102 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



each year he is not worth}' of the name 

 "Breeder." 



It looks as if the designer of all 

 things had made worker bees, drones 

 and queens of different sizes in order 

 that man could so manipulate his in- 

 ventions to improve upon nature's 

 handiwork in cultivation. 



Mating" in confinement will proba- 

 bly never l)e accomplislied only by 

 the confining of undesirable drones by 

 excluding metal. This metal can be 

 made of sizes to exclude the drones 

 in a certain hive, and yet allow the 

 queen to pass and be mated with such 

 drones as the apiarist sees fit for her 

 company. Then we have that size of 

 perforation that excludes both queen 

 and drones, when, by simply remov- 

 ing said excluder after oilier drones 

 have ceased flying, the desired mating 

 is sure to take place. 



The " dry bones" of beedom have 

 been shaken up all along the line in 

 the last few years. New ideas come 

 up like meteors, shine awhile and sink 

 to rise no more. Beekeepers have 

 "■sought out many inventions." Many 

 of these ap[)liances are used awhile 

 and then rei)laced by others thought 

 to be better. 



Old ways of doing things are aban- 

 doned and others take their places. 

 The older men are halting by the way 

 and 3'oung men lead the van. So that 

 in a few years we have new ideas, 

 new appliances, new ways and new 

 men. 



The number who grasp ideas of im- 

 provement at their utterance is very 

 limited. Those who are famous for 

 kicking against what they call theory 

 eventually fall into line and make a 

 practice of the so-called theory. 



You will often hear men say, " I 

 wouldn't give a fig for all the theoreti- 

 cal stuff you could crowd into a maga- 

 zine," while in truth they are making 

 a livelihood on that which was but 



theory a few 3'ears previous. When 

 you find one man pushing for some- 

 thing better, there are alwuj's a dozen 

 others to hang on his coat-tails and 

 hold him back. 



Those fellou'8 who liave done so much " kick- 

 iiifr ■' iiSiiiiist tlie (IroneMnd-queeii tr;i|) and sell- 

 liiver should take the above home. — Ed. J. 



Dr. Tinkers' new book. 



A copy of this new book has just 

 come to hand. It is like everything 

 that comes from Dr. Tinker's pen. 

 Every branch of practical beekeeping 

 is treated and in such a plain, common- 

 sense way, that no one can fail to un- 

 derstand what the author means in 

 the description given of the different 

 methods practised by him in the pro- 

 duction of honey, rearing queens, and 

 new system of managing an apiary. 



Price of the book is but 25 cents 

 per copy. 



G. B. Lewis & Co., whose factory 

 was recently destroyed by fire, are 

 now ready to fill orders for their fine 

 one-piece sections, beehives, etc. 



Up to date, May 25, bees here in 

 Massachusetts have done but little 

 towards gathering honey. We have 

 too much wet weather all the time. 



No one should divide a colony of 

 bees and allow one part of the colony 

 to rear a queen. The queen thus 

 reai'ed would be a very poor one. Do 

 not divide unless you have a fertile 

 queen to give the colony. A cell taken 

 from a colony that has cast a swarm 

 will do very well if no queen is at 

 hand. 



If you want all your sections nicely 

 filled, and the comb fastened to all 

 sides of the section reverse them when 

 about two-thh'ds filled with honey. 



There is a proper way to do all 

 things; then there is a wrong way to 

 do most things. 



