THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



491 



Read at the Maine State Convention. 



How to MakeBee-Eeeping Profitable 



ISAAC HUTCHINGS. 



To make bee-keeping profitable we 

 should keep the best strains of Ital- 

 ian bees in preference to the black 

 or German bees. Some of the new 

 races of bees may prove equal or 

 superior to the Italians, but they 

 have not been sufficiently tested to 

 warrant a change. The dollar queen 

 traffic, if rightly managed, will be a 

 blessing to the intelligent apiarists, 

 as it will open a market for the small 

 and inferior queens that might other- 

 wise find their way into the class of 

 tested queens. I believe that bees 

 winter better and build up quicker in 

 the spring where they are well packed 

 with chaif or dry sawdust on their 

 summer stands, than they do when 

 wintered in a cellar. Spring dwind- 

 ling, I believe in most cases, is a re- 

 sult of cellar wintering. Those who 

 winter in a cellar use a single-walled 

 hive, and when they put them out in 

 the spring the sun will warm them 

 so that many will tly out when 

 the air is so cold that they be- 

 come chilled and never return. 

 If we have a few days of warm 

 weather, and they have all the 

 brood that they can care for, one cold 

 night will drive the bees into a cluster 

 and leave the brood to die. The bee 

 hive needs protection from the rays 

 of the sun, and the cold storms and 

 winds of early spring, as much as it 

 does in the winter months when there 

 is no brood to chill. We should en- 

 courage breeding early in the spring, 

 remembering that it is the early bees 

 that store the surplus honey. 



The old box hive is a thing of the 

 past with all progressive bee-keepers. 

 A movable comb hive is indispensa- 

 ble to profitable bee-keeping. As 

 soon as the weather will admit in the 

 spring, we should examine each col- 

 ony so that we may know if they are 

 in need of any of our aid. No. 1 may 

 have lost their queen ; No, 2 may be 

 short of stores ; No. 3 may be weak 

 in numbers and need a frame of ripe 

 brood. It would be very difficult to 

 ascertain the wants of a colony in a 

 box hive without movable comb 

 frames. I should be very sorry to 

 have a colony die for want of food or 

 care after they had survived our cold 

 winter. 



If our bees are well wintered and 

 well cared for in the spring, they will 

 be ready to divide or swarm before 

 the white clover honey harvest. If 

 we divide it should be done at least 

 ten days before the honey flow com- 

 mences, and the honey sections 

 should be put on soon after, so that 

 the bees may get settled down to 

 business in season to give us good 

 returns. In dividing, leave each 

 colony as strong as it will do, and not 

 induce swarming. 



Comb honey should be put up in 

 neat and attractive packages, and we 

 should not destroy tlie market by 

 forcing too early sales. Some sold 

 their honey for 20 cents per pound 

 last August, and if they kept it until 

 October it would have sold quick for 



25 cents per pound. To make bee- 

 keeping profitable we must have a 

 love for the business, and if we do 

 not love the business end of the bee, 

 we should learn not to fear it. We 

 must become acquainted with the 

 natural laws governing the honey 

 bees. A "Manual of tlie Apiary" 

 will be found in the library of every 

 progressive bee-keeper. We have 

 made great improvements in bee- 

 culture within the last decade, and 

 many more are needed and are con- 

 tinually being made, and unless we 

 subscribe for and read a good live 

 bee journal, we shall be left behind. 

 I frequently find a single article in 

 my bee journal that is worth more to 

 me than the price of a year's sub- 

 scription. 



Nothing is better calculated to mis- 

 lead us than the idea that bee-culture 

 has acquired perfection, and that we 

 know it all. It is true that Ameri- 

 cans lead the world in this art, but it 

 is in its infancy, and who can tell 

 what the coming bee will be like ¥ 

 We should keep a register of the 

 apiary, so that at a mere glance we 

 can ascertain the age, race, strain 

 and quality of the queen of any col- 

 ony, determine the character of her 

 progeny, the amount of honey stored 

 and the increase. By having a his- 

 tory of each colony before us, we can 

 avoid many mistakes that will occur, 

 if we depend upon a treacherous 

 memory. We should have every- 

 thing needed in the apiary on hand 

 and ready for use at the commence- 

 ment of the season, and we should 

 give our bees all needful care, and 

 supply their wants at the proper time. 

 There should be no putting off until 

 to-morrow what should be done to- 

 day. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Freaks of Queens, Observed by Me. 



KOBEET CORBETT. 



I would like to mention, through 

 the Bee Journal, the freaks of 

 queens that have come under my ob- 

 servation. 



In July, 1882, I opened a hive to 

 introduce a queen in the old way, in 

 a wire cage on the face of the comb ; 

 in the opperation she got away, and 

 flew out of my sight. Three days 

 later I opened the hive to put m 

 another, and there, to my surprise, I 

 found my queen at her daily work, 

 depositing eggs as majestically as if 

 she had been there for months. 



A swarm came out of a hive on the 

 18th inst., that I had re-queened last 

 August ; the queen was very prolfic, 

 keeping the hive well filled with 

 brood ; ten days after hiving, I opened 

 the hive to see how she prospered, 

 and to my astonishment not an egg 

 was to be seen ; now, how is this, I 

 would ask, that she is not laying, if 

 the old queen leads the swarm '? 



Fifteen days ago I had some nu- 

 cleus hives, with virgin queens, for 

 fertilization, and when about .5 or 6 

 days old, we had 2 or 3 very windy 

 days, from the 25th to the 28th ; at the 

 cessation of the wind, I examined my 



nuclei, and found 1 had lost 2, and on 

 the first of September I had a hive 

 (No. 22) that threw out a swarm ; 3 or 

 4 days later I examined hive No. 22, 

 to take out the queen-cells and give it 

 a laying queen. Frame after frame 

 was lifted out, and there was not a 

 queen-cell nor the appearance of one 

 in the hive, but a nice yellow queen 

 was there ; how is this, did not one of 

 my lost queens find her way in there, 

 and, being protected by workers, 

 therefore forced a swarm V that is all 

 the wav that I can account for it. 



On Friday of last week, I was 

 called upon to help Mr. E. Kimble to 

 extract some honey, with the assist- 

 ance of Mr. Solomon Whitney, and 

 during the opperation of manipula- 

 tion, in one colony that had swarmed 

 a week previous, several queen-cells 

 appeared, as the queen left them, but 

 one that was not open, being larger 

 than usual, our curiosity led us to 

 open, and what did we find, but two 

 queens in one cell ; one was quite as 

 large as usual, while the other was 

 not quite so large, but of fair size ; 

 other cells being hatched first, the 

 bees had pierced this one, therefore 

 they were dead ; is that not some- 

 thing new to the bee men of the age V 



Manhattan, Kansas, Sept. 10, 1883. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Michigan State Fair, Bee and Honey 

 Show- 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



The interesting, magnificent, un- 

 approachable Bee and Honey Show of 

 the Michigan State Fair, which closed 

 yesterday, was a brilliant success in 

 the highest sense of the word. Such 

 a large and interesting show has 

 never before been made at a State 

 Fair, and one gentleman who has 

 visited the bee and honey shows of 

 Europe, pronounced it finer and 

 larger than those of the old country. 



Very much of the success of the 

 show is due to Mr. H. D. Cutting, 

 who has labored for years to have the 

 Agricultural Society recognize bee- 

 keeping as an industry, and at last it 

 has been recognized — the officers are 

 very much interested, and will do al- 

 most anything in reason that we may 

 ask of them. 



To go on and describe, in detail, all 

 the exhibits, would take too much 

 space, hence I will speak in a general 

 way. 



H. D. Cutting, of Clinton, Mich., 

 showed the largest exhibit of im- 

 plements and bee-keeping literature. 

 He had over 60 varieties of imple- 

 ments, and 50 specimen copies of 

 periodicals and publications. 



E. T. Lewis & Co., Toledo, Ohio, 

 exhibited implements, and received 

 first premiums on honey extractors 

 and wax extractor. They also exhib- 

 ited a mammoth smoker, 2 feet in 

 height. There was a wiiistle in its 

 mouth, and an organ at the back of 

 the bellows, and was warranted to 

 play six tunes. The instructions on 

 the back were : " Take me out to see 

 your hybriWs." Many was the laugh 

 raised by this smoker. 



