“novice’s” gleanings in bee CULTURE. 
f)7 
no Extractor at command. If extra emp- 
ty combs can be had, exchange all but 
the brood combs and then feed ; if it can 
be so managed that the bees use their 
natural stores during mild weather they 
may do very well. 
And in conclusion we will add, that to 
succeed you must feed early. 
Our best results have been from those 
colonies fed up in September; Oct. if the 
weather is warm may answer, but colo- 
nies fed even in the fore part of Nov. 
have almost invariably been unhealthy. 
Weak colonies most especially are slow 
in sealing their stores, and these, should 
be fed tirst, but a better way is to have 
no weak ones, for by exchanging brood 
we may equalize them to a great extent. 
We have of late had success in removing 
a comb of brood, bees and all, and in no 
case has there been quarreling. (Be sure 
you dont get the queen too, for that 
would assuredly be a loss.) 
IMPROVEMENTS IN BEE CULTURE. 
MR. EDITOR: — In your article on 
the rearing of queens, in the August 
number of “Gleanings,’ 1 you give very 
good directions for the improvement of 
bees by selection. But allow me to tell 
you that you consider the question only 
on one side. For it, is not all to have 
prolific breeders, you should have also 
good sires. In this question, drones are 
as important as queens. If we allow 
nature to have her way, as to the produc- 
tion of drones for the fertilization of our 
queens, we will run the risk of losing as 
much on one side as we gain on the other. 
Indeed, if we let chance have a hand in 
the matter, we will be apt to raise drones, 
from the least prolific, as from the best. 
Besides, if we wish to produce pure Ital- 
ians, we cannot do so unless we control 
the production of drones, for if there are 
any hybrids or blacks in the neighborhood 
they will be sure to raise a quantity of 
drones. 
To prevent this, let us remove all drone 
comb (as far as possible) from every hive 
ill the spring, replacing it with worker 
comb. Then let us choose the best or 
some of the best stocks and introduce 
one or two drone combs in the middle 
of the brood, early in the season, say in 
April. These stocks will furnish drones 
for our queens all the season. In July, 
when the bees begin to kill their drones, 
we should remove these combs containing 
drone brood and introduce them into 
some queenless stocks, kept queenless for 
that purpose. Care should be taken that, 
the drone-breeding queens be not of the 
same family, or at least not too closely 
connected, with the queen-breeding queens, 
in order to prevent in and in breeding. 
This removal of drone comb in the 
spring, which seems at first very tedious 
and long, is easily performed with a little 
j patience. It can also be attended to with 
advantage when extracting honey. 
A few more remarks and I am done. 
; We never kill the queens of the hives in 
which we want to introduce queen cells 
until the tenth day in the morning. We 
introduce the queen cells in the after- 
noon ; this leaves the hive hut a short 
time without a queen. A beginner, how- 
ever, had perhaps better remove the 
queen a little earlier. 
I also find fault with your way of mak- 
ing a queenless stock, by putting a leaf 
partly under the cover. By that way, if 
you have a large number of hives, you 
don’t know the date of the insertion of 
the queen cell and may have to inspect 
the hive several times without result, (to 
the other hand, if a J’oung queen gets 
lost, .von are not aware of if in time, as 
you do not know when she should be lay- 
ing, unless you can remember the date. 
For this purpose and for all other mat- 
ters pertaining to the apiary we use black- 
boards on every hive. They are made of 
j inch boards, J by 5 inches ; on one side 
1 they are painted with patent liquid slate, 
to be had in any of your large Eastern 
cities. The other side is painted white, 
with the number of the hive on one cor- 
ner. These boards are fastened behind 
the hive by a small tin holder. When the 
hive is queenless we write the particulars 
and date on the board and turn the black- 
side out. When the queen lays we mark 
the date of her beginning to lay and the 
year in which she was born, and turn the 
white side out. We thus know the age of 
every queen, her pedigree and in fact all 
the particulars about the hive, by referr- 
ing to the black board. In summer we 
also keep a large slate on which we write 
all the work to be done in the apiary, in- 
troduction of queen cells, inspection of 
1 young queens, removal of hybrids or nn- 
prolific queens, &c., &c. When Mrs. 
1 Tapper visited our apiary, some two 
years ago, she was struck with the ease 
i and facility afiorded by these black-boards 
and adopted them immediately. Since 
you seem to make it a business of furnish- 
ing cheap apiarian supplies,. could you 
not manufacture these boards, with tin 
holders for the benefit of your readers Y 
But I notice that my “few remarks ' are 
degenerating into a long article, 1 will 
therefore close by declaring myself one 
of your admiring friends, 
C. P. DaPamt, Hamilton, 111. 
August 7, 18711. 
Many thanks, friend Dadant. We saw 
the advantage of rearing choice drones, 
also, but. feared to confuse some of our 
, friends by giving too many directions at 
once, and we still insist that if all queens 
reared are from choice or pure mothers, 
I we shall in time have far better stock 
than at present. Natural queens or 
queens from natural swarming are al- 
ways hap hazard stock, and should not be 
tolerated by any one having the least dt- 
|j sire to receive the benefits of the Italian 
