AMERICAN bee: JOURNAL. 



587 



There is some danger of sacrificing in- 

 terest to beauty. Tiie color craze may 

 be carried to such an extent as to over- 

 look utility. The very yellow and five- 

 banded bees are the rage, whether they 

 are good for honey, long lived, or [)ro- 

 lific. The best queen I ever had was a 

 dark, leather-colored imported queen. 

 Her progeny were very large and pro- 

 lific. Let us look more to utility than 

 appearance. 



8. Another question would be, how to 

 secure the largest yield of honey, es- 

 pecially of honey in supers. It is un- 

 necessary to say that bees must be bred 

 up in the spring, so as to be ready to 

 take advantage of the first honey-flow. 

 This may require some feeding in early 

 spring. How to make the bees work in 

 the supers is a question of interest. 

 Various methods have been tried, but 

 probably none of them entirely satis- 

 factory or successful. I have sometimes 

 found it worked to place a section or 

 two in the brood-nest, and when filled 

 place them above. When the sections 

 have been partially filled, and the honey- 

 flow failed, I have scored the combs be- 

 low, and thus made them carry the 

 honey above. 



4. Then there is the question of mark- 

 eting honey. I have not asked these 

 questions so much with the desire of 

 answering them, but only to suggest 

 them. 



It may be asked, what of Texas as a 

 bee country? That all portions of the 

 State, and all localities are good honey- 

 producing places, may be doubted. That 

 as a whole it is a good bee-country, is 

 true. We are free from the trouble and 

 expense they have in the North in win- 

 tering bees. The seasons are longer, 

 and the honey-producing plants more 

 numerous. 



Queen-rearing in Texas is destined to 

 become an important and remunerative 

 branch of our industry. That large 

 profits can be realized from the bee here, 

 without care, labor, industry and 

 science is not true. With care, indus- 

 try, the use of the improvements, and 

 best methods, a reasonable profit may be 

 realized almost any year. 



At the opening of the 17th year of our 

 association I greet you with the bright 

 prospects which are open before you, 

 and invite you onward. We are now 

 able to adapt ourselves to our circum- 

 stances. We have become acquainted 

 with the honey-producing sources, and 

 the time of year to expect them. We 

 have become self-sustaining. We rear 

 our own queens — the best in the world. 

 All the bee-flxtures are manufactured at 



our doors, without the cost of transpor- 

 tation. How different the condition to 

 that of those of us who commenced bee- 

 keeping away back in the thirties, when 

 we had to wade our way through ignor- 

 ance and superstition ; when everybody 

 believed there was a "king " bee which 

 governed the colony with absolute des- 

 potism, giving his commands, requiring 

 every worker to do its duty, whether of 

 laying eggs or gathering honey; when it 

 was generally believed that if you did 

 not ring the bells and beat the pans the 

 bees would not settle, but make a bee- 

 line for the woods. 



With a clear knowledge of the habits 

 of the bee, with improved hives, with 

 comb foundation, with the extractor, 

 the smoker, and the hundred other use- 

 ful" inventions, with books on every de- 

 partment of bee-culture, we bid you go 

 forward with love for your chosen pur- 

 suit, which, after all, is the only sure 

 ground-work of success. 



W. K. Makshall. 

 (To be continued.) 



iiiiiiiiiiixmxxm»»H!ixiixiiiii 



answered by 

 Marengo, III. 



In this department will be answered those 

 questions needing immediate attention, and 

 such as are not of suflQcient special interest to 

 require replies from the ^0 or more apiarists 

 who help to make "'Queries and Replies" so 

 interesting- on another page. Fn the main.it 

 will contain questions and answers upon mat- 

 ters that particularly interest beginners. —Ed. 



Making- Comb Foundation. 



Can any man. gifted with ordinary intel- 

 ligence, turn out his own comb foundation, 

 if he has a mill ? Or does it want a lot of 

 experience ? What is the cost of a mill '. 

 Must a smelter and dipper necessarily ac- 

 company it ? If so, what does tlmt cost ? 



Do apiarists, running say 100 colonies or 

 so, make their own foundation, as a rule, 

 or do they prefer buying it of dealers ? 



X. Y. Z. 



Answer. — Years ago, when comb foun- 

 dation was more or less a new thing, it was 

 supposed that nearly every one should 

 make his own. There were a great many 



