1894. 



the AMKiiu. .1 .v /;/•:/•;- A7-; /•:/'/•;/,'. 



167 



to cross on and improve them, and the 

 improvement was so great in every 

 way that the rage for yellow-banded 

 bees soon became general all over the 

 country ; those who were able to pay 

 the price sent direct to the cpieeu 

 breeders for queens, while those who 

 were not able procured queens "from 

 their more fortunate neighbors ; until 

 the black bee was hybridized from 

 ocean to ocean. Now while this was 

 all right, the people expected too much 

 from them, they made the cross and 

 then expected it to drop back and in- 

 breed, like the blacks had done, and 

 still retain its good qualities. Fatal 

 mistake, they failed to do it, they never 

 will and never can do it, and the re- 

 sult is empty hives at almost every 

 farm home all over the country where 

 there were once prosperous little api- 

 aries. Now what is the remedy? 

 Simply this : we must give the same 

 attention to breeding in the apiary 

 that we do in our stock yards. It is 

 easily done and with little expense. 

 By the use of the drone-trap, mating 

 be controlled almost to a certainty ; 

 then by purchasing queens to breed 

 from of some reliable breeder, and us- 

 ing the same common sense we do in 

 other matters, we will not only keep 

 our bees up to the point of profit, but 

 make them better and better as the 

 years go by. — A. G. Mitchell, in Am. 

 Api. (Ill) 



ADVICE TO BEGINNERS. 



As soon as practicable — that is as 

 soon as your cellar is cool enough — 

 move in your bees. A handy arrange- 

 ment for moving is made as follows : 

 Rip from a board one inch thick, two 

 pieces two and one half inches wide 



and five feet long. On these two 

 strips, set up edgewise, build a plat- 

 form about two feet wide and two feet 

 six inches long. This will leave fif- 

 teen inches of the strips or handles 

 sticking out each end. Place a hive 

 on the platform. Let the man who is 

 helping you go in front and you take 

 the handles at the back. In this man- 

 ner a hive can be carried with great 

 ease if you are careful to keep step 

 with the man in front. If you have 

 many hives to carry it would be we 

 to have strips of canvas, say two inch- 

 es made to go over the shoulders. 

 One end is made fast to one of the 

 handles and the other has a loop 

 which can de slipped over the remain- 

 ing handle. A still better plan is to 

 have an iron hook or loop on each 

 end of the yoke. While one adjusts 

 his yoke the other keeps the platform 

 straight. No work that I know of is 

 so mean as carrying out hives without 

 such an arrangement ; you know 

 there is nothing to hold on to. The 

 man in front has the hive banging 

 against his back and the man behind 

 gets his vest covered with old 

 paint, and if it is a two-story hive he 

 has to hold his head as if he were 

 wearing a check rein. Of course go- 

 ing up or down stairs the hive carrier 

 I have spoken of must be dispensed 

 with. When you place the hive on 

 the platform be careful to place the 

 combs lengthwise of the same, so that 

 the fore and aft motion when walking 

 will not disarrange the combs. Where 

 the cellar is dry and the temperature 

 can be kept at about 45° , the hives 

 can be placed one upon the other so 

 as to nearly fill the space allotted to 

 them. Last year I had very fair sue- 



