184 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



A Condensed View of Current 

 Bee Writings. 



E. E. HASTY. 



Mistress Mary, 



Qnite contrary, 



Ht)w does your f,'arden grow ? 



The above jingle, dear to the ear of child- 

 hood, suggests one chief pleasure of garden- 

 ing critical, as well as of gardening floral 

 and vegetarian, the pleasure of seeing some- 

 thing changed for the better, of seeing some- 

 thing grow. We now take up the journals 

 for the second time. How much have they 

 grown since the present year begun ? One 

 that has grown is — 



The apiculturist. 



It has put off its dingy red and put on that 

 delicate pale green which makes so artistic 

 a back ground for anything put upon it. Its 

 face is made up with taste, and not crowded 

 — rather a rare merit. As the journals lay 

 side by side which is the best looking, sup- 

 posing that outside looks were all ? The 

 jury would disagree doubtless, but I feel sure 

 that some good judges would give the Api. 

 the first place. The Apic dhiist is also 

 growing confirmed in the style of being al- 

 most wholly an editorial paper. As friend 

 Alley outranks most of his correspondents 

 this is, for the present, an improvement — 

 and yet a little like climbing an easy side 

 spur of the mountain while your rivals are 

 striving for up the main peak— have to climb 

 down from there eventually, else get left. 

 At present editor Alley can say, the Api. is 

 myself. And it has lots of — 



"This rock shall fly 

 From its firm base as soon as I ;" 



especially when earnest friends privately 

 labor with it to have those Punic bees put 

 overboard. (See page 47.) Bump of self- 

 esteem ? Yes — 



" We strive to pronounce as many practical 

 ideas as all the other papers combined." Page 74. 



But this 'ere " Mary " is so contrary that 

 she will not concede the full success of that 

 laudable effort just yet. But even Mary will 

 concede that the queen-rearing number is a 

 valuable thing to have in the house. And 

 here is " Queen Rearing " boiled clear down 

 to cracklings. Feed — Warm weather — Near- 

 ly new comb — Queenlessness 24 to 48 hours 

 — Care in getting the bees off — Hot room to 

 operate in. — Thin, sharp knife kept hot — 



Pencil record on the top bar — Old comb X 

 cut away to wax the egg strips upon — Don't 

 cook the eggs — Two quarts of queenless bees, 

 shut in with wire portico— Keep cool 24 

 hours, then to a strange location and let fly 

 — Leave only two cells — Two days later give 

 another quart of not queenless bees at night. 

 This is nucleus rearing. 



A doubt is expressed whether the up-cham- 

 ber method, which utilizes a full colony with 

 queen, and at work storing honey, turns out 

 quite as good cells and queens. The object 

 in view is the saving in bees and time. In 

 this method the queen is kept below by per- 

 forated metal, and all the combs of brood 

 except one for a nest-egg. are put above 

 every 21 days. Such a top story does not 

 usually start cells ; but if supplied with cells 

 24 hours old they will work steadily at the 

 business of finishing them all the season — 

 and store honey too. While Doolittle makes 

 the cups, and puts in larv;e by hand, Alley 

 seems to prefer having a queenless colony 

 first do 24 or 36 hours work on each set. 



The whole thing can be done however by 

 one colony. Have but a few inches of per- 

 forated metal in the chamber floor, the rest 

 being thin board ; and fix a tin slide capable 

 of shutting the chamber up tight ; and ven- 

 tilate through wire netting above. With 18 

 hours of this they will be willing to build. 

 Then give eggs, stop the top ventilation, open 

 a fly hole in front, and fix a board in front 

 to make them return right. But although 

 one colony ivill do all the work thus, it is 

 still economy to make one such hive start 

 the cells and another finish them. 



When we read that after August 10th near- 

 ly every colony made queenless for old style 

 work will perish in winter, the need of a 

 more merciful and less expensive way ap- 

 pears quite evident. The season's work of a 

 good colony by the new method is immense, 

 ;^0 cells, panning out (with the help of fer- 

 tilizing nuclei, of course) 250 queens. Col- 

 onies with old queens do the best work. 



THE TOPIC OF THE HOUR. 



Mary is quite hasty to have that young 

 phenomenon, H. P. Langdon, under manip- 

 ulation, and weed his little garden bed for 

 him. Needless to say that nothing of equal 

 promise has been proposed for many a year. 

 Even the " forbidden fruit " of sugar-honey 

 is in danger of being forgotten if out-apiaries 

 can be planted without fear of swarm losses. 

 Fine stroke of enterprise in the Review to 



