Show ON MODERN BEE CULTURE ever since its foundation ten years ago the bus realized that it is the exponent and advocate of the interests of a population whose i principal occupation ii agriculture our readers have thara fore from to time been inform ed on topics of an character and although just nt present the turmoil of politics national foreign and territorial is occupying a good deal of our attention and space we can still find room for a few timely suggestions on bee culture winch we find in alie october number of harpere Har peri the writer starts out with a somewhat sarcastic although perfectly true description of the old modus operands ope randl with which our friends in the country may yet be acquainted most people are familiar with the aspect of the old time bee hive located generally at a prudent distance from the back door an old box en some sort of stand perhaps cinder some low shed constructed for the purpose and in nine cases out of ten among dank weeds and rub biah of the farm in those unsightly structures the good little bees stored their rich sweets reared their young swarms and tent them forth to the music of old tin pans and kettles which to this day by thousands of people is supposed to have some mysterious power to make bees settle swarms were very often lost and success with them was all a matter of luck only here and there was found a panon who could handle bees and ho never got stung according to popular belief this fearless being however knew but ne way to take up the honey viz to brimstone the bees killing every one then ho pulled off the top of the box hive and cut out the arregu farly formed comb often a revolting moss of black cells honey dead larto of bees and bouldy mouldy bee bread and the whole science of bee culture was exemplified this condition of things has changed wherever intelli genca lias rent the black cloud cf traditional aper tuition and opened tho gale lor improvement and progress the modern bee keeper sees that his col conics have good pasturage he secures them against alie cold of winter well aware that when they freeze up solid in winter they dio as inevitably as a human being would if frozen up solid and feeds them carefully if their stores fall thorl he protects bliem their natural enemies mice moths toads patent hive vender and robber beet he watches them closely and assi duom ly and tees that the queen of every colony is prolific he makes the bees rear their brood and store their own honey in the clear surplus honey in another place for him in eh orthe has them entirely under his control As to the comb there are machines by which ft is made and formed to suit tie fastidious bec beci i to a dot fand what the bees themselves cannot do the machines will achieve to make new comb out of old aliis branch lias been worked up lomarae lous nicety and precision so that we are now ablo to have the beautiful little pound frames of capped honey of the most importance to bee culture was the invention of the movable frame by which the apiculturist is enabled to keep hia colonies under perfect and prompt control another wonder of modern bee culture is the peculiar method of extracting tr the honey from the bomb by means of n tin cylinder with a vertical shaft in the center it has a bottom and a tight fitting cover through which the shaft projects the shaft is furnished with a crank sheets of comb or frames full of comb are set perpendicularly in a framo work fitted to tho shaft on turning the crank rapidly the honey flies out by centrifugal force leaving intact the brood cells if there are any the honey extracted the frames are re turned to the lives and the patient little bees clean up every amob of honey mend every torn cell if there be any and then go to work refilling the comb the writer from whom we are quoting rightly contends that extracted honey is fir preferable to the honey in tho comb both as to appear anc and and to the commercial value lie also cautions beekeepers bee keepers against leaving honey about because the most orderly and industrious colony is liable to commence robbing in a few minutes for no creature i o certain to become demoralized by ill gotten or too easily gotten wealth as the bee our author settles ao the much discussed controversy as to the method by which the eggs of the queen are fec undated the theory of that the drone fertilizes the egg in the cell is now accepted by very few api ariana since observe ob serva tion has proven that eggs laid after every drone of the apiary had been killed again and again batched perfect workers mrs mary treat has demonstrated by actual experiment that the quantity of feeding of tho larbre Jet ermines tin sex of the in act copious feeding developing all females scant feeding all males |