790 



AMERICAN BEE JOURJSIAjl.. 



put on a bottom-board, cut a slot 8 or 

 10 inches long, and %-iach wide, and 

 on that tack a strip of zinc (perforated), 

 so the bees can work up through it, and 

 make a small entrance to the outside 

 over the entrance of the lower story, so 

 that some of the bees may work out and 

 in there. 



I fill this story with combs ready for 

 the surplus honey, and with these I 

 leave them some sealed brood-frames. 

 Cells will be started in a few days, if 

 eggs are given. 



I have, over one strong, quiet colony, 

 reared from 10 to 15 fine cells each 

 week for the past 4 weeks. I give them 

 eggs to rear from each Saturday, and 

 take away the sealed cells then, and 

 give them to a nucleus to nurse and 

 keep warm until they are ready to 

 "pull." 



I extract the combs with the rest of 

 the apiary, and fill with combs, as is 

 usual. There is no trouble about this 

 way, and all the bees are where they 

 will do the most good. 



Then there is another thing I do that 

 is not laid down as practical ; that is, 

 I have my hives close together, in a 

 straight row, 8-inch space between 

 them ; and I find no trouble with bees 

 quarreling, and my son, who is in Cuba, 

 has his so close as to only have space 

 for the roofs of the hives, and finds no 

 trouble even in mating queens. He has 

 300 colonies all under sheds placed this 

 way. All frames set across the entrance, 

 and he works from the back of the hives. 

 Such close work is not practical with 

 the end entrance Langstroth hives, as 

 you must be at the side of the hive to 

 manipulate. 



I was schooled to think that the reg- 

 ular length Langstroth frame was per- 

 fection, but when I come to results, I 

 want the short frame (crosswise Langs- 

 troth, 10-frame size), 133^x9j<^ inches, 

 for my use ; I can rear more brood in a 

 given length of time than I ever could 

 in the long frame, and when I get the 

 lower story full, and the honey season 

 will admit, I move most of the brood 

 above and fill below with combs, and 

 thus economize the heat you lose in the 

 large hive. 

 Astor Park, Fla., May 28. 



Relation of Bees to Horticulture, Etc. 



Itead before the Farmers^ lustitute at Hamilton, 

 Illinois, on February 1, 1894, 



BY C. P. DAD ANT. 



Honey as f^ootl and Medicine is 



just the thing to help sell honey, as it shows 

 the various ways in which honey may be 

 used as a food and as a medicine. Try 100 

 copies of it, and see what good ''sales- 

 men " they are. See the second page of last 

 number of the Bee Journal for description 

 and prices. 



The honey-bee follows the white man 

 in his civilizing course, in this country 

 at least. It was unknown to the Indian, 

 but an evidence that some such insect 

 was necessary to the welfare of the wild 

 flowers of America is to be found in the 

 fact that the different species of wasps, 

 hornets, bumble-bees, and other honey- 

 gathering insects were very numerous 

 when the country was first settled. 



Bees are useful in the fertilizing of 

 most flowers, and in some cases their 

 presence, or that of some other honey- 

 gathering insect, is indispensable to the 

 production of fruit. Their role in this 

 matter of fertilization will be the subject 

 of my essay. 



Most of you are acquainted with the 

 elements of botany, and know the struc- 

 ture of flowers. The organs of repro- 

 duction consist of stamens, or male or- 

 gans, and of pistils, or female organs. 

 The pollen or fertilizing dust is produced 

 by the stamens, and must reach the pis- 

 til, or the blossom is barren. More 

 than this, it is necessary that there 

 should be some intermingling or cross- 

 breeding between the different flowers 

 of one plant or tree, and also between 

 the blossoms of several trees of the same 

 kind, for in many cases barrenness 

 would follow a too close in-and-in breed- 

 ing. 



The role of the honey-gathering in- 

 sects is to bring about this crossing, and 

 the honey-bee is, of all, the best fitted 

 for it, for she not only gathers the 

 honey, and in so doing scatters the fer- 

 tilizing dust which becomes attached to 

 the hairs of her body, but she also gath- 

 ers this pollen and takes it home for her 

 own usage. Have you ever watched a 

 colony of bees in the busy season and 

 seen the little insects coming home with 

 their posterior legs loaded with a yellow 

 substance that many people mistake for 

 beeswax ? That is pollen, which is 

 " bee-bread." after it has entered the 

 hive, as it is used almost entirely to feed 

 the young larvfe in the course of their 

 growth. 



The bee carries her honey in her first 

 stomach, or honey-sac, but Nature has 

 wisely provided her with baskets — cavi- 

 ties on her posterior legs — to carry the 



pollen, and as this pollen is loosely 



packed in these cavities, loaded on much 



