AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



145 



I never lose any bees in my bee-house, 

 as they can have a flight at any time 

 during the Winter, when it is warm 

 enough, or I can close them up at any 

 time. 



From the bees kept in the house, I get 

 more honey than from those that I keep 

 out-of-doors, and I am so well pleased 

 with my bee-house that I have built 

 another one, and shall keep all of my 

 bees in the house. 



There are so many advantages in 

 managing bees during swarming time in 

 a house like mine, that I shall not 

 attempt to enumerate them. 



Brazil, Ind. 



Honey-Bees of America, Etc. 



W. p. FAYLOR. 



Bee-keepers of the western continent 

 are now pressing largely after the 

 yellow race. In scanning the advertise- 

 ments of the Bee Journal and Olean- 

 ings, we discover the fact that compara- 

 tively few are breeding bees from 

 imported stock. Bees reared in Italy are 

 good honey-gathers ; but cannot the 

 same be said of some of the bees of 

 America ? 



The truth is that climatic influences 

 in Italy give an abundant honey-flow, 

 which is necessary to produce good, 

 active honey-gatherers. In this country 

 the honey-flow lasts but a short time, and 

 many queen-bees are produced when the 

 bees are gathering no honey at all ; and 

 under these unfavorable surroundings, 

 how can we expect to produce a good 

 honey-bee ? 



To get our bees to equal the bees of 

 Italy, it is only necessary to stimulate 

 strongly by feeding while the bees are 

 rearing queens. I feed my bees plenty 

 of extracted-honey while they are feed- 

 ing the larval queens, until the cells of 

 each colony are capped, and by thus 

 stimulating, I get the same results as 

 Italy gives. 



I have just hand-picked the drones of 

 a half dozen colonies — of course, these 

 colonies are kept queenless so that they 

 will not destroy their drones. 



It is not the color — yellow, brown or 

 black — that gives the honey-bee, but 

 that which has been reared under the 

 stimulating impulse. If we can add the 

 golden hue, we are that much ahead of 

 Italy, and unless the breeders of bees 

 and queens in Italy procure some of the 

 yellow stock to breed from, they will 

 soon be left behind in the chase. What 



I have said regarding the honey-gathf^r- 

 ing qualities, applies equally to gentle- 

 ness. 



One of the largest dealers in queens 

 and bees in America buys queens from 

 different quarters, has them piled up on 

 his table ready to ship at a moment's 

 notice ; any queen-breeder could do the 

 same, if he cared nothing ^r beauty 

 and quality of bees. I would not pur- 

 chase queens from any man, if I knew 

 he did not rear his own queens, or 

 warrant them to be as good. 



QUEENS MATING LATE. 



Owing to the cool weather, virgin 

 queens have been slow to find partners 

 this season. Two of my queens mated 

 81 days after they came from their 

 respective cells. They were reared early 

 in April, and met admirers May 11. 

 I had reared a few nice drones, and 

 thought I would get something hand- 

 some, but what was my surprise to fi'ud 

 that these queens would not come out of 

 their hives until so late in the season. 

 These queens are very prolific, and, I 

 believe, are larger than queens that 

 mate early. 



To induce drones to fly thickly about 

 the time queens come out to mate, drop 

 a spoonful of honey at the entrance of 

 the hive — not at the hive from which the 

 queen emerges, but at the hive from 

 which you wish the drones to fly. 



CLOSED-END FRAMES. 



A few years ago I tried a hive with 

 closed-end frames, and abandoned it ; 

 but since the matter was discussed in 

 Oleanings last Winter, I made one hive 

 with such frames, making everything 

 true to 1/32 of an inch. As long as 

 there were but a very few bees in the 

 hive, these frames worked pretty well ; 

 but oh ! me ; to handle them now. After 

 the frames are all in the hive but one, I 

 pick up the last one and begin to slide 

 it down between two frames. It goes 

 about this way : There-^now — go slow 

 — be careful — almost down — very slow 

 now — whoa — stop, till those bees crawl 

 out there — but the bees are crushed, and 

 I close the hive in disgust. 



DRONE COMB. 



I believe that for the extractor, drone 

 comb in the upper story gives me better 

 returns in honey than worker comb. 

 The bees draw these large cells out to a 

 further distance, and slanting upwards, 

 which makes them shave nicely with the 

 uncapping knife ; then you have some 

 honey when these combs are emptied. 



State Line, Ind. 



