148 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



little slip. In attempting to show that 

 the mating of the queen does not affect 

 her drone progeny he says: — 



An Italian queen in a hive of Mack 

 bees will beget workers of mixed blood, 

 but her sons are pure Italians. Drones 

 are useful as fathers of workers, but they 

 cannot collect the honey they eat. Their 

 tongues are too short. 



What our author intended to explain 

 was that while a pure Italian queen, 

 mated with a black drone, would produce 

 workers of mixed blood, her drones 

 would be pure Italians, but he got his 

 statement or illustration just a trifle 

 mixed. 



BEE-KEEPING FOR PROFIT 



A Review of the Book Written by the "A B 

 C Scholar That Grew so Fast." 



Nearly twenty-five years ago a man be- 

 gan bee-keeping in Wisconsin, and, so 

 rapid was his progress, so wonderful the 

 results obtained, that Mr. A. I. Root 

 called him the "ABC Scholar that Grew 

 so fast. " I had not heard of him for 

 years, and naturally supposed that he 

 had dropped out of the ranks, hence I 

 was most agreeably surprised the past 

 winter to receive a letter from him in- 

 quiring about queens. A correspondence 

 sprang up between us, and I learned that 

 he had "been making money all these 

 years, and keeping still about it," as he 

 put it. At last, however, it seems that 

 he decided not to "keep still" any longer, 

 and he wrote and published a little book, 

 giving it the title that stands at the head 

 of this article. I do not remember to 

 have seen the book advertised, yet Mr. 

 Morgan, for that is his name, informs 

 me that the first edition of some 2,oc o or 

 3,000, I have forgotten which, has been 

 sold, and he has just gotten out a new 

 edition of which he has favored me with 

 a copy. I have read it through, and 

 here are some of the specially good points 

 that I wish to notice. 



CARNIOI.AN BEES. 



It seems that Mr. Morgan has had con- 

 siderable experience with the Carniola.n 

 bees, and, from that experience he speaks 

 as follows: — 



They are great honev gatherers, go in- 

 to the sections too freelj', storing all 

 above, and cap their honey very white. 

 They, like Italians, stand still on the 

 combs while being handled, while the 

 blacks, as previously stated, stampede 

 and become demoralized. A cross, how- 

 ever, with Italians, unlike a cross with 

 the blacks, makes a gentle bee, also a 

 bee less prone to swarm — one which goes 

 into the sections freely, but will store 

 enough below to meet their needs should 

 a cold snap occur. On the approach of 

 cold weather, they will fill the hive well 

 for winter, are perfect winterers, and for 

 profit to their owners, are just the bee to 

 keep. I would recommend pure Italians 

 or the first cross with Carniolans for the 

 best results. Carniolan queens are ex- 

 ceedingly prolific — more so than any 

 other race of bees, often having ten 

 frames solid with brood, and if an upper 

 story is put on with large frames and no 

 zinc excluder used to keep the queen be- 

 low, she will fill the whole upper story 

 also; hence, they always have an enor- 

 mous force of workers, and if they did 

 not swarm so freely in and out of season, 

 would be the best of all races. Their 

 first cross with the pure Italians seems to 

 be an improvement all around, both for 

 prolificness and for storing a large sur- 

 plus of comb honey, which is capped ex- 

 ceedingly smooth and white. 

 ONE ADVANTAGE OF SHAI,I,OW COMBS. 



In discussing hives, INIr. Morgan brings 

 up the following in favor of a shallow 

 brood nest in the production of comb 

 honey. He says: — 



It is the nature of bees to store their 

 honey directly above the brood, and by 

 having a shallow frame they enter the 

 sections more readily, while with a deep 

 frame they fill the upper part with honey 

 and seal it over and fail to go into the 

 sections at all, unless obliged to do so by 

 being very populous. It is next to im- 

 possible to gel bees to pass over three or 

 four inches of sealed honey in the top of 

 brood frames to go into sections. 



HOW TO SECURE LARGE INCREASE. 



Once in awhile, some one wishes to 

 make all of the increase possible. I had 

 a correspondent this spring who wished 

 for information on that point, and I told 



