1903 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



201 



Pliiladelpliiu has migratoi'y bee-keep- 

 ers as well as Florida. But her emi- 

 grants only start out in the fall. There 

 are still vast regions of open country 

 along the Delaware and Schuylkill 

 rivers where wild flowers grow lux- 

 uriously in the early spring and fall. 

 Acres and acres of golden-rod, wild 

 aster, heartsease and smartweed invite 

 the honey-bee to come and sip up this 

 nectar. 



The wandering bee-keeper who gen- 

 erally has a stand of bees in the su- 

 burbs loads his colonies and an ex- 

 tractor into a wagon when the fall 

 flow begins and camps out in the fots 

 along the river banks, w^here he starts 

 operations. Some seasons he reaps a 

 goodly profit from this free source. 



Rutledge, Pa., Aug. 10, 1903. 



IMPROVEHENT OF STOCK. 



A New Idea as to Means of Facilitating this 

 Desirable Result 



(G. B. Crum.) 



I HAVE no Queens for sale, so 

 don't think this article a free ad- 

 vertisement to increase our trade. 

 What I have to say is paid for by the 

 editor, so you will see that I have no 

 personal interests to advance. 



Our celebrated queen-breeders tell 

 us that they breed up quality by se- 

 lection, etc. I am not going to tell 

 you anything about patent cell-cups 

 nor argue for the merits of any partic- 

 ular system, but simply state my own 

 method of queen rearing. 



I have combs built part way down 

 and give these to queenless colonies 

 to start dummy cells on lower edge, 

 which I use by putting in larvae, 

 changing them again in from 12 to 20 

 hours; that is, taking out those first 

 inserted and substituting a new batch. 

 "Oh. that's nothing new," you say. 

 New hold your tongue and wait until 

 I am through. 



My eell-building colonies are brood- 

 less — composed of bees not 6ne of 

 which is under ten days old. You say, 

 "Why go contrary to all orthodox 

 rules?" Because young bees like "pap" 

 better than old ones. To satisfy your- 

 self upon this point, just give a frame 

 of eggs to a colony with no bees under 

 ten days old and another to a colony 

 which has just been deprived of all 

 brood and eggs. You will find that 



the former are much better fed than 

 the latter. 



Now for my plan of selecting queen 

 mothers: I select a queen that has 

 just begun laying, regardless of what 

 she may prove afterwards, as to color, 

 etc. I closely follow up this method 

 from generation to generation, from 

 April to October. Thus, it will be seen, 

 it is possible to get ten generations in 

 one year — forty generations in four 

 years — which is about the extreme 

 limit of a queen's life, which is used 

 as a drone mother. Now observe that 

 it is thus possible for a queen to be a 

 half-sister to her fortieth grandmother. 

 You inquire. "Well, what do you gain 

 by all this?" Well, I gain a long stride 

 ahead of Nature, and, I believe, a 

 queen whose workers have few equals 

 and no superiors. 



I am willing to back up my claims 

 by having any one of my queens test- 

 ed by the editor of any of our bee 

 journals, in 1904, and in case of my 

 failure to prove my claim, will forfeit 

 $2.00 and the queen against any com- 

 petitor. If any one wants to test it, 

 "holler." Don't be afraid of hurting 

 my feelings. 



Pearson. Ga.. .Tuly 29. 1903. 



Producing Comb and Extracted •Honey[in 

 the Same Hive. 



(W. W. McNeal.) 



I HAVE again demonstrated to my 

 entire satisfaction the practicabil- 

 itj' of working a colony for both 

 comb and extracted honey. 



I insist that no colony of bees will 

 do its best at honey-gathering till there 

 is comb being built in the hive. That 

 is such a potent inspiration to them 

 that beekeepers cannot well afford to 

 ignore it. There is no prettier way 

 of raising "chunk"' honey than by al- 

 ternating frames of comb with those 

 containing only starters. I prefer 

 frames with starters to full sheets of 

 Fdn.. l)ecause it is more profitable. I 

 want the bees to use their own wax, 

 and besides they manifest more en- 

 thusiasm in the construction of wholly 

 natural comb. Full sheets of founda- 

 tion in large frames will often warp 

 resulting in an ill-shaped comb UHless 

 it is wired: and if the frames were 

 wired the wire would be somewhat of 

 a nuisance when cutting out the honey. 



