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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1. 



THE COUNTKY GENTLEMAN. 



I H.WK many times of late felt like expressing 

 my gratitude and appreciation to the agricultu- 

 ral journals of our land. I do not feel like say- 

 ing liiat any one of them is the best agricultu- 

 ral paper published, for it would be a good deal 

 like comparing my friends and relatives. Some 

 e.\cel in one thing and some in another. I have 

 often felt like saying, however, that there is 

 something about the Country (JeiitlcnKut that 

 renders it specially valuable to me. I have oft- 

 en wondered who it is that keeps such a steady, 

 keen eye on every thing that goes into its col- 

 umns: and I have finally concluded that it 

 must be some old veteran in agriculture — some- 

 body who knows what has been done, and what 

 is likely to succeed and likely to fail — some one 

 who is fully fDinpetent to put o.i the brakes 

 when a lot of us are inclined to start off in er- 

 ror. Another thing, there is a sort of dignified 

 gentility about this periodical that makes one 

 think it is rightly named. It costs a little more 

 than some other papers : and, by the way. it 

 usually costs something to move in the best so- 

 ciety, and to have for your companions learned 

 and intelligent men. Sometimes 1 have thought 

 that this \ eteran who answers so well and so 

 wisely almost any question that may be asked 

 pertaining to agriculture, was a little conserva- 

 tive: but it is a pretty good fault, after all: and 

 I am real glad that, among all our various pe- 

 riodicals of this sort, we have at least one 

 Country Gcntleinoti. 



mating choice queens to choice drones 0.\ 

 hanlon's island. 



A SHOKT time ago a firm in Canada advertised 

 that their queens were mated to hand-picked 

 drones on Hanlon's Island. A resident of To- 

 ronto (he has moved away now) wrote us short- 

 ly after, that there were no bees on Hanlon's 

 Island, and that the mating of queens there 

 was all- a myth. We promptly wrote to the 

 parties in question, for an explanation. They 

 assured us that it was a fact, and referred us to 

 the names of several parties as proof ^ among 

 them Mr. John McArthur. 881 Yonge St.. To- 

 ronto, who bred the queens for them. 



It seems Mr. M. has had in mind the mating 

 of choice queens to choice drones on this island 

 for ten years or so back: but until 188'.i it was so 

 barren that bees could not be supported there 

 except at an expense. At that time the city of 

 Toronto spent over a hundred thousand dollars 

 in beautifying and improving the island: and 

 it is now stated that it blossoms like the rose, 

 and will support a large apiary. Mr. McArthur 

 took advantage of the situation and put upon 

 the island some choice stocks, and has been ex- 

 perimenting for three years back with the mat- 

 ter of mating queens to drones of his own 

 choosing. 



The island itself is two miles from the city, by 

 a bee-line, while the bees that have been used 

 for experimental purposes were a mile and a 

 half further, on the other side of the island- 

 quite a safe distance formating. Mr. M. pro- 

 poses to raise queens there the coming season: 

 and as it is a great pleasure-resort, ferry-boats 

 go back and forth every thirty minutes, and 

 hence orders for queens can receive prompt at- 

 tention. This may seem like a little free ad- 

 vertising: but when a bee-keeper has enler- 

 priSf- enough to take advantage of a good thing 

 we- feel like encouraging him: for it would in- 

 deed be very desirable, and a great boon to bee- 

 keepers at large, if we could take drones, say 

 from Mr. Doolittle, and choice queens from Mr. 

 Manum's honey strain, and have them crossed. 

 In si)eaking of this we do not forget D. A. Jones" 



experiments in the same direction on some isl- 

 ands in Georgian Bay. The Islands being bar- 

 ren of nectar-bearing blossoms, the enlerprise 

 was abandoned on account of the expense. 



The great trouble all along in queen-rearing 

 has been the inability on tlie pai't of bee-keep- 

 ers to perfectly isolate and so pei'petuate certain 

 desirable characteristics in certain bees: and it 

 is only those who have easy access to an island 

 who can do so with reasonabh' cei'tainty of suc- 

 cess. Say. Dr. Mason, what is the m:iiter with 

 your appropriating a small island off from To- 

 ledo, and running a rival establishment to the 

 Canadian entei'prise? You know you like to 

 " give it to the Canucks." 



CASTLES IN THE AIR; ULUNDERS OF A BEGIN- 

 NER : OlTT-AJ'IAltY IDEA CARRIED TO EX- 

 TREMES, ETC. 



A CASE has recently come to our knowledge 

 where a beginner bought an out-yard, with lit- 

 tle or no previous experience with bees, contain- 

 ing 100 colonies. As to whether they are paid 

 for yet we can not say. With these he had high 

 anticipations, and proposed to secure, the first 

 year, fifteen thousand pounds of honey. The 

 bees were hybrids: and in order to improve his 

 stock and get more honey he ventured to Ital- 

 ianize them at once — a doubtful venture, so far 

 as tlie honey was concerned,. and. so far as the 

 bees were concerned, wlien they could least af- 

 ford it. Without counting the cost of advertis- 

 ing space, he ordered several insertions of a 

 two-inch advertisement. Now, hybrid queens 

 do not usually sell for more than 30 or 40 cents. 

 He continued to advertise until he had paid out 

 as many dollars as he could possibly get for his 

 queens. His next step, so W(i are informed, was 

 to divide his 100 colonies into yards of 20 stocks 

 each, these yards being anywhere from four to 

 eight miles apart. His locality was sufficient to 

 have supported almost 100 alone, to say nothing 

 of going to the expense of dividing them up 

 into four or five apiaries, and traveling miles to 

 get to them, besidescarting stuff back and forth. 

 Did he secure his fifteen thousand pounds of 

 honey'.' Not quite. As nearly as we can a.scer- 

 tain, he obtained less than one thousand pounds. 

 The probabilities are, that his honey cost him a 

 great deal more than he will get for it in the 

 markets: and as to the hybrid (jueens sold, his 

 net profit was nothing— yes. worse than nothing 

 — and winter is staring him in the face. 



You may say a man is a fool to go into bee- 

 keeping in such a luad sort of way. We fear 

 there are some who do something nearly as bad. 

 They are crazed over the out-apiai-y idea, big 

 crops of honey, big prices, and go to moving 

 their bees away from home when they had bet- 

 ter keep them all in one yard, even though they 

 do not do quite as well. One year's experience 

 is usually sufficient to drive them out of the 

 business entirely. No one should think of es- 

 tablishing out-apiaries until his home apiary 

 has got at least beyond 7r> colonies: and even 

 with :.'00 he had better not have more than two 

 or at least three out- yards: but a great deal de- 

 ])ends upon the locality. Some places — in Cuba, 

 for instance — will support .500, and others less 

 than 50. 



Let us rehearse briefly the mistakes, some of 

 which many make: In the first place, in the 

 case mentioned, our beginner bought too heavi- 

 ly; second, he requeened his apiary when they 

 could the least afford it: third, he faih^d to con- 

 sider that the price of his product was too low 

 to warrant much expense in advertising; fourth, 

 he ought to have kept his bees in his home 

 yard instead of scattering them into out-yards. 

 Lastly, his great castle in the air obscured so- 

 ber, intelligent judgment. 



