through the press, advocated the feasibility 

 of improving the honey bee to meet all the 

 above points. But "dollar-queen" men 

 launched their thunderbolts at me through 

 the next number of the Bee Journal, ex- 

 claiming against the idea that there could 

 be any higher grade of bees than those 

 which they were sending out to their cus- 

 tomers for one or two dollars each. 



You can all realize that not all the off- 

 spring of the highest strain of horses are 

 equal to the best. It is on this account that 

 selections are made, from which to breed, 

 and persons are willing to pay fancy prices 

 for such selections. No ordinary bee-mas- 

 ter, however, can devote his attention to 

 this culture, and cultivate especially for this 

 object, without a year or so of time and at 

 considerable expense. He must visit a 

 large number of queen-rearing apiaries, 

 make his selections among tested queens, 

 then their offspring in turn, and then select 

 from the best again, until the attainment of 

 the desired end. 



An apiary on the joint-stock plan might 

 be formed by, say twenty apiarists, each 

 supplying five colonies, and .$25 to pay an 

 experienced apiarist to take care of the bees 

 for the first year. After the first year the 

 apiary would pay its own expenses and a 

 handsome dividend to each stockholder, 

 into the bargain. By this means, or some 

 other which might be devised, the best pos- 

 sible stock might be procured. This is not 

 a visionary scheme either, for twice in my 

 life I have had stock which worked freely 

 on red clover, and in one season when no 

 other bees gathered any surplus honey, one 

 colony give me 48 lbs and the other 24 lbs., 

 while the blacks and hybrids, in the same 

 year, gave none. The queens of these colo- 

 nies were mother and daughter. 



The four-banded worker idea, suggested 

 by me, was ridiculed, in the Journal, as a 

 myth, though the fourth yellow band was 

 just as bright, though not as broad, and 

 just as perceptible, when the bee was filled 

 with honey, as were the others. Indeed, 

 the whole abdomen to the tips had a yellow 

 cast. These bees worked rapidly on the 

 second crop of red clover, that year. Now, 

 what tjas been done once, can be done again. 

 The first of these queens met the three first, 

 and most important of the five points named 

 above, in a measure, and the latter was an 

 approach to all five. But this ideal can only 

 be realized by the untiring energy of a 

 first-class apiarist, with first-class circum- 

 stance. Were 1 that man, I should like 

 to give to the American apiarists the 

 ideal honey bee in the next ten years. Who 

 will be the man ? But you, gentlemen, can 

 all breed your own queens, as you might do 

 from your best old colonies, and thus the 

 survival of the fittest will continually be 

 realized, in a degree. 



II. The next thing needed, is to lengthen 

 out the honey season, by increasing the 

 pasturage in those intervals which take 

 place after white clover and linn blos- 

 soms are gone and the blossoming of the 

 golden rod and buckwheat. The latter can 

 be sown in early June, mustard at any time 

 in the spring, and also Alsike clover, sweet 

 clover (melliot), and rape can be sown at 

 such time as to bloom when this honey 



drouth occurs. Let the shade trees be of 

 such variety as will produce blossoms and 

 honey also. 



III. The third thing necessary, is the 

 gradual, but not too rapid increase of stock. 

 This can be easily accomplished, where the 

 greatest results are desired »in honey, as 

 well as swarms by the various modes of arti- 

 ficial swarming, by making one new colony 

 from two old ones, leaving all the bees in 

 each of the colonies in an empty hive, upon 

 the old stands, and uniting the brood-combs 

 of both old and new to form a new strong 

 colony upon another stand. After the three 

 days, put the top boxes or frames upon all 

 three, and they will give you the greatest 

 product of honey of any mode I have yet 

 tried, unless they can be kept from swarm- 

 ing at all. When the young brood are out 

 of the combs, leave enough for the new col- 

 ony to fill the hive, and return the rest to 

 the other two, giving half to each; putting 

 drone-comb, if any, next to the walls of the 

 hive, and the brood-comb in the center, 

 among the new-formed combs, and they will 

 be speedily filled with brood again. 



IV. The last topic which I shall discuss, 

 is that of wintering and springing bees. 

 Twenty years of unvarying success is, cer- 

 tainly, enough to show me that the cellar or 

 an equally, dark repository, is the only 

 preservative against loss in carrying bees 

 through the winter, from November to 

 April. The reason bees perish in cellars is 

 because they are put in damp, with melted 

 frost in the combs, and because the temper- 

 ature is kept down near to the freezing 

 point all winter. Keep the cellar at from 

 35° to 45° all winter, or else make it warm 

 all day and night, once in four weeks, by 

 keeping up a good fire in a stove for that 

 purpose. Get the lectures on " Wintering 

 Bees," presented at the Centennial, at Phil- 

 adelphia, published at the office of the Bee 

 Journal, in Chicago, and they will give 

 you the requisite information. Thus you 

 will save your bees, and they will give you 

 both honey and money, to the greatest ex- 

 tent. 



■ « i ^m • » 



Central Ohio Convention. 



This Association met at Washington, O., 

 May 14, President N. Julian in the chair. 

 The minutes of last meeting were read and 

 approved. 



A discussion on "how to avoid losses in 

 wintering," was the order of the day. 



Mr. Rockwell said that bees died from the 

 poor quality of the honey gathered late in 

 the fall. The remedy is to extract such, and 

 give them that gathered earlier in the season. 

 Fall honey will answer for spring feeding. 



Secretary Reigel said that some colonies 

 died from weakness, they being unable to 

 keep up the natural heat in the hives. Many 

 died thus with plenty of honey in the hives. 



Mr. Ustic said that newspapers placed 

 over the frames in winter retained the heat 

 and absorbed the moisture. He used them 

 on his hives. 



The question selected for discussion at the 

 next meeting, was " Preparation of Honey 

 for Market." N. Julian, Pres. 



S. D. Reigel, Sec'y. 



