189G. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



345 



vere labor nor require imicli capital. 

 It may be pursued as an intlustry by 

 itself or made an adjunct to every 

 farm a id village home. I bave seen 

 it thus iu addition to a small vineyard 

 in a country town, each vine shading 

 and protecting a single colony and the 

 bees yielding vastly more than the 

 vines. A farmer of my acquaintance 

 has half a hundred colonies which oc- 

 cupy a quiet corner of a small orch- 

 ard. The farm contains fil'ty acres, an 

 acre for every stand of bees, and my 

 friend tells me that the bees pay him 

 more net profit than all the farm 

 besides. 



A word for statistics and I am done. 

 There are reported to be 2,800,000 

 colonies of bees iu the United States. 

 The yield is placed at 62 ,000,000 lbs., 

 which is probably somewhat under the 

 mark, as single colonies in good con- 

 dition should average 50 lbs. apiece. 

 But at this estimate there is less than 

 a pound of honey per annum for each 

 person in the country. It is all 

 wrong that so wholesome an article is 

 such a rarity and regarded as a luxury 

 instead of a thing of ganeral use. It 

 is not so much the price as the scarci- 

 ty of it in the market that makes it 

 seem a luxury. — Voice. 



(From Gleimingsi. 



SUPERSEDURE OF QUEENS. 



Shall the Bees or the Apiarist take the 



Matter in Hand? Old and 



Young Queens- 



BY DR. C. 0. MILLER. 



Some think it best to see that no 

 queen older than two years is left in 

 the apiary, while many of our best bee 

 keepers believe in letting the bees take 

 care of the matter to suit themselves. 



I must confess I don't know for certain 

 which is be.st. Generally I have al- 

 lowed the bees to choose their own 

 time for sujjerseding. Of the 64 

 queens that started the season this 

 year in the home apiary, 6 were reared 

 in 1892, 25 in 1893, 8 in 1894, 24 in 

 1895. 



Four of the 1892 queens were sup- 

 erseded in April or May and the six 

 averaged very poor work in the sup- 

 ers, although two of them did good 

 work. Although there were excep- 

 tions I got my best work generally 

 from the 1895 queens. It is noticeable 

 that the 1893 queens exceeded iu num- 

 ber those reared in 1894 and 1895. 

 Especiably noticeable is the very 

 small number of 1894 queens, only 8. 

 I think that may be accounted for by 

 the difference iu seasons. The year 

 1894 was a very poor season through- 

 out, the bees giving no surplus and 

 not getting enough for winter. So 

 there were not many bees superseded. 



The year 1893 was a year of some 

 surplus, so there were a good many 

 supersedures. In 1895 the early crop 

 was a failure, but the fall flow was 

 fine, so there were supersedures 

 enough. In general it seems that the 

 bees supersede the queens after a hard 

 season's work much more than after a 

 season of light work. Is it because 

 the queens lay mox'e in a good sen son? 



Without going into particulars 1 

 may say that I am well satisfied that 

 it makes a good deal of difference 

 whether a queen is superseded in the 

 spring or in the fall. G. L. Vinal may 

 be right in thinking late reared queens 

 superior, but even if they are better 

 it is not hard to see why a colony 

 changing its queen in April or May 

 will not do so well Take two colonies 



