THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



held with glue. This thread of a 

 tongue will hold and cause the head of 

 the dead bee to turn up some when the 

 larva dries down to a very thin, black 

 lining on the lower side-wall of the 

 cell. Before this stage is reached the 

 bee often becomes a light brown, dead 



matter, foul smelling, and ropy like 

 fresh glue. 



This picture used as a frontispiece 

 lacks one thing: It ought to show the 

 top of comb tipped towards me; but the 

 line indicates the correct view. 



Platteville. Wis., Dec. 19, 1904. 





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BY L. STAGHELHAUSEN. 



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FEW days ago I received the re- 

 port of the St. Louis convention, 

 and was astonished when I read the 

 discussion following Mr. Hutchinson's 

 paper, in which he recommended bee- 

 keeping as a specialty, because the 

 specialist in bee-keeping, as in all 

 other lines of business, has a greater 

 success. I am one of those who have 

 made bee-keeping a life-business, and 

 I know at least this much, that since I 

 have abandoned all other kinds of 

 business, and not before, have I made a 

 little more money than I use in sup- 

 porting myself and family. 

 SPECIALISM PRODUCES AT THE LEAST 

 COST. 



Specialization goes on in every line 

 of business, because it brings more 

 profit. Why should it be different in 

 bee-keeping? The specialist is bound 

 to produce honey with the least ex- 

 penditure of labor; he is continually 

 tr5Mng new ways, by which labor can 

 be saved, and more monej^ can be pro- 

 duced, not from a single colony, but 

 by the labor he is spending in his 

 business. We bee-keepers, as yet, 

 spend too much time on useless, or 

 non-paying, manipulations in our pur- 

 suit. The small, or amateur, bee-keep- 

 ers are largely responsible that this 

 "fussing" with bees is not recognized 



as a mistake, because, for them, time 

 is not as valuable as for the specialist; 

 but the latter will, by and by, kill out 

 these prejudices, and all the indigna- 

 tion expressed at St. Louis will not 

 hinder it. 



HOW MANY COLONIES ARE THE MOST 

 PROFITABLE IN ONE LOCATION ? 



If bee-keeping is to be conducted as 

 the main or sole business, the first 

 question which arises is, how many 

 colonies can be profitably kept in one 

 yard ? While Mr. E. W. Alexander 

 (Review, page 60, 1904) says that over- 

 stocking is a myth, and is getting a 

 good average crop from an apiary of 

 700 colonies, others are of the opinion 

 that not more than lOO or ISO colonies 

 should be kept in one yard. 



My experience is that, in many 

 localities, during the main honey flow, 

 where a single variety of honey-plant 

 is present in large quantities, and all 

 these plants are covered with unnum- 

 bered blossoms, 1,000 colonies may 

 probabl}^ ffive the same average honey- 

 crop as 100. During this flow, espe- 

 cially if the season is a good one, such 

 a locality can hardly be overstocked. 

 The difficulty arises during the light 

 honey-flows in spring and fall. In the 

 spring a few colonies may gather 

 enough honey for stimulating the bees 



