THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



63 



no attention, and most any mechan- 

 ic would have no trouble in manag- 

 ing several colonies of bees. Consid- 

 ering the little capital that need be 

 invested, and the time required to 

 care for a small apiary, we should 

 say that the small beekeeper would 

 realize the largest profit. 



"the drone bee." 



We saw it stated in a recent num- 

 ber of the Am. Bee Journal that 

 more importance should be given by 

 queen breeders and honey producers 

 to rearing and selecting the drone 

 bee. We have often urged the 

 queen dealer as well as the honey 

 producer, to use more care in the 

 selection of drones, and have stated 

 that the qualities, good or bad, and 

 the peculiarities of any colony of 

 bees are more likely to be trans- 

 mitted to the offspring by the drone 

 than by the queen bee. Hence it 

 will be seen that if a particular col- 

 ony possesses any desirable quality 

 one wishes to preserve, he should 

 see that his queens are mated ' to 

 the drones of the colony possessing 

 such qualities. For instance : sup- 

 pose there is one colony in the apiary 

 possessing the three good points, 

 docility, good honey gatherers and 

 non-swarming, and another colony 

 whose bees are strong, hardy and 

 winter well. Now these are all de- 

 sirable points and it would be hard 

 to tell which colony possessed the 

 best. Well, instead of having the 

 young queens mated haphazard, that 

 is, by any drone in the apiary, why 

 not rear queens from the one colony 

 and mate them with drones from the 

 other? By using a proper drone 

 trap such things are easily managed. 



Breed out all the bad qualities, 

 and the result will be better bees, 

 more honey and larger profits. 



— The use of veils by beekeepers 

 should be avoided as much as possi- 

 ble, as the constant strain upon the 

 eyes in looking through the fine 

 meshes of either cloth or wire netting 

 is very injurious. Every beekeeper, 



however, should have something of 

 the kind about the apiary to protect 

 his friends and visitors from stings. 

 With a good smoker no one need be 

 badly stung, even when handling the 

 most vicious colony of bees. 



— There is no doubt that salt is 

 needed by bees. We have no idea 

 as to the quantity a colony would 

 consume, or exactly for what purpose 

 it is used. We have visited the 

 apiary of the old-fashioned bee- 

 keeper, and have often seen salt at 

 the entrance of the hives. Now, 

 this is an old custom but a very 

 good one. As salt cannot do any 

 harm, why not place it where they 

 can have easy access to it ? 



— Mr. R. Wilkins of California 

 has reaped 100,000 lbs. of honey 

 from 1000 stands of bees. Mr. Wil- 

 kins formerly kept bees in Cadiz, 

 Ohio, but removed from that state to 

 California, about ten years ago, to 

 engage more largely in bee culture. 

 The above figures would seem to in- 

 dicate that he has made a success 

 ofit. 



— A few days ago, we heard a 

 person say that counterfeit honey 

 was manufactured and sold for "pure 

 bees " honey. We inquired of the 

 party who made the statement, where 

 some of the manufactured article 

 could be obtained. He did not 

 know, but was sure it was being 

 made as he had seen some of the 

 honey. We offered ^10 for one 

 pound of it. Will any one send us 

 that amount for examination ? 



— Some time in January, a party 

 was shipping several hundred colonies 

 of bees to some southern state, when 

 by an accident, about two hundred 

 of the hives were destroyed by fire. 

 We were thinking, when we read the 

 item, how much better off some one 

 hundred beekeepers throughout the 

 country would now be, had such a 

 mishap occurred to the same party 

 about four years ago. We always 

 believe and recommend cremation 

 as the best means for exterminating 

 foul brood. 



