1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPRE. 



153 



.^^ommp^'-' 



The W. T. Falconer, Man'f'g 

 Co. — Gentlemen : You have sent rae 

 three or four sample copies of the 

 American Bee-Keeper during the past 

 year, and I find them most interest- 

 ing, as I am a keeper of bees but in 

 a small way only thus far. It may 

 be I have not gone in more exten- 

 sively owing to the low piice of 

 honey here, as it seems from prices 

 quoted in the Bee-Keeper you obtain 

 a great deal more for your product 

 than do we, so we have not taken to 

 the business as your prices would aid 

 us to do. We are also very much 

 subject to Hoods or droughts, as the 

 bees suffer in either case, causing 

 sometimes a year's delay or so in one 

 or more ways. 



Then black bees are to be found 

 in most parts of the colony in the 

 bush with plenty of honey at certain 

 times, and a good deal of this bush 

 honey finds its way into the market 

 for local consumption, which keeps 

 or helps to keep the pure extracted 

 article at a low price. It is 2^d. now. 

 Wax is about 8 or 9 d. but the in- 

 dustry is going ahead slowly. I think 

 the real cause is the new appliances, 

 frames, hives, &c, producing the in- 

 terest needed for the proper care and 

 more cleanly product. 



I am sending you 2s 5d which I 

 take to be about a year's subscription. 

 r don't mind if you will send me the 

 back numbers for the year. 



Yours truly, Ashton Clarke. 

 The Bulgo, N. So, Wales, Mar. 6, '95. 



I From Am. Bee .Journal.) 



THE BEES FOR THE HARVEST. 



BY FRANK BENTON. 



In Colder portions of our country 

 each colony of bees as ordinarily 

 brought through the winter will be 

 found during its early spring flights 

 to contain only a small part of the 

 adult workers necessary to take fair 

 advantage of any honey-yield that is 

 to follow. If an important honey-flow 

 occurs early in the season it is imposs- 

 ible to secure the full advantage of it. 

 The bees to gather the honey are lack- 

 ing. 



The young workers do not normal- 

 ly, even though honey be plentiful in 

 the flowers, enter the field as gather- 

 ers before they are about two weeks 

 old ; adding to this the three weeks 

 required for the development from 

 the laying of the egg to the appear- 

 ance of the imago or perfect insect, 

 we see that all eggs to produce work- 

 ers for a given harvest must be laid 

 five weeks before the harvest begins. 

 But as the amount of brood which 

 may be developed at one time in a 

 hive is to a great extent limited not 

 alone by the fecundity of the queen, 

 but also by the supply of food, the 

 number of bees to cover the brood, 

 and the temperature about the brood- 

 nest, it is evident that the five weeks 

 required to get one generation of bees 

 ready for the field will not suffice to 

 render the hive suitable populous for 

 a given harvest. It is not at all diflli- 



