48 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



March 



any two or more of thes*;.. The order in 

 which they are stated is nearly tlie 

 order of their importance. To determine 

 whicii one or more of these causes have 

 affected the colony under inspection is 

 not always possible, but with the excep- 

 tion of a case where the queen is of val- 

 uable blood and to be saved, the treat- 

 ment may be the same for all. It is to 

 destroy the queen and unite the weak 

 with a fairly good colony, making it as 

 strong as the strongest. Simple, quick, 

 efficacious, and all colonies are made as 

 nearly as possible of equal strength at 

 the same time, which makes easy and 

 uniform our future manipulations. 



Where I desire to save the queen, I 

 take from her all brood but what is sealed, 

 leave her enough bees to make a good 

 nucleus, putting the other brood and 

 bees in some strong colony. This keeps 

 the queen alive and laying slowly until 

 such time as I wish to make other dis- 

 position of her, and it puts very few use- 

 less workers in the field — useless because 

 non-producers of surplus. 



With due and proper care in the fall, 

 weak colonies should not appear in the 

 spring, and where they do, after such 

 care, it is safe to lay it to the queen and 

 destroy her. 



I wish to make an earnest protest 

 against the advocacy of the practice of 

 drawing from the strong to build up the 

 weak. The result is to always weaken 

 the strong and to seldom make the weak 

 enough stronger to be of substantial 

 value in the honey-harvest. To unite 

 two or more weak colonies in the effort 

 to get one strong one is a practice sel- 

 dom attended with that result, the 

 united colony generally dwindling 

 to meagre proportions. I concede thai 

 in some places where time is not valuable 

 and harvest comes late, it may bo wortli 

 while to build up these weak colon i(»s. 

 but in southern New t:ngland itdecichul- 

 ly is not. It is the number of strong 

 working colonies that count, not the 

 number of hives occui)ied by bees. Voii 

 uuiv tiike it as an axiom that it never 



pays to fuss with and nurse weak 

 colonies. 



Providence. K. I., .lau. 4. lliOl. 



ARE WE BUSINESS-LIKE? 



vy AUTiirn c. iMili.kk. 



DO WE as a class put enough capi- 

 tal into our business? Observa- 

 tion extending over twenty years 

 brings me to the conclusion that we do 

 not equip ourselves to do our work in tin- 

 most economical way. The bee-journals 

 are full of descriptions of home-made 

 makeshifts of various apicultural imple- 

 ments which it would have been far 

 cheaper to have bought in substantial 

 and well-made form from some manu- 

 facturer or supply dealer. Just look at 

 the number of bee-keepers who try to 

 make their own hives etc., who get along 

 with a cheap, (?) poor smoker and with a 

 low-priced, non-reversible extractor. 

 How often do we find an apiary con- 

 veniently arranged with a handy, well- 

 planned work shop and honey house ? 

 How many have sufficient extra hives, 

 supers and extracting combs to take easy 

 and quick advantage of heavy honey- 

 fiows ? How many are equipped to so 

 handle their bees as to make them yield 

 all possible under any adverse conditions 

 of the honey-tlow? | 



Take the time this winter to go care- ' 

 fully over your whole plant and see how 

 you can improve. See if you have 

 enough capital invested with which to ' 

 properly do the volume of business you 

 are trying to do. Do not be afraid of 

 paying a good price for ag(H)d implement 

 for 'twill be money well invested if 'tis 

 one that will save you either time or 

 labor. Von may say you cannot af- 

 ford it. Can you afforil to do business 

 without it ? Perhaps you cauii')t spare 

 Mie casji for many things ncM'ded : if not. 

 then g(!t the most important thing first 

 and tlie others as you can. If th(^ busi- 

 ness is worthy of your attention at all, 

 it is worthy thi* l>est tools and implements 

 to do it with. 



I'roviilelice. \l. L. Oct. -J:!. I'.KIO. 



