THB AMEEICAl^ BEE JOURNAL. 



711 



reading his " Seven Lamps of Archi- 

 tecture," and his " Stones of Venice," 

 it is impossible for me to describe, 

 except by saying that it gave me a 

 rapture for good books, and an ever- 

 lasting disgust for decrepit or im- 

 moral books, that will last me while 

 my immortal soul lasts. All around 

 the church and the world to-day there 

 are '• busy hives of inlelligeuce " oc- 

 cupied by authors and authoresses, 

 from whose pens dip a distillation 

 which is the very nectar of Heaven, 

 and whv will you thrust your rod of 

 inquisitiveness into the deathful sac- 

 charine 01 perdition V 



The best honey is not like that 

 which Jonathan took on the end of 

 the rod and brought to his lip, but 

 that which God puts on the banquet- 

 ing table of Mercy, at which we are 

 all invited to sit. 



I was reading of a boy among the 

 mountains of Switzerland ascending 

 a dangerous place with his father and 

 the guides. The boy stopped on the 

 edge of the cliff and said : " There 

 is a flower I mean to get." "Come 

 away from there," said the father, 

 "you will fall off." "No." said he. 

 " I must get that beautiful flower," 

 and the guides rushe^ toward him to 

 pull him back, when they heard him 

 say: "I ahnost have it," as he fell 

 2.000 feet. Birds of prey were seen a 

 few days after, circling through the 

 air and lowering gradually to the 

 place where the corpse lay. Why 

 seek flowers off the edge of a preci- 

 pice, when you may walk knee-deep 

 amid the full blooms of tlie very 

 Paradise nf God 'i When a man may 

 sit at a King's banquet, why will he 

 go down the steps and contend for the 

 gristle and bones of ahound's keniiel? 



" Sweeter than honey and the honey- 

 comb," says David, "is the truth of 

 God" "With honey out of the rock 

 would I have satisfied thee," says God 

 to the recreant. Here is honey gath- 

 ered from the blossoms of trees of 

 life, and with a rod made out of thw 

 wood of the cross 1 dip it up for all 

 your souls. 



For tne Aioencan Bee Joamal. 



Starting Right in Bee-KeeiiiD& etc. 



ED. S. EDEN. 



" Purchase 1 or 2 colonies of black 

 or hybrid bees, and then Italianize 

 them afterwards," is the advice often 

 given to those about starting an api- 

 ary. A person that would advise 

 those intending to go into stock rais- 

 ing, to purchase an inferior grade of 

 cattle, and then to improve the stock 

 afterwards, would certainly be laughed 

 at by every intelligent stock-raiser in 

 the country. It is the same in bees. 

 If we admit that the Italians are the 

 best, all things considered, what ad- 

 vantage would there be in purchasing 

 that which is inferior ? 



Some claim that the experience of 

 Italianizing is worth considerable to 

 the beginner. But it will be found 

 that the beginner will have suflicient 

 to perplex him without inviting still 

 more diflaculties. His fund of knowl- 



edge in the business is small, conse- 

 quently he should avoid those un- 

 necessary thinsH where there is a pos- 

 sibility of a failure. How many ex- 

 perienced bee-keepers are to-day an- 

 noyed at themselves for allowing an 

 inferior strain to enter their yards V 

 I fear there are a great many. 



The beginner should practice vigi- 

 lance against everything that is not 

 of the best. It is generally admitted 

 that the Italians are more prolific 

 than the blacks ; if this is true, and I 

 think it i.'. is this not suflicient of 

 itself I. wai.'int their adoption at the 

 first? i 'nd I, -at strength of colony 

 is the main ^illa. to bee-keeping, and 

 a goal that l ''ry beekeeper should 

 strive to attain. 



CLIPl'ING TUE QCEBN'S WING. 



This is somewhat of a delicate job 

 to those of little experience. It is 

 usually advised to take the queen be- 

 tween the thumb aud forefinger of 

 the left hand, and then to perform 

 the operation. But I have found in 

 performing the operation in this way, 

 that there is a risk of injuring tlie 

 queen, or having her " bailed " by the 

 bees. 



There is a plan practiced by some of 

 the older bee-keepers here, which I 

 think is a far bettnr way to perform 

 the operation. The queen is not 

 taken off the frame at all, but the 

 wing is clipped while moving up the 

 frame, that is, from the bottom to the 

 top. The frame is swung on a stand 

 for the purpose, or held by a second 

 person. With one hand take the 

 queen by the wing, and cut of the 

 amount desired. A very slender pair 

 of scissors is preferred. 



In clipping the wing while the 

 queen is moving up the frame, one is 

 not so apt to injure her abdomen, or 

 dislodge her from the frame. The 

 risk of "balling" is totally avoided, 

 as the queen is not touched— only that 

 portion of the wing that is cut off. 



Eastwood, Ont. 



[The advice to beginners to get 

 black bees is pernicious. To clip the 

 wing of the queen as you suggest is 

 all right, if care is taken not to cut 

 off a leg at the same time. — £d.] 



Seed-Time and Harvest. 



Rearing and Introicing Qneens. 



JAMES IIEDDON. 



Before giving a detailed outline of 

 my preferred method of queen-rear- 

 ing, one which I am now practicing 

 with very satisfactory success, I wish 

 to again call attention to the impor- 

 tant truth, that in apiculture as well 

 as other lines of culture, art, if prop- 

 erly applied, may excel nature. I be- 

 lieve we get better queens, and more 

 of them, by the following process, 

 than Nature gives us through her 

 system of natural swarming. Once I 

 could hardly be made to believe this, 

 but experience has forced me to recog- 

 nize the fact. I proceed to rear queens 

 as follows : 



First, I select the colony that I wish 

 to rear from. Its bees must have 

 proven themselves to be excellent 

 honey-gatherers, good comb-builders, 

 and well-behaved ; adhering well to 

 their combs when they are handled. 

 Their queen must never be less than 

 one year old. and such a queen, pro- 

 ducing bees as described, is a " tested 

 queen " with me. When [ am ready 

 to begin operations I select one or 

 two new empty combs, and insert 

 them near the centre of the brood- 

 nest of the selected colony. On the 

 fourth day after this insertion, I ex- 

 amine them, and almost without ex- 

 ception I find them containing eggs, 

 and just hatching larvie. If not, I 

 leave them until i find it so. I now 

 remove them, filling their place with 

 other combs. 



I now look these two combs over, 

 and wherever I find larvse just 

 hatched, I break down the partitions 

 between the cells containing them 

 aud tliose just below, by putting the 

 point of a large blade iuto the chosen 

 cell, about V4 of an inch, and pressing 

 downward as I withdraw it. I usually 

 select 10 or 20 such cells on each 

 comb, and then insert these two 

 combs in a colony prepared as follows: 



Select a colony of average strength, 

 with bees of all ages, in average nor- 

 mal quantities, and deprive them of 

 their queen and all their brood, both 

 of which may be profitably placed in 

 other colonies, as a rule. If these 

 bees are German, or part German, 

 they are just so much better as queen- 

 rearers. If there is little or 110 honey- 

 flow, coutiact the hive to five Lang- 

 stroth combs, or one section of my 

 new hive. If the former, put in the 

 "fillers." Putin two combs of eggs 

 in the centre, and a comb containing 

 some honey and bee-bread on each 

 side of them, aud fill up with empty 

 combs. It there is a honey-flow, flll 

 the whole Langstroih hive with 

 combs, or use a second section, or 

 super, on my new hive. Close the 

 hive, and queen cell building will at 

 once begin. 



Twenty-four hours later, open the 

 hive, and break down some more cells, 

 where the eggs have hatched since 

 you was last there. On the following 

 day, repeat cell breaking, and from 40 

 to '75 large, perfect queen-cells will be 

 built by this colony. The first of 

 these cells mav be expected to hatch 

 16 days after being placed with the 

 cell-building colony. About two days 

 before this, and after all the cells are 

 capped, I remove these two combs to 

 the lamp-nursery, in which I place 

 them, keeping the temperature there- 

 in at 85'^ to 90= Fahr. 



THE LAMP-NUESERY. 



For the benefit of those who may 

 never have seen the lamp-nursery, I 

 will say that it consists of an open- 

 top tin box, double all around, includ- 

 ing the bottom, and the 13^ inch space 

 is filled with water. It has a rabbet 

 at the top. and is of the interior si/e 

 of the 10-frame Langstroth hive. I 

 place it on an open top box. ipade to 

 fit it, and place the lamp below it, ad- 

 justing the blaze until the proper 

 temperature in the " nursery " is 



