340 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



has been bobbing back and forth on that 

 latitude ever since. I don't think it has 

 ventured as far north within 100 miles 

 of my location. 



We increased our bees to about oU 

 colonies in the year 1883. It was a 

 good year for honey, and we took as 

 high as 130 pounds of comb honey, and 

 over 200 pounds of extracted, per col- 

 ony. Our bees were all hybrids, yet 

 they gathered so much honey that it was 

 almost impossible to sell it all, as our 

 home demand was light. 



At this time I was taking our excellent 

 bee-periodicals, and 1 soon found to fol- 

 low the line of progressive bee-keeping 

 it was very necessarf to keep pure Ital- 

 ians, so I decided to change imme- 

 diately. Let me say right here, that 

 when I start for deep water I wade right 

 out until there is but one little bald spot 

 left for "Old Sol" to shine on. Just so 



with the bees. 



I purchased pure Italian queens by 

 the dozen from all parts of the United 

 States. The next season I gave them 

 plenty of room, and watched them 

 closely. I found they commenced breed- 

 ing early, and they stuck right to it 

 until the middle of October, consequently 

 they consumed every pound of honey 

 they had gathered. They not only 

 solved the problem of a home demand 

 for all my product, but two years I 

 bought sugar by the barrel to appease 

 their avaricious appetites ; still I stuck 

 right to them until I discovered that one 

 following progressive bee-keeping was 

 always away in the rear. Now, I am 

 not built that way. My locality de- 

 manded modern ideas and modernized 

 bees, radical changes were necessary— 

 often, too. 



First I purchased some of the cele- 

 brated strain of "red clover bees." I 

 had plenty of clover. This strain of 

 bees in other localities was bringing in 

 large yields of red clover honey an- 

 nually. I found the bees all right, but 

 the honey— well, it resembled Fay's 

 comet — makes its appearance once in 7 

 or 8 years. 



Next I tried some of the " best bees in 

 the land." Here we have bees designed 

 expressly for terraqueous purposes— all 

 you have to do is to bury them up and 

 they will root, hog or die. Here is some 

 bees that " just roll in the honey." Now 

 this rolling process struck me most 

 favorably, and I still think if my apiary 

 was only situated on a steep side hill, 

 they would prove decidedly a success — 

 they could roll down, roll up, tumble up, 

 any way to get up. , ^ , 



Next, my brother purchased a selected 



tested Golden Carniolan queen, ex- 

 pressly for breeding purposes. The 

 breeder of this fine queen kindly re- 

 quested us not to rear any queens from 

 this stock to sell, for a certain length 

 of time ; just then we thought we had 

 got "the tip." With more than ordi- 

 nary interest we watched this colony for 

 a whole season. We found this new 

 race of bees are very dark, more so than 

 any we had in nearly 200 colonies, 

 hardly one-half of them show a yellow 

 band. We sometimes almost think they 

 are hybrids, yet they hum around about 

 the same as other bees, and we felt 

 proud that we were able to show to our 

 bee-keeping friends some of the " old 

 original yellow race of bees." 



After trying these different strains of 

 bees, and several others, I felt some 

 better ; still I knew there was something 

 wrong, either in the bees or in the man- 

 agement. All at once I discovered I had 

 not one queen — no, not a solitary queen 

 in the whole yard reared upon " scien- 

 tific principles." That was enough. I 

 ran to the house, pulled off my coat, and 

 back I came into the yard, pushed the 

 bees one side, and went to work. 

 Within thirty days I turned out from 80 

 to 100 queens according to specifica- 

 tions. Now all these fine queens were 

 mated to "hand-picked" drones, and 

 right here is where the success of the 

 whole business lies — we should hand- 

 pick, or at least winnow, our flock of 

 drones at least six or eight times during 

 each season. I think now my success is 

 assured. All I lack is a little more ex- 

 perience. But the fraternity may rest 

 assured that this part of the State will 

 keep apace with modern apiculture. 



Mancelona, Mich. 



The Hasty Conclusions of Some 

 Apiarian Writers. 



Written iar the American Bee Journal 

 BY DR. A. W. TUFTS. 



I wish to enter a protest against the 

 practice of jumping to conclusions with- 

 out sufficient data or evidence to base 

 those conclusions upon. We can see the 

 fault, or the effects of it, in nearly 

 every bee-paper that we read for any 

 length of time. 



Some one makes an experiment in 

 some field of apiculture, perhaps per- 

 fectly satisfactory to himself, however 

 insufficient he may be prepared by prac- 

 tice, or inefficient his equipments may 

 be for the purpose ; and forthwith he 



