800 



Sept. 20, 1906 



American Itee Journal 



than the common bees, that we have 

 always selected from among them. The 

 other races, Carniolan and Caucasian, 

 Syrian and Cyprian, are not sufficiently 

 fixed, or have defects that render them 

 objectionable in our eyes. But this is 

 only a personal opinion. The bee- 

 keeper is to be the judge for himself, 

 and I am not inclined to differ from 

 him, if he only makes a selection of 

 such colony or colonies as he considers 

 his best. As to the selection of drones 

 by encouraging the rearing of them in 

 some hives and the removal of the 

 drone-comb in others, I have made 

 that the subject of so many articles 

 that I consider it unnecessary now. 



Having selected our choice colony 

 for queen-rearing at the opening of 

 the honey crop, we do not wish to en- 

 danger that queen by transferring her 

 from one hive to another. Queen-in- 

 troduction has always been more or 

 less risky by any method whatever, 

 and the man who tells you that he 

 never fails, is the one upon whom you 

 must least rely. So we prefer not to 

 change our queen, neither do we wish 

 to weaken the colony, for if our selec- 

 tion has been correctly made, this col- 

 ony will be one of the best for honey- 

 production. 



We select some other colony of fair 

 strength, but it is not necessary that it 

 should be one of the very best. We re- 

 move its queen and all the brood. (If 

 the queen is really of value, we may 

 make a small nucleus with her, or we 

 may introduce her to some queenless 

 colony.) 



A few of these brood-combs are ex- 

 changed for the same number of brood- 

 combs in early stages from our breed- 

 ing queen, so that her colony loses 

 none of its strength while furnishing 

 breeding stock. If the colony that has 

 been rendered queenless is thus sup- 

 plied with half as many brood-combs 

 as it had, and the space is contracted 

 so that the bees are crowded on very 

 few combs, we have this colony in as 

 good a condition for queen-rearing as if 

 it were preparing to swarm. The only 

 addition that may be suggested is a 

 little feeding in case the harvest is not 

 well on. These bees will now go to 

 rearing queen-cells from the choice 

 queen. 



If there is a doubt as to their making 

 a sufficient number of queen-cells, sev- 

 eral ways may be devised which will 

 induce them to increase the number. 

 The best way is to have the young 

 brood on as new comb as possible and 

 to cut notches into the comb. While 

 repairing the damage done with the 

 knife, the bees will usually see fit to 

 build quite a number of queen-cells 

 which they would not have built other- 

 wise. Of course, with the Alley 

 method, by which they use strips con- 

 taining eggs or young larva? in every 

 other cell, or by the Doolittle method, 

 which supplies queen-cells built arti- 

 ficially, a much greater number of 

 queens may be reared, but we are now 

 taking the most simple way of rearing 

 queens without great preparations, and 

 only for home use and artificial in- 

 crease. If we go to the trouble of re- 

 moving every other larva or egg in the 

 combs that have been trimmed with 

 the knife, we will avoid the building 

 of too many queen-cells in clusters, 



which may not be separated without 

 injuring the inmates. A queen-cell is 

 a very tender object, and the bees 

 usually destroy such as have been in 

 the least damaged by the hand of the 

 apiarist. 



At the end of 10 days these queen- 

 cells must be removed to be hatched 

 separately, or the bees would destroy 

 all but the first one hatched. This 

 must be borne in mind while making 

 our preparations, and everything must 

 be made convenient to this end. The 

 colony is meanwhile kept well supplied 

 with food, so that the cells may not be 

 neglected. 



Some apiarists hold that queen-cells 

 are reared only under the swarming 

 impulse. I can not agree. We have 

 followed no other method than the one 

 I mention here, not because we con- 

 sider the commercial methods as bad, 

 but because we ceased to rear queens 

 for sale long before either the Alley or 

 Doolittle methods were in vogue. And 



as to taking queen-cells only from col- 

 onies ready to swarm, it is not practi- 

 cal. You can just as easily place your 

 queen-rearing hive in conditions as 

 favorable as those of colonies that are 

 preparing to swarm, and you are not 

 thus dependent upon the whim of the 

 bees. As to the advisability and the 

 success of the method I give, there can 

 be no doubt. The crops harvested from 

 such colonies as were produced by this 

 management are sufficient evidence of 

 its merit. Our method of queen-rear- 

 ing has been followed not only in 

 America, but in the Old World as well, 

 and with uniform success. 



On the 9th day after the colony has 

 been provided, with brood, the hive is 

 opened and the queen-cells counted. 

 One of these cells must remain in the 

 hive to provide it with a queen ; the 

 others are to be removed and placed in 

 separate nuclei, to be described in an- 

 other article. 



Hamilton, 111. 



Conducted by Louis H. Scholl, New Braunsfels, Tex. 



Right Kind of Extracting Tent 



In the Bee-Keepers' Review W. Z. 

 Hutchinson says : 



" A tent is a makeshift at best. It is a last 

 resort. If the weather is cool, or if the bees 

 are gathering honey so the tent can be left 

 open, or if it can be set up in the shade, it is 

 not so bad as it might be," etc. 



What kind of a tent do you use up 

 there in Michigan for an extracting 

 tent, anyway ? After having worked 

 in various kinds of buildings with the 

 extractor, we would not exchange the 

 tent we use for any kind of building to 

 work in that we have ever tried. The 

 top is made of 12-ounce duck, the gable 

 ends of heaviest grade of domestic, and 

 the sides and ends of the best grade of 

 mosquito-netting bound around the 

 edges with domestic. It is about 5 feet 

 high, and fastened to the outside of the 

 heavy duck cover with spring hooks 

 and eyes. The tent is 14 feet long, 12 

 feet wide, and 9 feet high in the cen- 

 ter. This makes an ideal tent for an 

 extracting tent. 



End-Bars and Shaking Off Bees. 



Quoting from the same paper, page 

 248, Mr. Hutchinson says : 



" I recently had several days of experience 

 in shaking bees off the combs for extracting 

 honey, and it has only served to strengthen 

 my dislike for Hoffman frames. As Mr. 

 Chapman says, 'They have no handles.'" 



I am glad to have so practical a man 

 as Mr. H. on my side of the fence. 

 Hoffman frames with short top-bars 



with staples in the end of the frame 

 are a perfect nuisance in my hands. 

 And I say this after having worked 

 with them in large apiaries for several 

 years. Give me the all-wood frame 

 with full-length, heavy top-bars. It is 

 as near a perfect frame as has been 

 brought out yet, in my mind. 



The "Old Reliable" and Bee- 

 Supply Dealers. 



I suppose the reason that some of 

 the bee-papers that are rather light 

 weight anyway keep up such a con- 

 tinual howl about the American Bee 

 Journal being run in the interest of 

 certain supply dealers belonging to 

 the "ring," the "click," etc., is be- 

 cause they have nothing else to fill up 

 with. My honest opinion is that they 

 would far better leave such space 

 blank, or copy something from a 

 " dime novel " to fill up with, rather 

 than continually to be saying slight- 

 ing things against the old, well-estab- 

 lished bee-papers. I have been read- 

 ing the American Bee Journal off and 

 on for more than 25 years, and if it is 

 not run in the interest of the bee-keep- 

 ers and honey-producers at large, there 

 is no such journal published today. I 

 say this only as a reader and a true 

 friend of the good, old American Bee 

 Journal, as I have no interest finan- 

 cially in it. 



Only a Half Crop in Texas. 



It is now fully settled that Texas 

 will not have more than half a crop of 

 honey, take the State over. All say, 

 however, that the quality is good, and 



