246 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



at me "with hammer and tongs," brick- 

 bats, and any old thing except mud. 



I wish to say amen, most heartily, to all 

 that my friend Root has said about tiie 

 use of small nuclei for queen rearing. 

 As I .said last month, in my article on 

 queen rearing, so I say now, that we can 

 go to considerable expense for the sake 

 of making permanent improvements, pro- 

 vided they lessen our labors. To be sure, 

 full sized hives cost more than the put- 

 ting of several small nuclei in one box, 

 but if we gain sufficient advantages by 

 the use of full sized hives, then we are the 

 gainer by using them The more nearly 

 we can make our business run itself, 

 make it automatic, the greater are our 

 profits. Labor is the most costly factor 

 in bee-keeping. In queen rearing there 

 is certainly enough puttering labor with- 

 out having any trouV)les from nuclei be- 

 ing robbed, or from their smarming out. 

 Our nuclei must always be of such strength 

 that they will be able to take care of 

 themselves. And, really, if one has plen- 

 ty of bees, of what particular advantage 

 is it to have nuclei so very small ? A fair 

 sized nuclei will store quite a lot of hon- 

 ey. As much, perhaps, in proportion to 

 Its strength, as a full colony. When I 

 was in the queen business, I also produc- 

 ed extracted honey, and il was astonish- 

 ing, sometimes, to see the amount of 

 honey that a three-fraijie (American 

 frame) nucleus would store. FCach nucle- 

 us was always furnished an empty comb, 

 during a honey flow, in which to store 

 honey, and the stronger were usually al- 

 lowed an empty frame in which to build 

 comb. The beauty of it was that these 

 strong i.uclei were never robbed out. and 

 never Si ^rmed out. They just went 

 right aloiij; and attended to business, 

 without any fussing luhatever; and each 

 one could be depended upon to furnish a 

 queen once in ten days. If no honey was 

 coming in they were fed. But that is an- 

 other story. This talk about lo.sing 40 or 

 50 per cent, in the mating of queens is 

 astonishing to me. I guess the profits 

 would go "glinmiering." Not only is 



there the lo.ss ot a virgin queen, but of the 

 time of the nucleus; although it must be 

 admitted that the timeof a strong nucleus 

 might be considered worth more than 

 that of a mere handful of bees. In all of 

 the years that I was in the queen busi- 

 ness, ten per cent, would cover the loss 

 from queens being lost while going out to 

 be fertilized. Once more let me impress 

 upon my readers the importance of having 

 their business, never mind what it is, so 

 arranged that it will move alone smooth- 

 ly, without annoyances, losses and un- 

 certainties. To bring this about, one can 

 afford to go to considerable expense in 

 the way of original, permanent, fixtures. 



SOME REMARKABLE YIELDS. 



What may he Accomplished with Artificial 

 Pasturage and Large Colonies. 



Gleanings shall have the credit of dis- 

 covering and bringing forward a new con- 

 tributor who, if all reports are true, really 

 merits the title that the editor puts at 

 the head of his article, viz., "The Most 

 Wonderful Bee Keeper in the United 

 Slates." His name is J. L. Gaudy, and 

 his home is at Humboldt, Neb. Glean- 

 ings devotes between four and five pages 

 to a descri])tion of the man and his meth- 

 ods, giving pictures of his apiaries and of 

 the man himself. 



There is a sort of half apology running 

 through the editorial introduction and 

 footnote, for naving published the article; 

 and when the reader has perused the fol- 

 lowing paragraph, taken from the article, 

 he will cease to wonder at the apologeti- 

 cal tone of the editorial trimmings. The 

 paragraph in question reads as follows: — 



Some may wish to know how I came to 

 go into the bee business. For their en- 

 lighleunieiu I will stall- tlral about seven- 

 teen years ago, by financial reverses I be- 

 came indebted 125,000; and as misfor- 

 tunes never come singly, my health also 

 failed until I thought I could not follow 

 mv professional pursuits any longer. 

 With a view of regaining my health and 

 paying these deols I re embarked in the 

 bee business, in which I had had enough 



