120 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Feb. 8, 1906 



backs project beyond the edge of the board about half an 

 inch, the back of each number coming flush with its neigh- 

 bors. Now place the second board on top directly over the 

 first one, and with the help of a carpenter's vise or screw- 

 clamps squeeze the boards tightly together, allowing the 

 backs of the papers to project above the tops of the vise, as 

 shown in the illustration. 



With a cross-cut saw make S or 6 saw-kerfs across the 

 back of the papers, the end-kerfs being about ? 4 of an inch 

 from each end, the others dividing up the remaining space. 



It might be well to add a word of caution at this stage 

 about removing the little wire clips with which the papers 

 have been held together, wherever they interfere with the 

 saw. 



Be careful not to get the kerfs too deep, about five- 

 sixteenths of an inch being right. Blow away the paper 

 sawdust and flood the saw-kerfs with the flour-paste, using 

 the thin edge of the putty-knife or stick to work it in thor- 

 oughly. 



Now bring the twine into use : Commencing atone end 

 of the center section take a couple of turns around it through 

 the kerfs and tie securely, making the knots come in one of 

 the kerfs so as to be out of sight. Now wind the twine in 

 and out, back and forth, being sure that you make a com- 

 plete turn around each section before winding around the 

 next. Tie securely again in one of the kerfs, put in some 

 more paste, and with the putty-knife pack short pieces of 

 old cloth into the cuts, on top of the string, until they are 

 completely filled. 



The bound volume can now be taken out of the vise, 

 and, after adding some more paste, put a piece of cloth or 

 heavy wrapping-paper across the back and sides in such a 

 manner as to cover the exposed portions of the twine where 

 it runs along from section to section. 



If yon wish to add card covers it can easily be done, as 

 you have a good, solid back on which to work. You can still 

 further improve the appearance of the volumes by getting 

 some friendly stationer to trim the edges for you in his 

 large paper-cutter. 



In conclusion, don't forget — 



To have good flour or starch paste. 



To remove all possible creases from papers. 



To avoid the little wire clips when making saw-kerfs. 



To stop sawing before you get the kerfs too deep, or you 

 will not be able to read the papers when bound. 



Clean up the kitchen if you have done your work there, 

 and keep the " better half " sweet. Montreal, Que. 



•+'■ 



3.— Dadant Methods of Honey-Production 



BY C. P. DADANT 



AS I said in a previous article, we began the breeding of 

 Italian bees about 1867 with one untested queen, for 

 which we had paid $5. This queen proved purely mated 

 and a good breeder. So we began rearing young queens 

 from her. We made a lot of little nuclei, much on the plan 

 of the baby nuclei of to-day, only the combs were abont 6 

 inches square, and we gave each nucleus a good supply of 

 bees. The queen -cells were produced by removing our 

 breeder to another hive and allowing her former hive to re- 

 main, queenless. By feeding the bees during the rearing 

 of queen -cells we secured very good queens. 



At the end of the 10th day, when the queens were about 

 to hatch, we introduced one queen-cell to each nucleus made 

 the previous day. In this way we reared a sufficient num- 

 ber of queens for all our colonies and a few to sell. I re- 

 member that an old farmer of Iowa heard of our Italians, 

 and came across the river and paid us $20 for queens. Until 

 then I had thought my father rather extravagant to have 

 paid $5 for a single queen, but I changed my mind from that 

 day on. 



There was one trouble about our breeding, and we soon 

 found it ont. I mention it that others may not fall into the 

 same fault. It was the rearing of both queen and drones 

 from the same mother. Within a few years some of our 

 queens produced blind drones. It is quite probable that our 

 bees had already been too much in-bred before we bought 

 that queen, and we followed the mistake of our predecessor. 

 As soon as we found this out we secured other Italians from 

 another breeder, to mix the bees with fresh blood. It was 

 then that my father formed the plan of beginning the im- 

 portations of queens on a large scale. But disappointment 

 after disappointment was in store. The Italian breeders 

 (or rather dealers, for they did not do any breeding) were 



entirely ignorant of the necessary requirements of shipping, 

 and literally drowned the bees by supplying them with too 

 much honey. Then they insisted on furnishing them water. 

 A little later it was the bee-moth which interfered, for 

 moths are exceedingly plentiful in the warm climate of Italy, 

 and the moths destroyed the combs and the bees during the 

 trip from Europe. The boxes would arrive here alive with 

 moths and filled with a mass of webs and cocoons. 



At last my father made a trip to Italy in partnership 

 with Mrs. Ellen Tupper, whom the old bee-keepers will re- 

 member. This trip was a failure, also, but from that time 

 on the true methods of qneen-shipping were ascertained, and 

 success at last crowned our efforts, after some five or six 

 seasons of failure. We were able to secure new blood direct 

 from the original source. 



The experience of those days prompts me to say to the 

 beginner : Do not rear queens and drones from the same 

 stock, but be as careful of the former as of the latter. If you 

 do not care to breed queens by the new methods, you can 

 still rear them in the old way, from strong colonies made 

 queenless during a honey-flow, taking care to begin as 

 early as possible. 



We always reared our queen-cells from the very best 

 queen we had, taking the following things in consideration : 

 Purity of race, prolificness and gentleness. When I say 

 prolificness, I mean largest honey-production. These two 

 things always go hand in hand. 



Our drones were reared from the next best colonies, by 

 giving them a couple of drone-combs in the center of the 

 brood-nest, and feeding them plentifully as early as conve- 

 nient, so that they might breed drones early. The drones of 

 good quality are as essential as the good queens, but we can 

 not control the mating, and for that reason we are likely to 

 lay more stress upon the queen's pedigree. But we can, to 

 a great extent, secure pure mating by rearing both drones 

 and queens early. 



We found it also very important to destroy the drone- 

 combs and replace them with worker-combs, as much as pos- 

 sible, in all the colonies from which we did not want any 

 reproducers. 



I say, replace the drone-combs with worker-combs, be- 

 cause we found that if the drone-combs were cut out and 

 the space left empty, the bees would almost invariably re- 

 build drone comb in the same spot. But they are averse to 

 destroying comb, and if you insert worker-combs in the 

 empty space, you will find that they rear drones only in the 

 cells of accommodation, or in the corners that happen to be 

 left. Every colony will rear a few drones, in spite of all we 

 can do to prevent it, but it is the wholesale breeding of 

 drones which we want to encourage in only one or two col- 

 onies and prevent it in all the others. Not only your bees, 

 but also your neighbor's bees, will become improved by this, 

 and the benefit will sooner or later come back to you. 



Hamilton, 111. 



Mice With Bees in Summer or Winter 



BY G. M. DOOLITTI.E 



WINTER or summer— which ? That's the question. If 

 it is summer you are asking about, let the mice go 

 with the bees all they wish, for it means so many 

 dead mice. I know whereof I affirm, for three times in my 

 life I have known mice to run into bee-hives in summer, 

 when the colonies in them were in a prosperous condition, 

 and the mice were dispatched in 5 minutes unless they suc- 

 ceeded in getting out of the hive very quickly. But if it is 

 winter you are talking about, then I say, Don't. 



During winter the bees are in a semi-dormant state, 

 and when in this condition they will not notice a mouse 

 by way of killing it by stinging or in driving it from the 

 hive. And if the mice are so annoying that they arouse the 

 colony to activity, this dormant state is broken up, and 

 through this the chances of good wintering are very much 

 lessened. Then, as the bees do not drive the mice from 

 their hives, the mice " have full sway," and the result is 

 gnawed combs, with nests amongst them, and a general 

 nasty mess is sure to follow. And when the bees get things 

 cleaned up in the spring, if they live through all the worry 

 and trouble, as soon as comb-building commences these 

 damaged combs are sure to be repaired with comb of the 

 drone-size of cell, so that our nice, straight, all-worker 

 combs — combs which we have taken so much pains to secure, 

 and looked upon with so much pride — are nearly ruined, as 

 far as rearing worker-bees is concerned. 



There are four species of mice which are troublesome to 



