GLE.\XIXGS IX BEE CLXTURE. 



Apr. 1; 



resT-Llar dues of ?1.0O. a sp>ecial fee for in- 

 surance — say 5*3 cents on a colony. Is it 

 not possible that a fourth or a half of the 

 members would be on the insurance list? 

 Suppose we have CMie-fourth. There would 

 thai be a fund, according- to the member- 

 ship as it now stands, of $125. Xow. out 

 CI the $125 there would not be one loss in 25 

 years. If experience should show that in- 

 surance could be carried for less, then re- 

 duce the fee. But suppose we started out 

 bv offering- to insure the bees for 50 cents 

 more than the regnlar fees of $l.C"0. This 

 ■would place in our treasury quite a large 

 s-im. In four years it would net $500. I 

 am not so sure but the Assoc iaticm could 

 undertake to insure bees for the simple an- 

 nual dues of $1.00. This would protect 

 them from litigeiticHi, against loss by fire. 

 and would secure all the other privileges 

 of the AssociatioD. The effect of such a 

 feature would be to stimulate a larg-e growth 

 in membership. If the indemnity feature 

 in the event of fire were limited to a sum 

 not to exceed $2>I«J in any one case, it woiild 

 prevent depleting^ the treasury. But before 

 the AssociatioD sbotild attempt to take in 

 the insurance feature without any addition- 

 al cost- it should impose an assessment for 

 the privilege, and then see what experience 

 would determine in the future. — Ed.] 



NE^' OR OLD COMBS FOR QUEEN'S. 



fo— <»fiw ia FbD Sbeeu for the BroodKharabers 

 ami SmfCTS Advocated, and ^^liy. 



BV H. H. HYDE. 



I have noticed the discussion of late as to 

 which a queen prefers — old or new comb in 

 ■ivhich to deposit e^gs. This whole matter 

 rests on the age of the queen and the pros- 

 perity of the colony; but it may be safely 

 said that, upon the whole, queens prefer old 

 combs to new oaes. In the early spring of 

 tiie year, all queens prefer the old combs, 

 and' will often fill them with brood when 

 they will not touch the new combs. I have 

 t^MXight that, perhaps, the old combs having 

 several goierations of cocoons in their cells, 

 were warmer for that reason, and ctmse- 

 quently easier for the bees to keep the brood 

 warm.' Young queens will lay in new 

 combs aimcBt as readily as old combs. 

 When the colcHiy is prcsperous, or after 

 warm weather has come, I can not see that 

 there is much preference sho-wn by queens 

 as to which they prefer, old or new combs, 

 there being but slight preference shown for 

 old combs. All failing queens will not lay 

 in new combs at all unless that is all they 

 have in which to lay. I am not an advocate 

 of changing combs every few years, but I 

 do believe that, after ten or fifteen years' 

 iervice, all combs should be replaced with 

 neiv ones for various reasons, chief of which 

 is, I believe, it is a good plan from a sani- 

 tary point of view, and the possibility that, 

 from long use, the combs seem to get too 

 heaw and full of cocoons. 



I am not giving the foundation-makers a 

 free puff, but it is my experience that it 

 pays us at all times to use full sheets of 

 foundation in the brood-frames, whether it 

 is when building up by the nucleus method, 

 taking care of swarms, either natural or 

 forced, or in extracted-honey production. 

 We have 1000 colonies of bees, and have tried 

 using foundation in different ways and in 

 different amounts from starters to full 

 sheets, wired, and we now use full sheets 

 of foundation in the brood- frames. By this 

 means we get all worker combs, which is 

 oneof the chief considerations: and. besides, 

 we believe the gain in honey is more than 

 sufficient to meet the cost of the foundation. 

 In the supers we have used starters, half- 

 sheets, and full sheets: and we believe that 

 the gain in honey by using full sheets will 

 pay the cost of foundation several times 

 over. Last year was a very p)oor one for 

 honey. We had only one short irregular 

 flow: colonies that had supers of full sheets 

 of foundaticm built out the frames and capv- 

 ped the honey, while colonies having even 

 half- sheets were away behind in the way 

 of honev. If we had had full sheets in all 

 our supers last year we would have harvest- 

 ed OTie-third or one-half more honey. 



In a good year the difference is not so 

 apparent, but none the less real. We do 

 not notice the difference so much. While 

 the honey-fiow is good, colonies build out 

 the frames having starters about as well as 

 those having full sheets: but those having 

 full sheets are filled the quickest: for dur- 

 ing a rush of honey ziax is precious, ajid 

 the bees do not naturally secrete enough 

 wax to keep pace with the honey brought 

 in. Xow. when we give full sheets we have 

 placed them where they have enough wax 

 to make a good start on the combs, and the 

 result is we get. in our experience, from 

 one-third to one-half more honey. We use 

 the Ideal shallow-frame sup)er5: and while 

 localities may differ, we can not see that, 

 in the majority of them, this could affect the 

 matter of using full sheets or less; for we 

 hare found them best for both slow and fast 

 honey- flows. In our locality we get our 

 first honey April Ist to 10th, and the flow 

 continues off and on until in July; hence we 

 desire all the brood we can get in the brood- 

 nest: and by using foundation in full sheets 

 we are able to get more brood there, and 

 oKire honey in the supers; and it is highly 

 important to keep up the brood-rearing un- 

 til the middle of June. If we were in a lo- 

 cality having only one short honey- flow, and 

 did not desire increase, then I suspect we 

 would prevent all swarming possible: and 

 where we coiild not, hive on starters in 

 brcod-irames and full sheets in the supers; 

 for extra comb and brood after the honey- 

 flow would be of little value, and too much 

 of the latter would be objectionable. 



CVPBIAN AXD HOLY-LAXD BEES FOR TROP- 

 ICAL CLIMATES. 



'• Our own apiary in sunny Cuba," Feb. 

 15. was very interesting to me, and I note 

 that A. I. R. has found trouble in getting 



