1900 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



91 



the break is made longer, hence, makes 

 their not swarming more sure than it 

 would be with the shorter time. This 

 longer break also tends toward a lessened 

 yield of honey. 



STRONG COLONIES. 



'•Swarthraore" further says, "It is cer- 

 tainly folly to go to all the trouble and 

 expense of equipping colonies of only 

 jnoderate strength with honey bees 

 [honey boxes or sections, I think, was 

 intended here instead of bees]; the bees 

 will seldom occupy them with a will. It 

 is far better to work half the number of 

 hives in double strength than double the 

 number in half strength.'" Here is 

 ^;(imethiug every beginner should heed, 

 for it is something young bee-keepers 

 are apt t > overlook. The more this part 

 is emphasized the better the success at- 

 tending the new beginner in apiculture. 

 [t is like the Englishman's acre of 

 ground, which is well enriched, tilled 

 and worked, producing more than three 

 of the Yankee's acres which are gone 

 over in a slipshod way. 



THE QUEEN FERTILIZINO HER EGGS 

 AT WILL. 



I have read Chas. H. Peterson's article, 

 found on pages 63-3, over several times, 

 and I cannot help but think he has 

 made a mistake somewhere. He tells 

 about seeing his crippled cjueen lay 

 "five or >ix eggs, while I was holding 

 the frame, and in no case did she back 

 into tiie cell to lay, but crawled directly 

 over it and dropped the egg into the 

 cell.'" This will do verv well while he 

 was holding the comb in a horizontal 

 position : but how could the egg droi* 

 into the cells when the comb was in a 

 perpendicular position, as they always 

 are while in the hive. Queens can only 

 deposit eggs even on the sides of the 

 cells, when the combs are in tiicir 

 natural position, through their backing 

 into the cells enough so that at least 

 the point of tlie abdomen is inserted, 

 and unless his queen did this, the eggs 

 in the cells which he saw could not be 

 from ills crippled queen. The solving 



of this matter, to my mind, would be 

 this : The bees knew that this jrippled 

 queen was "no good," so they went 

 about superseding her, raised a young 

 queen, -^vhich deposited the eggs which 

 he saw at the bottom of the cells, while 

 the old one managed to deposit a few of 

 her eggs on the sides of the cells. I had 

 a case almost exactly like this a few 

 years ago, and did not run across the 

 young queen till I had looked into the 

 hive three times, after finding eggs 

 stuck on the sides of the cells. I saw 

 these two queens on one occasion on the 

 same comb, within an inch of each 

 other, each doing egg laying the same 

 as though the other was not there. 1 

 am glad Mr. Peterson gave his experi- 

 ence, as all of these things are good to 

 show the different things bees will do ; 

 but I can hardly accept it as proof of that 

 which he would have us believe, that 

 the queen fertilizes her eggs at will. I 

 am not saying that she may not do this, 

 but I think it would not answer to base 

 our belief that she does do so, on what 

 Mr. Peterson saw. 



THE WESTERN BEE-KEEPER. 



I was very much pleased to note what 

 was said about the demise of th<' 

 Western Bee-keeper, page ii9. and 

 that there was one bee paper that 

 could say a good word about a bee- 

 paper born of good intent, struggled 

 a little while to make the bee- 

 keeping world better, and then died 

 from lack of support. Surely, those 

 words of yours, Mr. Editor, "the recog- 

 nition, good-will and charity of the es- 

 tablished journals are due the honest 

 efforts of any brother : and such 

 courtesies cost the donor but little,"' 

 were well chosen. May charity, rather 

 than selfishness, be the rule among the 

 whole bee fraternity I 



GRANULATED HONEY. 



I wish to say amen to all that is said 

 on pages 70-71, regarding honey in its 

 granulated form. If the bee-keepers 

 of the land had tried as hard to educate 

 consumers regarding the merits of 



i 



