THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



lis 



the bees." This Mr. Hutchinson believes 

 correct, calliii}^ it " present condition ;" yet 

 when I come to aryue along the same line in 

 behalf of our tiueens, ho says, Oh, no ! ''The 

 difference is in the strain of bees, and not in 

 the manner in which the queens were reared. 

 (Queens can be reared artificially equally as 

 good as those reared under the swarming 

 impulse." Mr. H. was either right in his 

 book, and wrong now : or else he is right 

 now and was wrong then. Which is it ? I 

 claim he was right in his book, and by that 

 claim I am willing to stand, till we, have 

 some proof that it is wrong. Again, on page 

 2'.) of the same book, Mr. Hutchinson thinks 

 it very fortunate when his desire and the 

 bees' instinct run parallel, yet here he claims 

 that eiiually as good results can be accom- 

 plished when he goes contrary (artificially 

 reared queens) to their instinct. I do not 

 claim that my plan of rearing queens has 

 nothing "artificial" about it. My claim is 

 that by this plan the bees are only carrying 

 out that iiistinct which "stimulates energy" 

 and "develops activity," instead of forcing 

 them to rear queens under conditions which 

 "affects their future usefulness." 



Before closing, I wish to go on record as 

 saying, that the more prolific a queen is, the 

 better the queen every time ; and that the 

 raiser can have much to do with this i)rolific- 

 ness by "the method" which he employs in 

 rearing them, as well as by "selection." 

 This I know by years of experience along 

 this line, for I have raised many prolific 

 queens from very unprolific mothers. I 

 claim that the extra pi-olificness of queens 

 has more to do for the man who uses a small 

 brood chamlier than it has to do for the one 

 who uses a large one. I was nearly, if not 

 the first, to recommend a small brood cham- 

 ber, and I lay the success I have had in the 

 past in producing comb honey, largely to 

 utung small brood chambers, in connection 

 witli very prolific queens. And why should 

 this not be so, seeing that we must get all 

 the brood possible in a few short weeks, if 

 we would be successful honey producers ? 

 By " brood possible," I mean all that our 

 small brood chamber will hold, and this is 

 to be done at just the right time so that the 

 bees which hatch from this brood will be the 

 laborers in our harvest. Failing in this, we 

 fail of a harvest or surplus. What 1 have 

 been breeding for was to have all queens 

 e(iually prolific to the greatest extent possi- 

 ble, and yet have them susceptible to my 

 dictation, so that I could get the hive full of 

 eggs just when I wished tliem. It has taken 

 me several years to accomplish this, but 

 after I had worked out the problem, I be- 

 lieve I knew how I did it, and how I could 

 not do it by the old plans of artificially 

 reared ipieens of the past. At least I believe 

 I am entitled to my opinion fully as much as 

 he who has never tried any but the old way. 



BoKODiNO, N. Y., June i;^, 188!). 



Bro. D., when bees swarm, or when they 

 supersede a queen, they rear queens nafur- 

 (lUij; at other times they are forced to do so 

 by man. The latter are reared artificially. 

 They may be as good as those reared natur- 



ally, and they may be very short lived, ab- 

 normally unprolifiic queens ; all depends 

 upon how man has directed the matter. We 

 fail to see how our views upon this subject 

 conflict with those quoted by Bro. D. from 

 our book. We said, and still say, that the 

 building of comb stimulates the activity of 

 bees ; and we also said, (which Bro. D. fails 

 to mention) and still say, that the use of 

 foundation, ( which is i()i}K/^((r(//) in certain 

 places, and under certain conditions, is very 

 profitable. It is fortunate when "our desire 

 and the bees' instinct run parallel," but 

 when they do not it sometimes pays us to 

 cross them, and at other times it does not ; 

 and we must not hesitate simply because it is 

 unnatural. A large share of modern bee-cul- 

 ture is artificial, and we ought no longer to 

 inquire, is it "according to nature," but, 

 "all things considered, is it desirable? 



A Letter From Jared Hasbrouck— Something 



in Favor of Hiving Swarms on 



Empty Frames. 



^JCT^EARS ago, we very much enjoyed 

 J fjj{j reading, in the B. K. Magazine, the 



"^'"^ scientific and practical articles writ- 

 ten by -Tared Hasbrouck of N. J. But, with 

 one of the changes in the ownership of the 

 Marjazine, our friend dropped the apicultu- 

 ral pen, and we have missed him. When a 

 subscription for the Review came, a few 

 weeks ago, signed : "J. Hasbrouck, Lima. 

 Ohio." we thought: "Ah, ha! wonder if 

 this isn't that same Hasbrouck." In reply 

 to an inquiry, we received the following let- 

 ter. Thinking that his old friends would like 

 to hear from him, and hoping to induce him 

 to again take up the pen, we publish his let- 

 ter : and, if it is no secret, we would be glad 

 to have him describe that little plan of his for 

 " running bees on an intensive system with- 

 out increase." 



Lima, Ohio, .June 18, 1885). 



W. Z. Hutchinson : — 



Dear Sir — Your card 

 of the 14th inst. received. Yes, I am the 

 same fellow that used to live it N. J., and 

 who used to write occasionally, or oftener, 

 for the B. K. Maijazine. I am really yet 

 living in that land of red shale and garden 

 "sass" — that is, my better " % " and babies 

 are still there, and I am only staying here in 

 Ohio for the honey season. I am out here 

 for the summer, running 200 stocks of bees 

 for J. J. Cole, as a sort of speculation. He 

 has gone to California, and is running about 

 the same number there. From all the ac- 

 counts I could get of this locality before I 



