72 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



B*or tbe American Bee JoumaL 



Helps ill Bee-Keeping. 



EUGENE SECOK. 



Every business or trade has its 

 trade secrets. Every person "well 

 up " in his business knows something 

 of those trade secrets. (I mean by 

 " trade secrets " the knowledge which 

 has naturally grown up and developed 

 in every department of thought and 

 labor, especially valuable to that de- 

 partment.) Possibly they may not 

 have been learned from books or class 

 periodicals ; but, if not, they are ac- 

 quired by long and patient study and 

 observation— by a thorough 'mastery 

 of the trade, and by personal contact 

 with superior minds in the same line 

 of work. 



All knowledge is not necessarily 

 learned from books. Experience, ob- 

 servation, conversation — these are all 

 teachers. We all know the old adage, 

 " Experience is a dear school, but 

 fools will learn in no other." Obser- 

 vation and conversation, too, are dear 

 schools. 



Life is too short to glean all that 

 ought to be known through the sense 

 of sight or hearing alone. Knowledge 

 gained only from personal experience 

 or the face-to-face method is too slow 

 for the age of railways and telegraphs. 

 It did better in Plato's time. Now, it 

 smatters too much of the " from- 

 hand-to-mouth " way of providing for 

 one's physical wants, i. e., work only 

 when hunger compels. That is just 

 the way the man does, who, when he 

 needs any information, has to hunt a 

 neighbor to impart it, or go without. 

 The better way would be to lay by a 

 store for future use, like the thrifty 

 colonists whose interests the Bee 

 Journal represents. 



The above is prefatory to what I 

 wish to say as to helps in bee-keeping. 

 Langstroth, Quinby, and their con- 

 temporaries in the pioneer work of 

 building up the business of apiculture 

 in this country, labored under the 

 great disadvantage of a lack of litera- 

 ture on the subject. What they ac- 

 complished was the work of a life 

 time — laborious, unremuuerative work 

 too. Every beekeeper cannot afford 

 to go through the same experience 

 they did, in learning the A B C of 

 bee-culture. It is easier to get our 

 experience largely at second hand. 

 We can now learn in a week what it 

 took them a quarter of a century to 

 find out. 



First, then, in the matter of helps, 

 read the standard authors on bee- 

 culture. Do not be stingy about it 

 either. Follow the same plan rec- 

 ommended by a noted Divine regard- 

 ing the family library : " For every 

 child born, add $10 worth of books." 

 For every colony of bees, you can 

 afford to get one standard work on 

 bee-culture. Keep this up till all the 

 best works on the subject are in your 

 library. If your management of the 

 bees is not enough better to pay for 

 these books, you may well conclude 

 that bee-keeping is not your forte. 



Having 10 colonies of bees, more or 

 less, and having procured and read 



some of the many valuable books, if 

 you wish to succeed, and to keep 

 abreast the times, some of the many 

 bee-papers are indispensable. The 

 best students of the age are giving 

 their ideas and observations through 

 the columns of these papers. Some 

 of the best writers have never pub- 

 lished their experiments in book form. 

 Much that is interesting and instruc- 

 tive is found nowhere else. They are 

 the guide- boards along the way — yes, 

 better than that, because we can 

 carry these with us. Through them 

 we can talk with the best authorities 

 from Maine to California. Even the 

 advertisements are entertaining — 

 showing the status of the art. One 

 bee-paper is not enough, either. All 

 that is valuable is not confined to one. 

 " The liberal soul shall be made fat." 

 If the farmer never enriches his land, 

 he must be content with small re- 

 turns. If the bee-keeper never fer- 

 tilizes his brain, he must be content 

 to " play second fiddle," or twang on 

 an old jew's-harp, while the proces- 

 sion is going by. 



AVe cannot learn everything from 

 books and periodicals, but as all men 

 are wiser than one man, we shall be 

 very dull students if we do not get 

 more information out of them than 

 we had in the outset. It is easier to 

 absorb the experience of others and 

 verify it, than to originate everything 

 ourselves, and prove it afterward. In 

 bee-talks, whether neighborly or at 

 conventions, we find another source of 

 acquiring knowledge. I never knew 

 a bee-keeper who was not ready to 

 tell all he knew at any time of day or 

 night. Bee-keepers' societies are 

 useful to the learner. And a neigh- 

 bor who is well " up " in the "secrets" 

 is a well-spring of delight to a begin- 

 ner, if he knows how to apply the 

 " pump." 



Forest City, 5 Iowa. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Bees Carrying out Brood, etc, 



W. H. SMITH. 



The author of Query, No. 344, has 

 had an experience similar to my own. 

 In 1884 I had a colony that com- 

 menced carrying out brood in all 

 stages, from the smallest larvae to 

 nearly matured bees. They com- 

 menced on July 1 , and were still car- 

 rying out brood on July 11. IIow 

 much longer they continued this work 

 I do not recollect, but I remember 

 that after I was completely baffled I 

 called on several neighboring bee- 

 keepers to get some light on the mat- 

 ter, but I failed, until Mr. Wm. Bing- 

 ham, of Aylmer, Out., suggested that 

 it was possible they were doing this 

 to make room for the rapid flow of 

 honey that was so plentiful, and as I 

 had already put on surplus boxes 

 which they refused to enter, he rec- 

 ommended drumming them at night 

 until they ceased carrying out, which 

 I did, commencing early in the even- 

 ing and continuing until about mid- 

 night. 



The following morning I found that 

 they had carried out only a very few 



during the night, so I concluded that 

 if that was the treatment they needed, 

 I would give them enough of it, so I 

 continued the drumming for two 

 nights more. I then discovered that 

 they had commenced working in the 

 upper story, and had ceased carrying 

 out brood. They did not trouble in 

 that way any more. 



The problem, to my mind, was then 

 fully solved. They had from some 

 unknown cause objected to work in 

 the surplus boxes (a freak peculiar to 

 bees), and had determined to store the 

 honey in the brood-chamber, even at 

 the sacrifice of brood. 



HEES STEALING EGGS. 



Last year I gave an account of egg- 

 stealing by bees ; this year I have 

 another, which is as follows : I had 

 a young colony of Italian bees which 

 I had made by division, giving them 

 comb and honey, with no eggs or 

 brood, but I gave them a queen-cell 

 which in due time produced a Bne 

 Italian queen. In the course of time 

 I discovered eggs and brood. I was 

 of course satisfied that all was well, 

 but judge of my surprise when I 

 found that the young bees were 

 black ! 



My theory is that the Italian queen 

 got lost on her wedding tour ; the bees 

 had entered a hive of a black colony 

 and stole an egg from which they 

 reared a black queen. 



Mt. Salem, Out. 



Tot the American Bee JouniaL 



Joint Bee-Keepers' Conyention. 



For mutual and individual benefit 

 the bee-keepers of the counties of 

 Jjutler, Floyd, Chickasaw and Bremer 

 formed the joint bee-keepers' associa- 

 tion of Nashua, Iowa, on Jan. 12,1887. 



The meeting was called to order by 

 Mr. George Stocks, of Chickasaw 

 county, upon whose motion Mr. Thos. 

 Tracy, of Bremer county, was elected 

 President; G. 11. Potter, of Chicka- 

 saw county, was elected Vice-Presi- 

 dent ; and C. W. Dayton, as the Sec- 

 retary. After transacting the pre- 

 liminary business of the association, 

 a lively discussion of the important 

 questions of the present time was 

 entered into, lasting two days. As to 

 the profitableness oi bee-keeping, it 

 was decided that under good manage- 

 ment it would pay economical living 

 expenses. 



Should queens be superseded at the 

 age of 3 years? Not unless they 

 showed signs of failing productive- 

 nees. The bees will usually attend 

 to the superseding of queens. 



How can we get the best quality of 

 honey V Leave it in the hive until it 

 is " dead" ripe. 



What has been the average net 

 price of the honey crop of 1886 ? 

 Eleven cents per pound for comb and 

 8 cents per pound for extracted. 



Can any location be overstocked 

 with bees V It was thought that our 

 location was overstocked by bee- 

 keepers, or else each bee-keeper must 

 be overstocked with bees. It was 

 thought that planting bee-pasturage 

 was essential. 



