THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



discliarged or dissolved ; also certain 

 acids seem to be discharged. Should 

 the very least part of growth have 

 begun (thus giving the honey a 

 "twangey" taste), the degree of heat 

 referred to destroys the bacteria, and 

 honey, after being thus treated, will 

 ■agree witli many who cannot use it be- 

 fore such heating. This a point well 

 lor us to remember. 



Were it not for the aid of that ele- 

 ment heat, as applied to our food, 

 there is little doubt but man would, to 

 a far greater degree than at present, 

 become a prey to tliese low forms of 

 •animal and vegetable life. 



In comparing comb with extracted 

 honey, little need be said. If ex- 

 tracted is more healthful than comb 

 honey, I think it is only that which 

 has been lieated. The idea, that wax, 

 because indigestible is injurious, 1 

 ■deem a mistake. Physiologists tell us 

 that the pylorus (the gate between the 

 stomach and intestines) readily opens 

 and lets through any indigestible sub- 

 stance, while it struggles long and 

 hard with any food possibly digesti- 

 ble, and with the class difficult of di- 

 gestion is where our trouble arises. 

 ■One celebrated physiologist believes 

 that a portion of certain kinds of 

 "wliolly indigestible material, taken at 

 our meals, serves a beueticent purpose. 

 I would sooner think the particles of 

 wax, so small as tliey are, were more 

 favorable than otherwise. 



I think the only question involving 

 a discussion upon comb cs. extracted 

 honey, is the one of greatest profit to 

 the producer. I will toucii that sub- 

 ject further on in these articles. 



Dowagiac, Mich., Dec. 26, 1881. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Improvement of Bees. 



L. R. JACKSOif. 



Mucli has been said on this subject 

 -of late, and yet we are not agreed. 

 Many queen breeders, and especially 

 dollar-queen men, claim there is no 

 improvement to be made in our Italian 

 bees, and tlie best we can do is to rear 

 ■our queens from imported mothers. 

 Others claim tliey can be improved the 

 same as other stock. I have said bees 

 can be and have been improved, audi 

 think tlie majority of successful lioney 

 producers agree with me in this. 



Rev. A.Salisbury, in the American 

 Bee Jouhnal of May 9, page 74, 

 says: " Our American Italians have 

 been bred up to a liigh standard of ex- 

 cellence, and we want no step back- 

 ward by importing inferior bees from 

 ■Italy." 



G. M. Doolittle, in his report for 

 1881, in Gle(mmgs,\)Hge oil , says: '^One 

 thing we notice with pleasure which 

 was that our colonies gave nearly an 

 equal yield per liive. This is wliat I 

 have been breeding for for the past 

 few years, hoping to obtain like results 

 from all, aiut not have one colony in 

 the yard give a large yield and an- 

 other nothing. Wlien we. as apiarists 

 •of America, can bring our bees up to 

 sucli a standard of excellence that all 

 •colonies will produce an equal amount 

 ■of honey, and said amount be as large 



as that produced by our very best col- 

 ony of a few years ago, we shall have 

 no farther need of importing colonies, 

 for Apis Americana will be the best 

 bee in the world." 



I have believed for three years that 

 our bees could be improved until there 

 will be but little difference in the 

 amount of iioney produced by any of 

 our colonies. I find that my record 

 book shows less difference each year 

 since I have been trying to improve 

 my bees, and I know 1 am not getting 

 less honey, so it must be an improve- 

 ment. 



G. W. Demaree, in reply to an arti- 

 cle of Doolitlle's, says, on page 219 of 

 the American Bee Journal : " Mr. 

 Doolittle's advice, to breed from the 

 queen wliose colony produces tlie 

 most honey, is a good theory, but in 

 my opinion, poor practice." I have 

 for years selected my best colonies for 

 my queens and drones, and in my 

 opinion it is the best thing we can do if 

 we want good honey gatherers. Again 

 Mr. Demaree says, on page 2-58 of the 

 Amercan Bee Journal : " To rear 

 good queens we are told that we must 

 select one colony to rear our queens 

 from and anotlief to furinsh the drones 

 to fertilize them, and w-e are ready for 

 business. Tins looks quite business- 

 like, and doubtless would answer well 

 enough if the apiarist resided in some 

 secluded spot where the wings of the 

 honey bee had never fanned the air." 

 Now, we do not claim tliat we can 

 have every one of our queens mate 

 with one of these select drones, neither 

 do we claim it can be done at all times 

 of tlie year, but we do claim we can 

 have a large majority of our queens 

 mate witli these selected drones. I 

 will give niv plan of rearing queens. 

 I breed for the honey gathering qual- 

 ities, liardiness, and amiability. I se- 

 lect the queen that has given the 

 largest amount of honey and has win- 

 tered best to rear my drones from ; I 

 then select as many of the next best as 

 I wish to rear queens from. At least 

 one of tliese queens must be selected 

 f^rom some other apiary to prevent too 

 close in-and-in breeding. By the first 

 of April I give each of these colonies 

 a frame well filled with pollen, having 

 been set away the summer before. 1 

 place plenty of drone comb in the hive 

 I wish to rear drones from, and have 

 the other hives all worker comb. I 

 remove all combs the bees cannot 

 cover and place a chaff cushion on 

 each side of the cluster and a good 

 thick cushion on top of the frames. I 

 now commence to feed each of these 

 colonies wliat they will use each day, 

 and give more combs as fast as tliey 

 will use tliem until they are built up 

 to full colonies. As fast as a frame is 

 filled with drone brood I remove it to 

 one of the other colonies and give an- 

 other frame of drone brood until I 

 have as many drones as I want. I 

 continue feeding each day until the 

 bees swarm ; I tlien reiuove three 

 frames having no queen cells. I place 

 these in a new hive and place a chaff 

 division board on each side, and place 

 tlie queen on these frames with bees 

 enough to cover tliein and return the 

 rest of the bees to the old hive. In .5 

 days I divide the old colony up into 



nuclei — 2 frames and a queen cell. I 

 now break my drone colony up into 

 nuclei for the remainder of the queen 

 cells. If I still have queen cells left 

 and wisli to use them, I take frames 

 from tlie colonies that have not been 

 fed, if tliere are any that can spare 

 them. These young queens will be 

 fertilized before colonies that have 

 been left to tliemselves will have any 

 drones flying. Further south than 

 this we sliould begin work earlier than 

 the 'first of April. These nuclei can 

 soon be built up to good strong colo- 

 nies. Tills plan, of course, would not 

 do for rearing large quantities of 

 queens for sale at the price queens 

 are now sold. I am not in the queen 

 trade, being one who believes if it 

 pays to keep bees at all it will pay to 

 keep them for the honey they will 

 gatlier. I have never made an aver- 

 age of less tlian So.SO per colony for 

 the honey sold, besides the increase, 

 and have run as high as S24.00 per 

 colony for all tlie bees I had in the 

 spring. This is over and above all ex- 

 penses, except for the new hive, and 

 tliat expense I count to the new swarm. 

 Kext year I will try a few Syrian 

 queens crossed witli Italian drones, 

 and a few with tlie second cross with 

 Italians. 



Friend Doolittle, would it not pay 

 you to write a book on bee-keeping ? 

 We all know you are a successful bee- 

 keeper, and when we want advice we 

 need to go to one who is successful. I 

 would be glad to have a book written 

 by you and would pay a good price for 

 one. It is true we liave a number of 

 good works on the apiary, but I believe 

 a work could be written on the prac- 

 tical management of bees that would 

 be of more use to the lioney producer 

 than any of them, and I have confi- 

 dence enough in your plan of manag- 

 ing bees to believe you could give us 

 just such a work as we need. 



Fairland, Ind., Dec. 26, 1881. 



From Florida •Agriculturist. 



Bee-Culture in Florida. 



W. S. HART. 



To the industrious bee-keeper, the 

 coast counties of Southern Florida of- 

 fer a field of profit unsurpassed l)y any 

 other section of the United States. 

 Among these counties, Volusia is at 

 present ahead in amount of bees 

 owned and lioney produced. Here we 

 have none of tlie winter troubles inci- 

 dent to Northern bee-keeping, such 

 as winter packing, carrying in and out 

 of cellars and bee-houses, freezing, 

 dy.sentery, dwindling, etc., the last 

 two of wliicli carried off 50 per cent, 

 of all the bees in the north during the 

 past winter. That dreaded disease, 

 '•foul brood," is also unknown here. 

 Our bees winter perfectly on the sum- 

 mer stands, and gather honey or pollen 

 every mmitli in the year. The lioney 

 flow commences about the first of Feb- 

 ruary, and swarming about the 10th of 

 March. In April or May we usually 

 liave a liouev drouth of a few weeks, 

 sufficient to check the swarming fever. 

 Tlien comes the saw-palmetto, sweet 

 bay, basswood, etc., giving a flow of 



