Julv 13, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



435 



with poultn- by trj-inif to keep too manj-. They reason tliat 

 because a few pay, a good many ^T'ill pay better. But if a 

 few are kept of some pure breed, that will pay for selling 

 both pGultrj' and eggs for hatcliiiig, besides what is sold to 

 the butchers and grocers, they will help along nicely, more 

 than the)' get credit for. 



I see no reason why all the above might not be com- 

 bined with bee-keeping, and other industries besides. I 

 think it not best to keep " all the eggs in one basket," so if 

 one fails somewhat others will not. True, some years some 

 ma.y be more neglected than they should be. 



It does not cost much to keep bees after one has them, 

 and when the.v fail to get honey let them alone, only see 

 to it that they do not starve out. Many who keep only a 

 few bees take away what they can get at such times, and 

 fail to feed back if needed, and so let the bees starve out. 

 Perhaps the verj' next year they would have paid their 

 owner largely if they had not been robbed. But if they 

 have barely enough to keep them alive, bee-keeping, like 

 all other industries, does not pay. We should not keep 

 more bees than we can care for, nor more than will do well 

 in our locality. 



Carpenters, merchants, dressmakers, seamstresses and 

 school-teachers, it seems to me, might all keep a few colo- 

 nies of bees and make them profitable, and find much en- 

 joyment and health in caring for them. Especially those 

 who are much confined to the house would find it a real 

 recreation if they would begin with the right kind of a hive, 

 gentle bees, etc., and face well protected from stings. There 

 is so much that is interesting- in their habits that they will 

 soon learn to love to work with them. 



BEES FOR THE CHILDREN. 



The neighbor who is wise enough to devise plans to 

 make his children love home gives each one a calf and a 

 colony of bees, from the oldest to the youngest, if he will 

 care for them. It is interesting to see how they watch 

 father care for his bees, and how gladly they help hira. so 

 he will help them back, and so care for their bees. When 

 they get stung the}- try to bravely bear it, and when they 

 get homes of their own, it will cost them but a trifle to be- 

 gin bee-keeping on a larger scale. The calves become their 

 playmates, and make them love home all the more — to 

 think they own something themselves. 



BEES FOR HIRED HELP. 



A few years ago I had a young girl working for me, 

 helping at housework and bee-work. She bought a colonv 

 from us, and paid for it in work, took it to her father's 

 home (about six miles away, as there were not many bees, 

 and it seemed to be a good location for them.) They did 

 ■well for her; she learned from us how to care for them, and 

 would go home occasionally and put them in order for each 

 season of the year, I do not kmiw how much honey she 

 got, but quite a considerable, the most of which she gave to 

 her parents, but she married in two years or so, and sold 

 her bees for $30. having increast them to six colonies. The 

 $30 was quite a little help to her in buying her bridal outfit. 

 as her parents were quite too poor to assist her much. I 

 think a wiser way would have been to have held on to her 

 bees, to have taken them to a home of her own, and to have 

 been married in a calico dress rather than part with her 

 bees. 



Many localities change from being good for bees to 

 being poor, by being highly cultivated, and crops raised 

 that yield no honey. That is partly the case in our neigh- 

 borhood : all low lands and heads of slough are tiled, and 

 corn and other crops raised, so that little room is left for 

 Spanish-needle and wild flowers. Warren Co., 111. 



Planting- for Honey— Buckwheat, Etc. 



BY F. A. SNELL. 



IN addition to the farm crops that are valuable for both 

 stock and grain, we have only one more to name for our 

 section of country, or our latitude, that is also valuable 

 as a honey-plant, and that is buckwheat, which affords a 

 good yield of both grain and honey when conditions are 

 favorable. We have three varieties of this — that known as 

 Japanese, the silver-hull, and the common. I have grown 

 each variety, and for a grain crop the Japanese has proved 

 to be superior, as it has given the largest yield. For tlie 

 honey crop either produces well in good seasons. 



Buckwheat is the only crop that we plant for a fall 



hone)- crop. This crop is, as a rule, profitable to the farmer 

 bee-keeper. Even if no surplus honey is secured from it, 

 enough may be gathered by our bees to keep up brood-rear- 

 ing, which is of great importance, especially where fall 

 flowers are otherwise scarce. As I have said in another 

 place, successful wintering depend* very largely upon hav- 

 ing a strong force of young bees with which to go into 

 winter. 



I omitted in my list of honey-producing trees the locust, 

 which yields well in honey, and is valuable for timber also, 

 but with us the borers ruined our groves some years ago, so 

 that its planting has been dropt. The few trees remaining 

 bloom each season profusely, coming in a little before 

 white clover. In sections where the tree will thrive, no 

 doubt it will pay to grow it. One objection to it is, it is 

 hard to rid the g'round from it after once establisht. 



I am prompted to write what I have on the subject by a 

 realization of the fact that we cannot do too much in plant- 

 ing to increa.se the honey-flow, and the sooner we as bee- 

 keepers realize this and act in this direction the better. In 

 the list of trees, bushes and plants named in these articles, 

 I have named only those that produce for the apiarist at 

 least a double crop or harvest, either of which will pay well 

 for time and money invested, and add to the value and 

 beauty of many a home if the suggestions made are carried 

 out. 



The amount of fruit that may be grown on a plat of 

 two acres with good care is almost surprising. Planting of 

 cherry, plum, apricot, quince, peach and pear trees may be 

 made at a distance of 15 feet apart each way, and will allow 

 205 trees to an acre of ground. Apples planted at a distance 

 of 20 feet each way will give 110 trees to the acre. Any 

 small fruit, such as raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, 

 currants, gooseberries, etc., may be planted in rows a suit- 

 able distance apart between the rows of fruit-trees, and will 

 soon come into bearing, and pay good rent on the entire 

 plat put out. These returns will come in the second year, 

 and will in addition to rent return pay for all labor given, 

 if good culture is given, with most of the small fruit named. 



In a few more years the trees will come into bearing, 

 and it is useless to give here the value in dollars and cents 

 that the crops secured will be worth. It is self-evident to all 

 thinking people that such an investment would be a good 

 one for any painstaking person. There is another consid- 

 eration in the matter above dollars. We would be adding 

 beauty to our home surroundings, and health to ourselves 

 and families, as well as be doing a good work for posterity, 

 thus proving our devotion to home and country, as becomes 

 every true patriot. 



Much more could be written in advocacy of planting to 

 secure honey, fruit, etc., but I think the above will sutfice, 

 and if only a few follow the suggestions or thoughts ad- 

 vanced by me, my feeble effort in this direction will not 

 have been in vain. Carroll Co., 111. 



Mr. G. M. Doolittle's Queen-Rearing: Methods. 



IN response to a question in Gleanings in Bee-Culture, as 

 to whether Mr. Doolittle has made any advanced steps 

 over those taught in his book on queen-rearing, he re- 

 plied that he had nothing newer than what is contained in 

 his "Scientific Queen-Rearing," the remarkable feat of 

 securing 600 sealed queen-cells from one colony, the queen 

 laying all the while, having been accomplisht by simply 

 following the instructions laid down in his book. Going 

 into details, he said : — Editor.] 



When spring opens I select one of the strongest colonies 

 I have in the yard, and one having a queen reared the sum- 

 mer before, as I wish one which is not liable to fail in her 

 egg-laying powers before the season is over, as that laying 

 queen below has very much to do with queens of the best 

 quality, in my opinion. 



About the 10th to the middle of May I go to several 

 hives till I find the number of combs of sealed brood that 

 are necessary to take the place of those having no brood in 

 them in the hive I have selected, which is generally from 

 two to four. These combs of brood (without bees) are now 

 set in the hive, when in a week or ten days I have a colony 

 strong enough to commence operations. Perhaps I should 

 say just here that I use nine Gallup frames in this hive, 

 which is a chaff hive, and that I bring from my out-apiary, 

 the fall before, the queen to rule over this hive, which is a 

 mismated (or " hybrid ") queen, as generally called, for I 



