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4 2d YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, MAY 15, 1902, 



No, 20, 



^ Editorial. ^ I 



The ,faii)aica Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion is not a bee-keepers' association in the 

 usual sense of the term. This office is in 

 receipt of a circular " setting forth the object 

 and methods of the Jamaica Bee-Keepers' 

 Association more clearly," from which it ap- 

 pears to be a good deal like a company united 

 to dispose of honey on commission, charging 

 patrons 2'.^ percent commission and 1 percent 

 brokerage. At present their market is to be 

 London and Bristol, the honey to be shipped 

 in barrels in preterence to tin. 



Weather for Handling Bees.— Some 

 have said that less stings will be received 

 when handling bees in cool, cloutly weather. 

 Possibly there may be something in that with 

 some bees, especially black bees, if the air is 

 so cool that they are inclined to be stupid. 

 But beginners should understand that even if 

 the bees will permit it, the brood-nest should 

 uever be disturbed when it is too cool for bees 

 to Hy freely. Moreover, it is true in general 

 that the hotter the day the better-natured the 

 bees. If you want to have a big tight on your 

 hands, just open a hive of Italians when it is 

 so cool that none of the bees are flying. Even 

 in pretty good weather it will be found that 

 as the temperature becomes cool toward even- 

 ing the temper o£ the bees changes with it. 

 When it is too hot for you to stand coat or 

 vest, if bees are gathering at all, you will find 

 them on their best behavior. 



Apropos of this subject, Bulletin de la 

 Meuse says : " To open a hive in cold and 

 windy weather is as imprudent as to take a 

 baby from its warm cradle and expose it to a 

 current of air in its chemise." 



Don't Crowd the Bees. — One of the 



factors that plays an important part in caus- 

 ing bees to swarm is the lack of room. In- 

 deed, it may be the greatest factor, for with 

 very large hives and abundant super-room 

 some report that not more than two to five 

 colonies in a hundred swarm. As it is quite 

 generally admitted nowadays that swarming 

 militates against the greatest yield of surplus, 

 the effort should be to give all the room 

 needed. For after preparations for swarming 

 are started, no amount of additional room will 

 dissuade the bees from their purpose. The 

 old rule to give supers as soon as bits of white 

 wax are seen along the top-bars is an excel- 

 lent rule in all respects except as to its bear- 

 ing on swarming. The likelihood is, that 



when these bits of now wax are found 

 deposited where they are not needed it is 

 because there is some feeling on the part of 

 the bees that thoy are getting into cramped 

 quarters— a feeling that ought not to be 

 allowed to obtain if it is desired to keep down 

 all thoughts of swarming. 



Do not wait for any inside indications of 

 the need of supers, but take your cue from the 

 outside. If you are in a white clover region, 

 watch for the very first clover blossom that 

 appears, and put on supers at once. They 

 will not be heeded Ijy the bees for ten days, 

 because a stray blossom will be seen here and 

 there before the clover harvest begins, but if 

 supers are on in advance the bees will begin 

 promptly in them when the harvest begins, 

 and in many cases they will become so inter- 

 ested in storing that they will not stop to dis- 

 cuss whether they should swarm. 



The little harm done by having needless 

 room to keep warm will be richly repaid by 

 the great advantage of having full attention 

 given to storing with no distraction in the 

 way of swarming. 



Value of Old Combs. — In the Austral- 

 asian Bee-Keeper is a symposium upon ex- 

 tracting wax from old combs. Among others 

 G. Colbourne gives his plan, but closes by 

 saying: 



But I would like to ask. Why melt up those 

 old combs ? I have yet to see the comb that 

 was too old to use. I would never think of 

 melting a comb because it was too old; those 

 combs are as good as a little gold mine to me. 

 How I can make the extractor hum, in throw- 

 ing out thick honey from them, wiiereas, if I 

 had a new comb I must go slow, no matter 

 how well it is wired. No, my friends, don't 

 melt up your old combs. If you want to get 

 good wax melt the new, and keep the old ones 

 to extract from. 



Keeping Breeding-Queens in Nuclei. 



— This question is raised by a correspondent 

 who seems not fully determined in his own 

 mind that best results in queen-rearing can be 

 obtained if the queen whose eggs are used for 

 queen-rearing be kept in a nucleus. He says: 



" As a queen thus confined and kept back 

 in her egg-laying duties is surely not in a 

 normal condition, the thought came to me 

 that it might pusxilily have a detrimental 

 effect on her progeny. It might be very 

 slight at first, but if kept up for several gen- 

 erations it might be more noticeable. Isn't it 

 agreed that better i|ueens can be reared when 

 ' all hands ' are busy and the queens are lay- 

 ing ' full speed' than at any other time ? I 

 don't know that there is the least ground for 

 my suspicions, but I thought it might be well 

 to look the matter nji a little." 



It is not likely that there is anything wrong 

 in the general impression that better queens 

 are reared when bees are gathering freely, and 

 the tetuperature in the brood-nest is such that 



there is never any danger of the slightest 

 chilling of brood. For at such times there is 

 every facility and every inducement on the 

 part of the nurse-bees to feed the royal larvae 

 bountifully. A royal larva in a full colony is 

 not likely to be well fed at a time nothing is 

 doing, and con6e(|uently a limited amount of 

 the proper food prepared : and no doutu the 

 case is still worse in a nucleus. Observation 

 on the part of many confirms this belief. 



How is it if the mother-queen is in a 

 nucleus ? If the proper proportion of nurse- 

 bees are present, may they not be as active as 

 in a full colony 5 And having a limited 

 amount of brood to feed, may they not feed 

 the queen as lavishly as she would be fed in a 

 strong colony ? Being well fed, and having 

 little laying to do, if it is true that laying is 

 exhaustive, ought she not to be in a greater 

 vigor, if possible, than in a strong colony * 

 and as a consequence ought not her eggs to 

 be of the best quality ? Then during the 

 very short time that the young larvse are fed 

 before being taken — a time not exceeding per- 

 haps 24 or 36 hours — why should they not be 

 fed as well as in a strong colony '. The case 

 might be different if queens were reared in 

 cold weather, when proper heat can not be 

 kept up in a nucleus; but queens are reared 

 at a time when the bees have to work to keep 

 down the temperature rather than to raise it. 



If there is anything wrong in the foregoing 

 view it is very desirable that it should he 

 pointed out, for in a matter on which so much 

 depends it is important that no wrong view 

 should prevail. 



Prolonging Life of the Queen. — 



When one has a queen that is especially val- 

 uable for breeding purposes, it may be desir- 

 able to have her live as long as possible. A 

 practice more or less common is to keep such 

 a queen in a nucleus. The question may be 

 raised whether there is any evidence that a 

 queen kept in a nucleus will live any longer 

 than if she were kept in a strong colony. It 

 is well known that workers live much longer 

 when doing little or nothing than when work- 

 ing hard. As laying eggs is the work of the 

 queen, there seems some reason for believing 

 that heavy laying will shorten the life of a 

 queen, just as hard work shortens the life of 

 a worker. It would he a satisfaction if those 

 who have had much experience in the matter 

 would report upon it, and say how the length 

 of life of queens in nuclei has compared with 

 that of quef^s in strong colonies. 



The idea of keeping a queen in a nucleus 

 will result in greater longevity of offspring 

 has been scouted as ridiculous, but it may be 

 questioned whether any one has ever seriously 

 advocated such a thing. 



