THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



•473 



has not yet met the drone or male 

 bee ; it is not yet fertilized. 



If tlie weatlier is warm and pleasant 

 the youns queen, on the fifth day 

 after hatcliing. will tly out in the air, 

 on what bee-keepers call " her wed- 

 ding journey.'' She meets the drone, 

 copulation takes place, and she re- 

 turns to the liive a fertilized queen. 

 She never leaves the hive again unless 

 she accompanies a swarm. 



Suppose, now, tliat a bee-keeper de- 

 sires to increase his bees by dividing. 

 In warm weatlier when honey is com- 

 ing in, and wlien the hive is quite 

 populous with bees, he takes an 

 enii)ty liive, goes to the colony lie 

 wishes to divide, smokes it, opens it, 

 takes out half the frames and all tlie 

 bees that adhere to these frames, puts 

 tlieni in the empty hive, and llien 

 shakes a large part of the bees from 

 two or three other frames into this 

 new hive, and also in some of the 

 frames left in the old liive. lie now 

 removes tlie new hive to the place in 

 which it is to be left. 



Now, tlie queen of the old hive may 

 be left in tlie old hive, or else she will 

 be in the new liive. Whichever has 

 the queen will be all right, it will go 

 on as if nothing had happened, only it 

 will liave fewer bees. The liive that 

 has no queen will have eggs and 

 larvae, and from these the bees will 

 proceed to grow a queen, in the man- 

 ner mentioned above. When the 

 queen is grown and fertilized that 

 colony will be all right. 



This method of increasing swarms 

 was formerly quite widely practiced. 

 But it has important disadvantages, 

 which have led the best bee-keepers 

 to reject it in favor of the nucleus 

 system. 



For the American Bee Journal, 



Bee-Kcepiiig, and What 1 



KUGENB SECOK. 



Tliere is an old saying to the effect 

 that one sliould not carry all his eggs 

 to market in one basket. That would 

 seem to hint that the pursuit of the 

 specialist does not, as a rule, bring the 

 most enjoyment, or is not the most 

 I)rofitable. Yet, specialists are bene- 

 factors of the race. When a person 

 devotes liis life to the development of 

 one theory, or to the perfection of one 

 practice, he ought to, and very often 

 does, do much toward perfecting that 

 branch. But mankind needs rest, 

 recreation. It is necessary to the best 

 development of both mind and body, j 

 A diversity of labor is restful. It i 

 takes the mind out of the rut. Be- 

 sides, it broadens a man to think of 1 

 more than one subject. A person can 

 hardly be said to be educated who | 

 knows but one tiling. ' 



While it is true that bee-keeping i 

 may be made remunerative as an ex- j 

 elusive business, yet is it not better 

 for the average bee-keeper to diver- 

 sify employment by joining with it 

 some other indu.stry ? It you answer 

 yes, then whaf other employments 

 naturally and profitably go witli it y 



Bee-keeping in the past was almost [ 

 exclusively carried on by farmers. I 



This is one reason of so many failures. 

 They did not re(|uire a rest of this na- 

 ture. Their labor was diversified 

 enough already. 15ecause a man is a 

 good farmer, "is no reason why he is 

 adapted to this business— in fact, is a 

 reason why lie is not. If he deliglits 

 in his growing crops, if he wants to 

 spend all of liis working iiours in the 

 lield, lie will, generally, be too far 

 from his api;iry, and too tired when 

 the bell rings for dinner, to give his 

 colonies the needed attention. The 

 hurry of spring work and the exliaus- 

 tive "labors of the summer will, in 

 most cases, cause him to neglect the 

 very little, but very necessary atten- 

 tions which the bees require at these 

 seasons, to make the balance on the 

 right side of the ledger in the fall. I 

 would not try to discourage farmers 

 from keeping bees ; but, unless they 

 are adapted to it by nature — unless 

 the bent of tlieir minds is toward the 

 details— the little things, and unless 

 they possess energy enough to do the 

 right thing at the "right time whether 

 tired or not. they can sweeten their 

 pan cakes more cheaply with glucose 

 than with honey of their own produc- 

 tion. 



Horticulture is a business wliich is 

 well adapted to go hand-in-hand with 

 apiculture. Tlie fruit blossoms are 

 among the first flowers in sprnig to 

 gladden the busy toilers of the hive, 

 and they, in turn, render the fruit- 

 grower valuable assistance in the per- 

 fect fertilization of the flowers, with- 

 out which a crop of fruit is impossi- 

 ble. Bee-keeping and fruit-growing 

 are well calculated to go together, 

 also, for the reason that everything 

 can be under the eye of the proprie- 

 tor. And again, the same qualities 

 of mind are necessary in either case. 

 The little things are looked after. 

 Nothing is too insignificant to receive 

 attention at tlie proper time. The 

 love of study and investigation is de- 

 veloped by a continual association 

 with nature's clioicest productions. 

 What more fascinating, and at the 

 same time remunerative, employment 

 could engage tlie mind of man or 

 woman, than these combined ? There 

 are few towns in the United States, 

 outside the larger cities, where the 

 markets are fully supplied at all sea- 

 sons with either fruit or honey. These 

 home markets ought to be supplied by 

 home production. There is money in 

 the business. Look at the tin cans 

 piled in every back alley in all our 

 villages, whicli have come to us filled 

 with products that ought to be raised 

 at home, giving employment to the 

 idle, bread to the liungry, and pleas- 

 ure to both producer and consumer. 



Another occupation that, in all 

 country places, could well be located 

 by the side of the apiary is black- 

 smithing. What pleasanter recrea- 

 tion, when resting from the labor at 

 the anvil, than to watch the busy 

 workers that never seem to tire, as 

 they come in laden with the nectar 

 that rejoiceth the heart of man, yea, 

 that maketh his bones fat V When 

 tlie heat of the day and the added 

 heat of the forge drives him to seek 

 the cooling shade, how delightful to 

 contemplate that his assistants in la- 



bor are only too glad of the sunshine 

 to increase his and their treasures. 

 My grandfather, who lived before the 

 Revolutionary War, was a black- 

 smith, and one of the most successful 

 bee-keepers of that period. The shop 

 and the apiary divided liis time. He 

 kept from -50 to 7o colonies, and sold 

 honey for -5 and cts. per pound. 



There are many other occupations 

 that might be profitably and iileas- 

 antly coupled with bee-keeping, if the 

 taste of the person leads him to hab- 

 its of thought and study. 



The minister may find respite from 

 sermonizing, while he jiursues, for an 

 hour a day, the study of nature, 

 through tiiese the most interesting 

 and instructive of nature's works. 

 And to the credit of the profession be 

 it said, that foremost among the bee 

 masters of the world, stand the names 

 of clergymen. 



The lawyer might find it easier to 

 return to his " brief " after an hour 

 spent in the open air among the " free 

 commoners.'' His clients would not 

 sutler by reason of his rest. 



The doctor could afford to study the 

 wonderful mechanism of apis melifica, 

 and tiie medicinal virtues of honey, 

 and if, in consequence, he should pre- 

 scribe more honey and less pills, no- 

 body but the pill-makers would 

 suffer. 



The student could master tlie sci- 

 ences just as well if master of the sci- 

 ence of bee-keeping, and the relief 

 from his daily task would be as com- 

 plete as though he played base-ball or 

 pulled an oar. 



Space will not permit me to enlarge 

 further on this subject at this time. 

 Various are the employments with 

 which bee-keeping would alternate as 

 a recreation to the benefit and happi- 

 ness of all interested. 



Forest City, Iowa. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



(Jiiestions about Honey Plants. 



WM. PAXTON. 



Mk. Editor :— I enclose for name 

 three honey plants which I value in 

 order as numbered, though on longer 

 acquaintance I may reverse it for 

 want of a better name. I call No. 1 

 snowdrop. It grows wild and quite 

 abundant on the Big Sioux and Mis- 

 souri bottoms. No. 2 we call vervain ; 

 just coming into bloom : is a long and 

 continuous bloomer and much visited 

 by the bees. Xo. :! I met for the first 

 time while picking the other speci- 

 mens, and call it the welcome 

 stranger. It is a single plant growing 

 in a liog lot, about 4 feet high. Find- 

 ing bees on a single plant growing 

 among a profusion of milkweek and 

 snowdrop, attracted my attention, and 

 since picking the specimen it occurs 

 to me I may have found the highly 

 lauded Simpson honey plant. If so, 

 how can I best propagate— scatter in 

 hog lot, waste places, or in a grove. 

 Ill this laud of wild ilowers only, the 

 honey harvest is late. My bees have 

 only kept healthy brood-rearing 

 up to .Iiily f. Since then they are 

 very busy. Some basswood a mile 



