1901 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



185 



sections given at the. sides again to the 

 amount which I think they will need. 

 Thus I keep taking off and putting on 

 sections, or rather wide frames of four 

 sections each, taking the finished ones 

 from the middle and putting the empty 

 at the sides, until the season begins to 

 draw toward its close, when, as fast as 

 full wide frames are taken from the 

 center the others aie drawn up till the 

 space is contracted to the original twen- 

 ty sections, or even less if I think it 

 necessary. In this way the bees are given 

 all the space they require at any time, 

 while the chance for many uncapped 

 sections in the Fall is reduced to its min- 

 imum. In order to succeed, even in this 

 way, the locality we are in must be fully 

 understood, else we may be still expand- 

 ing at the very close of the harvest. No 

 bee-keeper should rest easy till he is 

 fully conversant with the locality he is 

 in. and being thus conversant he can 

 use all of his plans so as to meet the re- 

 quirements of his locality. 

 Borodino, N.Y. 



Much depends upon a man"s courage when 

 he is slandered and (raduced. V\'eak men 

 are crushed by detraction; but the brave 

 hold ou and succeed. — Feltham. 



"STRAY STRAWS." 



A Few Paragraphs from Dr. Miller's 

 Department in Gleanings. 



"We will hazard the prediction that 

 the highest standard of excellence is to 

 be secured through careful selection, 

 rather than through in-and-in breeding," 

 siys the editor of AMf:RicAN Bee-keepek. 

 I'm too much of a coward to say I agree 

 entirely with that; but I'll risk saying 

 that in-and-in breeding is a pretty safe 

 thing for us common bee-keepers to let 

 entirely alone. 



Robber bees that take stores by force, 

 bee-keepers are familiar with. W. W. 

 McNeal, in American Bee-keeper, calls 

 attention to another criminal class — 

 thieves. They take stores by stealth, 

 and there is no apparent remedy against 

 them. The best-storing colonies are the 

 most likely to be their victims, and Mr. 



McNeal thinks we should be on the look- 

 out lest these thieves make us err in 

 judgment when deciding upon the best 

 storers to breed from. [There may be 

 something in this ; but how is any one 

 to prove that a certain colony produces 

 large averages by dishonesty rather 

 than by hard, honest toil? — Editor 

 OLeaninys. 



A.C. Miller, in A:herican Bee-keeper, 

 prefers the Alley plan of rearing queens, 

 and says that by the cell-cup plan " in 

 the hands of any person but those of an 

 expert, there are many chances of pro- 

 ducing inferior queens." I don't under- 

 stand why. With the Alley plan a 

 careless person may have queens reared 

 from too old larva?, a danger not met in 

 the cell-cup plan. But the Alley plan is 

 less troublesome and takes less time. 

 With proper care the best of queens can 

 be reared by either plan. [Our Mr. War- 

 dell, after having tried all plans, prefers 

 a modified Alley plan; that is to say, he 

 uses the Alley method ; but instead of 

 worker he uses drone cells, and, all 

 things considered, he says, prefers them] 

 — Editor Oleanings. 



When cell-cups are used for queen- 

 rearing, no matter how much royal food 

 is given at the time, says W. W. McNeal 

 in American Bee-keeper, the bees 

 always remove it and in a few hours the 

 larva is left dry. He thinks this is 

 against rearing the best queens, so in 

 about twenty-four hours he removes the 

 larva and substitutes another, which will 

 never be limited in its food. Would it 

 not be cheaper to use the Pridgen plan, 

 taking the cocoon cup with the larva ? 

 In that case I think there is never any 

 stinting. [Some one else, some little 

 time ago, I do not remember who, stated 

 that all the royal jelly will be removed. 

 Possibly there is something in this ; but 

 our Mr. Wardell (•ays that whether it is 

 removed or not. it has a tendency, and 

 a decided one, too, to induce the bees to 

 accept cells so supplied. The Pridgen 

 method would probably be an improve- 

 ment on this.] — Editor Gleanings. 



The careful bee amidst his work I view. 

 Now from the flow'rs exhaust the fragrant 



dew; 

 With golden treasures load his little thighs, 

 And steer his distant journey through the 



skies; — 

 Some against hostile drones the hive defend, 

 Others with sweets the wa.xen cells distend ; 

 Each in the toil his destin'd office bears, 

 And in the little bulk a mighty soul ap- 

 pears. — Gay. 



