250 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



April 20, 1899. 



1 BiosraDhical. | 



MR. A. C. SANFORD. 



My father and mother came from Newtown, Conn., to 

 Wisconsin in an early daj'. I was born in 1852, at Aship- 

 pun, Dodge Co., Wis., and lived with my parents till 21 

 years of age. I was married to Irene Blair in 1874, and in 

 1876 we moved to Pierce Co., Wis., where I have since re- 

 sided. I located in a heavily timbered section where the 

 basswood grows tall, clovers abundant, and wild flowers are 

 in profusion — a bee-keeper's paradise. 



In my youth I loved bees and honey very much — espe- 

 cially the latter — and early I was eager to learn all about 

 them. But father did not keep bees, and there were few 

 kept in that locality, and those in a primitive manner. I 

 longed to get a chance to try my hand at bee-keeping, but 

 was obliged to be content with hunting bee-trees, and I 

 learned in that way some of the habits of bees. 



In 1876 I purchast my first colony of bees, paying $7.00 

 for them ; then my study with the bees began. I had the 

 opportunity of being neighbor to a bee-keeper of consider- 

 able experience, and from him I learned many things. 



My first season I got about 30 pounds of comb honey 

 and one swarm. The first winter I lost the old colony, but 

 the new survived. The following spring I purchast several 

 colonies in box-hives, and experimented with them by 

 transferring to frame hives. I procured the book "ABC 

 of Bee-Culture," and with the aid of Gleanings and the 

 American Bee Journal I was soon into the mysteries of bee- 

 keeping. My wife used to say, " Albert, you spend so much 

 time with those bees that they won't amount to much ;" but 

 the first thing she knew I had a fine lot of honey, and sold 

 $125 worth. Of course, after that I could fuss with the bees 

 all I liked. And so I did. I kept on increasing till I had all 

 I could handle (and sometimes more). I have never been 

 without bees or honey since, and the American Bee Journal 

 has come to me regularly ever since. So, Mr. Editor, I am 

 nearly to the 25-year mark. 



With the money I made from my bees I paid off 

 the indebtedness on my farm, built a large brick house, im- 

 proved my farm, and purchast a young herd of purely-bred 

 shorthorn cattle in 1891, which have been kept on mj' farm, 

 and have now increast till there are 30 head ; also many 

 have been sold. 



This is giving the bees a good deal of credit, but any 

 good, intelligent, industrious and honest person can do 

 what I have dore if he goes at it in the right way. 



A. C. S.\NFORD. 



Queens in Diseased Colonies, that is, queens in colo- 

 nies that have suffered from diarrhea in the winter, the 

 Canadian Bee Journal does not consider as good as if the 

 workers had remained healthy ; and the introduction of 

 fresh queens is advised. 



Breeding in flidwinter is spoken of in Bee-Chat as a 



thing that commences regularly in normal colonies. That 

 shows the milder climate of England, especially as com- 

 pared with the northern States, and would be a surprise to 

 Hon. R. L. Tavlor. whose queens do not commence laving 

 till April. 



The Cluster of Bees Stirinl<s with Cold, according to 

 Bee-Chat, in a way that is little realized bj' those who have 

 made no careful examination. On some cold morning take 

 a peep into a hive containing one of your strongest colo- 



nies, and if you have done it carefulh' so as not to rouse the 

 bees in the least, you will be surprised almost into wonder- 

 ing what has become of the strong colony you supposed 

 present. " It seems hardly possible such a vast host can so 

 contract themselves that a gallon measure will more than 

 hold a population you imagined would fill at least a half- 

 bushel." 



Selection for Work Rather than Color. — Speaking of 

 the careful selection made by American breeders in rearing 

 queens. Editor Holtermann, of the Canadian Bee Journal, 

 says : " I doubt very much if there has been enough selec- 

 tion for honey qualities ; doubtless there has been a great 

 deal for color." Mr. Holtermann is quite right. 



Open - Cornered and Split Top = Bar Section.— The 



Canadian Bee Journal mentions as a great and valuable re- 

 form the introduction of a one-piece section in which the 

 passage for the bees runs the entire length of the top-bar 

 and bottom-bar. The publishers of the paper have now in- 

 troduced a section with a split top-bar, the foundation being 

 held in place by being pincht between the two parts of the 

 top-bar. 



Queens Don't Lay at Will. — The elder Dadant, now 

 in his 82nd year, yet one of the most vigorous writers in 

 the French bee-journals, now appears on the scene in 

 Gleanings in defense of large hives. In reply to the objec- 

 tion that in large hives queens lay so many eggs that they 

 are soon overworkt, and die, Mr. Dadant says : " The 

 queen doesn't lay at will. The eggs come out when they 

 are ripe, and the queen cannot stop their exit." 



Honey Leaflets have been reported in Gleanings as 

 not helping sales. But a recent number gives some favor- 

 able reports. C. R. Morts says, like a mustard plaster, they 

 work according to the way they are applied. He says they're 

 not as costly as labels, and are 16 to 1 better. F. Z. Bu- 

 chanan says : " Fully half the customers to whom I have 

 handed a leaflet along with the honey have askt, ' What's 

 this ?' lookt at the heading, and have been well along in the 

 reading matter before I left." 



Hanging Foundation the Other Way. A "straw" in 

 Gleanings is as follows : " W. S. Pender says that, instead 

 of putting sheets of foundation in the usual way, he cuts 

 the sheets in two and hangs it t'other way, and then it does 

 not stretch. Does that mean it stretches more readily the 

 way it has been already stretcht ? [It is true, I think, that 

 foundation stretches less when hung the opposite way to 

 what it is ordinarily supported, than when it is fastened in 

 the usual manner. We are just planning to reverse the 

 hang of the cells on our rolls, because we know it will be an 

 improvement to have them the other wa3-. — Ed.]" 



Fighting Upon the Introduction of a Queen. — Mr. 



Doolittle says in the American Bee-Keeper that instead of 

 dead bees at the entrance being a sign that the queen has 

 been safely introduced, it is a sign that she may have been 

 killed, or, what is almost as bad, mained for life. If bees 

 fight over a queen, not one queen in ten comes out of such a 

 fight as good as she was before. So it is desirable to have 

 the queen caged till all fig-hting is over. Mr. Doolittle says : 

 " I have known as many as a pint of bees to be killed 

 when the cage was thus covered, yet the queen would not 

 be harmed at all ; but let half that number of bees be killed 

 when the queen is among the fighting bees, and she will be 

 materially injured if not spoilt entirely." 



Big Yield of Pollen with Lessened Laying — G. M. 



Doolittle says in Gleanings : " Just why the queens do not 

 breed when pollen comes in so abundantly is a mystery I 

 have never been able to solve, tho I have spent much 

 thought and study over the subject. The nearest I can come 

 to the matter is that, for some reason, the bees fail to feed 

 the queen on the stimulating food usually given at all times 

 when she is laying very prolifically, and all know she lays 

 only as she is fed and cared for. Wlien laying very pro- 

 lifically we see bees offering the queen food ever3' few min- 

 utes ; but at these times when pollen is coming in so as to 

 crowd the brood it is a rare thing that I see the bees feeding 

 the queen ... .It is possible that a little very thin or diluted 

 sweet fed at such times would have the desired effect, if 

 fed just at night, this causing the bees to feed the queen, as 

 it generally does at all times when so fed." 



