THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



day did we slack our vigilance, but 

 was constantly on the watch and were 

 able to help those that needed it in 

 time, so that when the harvest did 

 come we had the bees ready and willing 

 for the work before them, in proof of 

 which I will say, that in November 

 we took 10,500 pounds of honey, a 

 thing that has never been done before 

 in Cuba, and the first three days of 

 December, 6,000 pounds, making 

 16,500 pounds to this date, and it is 

 only the beginning, for December is 

 very much better than November, and 

 January is the best of all. February 

 is about like November, making four 

 months of pretty good harvest. Not 

 only did we watch and work with our 

 bees during the summer, but we put 

 in over 350 young queens which are 

 contributing to our success. We 

 change our queens every two years, 

 for they lay so continuously in this 

 warm climate that at the end of that 

 time they are not worth much. Per- 

 haps one in twenty-five would do good 

 work for three years. 



We breed pure Italian queens and 

 let them keep such company as suits 

 them when they are young ladies, and 

 the result is. the workers are for the 

 most part hybrids, from no bands at 

 all to one and two, but they are of the 

 " get there " stripe. We have a good 

 many colonies that have stored five 

 top boxes full at this date, seven 

 combs in a box, five pounds to the 

 comb, 175 pounds per colony, and only 

 the beginning of the harvest, yet I 

 have read reports from Cuba which 

 said the range was overstocked with 

 250 or 300 hundred colonies. What 

 nonsense! I wish I had 1,000 colonies 

 in our apiary from now until the 15th 



of February. I would get 100 per 

 cent, more honey, then I would move 

 500 of them away four miles, where 

 they would need no feeding in summer, 

 and I would move them back the 20th 

 of November, for during the bell- 

 flower season it is practically im- 

 possible to overstock. This matter of 

 overstocking is often in the man and 

 his bees. A poor bee-man with a poor 

 played-out strain of bees in the best 

 location will cry about overstocking. 

 Now. I tell you, there is no lack of 

 forage in this country for 550 colonies 

 any time of the year, but it is the 

 lack of the right strain of bees to go 

 from one to four miles after forage. 

 The right kind of hybrids will do this 

 and keep plenty on hand and to spare 

 as many of ours did this last summer, 

 when there was nothing that you 

 could see that they could £ - et honey 

 from. 



There is no use of trying to keep 

 the pure black bee here for they will 

 starve in summer, and the pure Italian 

 will live through the summer all right, 

 and when it comes Fall the queens stop 

 breeding, the workers fill up the brood 

 chambers with honey, and you are 

 but little better off with one race pure 

 than with another, so we are obliged 

 to give our preference to the hybrids, 

 for they will "rustle" in the summer 

 and winter alike. These hair-splitting 

 points about bands, the yellow or the 

 black Italians and the nice spacing of 

 the combs are of no use to us here. 

 We must adopt the bees and the 

 methods to give us the besl results, 

 and facilitate rapid manipulation. 

 When we have tons of honey in the 

 apiary waiting to be extracted so the 

 bees can iill the combs again, we can- 



