1901 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



53 



oiis number of The Bee-keepek, and re- 

 ceived not later than the fifteenth of the 

 month, we shall pay $1.00; for the 

 second 50 cents: the third 35 cents. We 

 reserve the right to publish any article 

 submitted, whether it wins a prize or 

 not. All unavailable manuscripts will 

 be returned if requested by the con- 

 tributor when sending it in. Short 

 letters are always more acceptable than 

 long ones. Waste no time on apologies. 

 Write to the point as much as possible 

 and address your communication to 



H. E. Hii.i,. Ft. Pierce, Fla. 



HE WON ONE ON NUMBER ONE. 



Baders, 111., Feb. 18, 1901. 

 Editor American Bee-keeper: Yours 

 of the 14th inst.. enclosing igl.OO for the 

 correct answer to question in Amateur 

 Table of February number, received. I 

 feel greatly obliged to you for your 

 promptness. Wishing The Bee-keeper 

 success, I am, yours, M. H. Lind. 



P. S. — I have received but one number 

 of The Bee-keeper and can say that it 

 is a splendid bee-jourual; and if all its 

 readers would join in and contribute to 

 its columns, no doubt it would still be a 

 iielp towards improving it. 



I will give you a little report in regard 

 to my bee-keeping. 



In the spring of 1900 I came through 

 the winter with forty-three colonies in 

 good shape for business : so about April 

 riOth I began to spread brood in the 

 strongest colonies, and by the time 

 white clover was in full bloom I had 

 most of my hives running over with 

 bees. But as the weather was too dry 

 and the nights too cool, the white clover 

 yielded but very little nectar for about 

 two weeks and the consequence was 

 that most colonies that had drones were 

 killing them off and so stopped swarming, 

 so I only got one swarm for the season. 

 Then, somehow, the parent hive lost its 

 • lueen, so I united them with the swarm, 

 which left me without any increase. My 

 honey-crop was all comb, and the aver- 



age was about :12^._, pounds per colony. 



So far this winter my bees are winter- 

 ing finely on their summer stands, 

 packed on three sides with forest 

 leaves and A. Hill's device, and chaff 

 cushions over the brood-chamber. 



Now, Mr. Editor, if you find any thing 

 that will be of benefit to the readers of 

 The American Bee-keeper, you can 

 use it for publication : if not, cast it in 

 your waste basket. M. H. L. 



THREE E8SP:NTIAI> POINTS IN QUKEN- 

 REARING. 



To rear good queens, equal to those 

 reared under the swarming impulse, 

 three essential points must be observed: 



They must be reared from small larvae. 

 Those twelve to twenty-four hours 

 old are just right for the purpose. If 

 bees are given larvie of all ages from 

 which to rear queens, some of the 

 queens will be almost worthless. Doo- 

 little puts the limit at thirty-six hours; 

 but to be on the safe side I would advise 

 the use of larvas not more than twenty- 

 four hours old ; for no queen-breeder 

 will say that the former are better than 

 the latter. 



The queen-cells must be built in full 

 colonies well supplied with young bees. 

 The young bees do the nursing; there- 

 fore it is necessary to have plenty of 

 young bees to feed the embryo queens 

 a large quantity of the royal food, 

 that strong, well-developed queens may 

 be produced. 



They must be either reared during a 

 good honey-flow or, in the absence of 

 this, liberal feeding must be practiced. 

 This is highly important and is the 

 only way in which we can rear good 

 queens after the honey-season is over. 



During my twenty years' experience 

 in queen-i'earing I have tried every 

 method which has been brought to pub- 

 lic notice and I consider Doolittle's 

 method far superior to all others. This 

 method combines tlw essential points 

 mentioned above in the highest de- 

 gree. By it we are enabled to have 

 queen-cells built in the upper story of 



