1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



189 



with him the year before his death. After his father's death 

 the home was brokeu up, the youthful Leahy took a position 

 as cabin boy, and the time between the ages of 9 and 21 

 years he continued on the sea. He has been across the At- 

 lantic ocean eight times, and visited more than half of the 

 foreign countries. Three years of his sea life was spent in 

 the United States Navy. 



Since getting back to dry land again, Mr. Leahy has been 

 occupied as follows : He spent one year as conductor on a 

 railroad in New York, and then went "West;" worked as a 

 farm hand in Illiiiois one year, and then rented a farm and 

 worked for himself three years more. At the age of 24 he 

 married Miss Henrietta Braentigara, of Belleville, Ills. 

 They have had but one child, and lost it in its infancy. 



In 1882 Mr. Leahy purchased 5 box-hives of bees at a 

 sale, then transferred four of the five into modern hives, and 

 being late in the season they all died the following winter. 

 The next year, being a good one, he increased the one colony 

 to 18, and developed the worst case of " bee-fever " ever heard 

 of — one that even Dr. Peiro could not cure. But while the 

 bees had done well, other misfortunes overtook him, and in 

 December, 1883, he gave the bees to a doctor to pay part of 

 his bill, then went around to see the other parties he owed, 

 and promised to pay them too soon. 



He then went to Higginsville, Mo., with his mind made up 

 to find some one that had box-hives, and interest them with 

 the new " fixin's," and he succeeded. He has worked hard 

 for ten years to make a bee-keeper of himself, also to build up 

 a supply business, and is now manager of the Leahy Manu- 

 facturing Company — a nucleus of which he started ten years 

 ago with a foot-power saw. 



Mr. Leahy has been three times elected president of the 

 Missouri State Bee-Keepers' Association, and once vice-presi- 

 dent of the Northwestern Bee-Keepers' Association. He has 

 held many other positions of honor, but they are not pertain- 

 ing to bees, hence they do not necessarily belong here. 



The Leahy Manufacturing Company is the largest com- 

 pany of its kind west of the Mississippi river, having a capital 

 of $24,000. To the young men that think times are hard, 

 and work scarce, Mr. Leahy says that there is plenty of room 

 yet for those who have the snap and push. 



I am glad of this opportunity to give the picture (see first 

 page) of my friend and brother editor, and something about 

 his life history. In view of his early struggles, his subsequent 

 success should serve to encourage every young man who 

 thinks he has a " hard time of it." The Editor. 



Back Numbers for 1895 we can furnish to new 

 subscribers until further notice, if they will let us know when 

 subscribing. We will begin the subscription Jan. 1, 1895, if 

 you say so when sending $1.00 for a year's subscription. 



Conducted by "BEE-MASTER." 



IVriting for Bee-Keepers. 



"No one can write for bee-keepers but beekeepers," sa,ys 

 the British Bee Journal. But how many colonies must a bee- 

 keeper have to qualify him as a writer on the subject? Mr. 

 Heddon speaks disparagingly of Mr. Doolittle because he only 

 keeps 60 colonies. 



— m m 



Handling Bees in Cold Weatlicr. 



S. A. Green says: " In brushing bees off combs when it's 

 too cold for them to crawl back into the hive, put two or three 

 bottomless hive-bodies over the hive and brush the bees into 



this as a funnel." But what does he or any other sensible bee- 

 keeper want to brush bees off combs for in such weather? 

 Better give them a good letting alone. They soon get 

 benumbed and stupid when exposed to cold, and will hardly 

 find their way back to the hive when shot through a funnel as 

 the one described. 



Bee-Liiterature of 1861 and 1995 Compared. 



•' Apicultural literature was never better than it is to-day," 

 is the modest opinion of W. Z. Hutchinson, one of the men 

 who edits a bee-paper. " Right you are," say the editors of 

 Gleanings, American Bee Journal, and Dr. Miller. Gentlemen, 

 have you ever seen Vol. I, of the American Bee Journal, pub- 

 lished in 1861? For solid, useful contents, it has never yet 

 been excelled, if equalled. But in 1895, apicultural litera- 

 ture should be a great deal better than it was in 1861, or else 

 not brag of its wonderful excellence. 



Below Zero Wcatlier. 



We may expect when spring opens to get doleful narra- 

 tives about bee-mortality from the colder portions of Canadian 

 beedom. Even along the parallel of 43^, the mercury went 

 down as low as 25^ and 30- below zero, and that not for a brief 

 dip merely, but for a day or two at a time, and for several 

 nights in succession. The " happy-go-lucky " class of bee- 

 keepers who did not make thorough work of packing their 

 colonies for winter, will have sorrowful obituaries to record 

 concerning their "little pets." 



Drones From % irgin Queens. 



I see in the American Bee Journal of Dec. 6, 1894, page 

 719, that Mr. John McArthur has been experimenting with 

 drones from laying workers and seems to think it a success. 

 Well, I tried with drones from virgin queens and the thing 

 won't work. I reasoned that if all the drones from a pure 

 Italian queen are all pure Italian drones, although she was 

 mated with a black drone, (the drone-eggs not being impreg- 

 nated) why are not the drones from a virgin queen just as 

 good as any ? 



Well, I reared two nice Italian queens late in the fall, and 

 as soon as hatched I clipped their wings so they could not pos- 

 sibly get mated. Before I put them in winter quarters they 

 commenced to lay, so I put plenty of drone-combs in the hives. 

 Now, I thought I would have lots of pure Italian drones in 

 the spring, and so I had, in all stages from the eggs to full- 

 sized drones. But as soon as I set them on the summer stands 

 the bees commenced to kill off the drones, so I killed the 

 queens and the bees stopped killing the drones. I soon had 

 lots of as nice Italian drones as need be. 



Then I reared a lot of queens from my best Italian queen, 

 and they were flyiug out with my nice drones for nearly three 

 weeks and did not get fertilized until the natural drones com- 

 menced to fly. They all got mated with black drones and 

 their breed was all hybrid. I had at that time over a 100 

 colonies of black bees and only a few Italian queens, so I con- 

 cluded the theory of drone-eggs not being influenced by the 

 impregnation of the queen, was all bosh. But I never thought 

 of trying drones from laying-workers, and don't think I ever 

 will.— W. C. Wells, in Canadian Bee Journal. 



Bfova Scotia Bee-Reepers' Association. 



The third anna! meeting of this Association was held at 

 Wolfville, Dec. 31, 1894. Among those present were Prof. 

 Craig of the Experimental Farm, Ottawa ; Dr. A. P. Reid, 

 Halifax, and Prof. Fraville, of the Horticultural School, Wolf- 

 ville. The address by the President, J. B. Davison, was very 

 instructive, and a vote of thanks was tendered him for his 

 able discourse. 



Prof. Craig addressed the meeting, giving the Association 

 every encouragement and dwelling upon the bee-keeping 

 resources of this province. Prof. Fraville also spoke at length 

 upon the scientific points of apiculture, and the relation 

 between horticulture and bee-keeping. 



All listened with great interest to the address of Dr. A. P. 

 Reid, who advised that the members take steps to bring the 

 subject of bees and bee-keeping more before the public, and, 

 as he said, very few people knew anything about the habits 

 and management of the honey-bee, almost everyone thinking 



