■24 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



bee-craft, having had as pupils among others 

 several of the nuns at Abbot Lea, Abbotskirk- 

 well, and under his supervision these ladies 

 are managing a successful apiary of their own. 

 "We learn from Mr. Brooks that he has been 

 a bee-keeper nearly twenty years, his first 

 start being brought about by seeing some 

 straw skeps at a farmhouse he had occasion to 

 visit. Though only a boy of fifteen at the 

 time, he bargained with the old dame who 

 owned the skeps to pay her S2.40 for a swarm 

 which she said would be coming off in two or 

 three days. Accordingly, he went — accompa- 

 nied by a bee-keeper of more matured experi- 

 ence and years than himself — two days later, 

 and was told on arrival that two swarms had 

 come off, and he could take his choice. This 

 he did, as that other boy did who said, "I 



years I have to buy to keep my regular cus- 

 tomers supplied." In concluding his remarks 

 Mr. Brooks says, "I am a ropemaker by 

 trade, and work with my father, so that, be- 

 ing on the spot, I am always at hand in case 

 of swarms." — British Bee Journal . 



A POINT IN OUEEN-REARING. 



Will Bees, when Left to Themselves, Select such 

 Larvce as will Rear the Best Queens? 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



In reply to a questioner, I favored the idea 

 that, left to themselves, bees might rear as 

 good queens as when they were restricted to 



APIARY OF S. BROOKS. — FROM BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. 



don't want to be greedy, so I'll take the 

 heaviest. ' ' 



From this small beginning he began the 

 following year to make frame hives, after buy- 

 ing one as a pattern, and got a friend to teach 

 him "the ways of modern bee-keeping." 

 He then, in writing us particulars, goes on to 

 say, " I have at present twelve hives, includ- 

 ing skeps, which I keep for supplying swarms. 

 The district around here is fairly good for 

 honey, as we have plenty of orchards and 

 fruit-trees about. My own crops are not very 

 large compared with some whose bees are 

 kept further out in the country. I average 

 about 40 lbs. per colony yearly, and as an ex- 

 hibitor at local shows I have taken several 

 first prizes. Nor have I ever experienced any 

 difficulty in selling my crop; in fact, in some 



eggs or larvEe of a certain age. Referring to 

 this, Hon. R. L. Taylor says in Revieiv : 



" He argues {A. B./., 295) that in a colony 

 made qiieenless, with eggs and larvte of all 

 ages present, it looks rather reasonable that 

 the bees will select what will make the best 

 queens if it is left entirely to them. It may 

 look reasonable that they should, but they 

 don't; at least, they don't altogether; and the 

 trouble is that, when they err, as they gener- 

 ally do, I suppose, from their eagerness to 

 get a queen as soon as possible, by selecting 

 one or more larvte for the purpose that are too 

 old to produce the best queens, the queens 

 from such hatch first, and so the later and 

 better ones are destroyed. The remedy is to 

 remove the larvce, in four or five days, from all 

 but three or four of the most satisfactory cells. ' ' 



