18 



TEE AMERICAN APIOULTURIST. 



to try the beekeepers' patience, usually 

 throws them out of the ranks in dis- 

 gust. 



But patience that will endure many 

 defeats and even hardships, will secure 

 success at last, and thus my true and 

 tried brethren, while we stand upon the 

 threshold of the new year, if we have 

 reconsecrated our lives to things higher 

 and nobler, let us look upon our calling 

 as dealing with one of God's wonders, 

 and try to imitate their constancy and 

 patience, and in that way and no other 

 shall we merit and gain success. 



Rambler. 



STOKIFYING HIVES AND THE USES 

 OF THE QUEEN EXCLUDER. 



The prediction is made that the time 

 is not distant when all beekeepers will 

 be found using the queen ^cluder both 

 in producing comb and extracted honey. 

 Its use is already fully approved of by 

 all of our ablest apiarists in working for 

 extracted honey. 



Tliough tiie wood-zinc combination 

 makes the best queen excluder, yet 

 while sheets of perforated zinc do well 

 and have so many advantages over 

 the practice without them the slight 

 obstruction they afford to the work of 

 the bees is more than offset by the ad- 

 vantages to the beekeeper. The wood- 

 zinc queen excluder, however, is so per- 

 fect in its adaptation, when well made, 

 as to present no obstruction whatever 

 to the work of the bees. These fiicts 

 regarding the queen excluder are now 

 fully established and we may expect to 

 see their use steadily extended until 

 every beekeeper has a supply of them. 

 Thus far many have used them exper- 

 imentally, trying only a few of them and 

 have found them highly useful, but 

 others not knowing the requirements 

 for the successful use of a queen exclu- 

 der have condemned them in working 

 for comb honey. 



I desire to call especial attention to 

 this fact, as at the present time there is 

 an effort being made to dispense with 

 queen excluders altogether on hives run 



for comb honey. Either the brood- 

 chamber of the hive must be modified 

 to suit the requirements of the queen 

 excluder or the latter must be dispensed 

 with. That is the dilemma in which many 

 manufacturers now find themselves, and 

 which horn of the dilemma to take not 

 all are fully decided. One or two firms 

 have decided to abandon the queen ex- 

 cluder rather than change the construc- 

 tion of the brood-chambers they have 

 heretofore made. In so doing they are 

 clearly not working in the interests of 

 beekeepers, but rather going ahead de- 

 fying the truth and relying upon the 

 slow chan-^esof the popular mind — that 

 has been the history of all the needed 

 reformation of the world. 



'I'hus they expect to continue their 

 trade and perhaps even enlarge it 

 though the interests of beekeepers are 

 sacrificed in the result. It may be said, 

 in extenuation, that they are not fully 

 acquainted with the facts about queen 

 excluders, and hence, if their course is 

 one to jeopardize the prosperity of our 

 pursuit, they are doing it innocently, 

 which is doubtless true. Yet it seems 

 to me that the truth in regard to the 

 use of queen excluders in producing 

 comb honey is plain enough. Those 

 who have read my new book certainly 

 understand it, though much remains to 

 be said, as we have some clinching 

 facts yet to present. 



The popular craze among hive makers 

 appears to be to get up a cheap hive, 

 which is well enough, but where cheap- 

 ness is at the sacrifice of advantages 

 essential to the profitable production 

 of honey, then cheapness will only lure 

 to disaster and lead to disgust for our 

 chosen pursuit ; and the fault — as is 

 only too often the case — is not placed 

 where it should be. If to get these very 

 cheap hives we must dispense with 

 queen excluders, then out with your 

 cheap hives, for the right use of the 

 queen excluder will give more profit to 

 the beekeeper producing comb honey, 

 than any other invention that has been 

 given us within a generation. 



To use the queen excluder success- 



