1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



231 



Fig. 3. Such gnarled space is a great waste of storage 



Troubles of the Publisher 



Never has the publisher found it 

 more difficult to meet the problems 

 of the day than at present. Every 

 month brings some rise in price in 

 some commodity that enters into the 

 making of a magazine. We have con- 

 tinued the same old price at which 

 the American Bee Journal was pub- 

 lished for many years past, thinking 

 that the present conditions were tem- 

 porary and that prices would decline. 

 Rise after rise has continued until we 

 now pay more than four times as 

 much for the paper on which the 

 Journal is printed as we did when 

 we took over the Journal. Our en- 

 gravings cost three times as much 

 and everything else in proportion. 

 We have tried every possible way to 

 meet these extra costs without in- 

 creasing our subscription price. Hun- 

 dreds of other publications have sus- 

 pended because of inability to meet 

 the situation, while most of those 

 still continuing have raised the sub- 

 scription price. 



Conditions now are such that $1 per 

 year is not sufficient to pay the cost 

 of publication of a journal like ours, 

 and if the present high costs continue 

 we will be compelled to increase our 

 subscription price, as many publica- 

 tions have already done. We propose 

 to wait a few months longer in the 

 hope that prices of material will fall. 

 In the meantime all our present sub- 

 scribers will be given an opportunity 

 to renew for as long a period as they 

 wish at the present rate, $1 per year, 

 3 years for $2.50 or 5 years for $4. We 

 are already receiving a large number 

 of 3 and 5-year subscriptions from 

 those who wish to take advantage of 

 the present low price. 



Beginning With Bees 



By H. C. Cook 



I am of the opinion that the ama- 

 teur is somewhat neglected. Gener- 

 ally the papers and lectures are a lit- 

 tle too advanced for him, so I decided 

 to let him get technical data and in- 

 structions from text books, and I 

 would call his attention to a number 

 of things he should and should not 

 do. 



Don't attempt to get into the bee 

 business in a rush. Take time enough 

 to learn the game, or your mistakes 

 will be so numerous you will become 



discouraged. Most amateurs attempt 

 to make increase itoo fast. They 

 weaken their stock to such an ex- 

 tent that so many bees are lost dur- 

 ing the winter that in the spring they 

 are about where they commenced, 

 which, to say ithe least, is a disap- 

 pointment. Go slow and learn ho.w 

 and when to increase. As a rule it is 

 bettter for a beginner to confine hiiri- 

 self to producing honey. Sell the 

 honey and buy bees for increase. This 

 will give him an opportunity to study 

 the bees, and then he can make in- 

 crease at a 'time when it will cost him 

 nothing, and rather, be a benefit to 

 his honey crop. 



Don't be led astray by the stories 

 of men who imagine they are bee- 

 keepers. In later years you can look 

 back, as I have done in several in- 

 stances, and see that they know but 

 little more 'than yourself, but were 

 simply passing around information 

 which generally turns out bad in the 

 end. 



Get some good text books, study 

 them carefully, and apply them to 

 your work. Don't try two or three 

 men's ideas at the same time. Any 

 one of them, perhaps, would bring 

 you out to success, but mixing them 

 may prove disastrous. For instance, 

 Mr. Doolittle, in his method of work- 

 ing bees, tells us to have the hives 

 full of honey in the spring, and the 

 bees will take care of themselves, 

 while on 'the other hand Mr. Alexan- 

 der, equally as good an apiarist in 

 every way, tells us that the key to 

 success in honey production is spring, 

 or stimulating feeding. He says it 

 is a good plan to extract all the 



honey in the brood-chamber after the 

 15th of May, and feed it back. Now, 

 either of these plans will lead you 

 through the season to a honey crop, 

 but if you mix them, you may do the 

 wrong thing at a time when it would 

 prove to be worse than to have left 

 the bees alone. In Other words, the 

 bees may have been better of? with- 

 out your assistance. Never do any- 

 thing to the bees unless you know 

 why you are doing it— -that is, any- 

 thing you do to the bees is wrong un- 

 less you know the reason for doing 

 it, and what you may e.xpedt from 

 the manipulation. Don't make the 

 mistake that is very often made by 

 beginners, of trying every sort of 

 hive on the market. Take some suc- 

 cessful beekeeper as a guide in the 

 sort of apparatus to use, and have 

 everything in your yard interchange- 

 able, so that any piece you pick up 

 will fit on any hive in the yard. It is 

 very disagreeable, when you are in a 

 hurry, to find that your hive and 

 super are not the same size. You 

 have to hunt up another super — or 

 perhaps you have none in the apiary 

 to fit, and the loss of time and the 

 worry will make you wish you had 

 paid strict attention to this matter. 



Don't attempt to raise queens be- 

 fore you have made a success in rais- 

 ing bees. You must first know how 

 long it takes an egg to hatch, how 

 long it is in the larva state, the length 

 of time in passing from an egg to a 

 bee, how long to hatch drones, and 

 how long to hatch a queen, and then 

 you must know under what condi- 

 tions the bees will raise good queens. 

 Good queens are the foundation to a 

 successful apiary, and, as a rule, I 

 think, for a time it will be to your 

 financial advantage to buy your 

 queens from some reliable breeder. 



Don't take any chances with bee 

 diseases. American and European 

 foulbrood are so widely spread over 

 the country that every beekeeper 

 must be very careful. A very slight 

 mistake may cause you a great deal 

 of work — and possibly the loss of 

 your little apiary. Never leave any 

 honey where the bees can get it, as 

 this is the way the disease is trans- 

 mitted from one colony to another. 

 Study up on this subject carefully, 

 and I repeat emphatically, take no 

 chances. If you discover this dreaded 

 disease in your yard, don't become 



Natural built comb transferred without selecting the portion composed oi worker cells 



