1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



231 



(From Amerkan Bee J<'urnnl.) 



SOME BEE-K£EP[NG ERkORS OOR- 

 REOTED. 



BY C. B. BANKSTON. 



It is indeed easy for inau to sit in 

 his otfice and iiungine tilings about 

 bees, and write his Imagination for the 

 books and papers. But actual exper- 

 ience is what the novice needs.as much 

 or niore than he does hook-learning. 

 In every pursuit there is a class vvho 

 has a speqiai slight wiih the pen. 

 These fellows do a great deal of good 

 and a great deal of haru). While they 

 do not teach us much ahout the real 

 truth of the secrets hirl beneath the 

 hive-cover, we learn to theorize from 

 reading their long winded articles. I 

 regret to say that there is a gre^at ileal 

 taught about bees in the books and 

 periodicals which is not akin to the 

 truth. Many of the bee-keepers who 

 know the most write the lea<r. 



Whf'U a lie becomes popular it is all 

 the harder foi- the truth to >uppvess it. 

 I will mention a few things which 

 have been going the rDiimls, and which 

 I very much desire to have set aright. 

 I will nut nietirion any wiitei's name, 

 but simply retV-r to the ihing said. 



LAYIXO QUEENS FlGHTIN(i. 



Whoever saw laying queens fight? 

 I never did. This coiuiuir fripm une 

 of our be.-t wiilcis wasfH>ily believMl 

 by the inexpf-rieiwt d. I hail not ke|it 

 bees six inMuths liefme I learneti that 

 laying (jueens would fight to a finish 



as soon as the opportunity is present- 

 ed. One man had a fine Italian 

 queen killed just from the conclusioa- 

 he had drawn from reading this state- 

 ment. 



MEETING OF THE QUEEN AND DRONE. 



The queen and drone meet in the 

 air; in falling to the ground the male 

 organ is twisted in two, and the drone 

 and queen are thus separated. This 

 is imagination. Here is the truth: 

 They meet in the air and fall to the 

 ground; the^ queen gnaws theorgan^ 

 in two, and returns to the hive. 



REARING QUEENS FROM TWO TO THREE 

 DAYS LARV.E. 



Good queens can be reared from 

 two to three (lays' larvie. This is im- 

 agination. Experience says that good 

 queens can be reareij from two to ten 

 h<mr old larvie. - 



QUEEXLESSNESS, NOT WEK- WORMS. 



"The web-worujs i^lestroyed several 

 colonies for me during the season." 

 Imagination. Experience: 1 lost sev- 

 eral Colonies from queenlessness and 

 starvation. 



THREE-BANDED WORKER-BEES. 



A 5-banded queen mated to a black 

 drone will produce 3-banded workers. 

 Straight imagination. Truth: The 

 workers will l)e at leastone-third black. 



QUEENS PASSING THROUGH BEE-ZINC. 



A virgin queen can go through a 

 space 5 32 of an inch. As soon as lay- 

 ing, she cannot jjass. Imagination. 

 Truth; A laying queen can pass 

 thrnugh any space thar she could when 

 a virgin. laipivgiiai ion ^\ne^ not en- 

 large aiiv part of her except the ab- 

 domen. And s|)ace which will admit 

 the thoiax is sufficiently large for the 

 whole queen io pass through. 



