96 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



quantity of brood but was heavy wit winter 

 stores in the fall and I held the queen re- 

 sponsible for the failure ; and, as the igno- 

 rant generally do in treating questions they 

 fail to understand, I decided upon extreme 

 measures. 



I have oftimes noticed that colonies that 

 did extra good work failed to come to time 

 next season. Several years ago a certain 

 colony in my yard made 2G5 pounds of comb 

 honey. It was in two sections of the small 

 hive, had a one-year-old queen, and was just 

 boiling over with bees during the entire sea- 

 son, yet did not swarm, its entire energy be- 

 ing employed in storing surplus honey. 



If I could have had the advantage I now 

 have of sections of finished combs for stor- 

 ing surplus, I could have easily secured .'")(K) 

 l)ounds from that colony. In the fall I wrote 

 upon the hive in big plain letters: "The 

 best colony I ever owned ; 26.5 pounds of 

 honey. Breed from his." 



After r.?moving all the surplus, the colony 

 was light in stores but I supplied them and 

 awaited the coming season, when this colony 

 Ijroved to be one of the poorefit in the yard, 

 and I did not get my extra strain of non- 

 swarming honey gatherers, although I heard 

 of such through the advertisements of queen 

 breeders. 



I have for many years bred my queens 

 from the colonies that built up and swarmed 

 early, regardless of race or color. This is 

 nature's law of selection, " the survival of 

 ihBJittest.^^ It is to the horse that cjvts there 

 that the turfman looks for material to Jireed 

 from. 



I shall stop trying to improve on nature's 

 law, and try to find what the command really 

 is and then obey without question. 



I am beginingto be suspicious that swarms 

 that have to be fed and doctored in the fall 

 are not as safe stock for good work the next 

 year as those swarms that are heavy in stores 

 and strong in bees without tinkering. 



My general plan in the past was to get one 

 natural swarm from eaph colony, as near the 

 opening of the wnite clover as possible, {loo 

 early swarms are no good) and work the new 

 swarm for all the surplus I cculd get without 

 regard to their future va'ue for wintering ; 

 the old colony being requeened and built up 

 strong and heavy for next year's stock, and 

 this kind of colonies never disappointed me. 

 Is there a better way all things considered ? 

 At this writing, March 2nd, the l)ees in the 

 house apiary are having a splendid, joyful 



flight, being the second since cold weathef 

 set in. But best of all, these bees will be 

 ensconced in their warm beds of sawdust 

 during all the changeable weather of spring, 

 and will have extra opportun ty to build up 

 strong in time for the white honey harvest. 

 The house apiary has at last come to stay. 



In trying to discuss the foundation ques- 

 tion I confess I scarcely know what to say. 

 I feel a little as I did when the question of 

 grading honey was up. You will remember, 

 Mr. Editor, that at the National Convention 

 at Chicago, in 1890, I opposed having any 

 official standard for comb honey, and that I 

 continued my opposition in the discussions 

 that followed in the bee journals, believ- 

 ing that the cause of improved comb honey 

 would be better advanced by /ibec/f/ o//ree 

 and unrestrained eoiiipetifion than by any 

 authoratative rules. I wish every person to 

 be free to win the benefit that his superior 

 talent and industry might give. The beauty 

 of true religion is the high ideals it offers 

 blind but unfolding humanity to strive for, 

 and I can think of no way of raising the 

 highest ideals of perfection in producing 

 honey or any other manufactured article 

 than that of allowing every competitor in 

 the race the chance to win the highest dis- 

 tinction of merit, and then giving each con- 

 testent the reward that naturally belongs to 

 such worthy effort ; and in the end all will 

 be benefitted, as the coarse and slothful pro- 

 ducer will be compelled, in the struggle for 

 existenc, to improve his methods and move 

 toward the hit^^her pefection. Well, after 

 all the laborious fussing of several National 

 conventions, all can now see that the grading 

 (luestion is not settled for any practical pur- 

 pose, and that, as friend Muth has well said, 

 " it will never be of the least value in busi- 

 ness transactions." 



As to the best foundation or the way to 

 make it, I can give but little light. In 

 practice I have, for years, been a free un- 

 stinted user of it. I have used all the famous 

 makes, including Van Deusen's flat-bottom, 

 and I have used much of the celebrated B. 

 Taylor make, of many grades of fineness, and 

 have sold much comb honey made from all 

 these many difl'erent makes and different 

 weights of foundation, and now for the re^ 

 suit. 



I was always strictly careful in raising and 

 crating tliis honey to do every thing with 

 scrupulous care, and I have for twenty years, 

 and still have, a grade of comb honey that 



