April 13, 190S. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



277 



justice to an honest industry ; but witli the testimony before him, in a 

 field with which he was not entirely familiar, he no doubt fell war- 

 ranted in concluding that it was a more or less common thintr to find 

 on the market that which was sold for coml> honey that was nti gen- 

 uine comb honey at all. 



Let him do a little investigating on his own account. Let him 

 make the eflort to find a single specimen of comb honey that is not 

 genuine, no matter whether "in the frame" or not — waive that — it 

 ought not to be so very hard for him to secure it if such a thing is to 

 be found at all; and when he has concluded his search he v^ ill no 

 doubt be ready to say, " Comb honey, whether sold in the frame or 

 out of the frame, is uniformly pure in this country." If, however, he 

 should succeed in finding a bogus article of comb honey, let him send 

 a sample to this office, and he may rest assured there will be no blink- 

 ing of the truth, but the facts will be stated in all their glaring un- 

 pleasantness. 



Apiarian Representation In Australia 



Increase of colonies increases a man's voting power in the New 

 South Wales Bee-Farmers' Association, according to the Australian 

 Bee-Bulletin. If he has only one colony he has one vote, and the 

 same if he has 50 colonies, but each additional 50 colonies after the 

 first 50 gives him an additional vote. With 100 colonies he has 2 votes ; 

 with 500, 10 votes ; and with 1000, 20 votes. 



ITIiscclloneous 

 TUws > 3 terns 



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A Bee-Department that Means Something.— Agricul- 

 tural papers are more or less in the habit of publishing in what pur- 

 ports to be a bee-department, items containing errors that even a 

 novice in bee-keeping instantly detects, raising the question. It bees 

 are of enough importance to demand attention, are they not of enough 

 importance to have some one of practical knowledge about bees to 

 have a supervising care over what is said about them >. A pleasing ex- 

 ception is found in the case of "Irrigation," of Denver, Colo., a 

 monthly agricultural journal of high order, beautifully printed and 

 illustrated, which, in its January number, gaie a displayed announce- 

 ment on its title page that with that number began a bee-department 

 to be edited by no less an authority than our old friend, R. C. Aikin. 

 More power to his pencil. 



The Apiary of M. W. Harrington, of Iowa Co., Iowa, 

 appears on the first page. When sending the picture he wrote thus : 



The hive in front is an observation hive with glass sides, 

 which are covered with wooden shutters as shown in the picture. For 

 convenience in handling and shading I have used the straight rows, 

 more or less crowded, for 35 years While I think I lose a few more 

 queens by crowding this way, it a good deal more than makes up for 

 loss in the handling, shading, stands, etc. M. W. Harrington. 



Conrads' Stand. — On the first page are two views of a stand 

 used by Wald. C. Conrads, of Comal Co., Tex., who describes it and 

 its use as follows: 



I send two views of a stand that I use for holding supers, covers, 

 etc., while painting. Any bee-keeper can have one made by a black- 

 smith. Take 4 iron rods about 15 inches long by -^8 thick, and nave 

 them welded together about 3 or 4 inches at one end; then bend them 

 apart so that they will be a little wider than the inside dimensions of 

 the supers; then split them at all four corners about J.2 inch, and Ijend 

 these two points at right angles, so that the projections pointin); up- 

 ward will just fit into the inside of the supers or hives, while the pro- 

 jections pointing sidewise will support the supers or hives. 



This same stand is very convenient for painting covers or txittom- 

 boards, but if used for this purpose the projections pointing upward 

 should all be filed to one level, so that the covers or bottom-buards 

 may rest on them while being painted. 



The rest of the stand is made of wood, and in the middle t'f the 

 center piece a hole is bored so that the 4 iron arms will fit into it where 

 they are welded together; however, this point should be drawn .ut a 

 little. 



When painting covers or bottom-boards, place always a mat a or 

 toothpick on each corner, and you will have no trouble with br.ving 

 them to stick together; that is, when you stack them away after 

 painting. 



It may also be of interest for those using frames end-spae ( by 

 staples, to know that it is much more convenient to put in the s' - les 

 before nailing up the frames. Just keep the V edge of the en i ars 

 toward you when driving in the staples, and you will have th-.i all 

 right when nailing up the frames. Wald. C. Conbai- 



-V (£ontrtbiitcb ^- 

 Special drticles 



How to Rear Early Drones and Queens 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLK. 



A CORRESPONDENT wishes me to tell through the 

 columns of the American Bee Journal how he can rear 

 early queens before the drones from his neighbors' 

 hives get to flying. He says that he has hives in the cellar 

 which have drones in sight through the glass that is on one 

 side, and wants to know if those drones will be good in the 

 spring ; and, if not, how he will get the early drones. 



First, I wish to say that I doubt the wisdom of working 

 for very early queens— that is, trying to rear queens before 

 there are any flowers in bloom, or before the colonies be- 

 come strong enough to have the hives nearly filled with 

 bees and brood, and by that time his wintered-over drones 

 will be dead. All my experience goes to prove that such 

 queens, reared out of season, are of very poor value, so much 

 so that we would better sacrifice somewhat as regards purity 

 rather than have pure queens of poor quality. But if one is 

 anxious to rear queens just as soon as it can possibly be 

 done and have them reasonably good, then I find the follow- 

 ing course the best of any I have been able to find : 



Select the queen you wish for your drone-breeder in the 

 fall, and give to her colony the bees from some moderately 

 strong colony during the month of September, having killed 

 the queen in this latter colony a week or so before uniting. 

 See that there is a drone-comb in the center of this united 

 colony, and that they have plenty of honey to carry them 

 over the winter and give them a good start in early spring. 

 As soon as out of winter quarters see that the hive is made 

 as warm as possible, and give them a feed of about a half 

 pint of warmed syrup every night in a feeder. For this 

 purpose a division board feeder is rather better than any 

 other, for it can be brought right up to the cluster, and the 

 warmed feed poured therein will enable the bees to take the 

 feed no matter if the weather should be quite cool. And if 

 you will take a few bees from some other colony and unite 

 them with this one, by keeping them confined in a box for 

 one or two days, feeding them all they wish for those two 

 days, and then just at night let them run down from the top 

 through a little hole in the covering to the hive, and unite 

 with the drone colony, this will help much toward the early 

 depositing of eggs in drone-cells. 



As soon as you have capped drone-brood in this colony 

 it will be time to commence to rear queens. But before be- 

 ginning on this part I wish to say that you will need to keep 

 up the feeding of the drone colony during every cold or 

 rainy spell of weather, or at all times when the bees can not 

 get a supply of nectar from the fields, otherwise you may 

 find your drones all driven out or killed off some day, for 

 very early drones are often given their " walking ticket' 

 on short notice if any failure in the supply of a daily ration 

 of stores occurs. I suppose this is because the bees know 

 that drones are not needed at this early season of the year. 

 Being assured that your drone part is a success, select 

 the verv strongest colony you may have, and this colony 

 should have its hive as nearly filled with bees and brood as 

 possible. Having such colony look over the frames till you 

 find the queen, when you will set the frame having her on 

 in some box or empty hive while you are fitting in a sheet 

 of queen-excluding metal near the center of the hive, hav- 

 ing this sheet fit so close that it is impossible for any bees 

 to get around it in any place ; otherwise the queen may get 

 in the side where you are rearing queen-cells and destroy 



them all. ,. ^..u 



Having the queen-excluder in place, put that part ot the 

 brood which is the youngest on one side and the older brood 

 in the other, and then place the frame set out and having 

 the queen on it in the other side. Now leave them for 24 

 hours, when you will take one of the frames out frotn the 

 side having no queen and put it in some other hive for them 

 to care for, if it has brood in it. If only honey it can be set 

 away anywhere after getting the bees off it, which should 

 be done in either case, as we wish all the bees in this queen- 

 rearing hive possible. ... j 

 Now prepare a stick of cell cups from your best breeder, 



