1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1229 



ed, antl before the theoi'y ami pi'actice of 

 automobile-building had come down to the 

 perfect science it now has reached. A well- 

 designed machine, of moderate cost,* built 

 not later than last year, should not require 

 a cost of maintenance per mile anywhere 

 near equal to a horse and buggy per mile. 

 My brother and I have a machine, built by 

 the Reo Automobile Co., between us. This 

 has given constant service, being used by 

 three or four families in Rootville. My 

 brother and I have made all our own adjust- 

 ments, taken some long trips, and so far the 

 repair item has not cost a dollar. This ma- 

 chine has just finished a trip of 800 miles in 

 one week, across the countiy. At the end 

 of that time it seemed to be in as good condi- 

 tion as when it started out. The cost for gaso- 

 line was about | ct. per mile. With care, the 

 repair item ought not to exceed one-half cent 

 a mile for a year: and this will be mainly 

 for pneumatic tires. During five years it 

 might require two and possibly three sets of 

 tires, and these two or three sets during five 

 years would equal aljout a fifth the cost of 

 the machine. The cost of painting and var- 

 nishing would be no more than the same 

 items for a buggy of the same carrying ca- 

 pacity. 



On the other hand, careless driving, jam- 

 ming in the clutches before the machine has 

 had a chance to get under motion: driving 

 after dark with a poor light: driving over 

 broken bottles, etc., would probably make 

 the annual cost run clear beyond the figure 

 of half a cent per mile. I have known it to 

 go up to five and even ten cents. I have 

 just talked with a man who has had that ex- 

 perience. He has gone back to horses. As 

 it is with the hee business, so it is in driving 

 automobiles — there is every thing in the 

 man. — Ed.] 



Putting a weak colony over a strong one. 

 after the Alexander plan, was an utter fail- 

 ure here. That does not condemn the plan. 

 8o many have succeeded with it that 1 be- 

 lieve it's a good thing — a big thing. The 

 thing now to learn is the conditions of suc- 

 cess and failure. Did 1 fail because I had 

 hyltrid bees? You say. Mr. Editor, that on 

 first trial you failed. Can you tell us why? 

 [I have said that our first trials of the Alex- 

 ander plan of uniting were not all of them 

 successful. In some cases it worked and in 

 some it failed. This was before our Mr. 

 Warden had come to take chai'ge of the bees. 

 I explained to him that I wished him to try 

 it and discover if possible wherein was the 

 possible cause of failure in the few cases. 

 He did so, and in every case he was success- 

 ful. Now, why did he succeed when the 

 other boys failed, in some instances? He 

 does not know, except that he says he was 

 very careful to have always a strong colony 

 below, as Mr. Alexander stipulated. Then 

 he thought it was very important, when put- 

 ting the weak nuclei over the strong one, to 

 be extremely careful not to distui'b the lower 



* I do not advi.se hiyh-priced machines. They are 

 heavy, requirinti' an annual cost for tires alone of two 

 or three hundred dollars. 



bees. He accordingly put perforated zinc on 

 top of the strong colony two days in advance 

 of putting the weak nucleus on top; then 

 when ready to do the uniting he lifted the 

 cover only partly: sealed to the perforated 

 zinc honey-board. He next put on the upper 

 stoiy, very gently with its one or two frames 

 of bees, placing a division-board next to the 

 outside frame. This was done very quietly 

 so as not to force the lower bees up into the 

 upper bunch. In every case of colonies so 

 treated he found in a few days both lots of 

 bees thriving tremendously, "the lower bees- 

 having come up in the mean time supplying 

 the nucleus with its lack of l)ees, at which 

 time the queen would begin to "spread" 

 herself in egg-laying. He says it is surpris- 

 ing how sudi a nucleus will increase in 

 strength, and apparently, too, without any 

 diminution in the force below. The philos- 

 ophy seems to be this: When the two forces 

 of bees are put together, one on top of the 

 other, the work is done so quietly that the 

 lower bees do not for a matter of 24 hours 

 mingle with the upper ones. In the mean 

 time both lots of bees gradually take on the 

 same scent. When the two lots of bees be- 

 gin to mingle they smell alike and there is 

 no fighting. As the queen has the same 

 scent she is not molested. . The result is that 

 the two forces of bees together can do far 

 better than either one of them separately, be- 

 cause they have the egg-laying capacity of 

 two queens. 



Try it again, doctor, in your uniting this 

 fall, and report. That reminds me that Mr. 

 Wardell tried the Alexander plan on hy 

 brids with the same result. — Ec] 



•MAKING BEES OUT OF SUGAR SYRUP. 



^^'E have been making some experiments 

 on how much it costs to make a colony of 

 bees out of a given number of pounds of su- 

 gar syrup. As we ai'e compelled to buy bees 

 almost every spring to replenish losses due 

 to sales, we have come to the conclusion 

 that we can "'raise" our own bees with su- 

 gar syrup far cheaper than we can buy 

 them." A colony of very poor hybrids of 

 medium strength on crooked combs can n<jt 

 usually be furnished by the farmer for less 

 than two or three dollars. It takes about 

 two months to get these bees Italianized so 

 they will be fit to send out. The old combs 

 must be replaced bj' new ones, and, what is 

 more, the bees have to be hauled a distance 

 of several miles. We now think that the 

 same money invested in sugar syrup will 

 go very much further. It is surprising what 



