344 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



There is in your apiary for wliat I 

 know, and perhaps in some colony, 

 the better traits wliich can be bred in- 

 and-in, but if only in-and-in the 

 United States, or the world, breed in- 

 and-in the good traits of chai'acter, 

 and out-and-out the converse, and 

 success is yours. 



I think it has been proven that 

 while we are breeding in good quali- 

 ties with bees, there is no danger of 

 any sort of physical, mental, or moral 

 degeneration, by mixing the same 

 blood, as is sometimes markedly the 

 case in the human family and domes- 

 tic animals. 



If all the meritorious traits of 

 character were possessed by either 

 the black or yellow race, then purity 

 would be the word, but as such is far 

 from the case, we must unite the two 

 races, and breed in the good and out 

 the bad qualities of both. That, in my 

 judgment after experimenting on no 

 very limited scale, is the quickest and 

 surest road to success in procuring 

 the " coming bee." 



I do not want to get into any ex- 

 tended controversy on the cheap 

 queen subject, but I do wish to give 

 clearly my ideas and opinions in re- 

 gard to it, however oi)en to criticism 

 they may be. It seems to me we 

 should Mil agree upon this subject. I 

 have been op|)osed to the cheap queen 

 traflic ; Why V Because the price is 

 down to such a low point that it not 

 only tempts, but almost forces the 

 breeder to cut too many corners to 

 produce the best stock. 



I have advertised a little, and sold a 

 fewqueensofallthreeclasses : Tested, 

 waranted, and dollar. Now, honestly, 

 I believe I have lieen the only sufferer 

 in what dollar queen business I have 

 done. I have not olitaiued a ]nice for 

 them thnt paid me for time, com- 

 pared with the same time and capital 

 put into honey producing. 



With tested queens at $2 or $3 the 

 case is different. The present' condi- 

 tion of my apiary is such that the 

 main ililference between dollar and 

 tested queens is, that I have to hold 

 all queens till I become acquainted 

 with the qualities of their workers 

 and themselves, and 1 lose about 1 in 

 4 or 5 of them, that fall below my 

 standard of excellence. Well, how do 

 I dispose of those that are shut (uit— 

 are below the test V Keep them to 

 run down my stock ? No. Sell them 

 for dollar queens V No. What then y 

 I destroy tiieni, to help along the" sur- 

 vival of the fittest " to till my honey 

 barrels. Here is, you see, another 

 tempting place in the system of gen- 

 eral (]ueen rearing. Hut I maketested 

 queens a specialty. I rear no dollar 

 queens. If I did, I should do as I 

 used to, rear them just as 1 do any 

 and all queens, the best I know how, 

 sticking close to nature's laws, atul 

 ship them before tested, and make 

 less money on them than I do now. 

 But how about the purchaser V If he 

 buys these cheai) queens to breed 

 from, he makes a mistake, unless he 

 buys more than one, and then tests 

 them himself. If he is hiring me to 

 do his breeding for him, he is buying 

 just what I should buy every time, if 

 I know that the parties of whom I 



purchase are competent, and conscien- 

 tious. 



Several years ago I had 40 colonies, 

 and wished to Italianize them. I 

 bought 40 waranted queens at $2 each. 

 I did better than to have bought an 

 imported queen, and reared queens 

 for myself. These queens were ferti- 

 lized 'under far more favorable cir- 

 cumstances than I could command. 

 Yes, more than 80 per cent, more 

 favorable. I have had one colony 

 gather more than $80 worth of honey 

 in one season. But as not one of these 

 warranted queens proved impure, I 

 was a looser in not buying dollar 

 queens from that honest man that I 

 dealt with. Well, he did not sell any 

 under that mime, and I had to pay 

 out the S80 or do worse. 



But you may say you " advertise 

 dollar queens." Yes, but my circular 

 tells you that they are reared by an- 

 other party, the gentleman who 

 bought my tilenwood apiary one year 

 ago ; one who thinks, like Mr. Hutch- 

 inson, that he has the genius to rear 

 them as good as they can be reared, 

 and find a profit on them at one dol- 

 lar. 



The use of comb foundation, in 

 securing all worker combs, placing 

 the rearing of drones just where you 

 choose in a location clear of other 

 bees, has much to do with success in 

 queen rearing and breeding. 



Dowagiac, Mich. 



Farmers' Home Journal. 



A Review of the Past. 



G. W. DBMABEE. 



Sometimes it is not only profitable 

 to us, but a real i)leasiire to look back 

 over the rugged i)athw;iy by which 

 we have reached the position we oc- 

 cupy, whatever that position may be. 



These thoughts were suggested to 

 me while making a. sort of inventory 

 of the discarded bee " (ixens," that 

 were to be seen lying around my 

 shop and apiary the other day. There 

 is to be seen a " bee gum " now doing 

 service as a kind of a stand to set 

 things on, that is a real wonder to the 

 progressive apiarist. It was invented 

 by your humble servant 20 years ago, 

 and had the honor of accommodating 

 a colony of native bees. It is a kind 

 of a nondescript, neither a movable 

 frame hive nor :i common bee hive. 

 It has some awful fixings on the in- 

 side, squinting considerably toward a 

 frame hive, but it ain't. I sometimes 

 smile when 1 i)ass by it, and ask my- 

 self whv I could not have seen a little 

 further'at that time, and solved the 

 mystery that Mr. Langstroth made so 

 l)lain and simide, i. e.. a movable 

 frame hive. Next comes my big 

 chnnsy lioney boxes with glass sides 

 and ends, as though I wanted iron 

 bars between the bees, and my awk- 

 ward self. 



This remiiuls me of 20 years ago 

 this blessed winter. At th;it time I 

 wanted to ])urchase a few colonies of 

 bees, and 1 had heard of a great bee 

 man living on the Kentucky river. 

 He was known far and near as a great 



bee man. I fixed up my two-horse 

 sleigh— there being plenty of snow- 

 in which to bring home my purchase, 

 if I succeeded in buying some bees. 

 I reached his house late in the evening 

 and stayed with him overnight. The 

 next morning we walked out into the 

 back yard to see the bees, andsnch an 

 array of gums and old boxes one rarely 

 ever sees in one place. There they 

 stood, some looking like the famous 

 " leaning towers," and others perpen- 

 dicular, hut all the picture of squalid 

 poverty and woe. The sun was com- 

 ing up and casting his light over the 

 snow-mantled hills, and I took a sur- 

 vey of the surroundings, and it was 

 easy to see the key to the position. 

 The hills and clifts were covered with 

 basswood (linden trees), while willow 

 and soft maple were everywhere to be 

 seen. The old fields furnished white 

 clover, and the river bottoms gave a 

 perpetual bloom. All this was what 

 supported these bees, in spite of utter 

 dilapidation. While I stood there, 

 my friend discovered that I wiis in- 

 terested in an old, old beech log, 

 " gum," about 3 feet high, which was 

 split open on both sides from top to 

 bottom, and bound together with a 

 rusty chain. Coming to my relief, he 

 said : " That gum of bees is ;W years 

 old." I attempted to explain by say- 

 ing, "• you mean that you have had 

 bees in that log for that length of 

 time." "I say that them bees are 30 

 years old !" I gave it up ; he ought to 

 know. 



By the way, the other day while at 

 the Capital, a gentleman heard me in- 

 quire of a lumber dealer for some ma- 

 terial to make bee hives, and he at 

 once proceeded to tell me of one of his 

 neighbors who was a prodigy of a 

 bee man. He keeps his bees in" gums 

 made so that you can see the bees 

 through glass," and the gums have 

 "drawers "to them, etc. Of course 

 I could not just then take the time to 

 exphiin to him that his bee friend, 

 like the veritable "Hip Van Winkle," 

 liad been sleeping these 20 years, and 

 if I had him in my apiary one of these 

 warm days I could open a hive and 

 lift out the frames, one at a time, and 

 and point out to him the "king" 

 (queen) as she moved gently among 

 tbe bright Italians as they calmly and 

 gently hang on to the frame, and hear 

 him exclaim that I had turned "young 

 America," and was going contrary to 

 " natnr'." 



Just think of a "king" honey bee 

 reigning .30 years over subjects 30 

 years old, all the while in an old split 

 beech log! Had I presumed to in- 

 form him that not a single worker bee 

 that sipped the nectar from the white 

 clover the previous season, would 

 live to see another white clover bios- ■, 

 som, he would have called me a 

 " yearling," and looked upon me with 

 pity and commiseration. I bought 

 some bees, and left somewhat wiser 

 in the ways of the world. If this old 

 log, which doubtless had had the top 

 pried off once a year, and the honey 

 gouged out, gave 20 lbs. annually, the 

 aggregate production of .30 years 

 would be 600 lbs. Mr. L. C. Root, of 

 New York,whose location could liardfy 

 be better than the one I have de- 



