AMERICAN BEE JOURNAU 



439 



the American Bee Journal, and I 

 thiiik the editor would do well to induce 

 him to write an article for the IttttstratetZ 

 Bee Journal. By avoiding the evils of 

 breeding in-and-in, and following the 

 advice of Gallup, a queen-breeder can- 

 not fail to rear prolific queens, but I 

 doubt whether good queens can be got- 

 ten up for a dollar or two. I, for my 

 part, cannot do so. 



One thing more I will add : Queen- 

 breeders, as well as other bee-keepers, 

 should save all the cells that are built in 

 colonies that voluntarily swarm. In 

 this way they will get queens that are 

 reared as such from the egg. It is my 

 experience that queens of that kind are 

 more durable and more prolific than 

 queens reared from larvse a number of 

 days old. If queens have to be reared 

 under compulsion, the cells for them 

 should be built in full colonies, and not 

 be removed from them until the last day 

 or two before hatching, that is, when 

 they are six or seven days sealed over. 

 Such queens are, with a few exceptions, 

 rarely as good as the best. 



CONSUMPTION OF HONEY BY DRONES AS 

 COMPARED WITH WORKERS. 



Translated from BerlepscWs Book, 2Mge 514. 



To see how the consumption of honey 

 by drones compared with that of worker 

 bees, I took on Aug. 6, 1853, two small 

 hives and put into each of them one 

 comb, with a large amount of unsealed 

 honey ; the weight of each I carefully 

 noticed. I then took from a straw hive 

 that 1 intended to take up, 1,000 work- 

 er-bees, and put them into one of the 

 hives ; 1,000 more workers and l,00O 

 drones I put into the other hive, gave 

 each of those hives a caged fertile queen 

 and put them away into a dark cellar. 



On the 18th of August, twelve days 

 later, the comb in the hive with the 

 workers bad decreased only two ounces 

 in weight, while the honey-comb in the 

 hive with the workers and drones had 

 decreased 8J4 ounces, so that one drone 

 had consumed S^g times as much as a 

 worker, or 3i30 drones consumed as 

 much as 1,000 workers. Therefore, if 

 a colony has to feed 2,000 drones for 

 84 days only, it requires 5 pounds and 

 7% ounces to do it. 



This calculation, however, is certainly 

 too low, because drones, if not kept 

 quiet, as in this experiment, and allowed 

 to make repeated excursions, will surely 

 consume a good deal more. At the same 

 time, all the food is wasted that is used 

 for nursing the drone-brood. There is, 

 too, doubtless, more food required for 



drone - brood than for worker - brood, 

 which can be ascertained by weighing a 

 comb with drone-brood just sealed over. 

 Jefferson, Wis., Mar. 12, 1870. 



[The foregoing article was thought- 

 fully sent to us by Dr. Gallup, of Cali- 

 fornia, who had noticed that some of 

 the present-day queen-breeders were ad- 

 vocating extra-light queens, etc. The 

 Doctor, who was well acquainted with 

 Mr. Grimm, says that "in his day he 

 was an extra-good authority." Although 

 the article was written over 20 years 

 ago, it will, no doubt, be read with in- 

 terest to-day. — EdJ] 



xxxxxgxxxxxxxz»x»a:x; 



PS'~ Do not write anything- for publication 

 on the same sheet of paper witn business 

 matters, unless it can be torn apart without 

 interfering with either part of the letter. 



><fc<>ifcAf»-'^'^-^-^A4fci 



A Correction, and the Past Season. 



I notice on page 344 it says that I had a 

 colony of bees that stored only '35}.{ pounds 

 of honey in four years. What I meant to 

 say was, they never swarmed, and I got 

 352 pounds of honey, instead of 35)^ pounds. 



The honey harvest ended here on Sept. 

 12th. We had only two honey-flows this 

 year — basswood and golden-rod. Black- 

 heart was no good, as it was too dry. A 

 colony of bees on the scales gained 78 

 pounds on basswood bloom, and on golden- 

 rod 43 pounds. G. W. Nance. 



Anthon, Iowa, Sept. 18, 1893. 



Bee-Hunting' — How It is Done. 



About the time new swarms commence 

 watering their young, go to a stream and 

 follow it until you find a sand-bar. Sit 

 down and keep a good lookout for a bee. 

 When she gets filled, she will take a bee- 

 line for a tree, or log on the ground. Mark 

 the line about as far as you think they are 

 from the tree. Now see if the bees are 

 watering at some other point on either side 

 of the main line; if they are, get another 

 line, and mark it through until you inter- 

 sect the first line, and where they cross, 



