1903 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



157 



sheet evidently to obtaiu fresh air. 



Bee escapes are useful to apiarists 

 who have a few hives and worli only 

 for home needs and pleasure. They 

 occupy too much time and labor in a 

 large apiary. 



Small hives ai'e another drawback, 

 as they fail to give capacity for the 

 brood and honey and the bees swarm 

 from over-crowding. Give bees room 

 with no obstructing traps and remove 

 the surplus honey wherever there is 

 no brood. 



Simplicity and ease of manipulation 

 of hives and due regard to the natui'e 

 of the insect is of vital importance to 

 the apiarist working for profit. 



BRUSHED SWAKMS. 



So much has been written in regard 

 to brushed swarms. I determined to 

 try the process without combs and use 

 frames with starters or full sheets of 

 wired foundation, and add a Doollttle 

 feeder with three pounds of extracted 

 honey. 



I place an empty hive In rear of a 

 sti'ong colony, removing the combs one 

 by one, and brushing all the bees from 

 them back into the old hive, and place 

 the combs in the empty hive. Then 

 remove the hives with brushed bees 

 and feeder to another stand, and place 

 the hive with combs of honey and 

 brood in place of the 'old hive just re- 

 moved. The returning bees with cap- 

 ped brood soon hatch out another 

 queen and the feeding of extracted 

 honey enables the bees to build up 

 combs rapidly and prevents a disposi- 

 tion to abscond. It would be a great 

 advantage to introduce a young queen 

 if you have one, but I am experiment- 

 ing without. I have tried the plan 

 on quite a number, and so far have 

 succeeded, and no absconding has oc- 

 curred. 



Although in its experimental stage, 

 to test the non-use of a brood comb, 

 I would prefer using in addition a 

 comb of brood with eggs and larvae 

 to insure a queen being hatched, in 

 the event of the loss of the old one. 



I shall continue the experiments dur- 

 ing the season so as to decide its util- 

 ity. 



Greenville, Miss.. April 27, 1903. 



Don't be afraid to ask for sample 

 copies for your friends. 



THE REARING OF THE QUEEN BEE. 



(W. W. :\IcXeal.) 



SUCCESS with bees depends so 

 much on the queen that I feel 

 constrained to again caution the 

 amateur to be careful when they take 

 hold of this branch of apiculture. 



The thrift of the apiarist may be 

 commendable and the crystal tide of 

 nectar may flow on in its silent way, 

 but neither of these can atone for any 

 departure from the standard of per- 

 fection Nature has laid down for the 

 queen. She must be a queen-bee in 

 all that the term implies, in her tem- 

 perament and her capabilities, or she 

 may block the way in the pursuit of 

 honey-raising. 



In a state of Xatui-e bees* laWsh 

 their attentions upon a queen larva 

 from the very dawn of its existence. 

 The mystic current of life that quick- 

 ens and transforms is never broken by 

 intermission, but the favored one sips 

 at the royal fount from its earliest 

 youth. This gives it greater stability 

 and a longer lease of life. In proof of 

 which I have only to call attention to 

 the behavior of queens reared to su- 

 persede the old one. 



There never was and never will be 

 better queens than these. I don't 

 mean that all queens reared at such 

 times are perfect, but the best of them 

 are better than the best of those reared 

 by any other method. This is signifi- 

 cant, and bee-keepers will do well to 

 ponder over it. Queens reared from 

 larvae that are 36 to 48 hours old may 

 have the outward semblance of a 

 perfect queen, but the grosser sensi- 

 bilities of commoner bees are a part of 

 their inheritance. 



The grafting method of queen rear- 

 ing has probably wrought as much 

 harm as it has good to honey pro- 

 ducers. This is not saying it is not 

 capable of much good, but it is attend- 

 ed with the danger of using larvae 

 that are too old even according to the 

 ideas of the devotees of the grafting 

 method. The older the larvae used, 

 the more pronounced are the wayward 

 tendencies of the mature bee. For just 

 as a queen is reared along the lines 

 of a worker-bee will she prove herself 

 susceptible to those influences which 

 excite the workers to acts which cul- 

 minate in swarming. I would not be 

 understood as claiming that a return 



