1900 



GIvEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



397 



second going-over of the frame, I shut such 

 hive up and go back in the course of an hour. 

 This time I use very little smoke, and proceed 

 as quietly as possible so as not to disturb the 

 bees. If the queen once gets frightened she 

 will run and hide. If the bees start to run- 

 ning and buzzing again, better shut the hive 

 again to be visited later, for there is no use in 

 wasting time. 



I remember I had once been hunting for a 

 black queen for perhaps fifteen or twenty min- 

 utes. I finally called to one of the boys in the 

 apiary, and we together scanned both sides of 

 the frames at once — he on one side of the 

 frame and I on the other, for I thought I had 

 caught a glimpse of her going on the other 

 side of one comb just the moment the frame 

 was turned toward me. Having caught sight 

 of her, we watched her for the fun of it. My 

 friend got back of a clump of bushes where 

 he could not be seen. Curiously enough, this 

 queen would hover around in a little space 

 between the bottom of the comb and the bot- 

 tom-bar. Whenever I turned one side of the 

 comb toward me, she would quickly go on the 

 other side. Upon my word, if she did not 

 dodge back and forth as I turned the comb ! 

 No wonder I could not find her, for she had 

 learned her trick of dodging, and kept it up. 

 I have seen this with other black queens, and 

 perhaps with hybrid queens, but I do not 

 know that an Italian queen among Italian 

 bees would ever do this. One very valuable 

 quality of the Italians is their perfect at-home- 

 ness on the combs, whether the hive is open 

 or closed ; and one very mean trait of black 

 hybrids and blacks is their fashion of running 

 and scrambling over the combs, scaring the 

 queen in their general rough-and-tumble con- 

 fusion, one bee over the other. Whenever I 

 have had occasion to find black queens in pop- 

 ulous black colonies, I always feel that I have 

 a " job " on my hands. About the first thing 

 I do is to tuck my pants down my stockings ; 

 and then if I can have an assistant, he is ask- 

 ed to use his eyes. 



Some bee-keepers, when they desire to find 

 black queens, take all the combs out, take the 

 hive and dump it in front of the entrance, set 

 it back, and clap an entrance-guard over the 

 now empty hive. The bees are all shaken ofif 

 the combs, and the entrance-guard is eagerly 

 scrutinized to see when her majesty strikes the 

 obstruction. I do not know but, all things 

 considered, this is about as quick a way to find 

 black queens among black bees as to under- 

 take the very uncertain and laborious method 

 I have already described. 



Some of those who use shallow brood-cham- 

 bers advise shaking the black bees out of the 

 combs by shaking the whole chamber, and 

 then watching the bees as they crawl toward 

 the entrance. It is said that the queen can be 

 easily seen among the bees, and picked out. I 

 have tried this a number of times, but have 

 never been successful. In the first place, it 

 took more strength than I had to do a thorough 

 job of shaking ; and in the second place it 

 takes a pretty sharp pair of eyes to see the 

 queen among a lot of bees an inch or so deep, 

 all of them working toward the hive. 



Unless one wishes to clip a queen's wings, 

 to replace or sell her, it is a waste of time to 

 try to find the queen. If one sees eggs regu- 

 larly laid, and brood in all stages, sufficient 

 stores, there is no need whatever of hunting a 

 queen. Beginners often spend a lot of useless 

 time in this way, sometimes leaving the combs 

 exposed to the sun. Robbers start in the 

 meantime, and there is a "general row" — 

 Ed.] 



BEES AS A SPECIALTY ; IS IT ADVISED ? WIN- 

 TERING OUTDOORS IN MINNESOTA. 



1. Would you advise a young man who likes 

 the bee-business better than any other to go 

 into it exclusively ? 



2. If not, what other occupation could be 

 conveniently engaged in along with it, to in- 

 sure good returns ? Give location in United 

 States. 



3. Where is the best location in the United 

 States to make bee-keeping a specialty? 



4. Could bees be safely wintered outdoors as 

 far north as this, with the regular hive protect- 

 ed by a Dovetailed winter case only ? They 

 could seldom fly from Dec. 1 to Apr. 1, and 

 would probably be covered with snow most of 

 that time. 



5. Would it be safe to leave out-apiaries 

 packed thus where they will receive no atten- 

 tion from December to March or April ? 



6. If a person is in a locality where he can 

 average about 50 lbs. of comb honey per colo- 

 ny, spring count, would it be wise to seek a 

 better place to build up an apiary, or build up 

 one where he is, taking severe winters into ac- 

 count? R. O. CtARK. 



Lake Crystal, Minn., Apr. 10. 



[1. No. Bee-keeping is too uncertain as a 

 business for one to rely on it exclusively for 

 his sole income. There are a very few special- 

 ists ; but they either carry on the business 

 very extensively, having 400 or 500 colonies, 

 or else they live in a favored location. I al- 

 ways advise that bee-keeping be combined 

 with some other industry. 



2. Poultry-raising, fruit growing, farming, 

 practicing law, teaching school, any and all 

 of them, according to circumstances and con- 

 ditions, may work well with bees. Among 

 the bee-keepers of our country are many pro- 

 fessional men who keep bees not so much for 

 the profit there is in them (although that is a 

 consideration), as for the recreation and out- 

 door exercise that they afford. Then many 

 farmers who are progressive * can keep a few 

 colonies to considerable advantage. Twenty- 

 five colonies in a location where there are no 

 bees will very often pay much better than the 

 same amount of capital invested in poultry or 

 fruit-growing. Many a bee-keeper has found 

 that, when he had a few colonies that could 

 secure an average of 100 to 150 lbs. of honev, 

 after he gets more into the business, and is 

 actually running from 100 to 200 colonies, his 

 average is cut down to 50 or 75, and generally 

 much less than that. 



3. I do not know where the best location is. 



* One who is not active, and up to date with fanning, 

 would probably be a very poor bee-keeper. 



