82 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



not surprised at the complaints of 

 " springdwindling." In acongenial 

 climate the queens lay but little 

 till pollen begins to be gathered 

 by the bees, and from this time with 

 favorable weather, the brood is 

 spread with marvellous rapidity. 

 On the first days of last April my 

 colonies did not average over one 

 hundred square inches of brood to 

 the colony, and in six weeks from 

 that time — say by the tenth of 

 May — they were in good working 

 trim, and stood up to the locust 

 harvest in the most satisfactoiy 

 manner. 



Bees to be in a normal condition 

 in winter, should rear but little 

 brood till the proper time arises for 

 active work in the spring. Such 

 bees are full of vigor, and in the 

 best possible condition to forward 

 the best interests of the colony. 



This state of things is found in 

 perfection in the southern apiar^'. 

 New York's great editor's advice 

 to the young man was to " go 

 west." This was well enough where 

 the object of the young man was 

 to produce corn, wheat, etc. But 

 if his object is to cultivate the 

 honey bee, and to produce honey 

 for the market I would change the 

 advice a little, and say " young 

 man, go south." 



Christiansburg, Ky. 



PLAIN 

 TALKS ON BEE-CULTURE. 



By J. E. Pond. 



IV. 



BREEDING BEES FOR WINTERING. 



Friend Alley writes well and so 

 far as he goes, in his article on 

 pages 13-15 of Apiculturist, makes 

 out quite an argument ; the trouble 

 is, however, that it is all theory. 

 Theories in regard to any subject 

 are valuable, only as they coincide 

 with truths ; it is one thing to 

 build up a theory from facts, and 

 altogether another thing to set up 

 a theory, and then endeavor to fit 

 the facts to it : in the one case, the 

 theory will " do to tie to ;" in the 

 other it sliould be taken "■ carti 

 grano salis." 



I do not mean to disparage 

 friend A's ideas, or to hold them 

 up to unnecessary criticism ; but I 

 do desire, in a spirit of candor, to 

 analyze them, and by applying the 

 test of reason, endeavor to ascertain 

 just how far it is practicable to 

 follow them. And right here let 

 me state a few facts, drawn from 

 my own experience, with my own 

 bees during the last winter. In 

 November last, I had seven colo- 

 nies ; six of them pure Italians on 

 standard L. frames, and one hybrid 

 in a box hive. One of these 

 colonies lost a queen in July ; I 

 reared a queen to take her place, 

 but although she flew out CA'ery 

 pleasant day for twenty-six days, 

 she did not succeed in meeting a 



