1G4 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



52 cells ou a single frame. I Italianised 

 my whole Apiary. I had carefully cut 

 away all droue brood from the black bees 

 and left my pure Italian drones to preserve 

 the queen cells. As soon as one queen 

 came out a black queen was killed and her 

 body cast out. 



One day I had occasion to go to the 

 blacksmith's, on my return home, I found 

 my whole farm on fire ; in less than an 

 hour everything was consumed except my 

 bees, and an old potatoe cellar. I and my 

 family took shelter in an improvised log 

 hut for 14 days. Then I had prepared a 

 new abode, and was prepared to put my 

 bees in the cellar by Dec. 14th. They 

 needed feeding all winter. Lost one, and 

 had 31 left. Fed with colfee A sugar. 



On Feb. 1st, I examined and found all 

 in good condition. 



On March 15th, I found one hive dead 

 from dysentery, another queculess and a 

 gallon of dead bees on the floor. 



As soon as the cleansing was done, I fed 

 them warm honey, poured in the large 

 drone cells on one side ; then that was set 

 outside to cool, then laid it down on a news- 

 paper, honey downwards and poured the 

 other side full. Such frames contained 

 from 4 to lbs. Feeding was easy in that 

 manner. I fed until the 5th of May. — 

 April gave me one day that bees could fly. 

 I have lost 6 swarms in all. I intend to 

 run up my swarms this summer to power- 

 ful colonies. 



I intend to experiment with the Gallup 

 system. My frames are all 12x12, this is 

 my standard. Joseph Dufpeler. 



Wegnoick, Wis. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Spare the toads, but place your hives out 

 of their reach, for they can soon destroy a 

 strong colony if they can get near enough 

 to the entrance to catch them, as they pass 

 in or out. Watch the toads late in the 

 evening and at niaht. 



Many people are fond of bees — indeed 

 liave a passion for them ; but it is not 

 enough to be fond of them, they must be 

 skillfully taken care of, according to cer- 

 tain rules, applicable in every case, but 

 more particular in bad years. Mistaken 

 care annoys them — niggardliness ruins 

 them. — E.rchange. 



Hives, or the habitation in which the 

 bees live, bleed and work, have been made 

 of dificrent materials, and in difi'erent 

 forms, according to the fancy of people of 

 different ages and countries. Melissus, 

 King of Crete, is said to be the first who 

 ♦ invented and taught the use of bee jiives. — 

 Bonner. 



Gallup on Artificial Queens. 



We have never, to our recollection, given 

 the readers of the American Bee Journal 

 our ideas in full on artificial queens. We 

 have given them in Mr. Mitcliell's paper, 

 and sent them in full to Mr. King ; Ijut he 

 was afraid that his readers might learn 

 something contrary to his teachings, there- 

 fore did not publish it. In my opinion 

 "Novice" and others have led many a 

 beginner astray, by advocating that there 

 was no difterence between artificially and 

 naturally reared queens. Langstroth, 

 Grimm, Adair, and the late Dr. Hamlin, 

 and others, agreed with me in full . Quin- 

 by says that thei'e is no difference and even 

 went so far as to accuse me of never hav- 

 ing had any practical experience in raising 

 queens, etc. 



NoM' to the question. What are the con- 

 ditions for natural queen raising? We 

 have abundance of bees, consequent!}" 

 warmth, we have abundance of food of the 

 right kinds, and M'e have abundance of 

 youiug or nursing bees to prepare that food 

 properly for the queen larvae Now if the 

 novice in the business will see that he 

 has all those necessary conditions and eggs 

 or larva; just hatched, whether in nuclei or 

 standard hives, he or she will raise natural 

 queens every time — nothing artificial about 

 them. Ou the other hand, we will suppose 

 we do as many queen breeders have done ; 

 raise artifical queens about in this manner : 

 Measure out a sufficient quantity of bees, 

 place them in a nuclei hive, and give them 

 comb, eggs and honey and no pollen. 

 Confine t^em for 3 or 4 days before giving 

 them their liberty, and in a majority of 

 cases pay no attention to the age of the 

 bees selected, but get mostly old bees, or 

 those incapable of digesting or preparing 

 the natural food for the larva?, etc. Queens 

 raised under those circumstances are artifi- 

 cial, or raised under circumstances contrary 

 to nature. In such cases queens have hatch- 

 ed out in nine days repeatedly, and in some 

 instances they have been known to come 

 out in eight days ; but we never have nine- 

 day queens, if we make up our nuclei of 

 young or nursing bees. For the novice 

 in queen breeding must bear in mind that 

 bees at a certain age are incapable of di- 

 gesting pollen, and preparing the necessary 

 food for larvjc. Now we will tell yuu how 

 we raise queens. If in nuclei hives, we use 

 three standard combs and always keep 

 abundance of nursing bees, and if they do 

 not gather pollen enough we suj^ply them 

 with i)ollen from other liives, and we like 

 to have them have quite a quantity of 

 larv;^ on hand to feed, at the time of start- 

 ing queen cells, so that they are preparing 

 the necessary food in large (juautities, and 



