THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



170 



their lioucy iu cool weather and raise brood 

 as rapidly and abundantly as they outrht to 

 in a liive of tla- proper form. In the" New 

 Idea " forni we have the brood nest always 

 warm, consequently breeding can bo car- 

 ried on rapidly, and honey stored at the 

 same time, without the animal warmth es- 

 caping into an upper story and away from 

 the brood nest. Now, if we extract all the 

 honey on the loth of August in our climate 

 except from a few central combs in the 

 In'ood nest, we have room enough for the 

 bees to breed and store from SO to 150 lbs 

 of honey without any more disturbance for 

 the season. This honey we leave in the 

 hive until the bees begin to gather rapidly 

 the following season, and it is stored where 

 it is convenient for tlic bees to get at and 

 still docs not keep the brood nest cool or 

 take away one particle of warmth from the 

 brood nest. The consequence is that we 

 have no feeding to do at any season of the 

 year, for it is a well-established fact that a 

 strong powerful stock of bees with abun- 

 dance of store do not need any stimulation 

 to induce them to breed early enough for 

 iill practical purposes. 



Now, here is another consideration. A 

 ■^leighbor of mine uses box hives 14 inches 

 liigh and 18 or 20 inches square, and his 

 bees have not died or had the dysentery 

 while the neighbors' bees have died by the 

 thousands ; he winters on summer stands. 

 My impression is that the injudicious use 

 of the extractor, two-story and small stan- 

 dard hives has killed thousands and thou- 

 sands of stocks of bees. Why did not my 

 liees have the terrible disease tliat has been 

 so prevalent all over the country ? There 

 has been other causes besides the injudici- 

 ous use of the extractor to kill the bees. 

 Years ago we lost heavily at dillerent times 

 find at that time we were not willing to at- 

 tribute our losses to our own ignorance, 

 but it was a fact nevertheless. Whose 

 advice is the best — ^the advice of those who 

 fail, or that of those who succeed. Let the 

 "Novices" decide for themselves. 



Yours truly, 



Orchard, Iowa. Galllt. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Gallup and Queen Rearing. 



Don't set it down too positively, friend 

 Gullup, that " abundance" of food of the 

 right kind and "abundance" of warmth 

 are all the requisites of successful queen 

 rearing, simply because you don't see other 

 conditions present when a full colony of 

 bees are raising queens at will. We should 

 remember that a colony of bees are a whole 

 — they are one individual, the same as a 

 swarm of cords and nerves that form the 

 human body are one, except they are 

 seperable for a short time. Taking this 



for a basis, is not the whole colony the 

 parent of tlie queen as well as all the ofl"- 

 spring? AVe all know that animal magnet- 

 ism is the essence of animal life, and that 

 parents greatly endowed with this life-giv- 

 ing jirinciple will ])roduco the stixtngest 

 otVspring, other things being ctiual. Now, 

 would it not be natural to suppose that a 

 full colony of bees would be sure to pro- 

 duce ihc best (pieens. I believe the best 

 queens we get are those reared in cases of 

 superceedure when' the tchole colony remains 

 together till the /latrhiny of the (lueen, at 

 least. 



"Novice" says, on page 53 of Gleiminr/s 

 for May, that, "to be sure many will say 

 she can't lay eggs, and brood can't be rear- 

 ed without more than eighty-two bees. — 

 But why V Ans. A lack of "animal mag- 

 netism." Now, friend Gallup, don't accuse 

 us of having been only six years in the bus- 

 iness ; for we see you criticise Mr. Quinby 

 who has been engaged in apiculture much 

 longer than you, and has had no " big 

 farm " to take his attention either. I am 

 no stickles for old methods and systems, 

 nor do I believe that queens reared at will 

 of the colony are as good as those properly 

 reared at the will of the apiarian. I think 

 I can shovv^ that prolificness in the mother- 

 bee, beyond a certain limit, is of no value. 

 The qudUty of the bees in our apiary is 

 what we need, and not a great number /ro?// 

 one queen, or a few queens. 



Apiarians have dreaded the swarming 

 impulses of their apiaries worse than the 

 moth, and this I believe has been owing to 

 a limited knowledge of the science. We 

 have known how to take a profitable advan- 

 tage of the powers of bees, so long as this 

 impulse did not interfere, but when it did, 

 we were left in the dark and our plans 

 thwarted. AVhen we understand how to 

 ^^se this impulse to the best advantage, we 

 shall foster and encourage it. Then shall 

 we appreciate the Italian bee in its broad- 

 est sense. 



Now a word for "Novice." No apiarian 

 has done more for me than he. I look 

 upon the changes of his mind, we hear so 

 much about, as evidences of his progressive 

 nature. The above is simply our views. 

 Let the watch-word be "onward " through- 

 out our apiarian lines, and hence let us 

 speak our minds freely, not for spite, but 

 for the advancement of our pet science, 

 and let us change our minds publicly, as of- 

 ten as we do privately, which will be often 

 if we observe closely and experiment large- 

 ly. Convictions do not come at will but 

 are always forced upon us. 



Dowagiac, Mich. James Heduon. 



The bees throughout the world, as known 

 collectively to the richest cabinets, number 

 about two thousand species. 



