THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



667 



" pure" Italian bees, would be a " foe 

 woithv of Mr. Ileddon's stoel "' in a 

 battle" for '• priority of location." 

 ^lanv of our best practical apiarists 

 are liever beard of through the bee- 

 papers. 



Mr. Hamilton, a German of the city 

 of Louisville, and his wife, who is a 

 " helpmeet " indeed, are silently work- 

 ing their apiary for the money that is 

 to be gotten out of the business. 

 This gentleman has made his apiary 

 pay good profits under unfavorable 

 circumstances, being located within 

 the city limits, where there is but 

 little white clover. They have de- 

 termined to look up and move to a 

 good country location, and there 

 prosecute the" business of honey-pro- 

 ducing. 



I have ascertained the fact that we 

 have quite a number of such apiarists 

 as Mr. Hamilton and his wife, in our 

 State. To these people bees are not 

 "pets." They are managed and 

 handled with care, just as the judi- 

 cious farmer handles his stock. The 

 owners of the bees take a deep in- 

 terest in them, because they are a 

 source of livelihood. They are troubled 

 by no false sentimentalities. The 

 question with them is, " How shall 

 we make our bees pay best V" 



Christiansburg, Ky. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Q,aeen Rack and Nursery. 



FRED C. SMITH. tx 



I send one of my queen-racks or 

 queen-nurseries, and would like very 

 much to have you give it a place in 

 your Museum, and tuis description of 

 it in the Bee Journal. It is made 

 to fit the honey-crate, one that is used 

 for comb honey. My crates are made 

 so as to hold 24 one- pound sections, or 

 a of them in each department. Then 

 I have 4 of my nurseries for each 

 honey-crate, holding 7 queen-cells 

 each, or 28 in all. These racks I place 

 on the slats of the crate, just as I 

 •would the sections for comb honey. 



The sides of this nursery are llj^xl 

 inch, and ?8 of an inch thick, the end 

 pieces are fi^^xl inch, and % of an 

 inch thick. Tliese pieces are to have 

 a rabbet cut 1-16 of an inch deep on 

 the upper edge, so as to form a rest 

 for the glass strips. Nail the frame 

 together, and put on the lower side of 

 this frame a piece of wire-cloth cut 

 1-16 of an inch smaller than the frame, 

 so there will be no wire edge ; then 

 have some thin slats ?8 of an inch 

 wide and Jg of an inch thick, lay the 

 wire-cloth on the frame and brad 

 these thin slats over the wire-cloth, 

 so as to cover up the edge, and to hold 

 it fast to the frame ; this will make 

 a smooth finish. Now you are ready 

 for the partitions, whicli are ig of an 

 inch thick and % of an inch wide, and 

 S14 inches long. Nail these in from 

 the side of the nursery at equal dis- 

 tances apart, and your nursery is 

 complete. 



I always have a nice lot of queen- 

 cells after the first swarm issues ; and 

 to do away with after-swarms, I cut 

 out all but one cell, or do some mov- 



ing of the hive, and in the end only 

 have but one queen. By using this 

 rack 1 save all of them, and I am not 

 bothered with after-swarms. These 

 cells should be cut out very carefully 

 and placed one in each department of 

 the nursery, and each queen-cell 

 should have a piece of comb honey 

 put in with it. Now they are to be 

 covered with a glass strip fitting each 

 department. 



This being done, place the honey- 

 crate with the nursery, on the hive, 

 and cover it up with a heavy blanket. 

 These queen-cells should be cut out 

 and placed in the nursery two or three 

 days before hatching. By lifting the 

 blanket you can see through the glass, 

 and I think one would be surprised to 

 see 28 nice, yellow queens, which can 

 be seen if handled with care. If you 

 cannot find 28 cells, put in what you 

 can find, from 1 to 28. 



In taking out one of the queens, 

 lift a slip of glass, and hold an in- 

 troducing-cage over the queen, when 

 she will crawl up into it. There are 

 no bees to bother with, for they can- 

 not get above the wire-cloth bottom. 



Aurora, Ind. 



[Mr. Smith's " Queen Rack and 

 Nursery " was duly received, and 

 placed in the Museum. It is fully 

 described above, so that the ordinary 

 reader can grasp the idea with 

 ease.— Ed. J 



For the American Bee JournaL 



A Visit to Maryland. 



HENRY CRIPE. (5 



On May 29, ia84, I started on an ex- 

 cursion to Middleburg, Md., and as I 

 gave some attention to bee-keeping 

 and honey-plants, a short report may 

 be interesting to some. I took the P. 

 F. W. & C. railroad to Columbia City, 

 and I saw only one apiary while rid- 

 ing through the State of Ohio, and 

 that was in a little town of which I 

 have forgotten the name. That was 

 an apiary of about 110 colonies, and 

 which appeared to be well cared for. 

 I saw no honey-plants of special note 

 through Ohio ; and only in a few 

 places along the road, in spots of sev- 

 eral acres where the soil appeared to 

 be very thin, white clover was abund- 

 ant, the ground looking almost as 

 white as snow. Near Pittsburg, Pa., 

 along the Ohio river, it began to look 

 pretty favorable for bee-keeping, but 

 there' were no bees that I could see. 

 White locust was just coming into 

 bloom, with which some of the moun- 

 tains are thickly covered. Thus I 

 passed on through the great Spruce 

 Creek tunnel which is 270 feet under 

 the ground, and % of a mile long. At 

 Hagerstown I noticed a large apiary 

 in nice condition ; and at Blue Ridge 

 Summit, which is located at a rather 

 high point along this road, there is a 

 good outlook for bee-keeping. Along 

 the mountains are all kinds of wild 

 flowers, and some basswood, but the 

 latter is not so plentiful as in other 

 places. At Middleburg, Frederick 

 county, is as good an opening for bee- 



keepers as I have ever seen. Here 

 locust was in full bloom, and bees 

 were gathering honey at a rapid rate. 

 Nearly all the colonies had begun to 

 work in the boxes, some being nearly 

 full ; but this neighborhood has not a 

 tenth part of the bees for which it 

 would be able to furnish nectar. On 

 my return 1 stopped about four hours 

 in Hagerstown, and visited the apiary 

 of Messrs. Valentine & Son, who were 

 busily at work. They have about 175 

 colonies of bees, mostly Albinos, all 

 in good working order. Aly departing 

 time having arrived, I pocketed an 

 Albino queen, and wishing Messrs. 

 Valentine a prosperous season, I 

 started for home, where I found the 

 bees all right, bnt not gathering 

 honey as fast as in the East. 

 North Manchester, Ind. 



Bees at the Virginia State Fair. 



One of the principal attractions at 

 the State Fair at Richmond, on Oct. 

 22, will be the bee and honey exhibit. 

 This feature will be shown under a 

 mammoth tent, forty by sixty feet, 

 with an annex twelve by twenty. 

 Every beekeeper in the South should 

 turn out and witness this display, and 

 the wonderful workings of these little 

 busy bodies, which will be shown in 

 glass cases so arranged that the trans- 

 formation from the larva to the full- 

 developed queen or mother- bee can be 

 fully studied. One exhibitor will 

 show eighteen cases of living bees, 

 representing twelve species or varie- 

 ties, with their queens and progeny, 

 which alone will well pay any bee- 

 keeper to attend the Fair. In addi- 

 tion, one of the latest and best sys- 

 tems of queen-breeding will be fully 

 demonstrated and explained. In fact, 

 the display will be a model apiary, 

 conducted on scientific principles, by 

 one of America's bee-keepers who has 

 spent over thirty years in its study. 



Transferring bees from a box, hive, 

 or "gum " to the movable-frame hive, 

 and all the manipulations necessary 

 to conduct a first-class apiary, with a 

 view to profit, will be fully and prac- 

 tically illustrated. Ye olden time 

 broom-straw and box-hive adherents, 

 turn out in force and witness this 

 exhibit, and when you return home, 

 it will be with the satisfaction of 

 having spent the most profitable day 

 in your existence. Think of the 

 " sample box " of luscious nectar 

 placed on exhibition by a lady who 

 has managed thirty colonies this sea- 

 son, and, as her reward, over 3,000 lbs. 

 of honey that will readily command 

 4^600 for her three mouths' work. 

 Every lady in the land can handle bees 

 just as well as this dame; and such 

 " pin money " is not to be sneered at. 

 Let every lady visiting the Fair inspect 

 this exhibit. 



Another exhibit will be a pyramid 

 of honey produced by a prominent 

 Virginian, representing over three 

 hundred pounds, the product of one 

 colony of Bellinzona bees, this season. 



Several other exhibitors will con- 

 tribute machinery, beeswax, honey 

 and bee-keeping appliances, making 

 the exhibit the finest ever seen in this 



