AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



6sin 



Teachers in Bee-Keeping, Fall 

 Re-Queening, Etc. 



Written lor the American Bee Journal 



BV DR. ALBERT SAYLER. 



" Our School in Bee-Keeping " in the 

 Sunny Southland department of the Bee 

 Journal, conducted by the energetic 

 and intelligent Mrs. Atchley, will, in 

 many ways, be a help in the future to 

 thousands of bee-keepers who have been 

 blundering along in Egyptian darkness 

 with "fogy" box-hives, on the princi- 

 ple of ," It's so. 'Paw ' says it's so. It's 

 so because ' Paw ' says it's so ; and if 

 ' Paw ' says it's so, it's so whether it's so 

 or not so." The " king bee, how long is 

 he ?" and all " sich like," ad nauseura. 



Like Mr. Doolittle, Mrs. Atchley is 

 building better than she knows. Both 

 are superb school-teachers — vigorous in 

 style of expression, clear and concise. 

 When Mrs. A. sets out to explain an 

 operation with the bees, she indulges in 

 no apostrophes, parenthetic remarks or 

 side-issues. On this account the tyro 

 can always understand her. In fact, he 

 cannot hut understand her. I wish that 

 Mr. Alley would at all times in his pub- 

 lications on Queen-Rearing, show these 

 qualities. He generally does, but when 

 he fails to do so, it is almost certain to 

 be at a point fatal to his pupils. 



The quality, or faculty — which is it? — 

 of perspicuity in all composition is the 

 most important one. Let a writer pos- 

 sess all the other requisites in however 

 eminent degree, if he fails in this, he 

 fails in all. Such writers should study 

 Shakespeare, Hugo and Byron. 



re-queening colonies in the fall. 



On page 269, Mrs. Atchley writes as 

 follows : 



"At the close of the season, and yet 

 before cold weather begins, if we have 

 been successful and secured a fair honey 

 crop, we may sell a portion of the honey, 

 and buy two pure Italian queens from 

 some reliable breeder, and have our bees 

 Italianized ready for winter, and to 

 start next spring with none but the best 

 bees, etc." 



Now ou pages 40 and 41, of the 

 American Apiculturist for March, the 

 Edison of Queen-Breeders in the article 

 on his latest and best method of queen- 

 rearing, refers to many of his past meth- 

 ods as follows: 



"Those methods necessitated a good 

 deal of work, and late in the season the 

 loss or great damage to the colony made 

 queenless ; in fact, about every colony 



that was meddled with after Aug. 10th, 

 was pretty sure to die before spring ; as 

 the very act of depriving a colony of its 

 queen at that season of the year when 

 the bees should not be molested in any 

 way — certainly not deprived of their 

 queen — is sure to result in disaster. 



" It is in the month of August that 

 the foundation is begun for the success- 

 ful wintering of the colony ; and de- 

 queening a colony at the time brood- 

 rearing should be progressing prosper- 

 ously, is a serious disadvantage to it." 



Now " When doctors differ," etc., is a 

 poor consolation to "Greeny." When 

 two of our great lights in bee-lore so 

 pointedly and radically differ on a mat- 

 ter of such general and sweeping signifi- 

 cance, to attempt to harmonize or ex- 

 plain away the matter on the ground of 

 "difference of latitude and climate," will 

 be altogether too namby-pamby, daffy- 

 downdilly — too too-too. " I guess " we'll 

 have to call on the "inimitable Hasty," 

 Doolittle, Hutchinson, R. L. Taylor, B. 

 Taylor, Manum, Tinker, Green, the ever 

 genial and scholarly Dr. C. C. Miller, 

 Demaree, Larrabee, and — the Honey- 

 Bee, to rise and explain in ways not 

 dark or peculiar. 



fickle and capricious march. 



On Friday, March 3rd, bees here were 

 carrying in pollen by wholesale ; and so 

 earnestly had they become engaged at 

 this, that they kept it up on the follow- 

 ing day until afternoon, when the 

 weather was "catching cold," and 

 nearly freezing. They hated to give it 

 up — this gathering the first fruit of the 

 year. 



Cold, and the ground covered with 

 snow on Saturday ; and yesterday, Sun- 

 day, March 5th, and to-day warm again. 

 Thus it is that fickle and capricious 

 March marches in in this latitude — lati- 

 tude of Cincinnati ; like alternate sun- 

 shine and shadow playing over a waving 

 meadow. 



FLARING-TOP COMB-BASKETS. 



All beginners in bee-keeping should 

 join in giving a vote of thanks to Mr. 

 Jas. R. Bellamy, of Black Bank, Ont., 

 for his superb reply to Query 854. Mr. 

 B., on page 246, certainly explains this 

 "flaring comb-basket" idea, in regard 

 to extractors, more fully and clearly 

 than any or all of the experts did under 

 the original question. This answer in 

 question gives a " tip " to beginners 

 when they buy a» extractor ; and bee- 

 editors are here to guide us in the 

 straight and economic way. 



I would recommend that genius and 



