THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Ill 



that can be successfully worked by puttiug 

 to it brains, muscle and money. The one 

 great question relatint^ to successful honey 

 production is, "in what way can I yet the 

 most surplus honey from this field, with the 

 least outlay of these brains, this muscle and 

 that money ? " Tiiat is the whole question. 

 Now look at it fairly and start right. It is 

 not a question of how many eggs a queen 

 can lay. in a day, nor wliether she looks in 

 tlio cell l)efore depositing the egg therein, 

 nor whether she does it head up or head 

 down, nor any of these details only in so far 

 as they have a direct bearing upon the object 

 in vii'w. To get honey we must have, not 

 only that field, but one of the main products 

 of this brain, muscle and money, bkes. 

 Now it takes capital as well as muscle and 

 brains, to get bees. \\e must have combs 

 and hives to protect them. The most impor- 

 tant feature in connection with hives, is to 

 have that hive whicJi can be handled with 

 the least outlay of time and muscle. It is 

 also an advantage to have the hive that can 

 be bought the cheapest, but that is of minor 

 importance compared to the former point, 

 because a good hive when once made, if 

 l)ioperly cared for, will last a life time. 

 Now sir, queens cost the least of any part of 

 that cai)ital which begets worker bees. It 

 takes combs and honey as well as capital 

 and time to get the workers. Now, it takes 

 no more time, no more combs, no more 

 hives, no more labor, to get energetic, honey 

 making bess than poor, lazy, robbing, ill- 

 natured bees. It only lequires that the 

 apiarist will look about him until he finds 

 the Ijest strain of bees, bees of the best 

 quality, and then take the time and pains to 

 breed that strain into his apiary. Let the 

 question of extra prolific (jueens go. Hupply 

 each ([ueeu with combs and other incidental 

 capital sufficient to give room for queens of 

 minimum prolificness, and you will not lose 

 a dollar because the most prolific queens 

 have not room enough for their prolificness. 

 The reason of this is, that this room is 

 where your capital is invested, and the 

 queens cost absolutely nothing if you do not 

 have to buy them. 



Now in regard to re-(iueeuiug : just let 

 that alone. Let your bees do the re-(iueening 

 and sui>erseding, exce))t where you find an 

 abnormally uuprolific cjueen, that for some 

 reason is liarbored by the bees which usually 

 I'epluce such (jueens ; then you can stej) in. 

 Hut to keep a record of the age of all your 

 tiucens, and undertake 10 forestall your 

 bees in superseding them, is tiu e badly 

 spent. Now remember, again, that all you 

 are trying to do is to get sufficieijt workers 

 to gather the greatest amount of surplus 

 lioney that can be gathered from this area or 

 lioney-field, with the least amount of capital 

 aud labor. Do not forget that point, but 

 always keep it in view. If you are rearing 

 queens for sale, UiPii there is a cost. This 

 queen-rearing apiary should have a record 

 of the age of its (jueens. It costs something 

 to rear queens and hold them till you receive 

 an order for them. While I asseit that the 

 bees can create queens for you foi- the pur- 

 pose of superseding your (lueens, or increase 

 iu colonies, so that they will not cost you a 



cent apiece, you cannot make much profit 

 on reai'ing them at will, holding them for 

 customers, and shipping them at a dollar 

 apiece. The conditions ai'e as foreign from 

 each other as they possibly can be. 



I will tell you how I have managed to 

 breed for (jualities, and will further add that 

 I would not give a cent for a successful sys- 

 tem of artificial fertilization. By the use of 

 comb foundation we almost i>erfectly control 

 the amount of drone comb built. By the 

 use of movable frames we control the place 

 where we will have this drone comb utilized. 

 By the use of common sense and strength 

 enough to tell the truth, both in conversa- 

 tion and in writing for our local papers, we 

 keep other bees out of our field, and the 

 result is, we control the drones which are 

 fiying, as well as the kind of (jueens we 

 breed from. Then with natural increase and 

 natural swarming we have a large majority 

 of our (lueens reared in a few of the best 

 colonies. Whenever our apiary contains 

 poor colonies, (as it sometimes does after 

 buying), we keep the drone combs in the 

 choicest colonies and the worker in others. 

 It is the simplest matter in the world to 

 almost completely control the (piality of 

 your drones. Now it seems to me this is 

 about all I have to otter and enough for the 

 practical dollar and cent honey producer to 

 want from one writer. 



DowAGiAc, Mich., 



June If), 18W). 



Some Emphatic Words in Favor of Good 

 Queens. 



E. T. FLANAGAN. 



'HEN Bro. Doolittle's "Scientific 

 y (^ueen Hearing " appeared, of 

 course I procured it, and I need 

 not say that I read and studied it 

 with interest and profit. Then I watched to 

 see how the apicultural press would ai)[>rove 

 of it, and it was with more than ordinary 

 interest that I turned to your article in the 

 May Review; for, do you know, that I look 

 on the Review as the rcry credin of our cur- 

 rent, apiarian literature. -ludge then of my 

 sur{)rise, yes, almost indignation, when I 

 found you treated it in the manner you did. 

 You did not seem to realize the great impor- 

 tance of the queen, and intimated that it 

 was not so much what the queen was, as 

 what her bees were ; as if the quality of the 

 bees, their energy, industry, hardiness, and 

 honey-gathering (jualities, <Uit not drpi-tid 

 oil their inotlicr. J felt like the jioet, when 

 he said : " I would that my tongue could 

 utter the thoughts that arise in me." One 

 thing, though, I can say, aud that is, I have 

 demonstrated that queens reared with care, 

 and in the proper manner, and under the 

 proper conditions, are snpcrior to those 

 raised in the careless, indift'erent. harum- 

 scarum, happy-go-lucky way that so many 

 are raised, and tiiat the dollar and cent 

 results depend as much or more on fht'qurcn 

 than any other factor in bee keeping, locality, 

 alone, excepted. This is not theory, it is 

 practical experience. I purchase every year 

 (lueens from the niost noted breeders in this 



