarming impulse ; the egg is laid 

 by a mother that is able to fill the hive 

 with brood, and lead the swarm to 

 seek a new home, while the drone may 

 be the last egg laid by a decrepit old 

 queen who has deposited her fifteen 

 hundred thousand, and now has not 

 enough energy or life to produce a 

 fertilized egg, but is just laying from 

 force of habit. 



A queen is a queen only by accident; 

 any one of the two or three thousand 

 eggs that a queen lays in a day, may 

 be made into a queen if circumstances 

 require it ; tlie difl'erence only is a 

 larger cell, and more stimnlating and 

 nutritious food. If that will change a 

 worker into a queen, give her more 

 strength, greater endurance, and also 

 a lease of life, not of weeks, but of 

 years —if all this is done by care and 

 condition, why is not the drone equally 

 affected ? 



Many of the drones that fly about the 

 apiary were reared in colonies that 

 were not able to take care of them- 

 selves, and were dying faster than the 

 young bees hatched to take their 

 places. In such hives the drone could 

 not receive sufficient warmth in germi- 

 nation, proper care, nor enough of the 

 requisite food to make a vigorous male, 

 and his progeny would certainly suffer 

 and be deficient of the qualities that 

 make the best bees. 



Waterville, Me., April 30, 1889. 



SPRING. 



The Management of Bee§ in the 

 Spring. 



Read at the Erie Co. Farmers' Institute 



BY O. L. HERSHISEK. 



At no season of the year do bees 

 need more careful management than 

 during the first warm days of spring, 

 and until they can gather honey from 

 the fields. Losses are not usually 

 heavy during the winter months, but 

 from the latter part of March until 

 fruit trees bloom, the fatality is some- 

 times great. It is not a difficult mat- 

 ter to winter bees, but to "spring" 

 them successfully often requires much 

 thoughtful attention to their needs and 

 condition. 



The first requisite is plenty of food. 

 If this matter has not been looked to 

 in the preceding autumn, preparatory 

 to wintering, it should be on the first 

 warm day of spring. Springs follow- 

 ing years of failure of the horiey crop, 

 and especially failure of fall honey, are 

 usually springs of lieavy losses from 

 starvation and dwindling. If each 

 colonj' is provided with from 25 to 35 

 pounds of stores in the fall, they will 

 in nearly every case have abundance to 

 last until the flowers produce honey 

 again. 



A normal colony of bees will con- 

 sume from 6 to 12 pounds of food from 

 fall till April 1, and from this time till 

 fruit trees bloom, about as much more. 

 If thej' consume more than this, thej- 

 are not in a normal condition, and are 

 liable to perish. The less honey a col- 

 ony consumes during the winter, the 

 better will be its condition in the 

 spring. 



Feeding: Bees in the Spring. 



If bees are out of food, emptj' combs 

 in the hive should be replaced by 

 combs containing honey. If these are 

 not accessible, syrup made from the 

 best quality of granulated sugar may 

 be fed. In feeding, be careful to allow^ 

 as little loss of heat from the hive as 

 possible. A strong colony will store 

 several pounds of food a day. 



A bee-feeder is desirable in feeding 

 syrup. Some bee-keepers prefer to 

 feed by replacing empty combs in the 

 hive by combs containing sugar syrup. 

 The combs are filled by laying them on 

 a board and pouring the syrup into the 

 cells with a dipper. They should be 

 hung in the natural position and al- 

 lowed to drip before placing in the 

 hive. Feeding should always be done 

 in the evening to guard against rob- 

 bing. 



If it is desirable to stimulate bees to 

 rapid brood-rearing, a small amount 

 should be fed dailv, and the feeding 



