THE HEE-KEEPEttS' HE VIEW, 



301 



Then, again, it often happens that one of 

 two apiaries a few miles apart will yield sur- 

 plus when the other doos not. And this 

 brings up migratory beekeeping. When the 

 blossoms begin to •'giv(> down " plentifully 

 at one apiary, and not at the others, ''bunch" 

 tiie bees where the neetar is flowing: that is, 

 if it is tiowing in such quantities that there 

 will be no danger of overstocking. Moving 

 an apiary in the fall to the vicinity of a river 

 bottom or a swamp is often a most effect- 

 ual remedy for a poor season. 



I hope what I have written will not induce 

 any one who has passed through one or two 

 I)oor seasons to hastily conclude that bee- 

 keeping does not pay in his locality, and for 

 tins reason to drop it or sell out and seek 

 for pastures new. Such decisions should be 

 arrived at only after the most thorough in- 

 vestigation. My object is to encourage in- 

 vestigation; to stir up my readers to tJiiDk; 

 to plan and to try and discover some way 

 in which they may lessen the risk of loss 

 from poor seasons. 



Write to me friends, tell me how i/ou have 

 managed to tide over poor seasons ; tell me 

 what you think of the plans advised and the 

 views advanced. Let us make the Decem- 

 Ijer Review a sort of text book for the man 

 who does not know whether next year is to 

 be a good one or not. 



starting Bee Journals. 



" It is now approaching the time to start 

 another crop of bee journals. Perhaps a 

 suggestion to prospective editors may not be 

 out of iilace. If you think there is a mint of 

 money in bee journalism, you may be disap- 

 pointed; and if you think it will advertise 

 your supply Vjusiness, and lead you on the 

 highway to success, you maybe disappointed 

 again. At any rate, do not put out the first 

 edition poorly printed with poor ink or poor 

 paper. If you do, its doom is sealed at once. 

 Bee keepers as a class have come to be quite 

 fastidious. — " Gleanings. 



Opposing the Editorial Opinion. 

 Ever since the beginning of the publica- 

 tion of the Review I have striven to eradi- 

 cate the feeling that seemed to pervade the 

 minds of some that I preferred articles con- 

 taining views in accordance with my own. 

 I came across an item the other day in the 

 Household, a supplement to the Michiga)) 

 Farmer, that expresses so nicely my views 



on this subject that 1 take pleasure in repro- 

 ducing it. The Household has a lady editor, 

 and, as might be expected, it is well edited. 

 A correspondent in venturing to differ from 

 the editor remarked: "I am aware of the 

 hazards we run in entering into a controver- 

 sy with an editor." The editor's reply was 

 prefaced with the following : — 



"I sincerely hope I am 'too much of an 

 editor' to take offense or feel pique or ill-will 

 toward any person who dili'ers from my 

 views. I emphatically object to being re- 

 garded as the autocrat of the Household or 

 to having its readers infer that there must 

 be no dissent from my opinions because I 

 exercise a supervisory right over the little 

 paper. An editor often finds it necessary to 

 refuse articles wliich are outside the field 

 and beyond the scope of his paper: the edi- 

 torial adaptability lies in power to discern 

 and courage to live up to this principle. 

 But to refuse publication simply because an 

 article does not agree with the editor's views 

 on the subject would be deserved death to 

 any newspaper. I can say truly that I have 

 never refused an article which came within 

 the field of the Household because of a per- 

 sonal feeling or opinion; I hope I never shall. 

 And articles criticising my opinions have al- 

 ivays been given space — in the interest of 

 fair play if for no other reason." 



Small Combs for Ncclei. 

 In queen rearing I have used only two 

 sizes of frames — American and Langstroth. 

 I have often thought that I should like to 

 try rearing queens with smaller combs. 

 With the large combs the bees cannot cover 

 the brood to so good advantage as they can 

 in a greater number of smaller combs. As I 

 have several times remarked I should like to 

 try queen rearing with pound sections for 

 combs, using an old style Heddon super for 

 a nucleus hive. I would use from four to 

 six sections for each nucleus. I think now 

 that I shall give it a trial another season. I 

 believe Mr. Alley makes a success of these 

 small combs; but Mr. S. F. Trego seems to 

 have had some difficulty in using them. 

 Here is what he writes to the A. B. J.: — 



"I want to say that small nuclei are a 

 nuisance. In 18!)0 I used nineteen of the 

 Pratt style until the bees absconded, and, if 

 I remember right, I got three queens from 

 those nineteen nuclei. 



Then I reasoned that if I had some to work 

 on the Pratt system, with frames twice as 

 large, they would work O. K. So in Feljru- 

 ary, 18'.)1, I had 200 hives made to hold three 

 frames one-third as large as the liaugstroth 

 frame. These worked some better, but I 

 was kept busy from noon until two p. m., 

 hiving absconding nuclei, and sometimes I 

 would put in half a day trying to keep them 

 from leaving. 



